The Christchurch Star. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1930. NEW WORDS AND HARD WORDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18960, 6 January 1930, Page 8

The Christchurch Star. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1930. NEW WORDS AND HARD WORDS.

THE CORRESPONDENT who writes to-day complaining of new and hard words in the newspapers will have many sympathisers. Unfortunately from her point of view, this is a very progressive age, and a living language must keep pace with the progress of the people. Scientific inventions for which new names must be supplied become popularised, and there is nothing for it but that the new words should be incorporated in the language of the people. This has been strikingly brought home in the development of wireless, which was a new science, dealing with phenomena hardly dreamed of a few years before its development, and consequently calling for an entirely new vocabulary. We hear of audio-frequency, radio-frequency, grid-leaks and potentiometers, all entirely new words, and then of course there are old words with a new meaning, like antenna, amplification, listening-in, transformer, and even aerial, which has also undergone a change of pronunciation under the stress of popular use. And of course the movies and the talkies with their “ close-ups ” and “ stills ” brought new words, and new meanings for old words. Flying has a vocabulary of its own, borrowed in many cases from the French, but with many energetic English or Americanised terms, and sport, of course, goes on its way manufacturing new words every year. Even words that have been copyrighted for commercial use, like vaseline and tabloid, have passed into the language, and then there are wowser and bowser, new words whose meaning will never be in doubt though the genesis of the first is not as clear as that of the second. But these words are hardly what the correspondent complains of, and there is much to be said for her plea that greater simplicity should be practised, in newspapers above all else. But there are occasions when a good big word is all the more welcome, because it is unusual. To-day, for instance, we hear from Washington of a pyromaniac, who may be defined as one who has an insane propensity to set things on fire. It is a good old word, and we are quite sure that it is much better than the slangy substitute we have been guilty of using in Christchurch of late. A STARTLING FACT, AVERY STARTLING and disagreeable fact is revealed in the Board of Trade’s official return of trade and commerce of certain foreign countries, published recently in England. German exports for the first six months of last year have risen above British exports. Germany’s figure for that time is quoted at £374,000,000; that for British exports is only £358,000,000. This is an indication of the progress Germany is making, and an unpleasant reminder that Britain as an exporting country has fallen to third place. Until the war British exports were the greatest in the world, but for very obvious reasons in 1914 the United States was able to approach and pass her. Now Germany has also outstripped her. In an article by Lord Rothermere on Germany’s progress to prosperity, he says;— The entire German nation is working with characteristic organised intensity for one great end—the complete restoration of their country’s prosperity, which they confidently hope will lead to its industrial dominance in Europe .... Their efforts, one feels, are inspired by a corporate purpose as well as by individual aims. They are not working for gain only, but to make their country great again in economic power. It is conducive to serious thought to know that whereas Great Britain imports more than half the value of manufactured exports, Germany’s imports are but one quarter the value of her manufactured exports. A NEEDED RAILWAY REFORM. THE GROWING POPULARITY of railway excursions is accentuating the over-crowding at the Christchurch railway station, and the very valuable suggestion has been made that a greater platform area could be provided by filling in the space now occupied by the set of rails nearest the main platform. We are given to understand that with the opening of the new Middleton yard the Christchurch station could very well do without one length of rails, and if this is so it may provide .a cheap and temporary way out of the difficulty. Of course, the whole of the Christchurch station is out-of-date, and offices, lavatories, dining accommodation, and so on are crowded on to the platform space in a way that makes for inefficiency in the handling of crowds. We are not at all satisfied that the new main station, which is the city’s due, should occupy the site of the present station. The new station should be at Addington, or maybe a little west of Addington, so that it will meet the needs of the northern traffic when the main trunk line is opened. In the meantime, however, the widening of the present platform and the rearranging of offices fronting on it would give immediate relief, and tide us over the period of waiting for a new railway station elsewhere.