Some Misused Words.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 714, 18 March 1933, Page 8

Some Misused Words.

CORRESPONDENT asks for a com ment on a sentence from Galsworthy, “ Except myself, who am in a damnable position.” He adds: “I saw ‘ soleing ’ in an advertisement. Is this spelling correct? * Ageing' is a word which retains the letter 4 e * before 4 ing.’ What is the translation of *je m’en fiche’?” Myself is a pronoun meaning 44 1” or 44 me.” It is the emphatic form of “I ” and “ me,” and in the nominative is used mostly with 44 1 ” in apposition, but sometimes alone as, 4 ‘ I myself will see to it,” 44 As for myself, I know not.'* The sentence therefore is clumsy but not inaccurate. In Fitzgerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam occurs the verse 44 Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and saint, and heard great argument About it and about, but evermore Came out by the same door as in I went.” This philosophy, by the way, is worth noting by those who seek a magic formula for the economic disorders of the times. If you substitute 44 myself ” for 44 1 ” the grammatical accuracy of the sentence becomes apparent. When the woman of Samaria said to Christ, 44 1 know that Messias cometh,” the answer was, 44 1 that speak unto thee am He.” An author of Galsworthy’s distinction is not to be condemned for using a construction of this kind, for he might have put the phrase into the mouth of a character given to the use of stilted language. 44 Soleing ” is, strictly speaking, 44 soling,” but the use of the 44 e ” is preferable. The French phrase means 44 1 don’t care a hang.” It is a colloquialism like 44 1 should worry.” TOUCHSTONE.