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1. Grammar Fixed. —From the date of 1485—that is, from the beginning of the reign of Henry VII.—the changes in the grammar or constitution of our language are so extremely small, that they are hardly noticeable. Any Englishman of ordinary education can read a book belonging to the latter part of the fifteenth or to the sixteenth century without difficulty. Since that time the grammar of our language has hardly changed at all, though we have altered and enlarged our vocabulary, and have adopted thousands of new words. The introduction of Printing, the Revival of Learning, the Translation of the Bible, the growth and spread of the power to read and write—these and other influences tended to fix the language and to keep it as it is to-day. It is true that we have dropped a few old-fashioned endings, like the n or en in silvern and golden ; but, so far as form or grammar is concerned, the English of the sixteenth and the English of the nineteenth centuries are substantially the same.
2. New Words. —But, while the grammar of English has remained the same, the vocabulary of English has been growing, and growing rapidly, not merely with each century, but with each generation. The discovery of the New World in 1492 gave an impetus to maritime enterprise in England, which it never lost, brought us into connection with the Spaniards, and hence contributed to our language several Spanish words. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Italian literature was largely read; Wyatt and Surrey show its influence in their poems; and Italian words began to come in in considerable numbers. Commerce, too, has done much for us in this way; and along with the article imported, we have in general introduced also the name it bore in its own native country. In later times, Science has been making rapid strides—has been bringing to light new discoveries and new inventions almost every week; and along with these new discoveries, the language has been enriched with new names and new terms. Let us look a little more closely at the character of these foreign contributions to the vocabulary of our tongue.
3. Spanish Words. —The words we have received from the Spanish language are not numerous, but they are important. In addition to the ill-fated word armada , we have the Spanish for Mr , which is Don (from Lat. dominus , a lord), with its feminine Duenna . They gave us also alligator , which is our English way of writing el lagarto , the lizard. They also presented us with a large number of words that end in o —such as buffalo , cargo , desperado , guano , indigo , mosquito , mulatto , negro , potato , tornado , and others. The following is a tolerably full list:—
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Alligator.
Armada. Barricade. Battledore. Bravado. Buffalo. Cargo. Cigar. Cochineal. |
Cork.
Creole. Desperado. Don. Duenna. Eldorado. Embargo. Filibuster. Flotilla. |
Galleon (a ship).
Grandee. Grenade. Guerilla. Indigo. Jennet. Matador. Merino. Mosquito. |
Mulatto.
Negro. Octoroon. Quadroon. Renegade. Savannah. Sherry (= Xeres). Tornado. Vanilla. |
4. Italian Words. —Italian literature has been read and cultivated in England since the time of Chaucer—since the fourteenth century; and the arts and artists of Italy have for many centuries exerted a great deal of influence on those of England. Hence it is that we owe to the Italian language a large number of words. These relate to poetry, such as canto , sonnet , stanza ; to music, as pianoforte , opera , oratorio , soprano , alto , contralto ; to architecture and sculpture, as portico , piazza , cupola , torso ; and to painting, as studio , fresco (an open-air painting), and others. The following is a complete list:—
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Alarm.
Alert. Alto. Arcade. Balcony. Balustrade. Bandit. Bankrupt. Bravo. Brigade. Brigand. Broccoli. Burlesque. Bust. Cameo. Canteen. Canto. Caprice. Caricature. Carnival. Cartoon. Cascade. Cavalcade. |
Charlatan.
Citadel. Colonnade. Concert. Contralto. Conversazione. Cornice. Corridor. Cupola. Curvet. Dilettante. Ditto. Doge. Domino. Extravaganza. Fiasco. Folio. Fresco. Gazette. Gondola. Granite. Grotto. Guitar. |
Incognito.
Influenza. Lagoon. Lava. Lazaretto. Macaroni. Madonna. Madrigal. Malaria. Manifesto. Motto. Moustache. Niche. Opera. Oratorio. Palette. Pantaloon. Parapet. Pedant. Pianoforte. Piazza. Pistol. Portico. |
Proviso.
Quarto. Regatta. Ruffian. Serenade. Sonnet. Soprano. Stanza. Stiletto. Stucco. Studio. Tenor. Terra-cotta. Tirade. Torso. Trombone. Umbrella. Vermilion. Vertu. Virtuoso. Vista. Volcano. Zany. |
5. Dutch Words. —We have had for many centuries commercial dealings with the Dutch; and as they, like ourselves, are a great seafaring people, they have given us a number of words relating to the management of ships. In the fourteenth century, the southern part of the German Ocean was the most frequented sea in the world; and the chances of plunder were so great that ships of war had to keep cruising up and down to protect the trading vessels that sailed between England and the Low Countries. The following are the words which we owe to the Netherlands:—
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Ballast.
Boom. Boor. Burgomaster. Hoy. |
Luff.
Reef. Schiedam (gin). Skates. Skipper. |
Sloop.
Smack. Smuggle. Stiver. Taffrail. |
Trigger.
Wear (said of a ship). Yacht.Yawl. |
6. French Words. —Besides the large additions to our language made by the Norman-French, we have from time to time imported direct from France a number of French words, without change in the spelling, and with little change in the pronunciation. The French have been for centuries the most polished nation in Europe; from France the changing fashions in dress spread over all the countries of the Continent; French literature has been much read in England since the time of Charles II.; and for a long time all diplomatic correspondence between foreign countries and England was carried on in French. Words relating to manners and customs are common, such as soirée , etiquette , séance , élite ; and we have also the names of things which were invented in France, such as mitrailleuse , carte-de-visite , coup d’état , and others. Some of these words are, in spelling, exactly like English; and advantage of this has been taken in a well-known epigram:—
The French have taste in all they do,
Which we are quite without;
For Nature, which to them gave goût, 15
To us gave only gout.
The following is a list of French words which have been imported in comparatively recent times:—
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Aide-de-camp.
Belle. Bivouac. Blonde. Bouquet. Brochure. Brunette. Brusque. |
Carte-de-visite.
Coup-d’état. Débris. Début. Déjeûner. Depot. Éclat. Ennui. |
Etiquette.
Façade. Goût. Naïve. Naïveté. Nonchalance. Outré. Penchant. |
Personnel.
Précis. Programme. Protégé. Recherché. Séance. Soirée. Trousseau. |
The Scotch have always had a closer connection with the French nation than England; and hence we find in the Scottish dialect of English a number of French words that are not used in South Britain at all. A leg of mutton is called in Scotland a gigot ; the dish on which it is laid is an ashet (from assiette ); a cup for tea or for wine is a tassie (from tasse ); the gate of a town is called the port ; and a stubborn person is dour (Fr. dur , from Lat. durus ); while a gentle and amiable person is douce (Fr. douce , Lat. dulcis ).
7. German Words. —It must not be forgotten that English is a Low-German dialect, while the German of books is New High-German. We have never borrowed directly from High-German, because we have never needed to borrow. Those modern German words that have come into our language in recent times are chiefly the names of minerals, with a few striking exceptions, such as loafer , which came to us from the German immigrants to the United States, and plunder , which seems to have been brought from Germany by English soldiers who had served under Gustavus Adolphus. The following are the German words which we have received in recent times:—
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Cobalt.
Felspar. Hornblende. |
Landgrave.
Loafer. Margrave. |
Meerschaum.
Nickel. Plunder. |
Poodle.
Quartz. Zinc. |
8. Hebrew Words. —These, with very few exceptions, have come to us from the translation of the Bible, which is now in use in our homes and churches. Abbot and abbey come from the Hebrew word abba , father; and such words as cabal and Talmud , though not found in the Old Testament, have been contributed by Jewish literature. The following is a tolerably complete list:—
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Abbey.
Abbot. Amen. Behemoth. Cabal. Cherub. |
Cinnamon.
Hallelujah. Hosannah. Jehovah. Jubilee. Gehenna. |
Leviathan.
Manna. Paschal. Pharisee. Pharisaical. Rabbi. |
Sabbath.
Sadducees. Satan. Seraph. Shibboleth. Talmud. |
9. Other Foreign Words. —The English have always been the greatest travellers in the world; and our sailors always the most daring, intelligent, and enterprising. There is hardly a port or a country in the world into which an English ship has not penetrated; and our commerce has now been maintained for centuries with every people on the face of the globe. We exchange goods with almost every nation and tribe under the sun. When we import articles or produce from abroad, we in general import the native name along with the thing. Hence it is that we have guano , maize , and tomato from the two Americas; coffee , cotton , and tamarind from Arabia; tea , congou , and nankeen from China; calico , chintz , and rupee from Hindostan; bamboo , gamboge , and sago from the Malay Peninsula; lemon , musk , and orange from Persia; boomerang and kangaroo from Australia; chibouk , ottoman , and tulip from Turkey. The following are lists of these foreign words; and they are worth examining with the greatest minuteness:—
10. Scientific Terms. —A very large number of discoveries in science have been made in this century; and a large number of inventions have introduced these discoveries to the people, and made them useful in daily life. Thus we have telegraph and telegram ; photograph ; telephone and even photophone . The word dynamite is also modern; and the unhappy employment of it has made it too widely known. Then passing fashions have given us such words as athlete and æsthete . In general, it may be said that, when we wish to give a name to a new thing—a new discovery, invention, or fashion—we have recourse not to our own stores of English, but to the vocabularies of the Latin and Greek languages.