Tea at Trianon: Annoying Words

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, February 22, 2010

Annoying Words

Here are some thoughts on the abuse and overuse of certain words. (Via Lew Rockwell.) Share

3 comments:

Julygirl said...: This is becoming merely an academic problem since the younger genertion do more texting than speaking and do not even spell out the word much less concern themselves with proper usage of the word.; February 22, 2010 at 11:24:00 AM EST
tubbs said...: ALAS, we don't have an Academy (or similar institution) to set down some final rules! It would be great if we had a governing institution that could set the rules for global English.
Here's an example: the British tend to say "the younger generation do more texting" or "the family do not like him", and the Yanks tend to treat these subject nouns as singular.
I'm a Yank, but I do think we should defer to the British on these things.; February 22, 2010 at 1:29:00 PM EST
J.K. Baltzersen said...: Ladies and gentlemen, Norway has a government institution for "maintaining" language, and it's not all that positive.

As for Sobran's collection of words, it is a good collection. I would add the abuse of "focus."

People have so many focal points these days, it's a wonder their eyes are not completely worn out by the time they reach 25.; February 23, 2010 at 1:16:00 PM EST