Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1880 — Big Words. [ARTICLE]

Big Words.

Big words are great favorites witn people of small ideas and weak conceptions. They are sometimes employed by men of mind, when they wish to use language that may best conceal their thoughts. With tew exceptions, however, illiterate and half-educated persons use more “big words” than people of thorough education. It is a very common, but egregious, mistake, to suppose the long words are more genteel than the short ones—just as tbe same sort of peoSle imagine high colors and flashy gures improve the style. of dress. These are the kind of folks whe don’t begin, but always “commence.” They don’t live bitt “reside.” They don’t go to bed, but mysteriously “retire." They don’t eat and drink, but “partake of refreshments.” They are never sick, but extremely indisposed /’ and, instead of dying, at last, they “decease." The strength of the English language is in the short words—chiefly monosyllables of Saxon derivation; and people who are in earnest seldom use any other. Love, hate, anger, grief, and Joy express themselves in short words and direct sentences; while cunning, falsehood, and affectation delight in what Horace calls verba seequipedalia—words “a foot and a half" long.