On the English Language: Past and Present |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adjective adopted affirm altogether Anglo-Saxon become Ben Jonson black guard called causes century changes Chaucer COMPOSITE LANGUAGE derived dictionaries doubt dropped Dryden earlier early employed England English language English words etymology example exist express fact female feminine foreign words French words Fuller Gabriel Harvey gain German German language gradually grammatical Greek Grimm guage Hacket Holland instance introduced Italian Jeremy Taylor Jonson Latin language Latin words lecture less letters living loss low Latin manner matter meaning merely Milton modern nation native never observe obsolete once originally orthography passage perfuga period Plutarch poet possess present Quintilian remains Saxon Saxon word seeking sense Shakespeare shape Sir Thomas Elyot sometimes sound speak spelling spelt Spenser spoken strong præterites substantive suppose survives syllable termination things tion translation usage vast number verb vocables whole Wiclif Wiclif's Bible writing written
Popular passages
Page 39 - By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. 16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Page 167 - That it may please Thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them ; We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.
Page 202 - The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; For me, health gushes from a thousand springs; Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My foot-stool earth, my canopy the skies.
Page 56 - These too have done the same; ' despicable,' ' destruction,' 'homicide,' 'obsequious,' ' ponderous,' ' portentous,' ' prodigious,' all which another writer a little earlier condemns as " inkhorn terms, smelling too much of the Latin." It is curious to observe the " words of art," as he calls them, which Philemon Holland, a voluminous translator at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, counts it needful to explain in a sort of glossary which he appends to his translation...
Page 55 - Poets that lasting marble seek Must carve in Latin or in Greek; We write in sand, our language grows, And, like the tide, our work o'erflows.
Page 52 - If sounding Words are not of our growth and Manufacture, who shall hinder me to Import them from a Foreign Country? I carry not out the Treasure of the Nation, which is never to return: but what I bring from Italy, I spend in England : Here it remains, and here it circulates ; for if the Coyn be good, it will pass from one hand to another. I Trade both with the Living and the Dead, for the enrichment of our Native Language.
Page 28 - THE LORD is my shepherd ; therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul, and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Page 79 - Yet it must be allowed to the present age, that the tongue in general is so much refined since Shakspeare's time that many of his words, and more of his phrases, are scarce intelligible. And of those which we understand, some are ungrammatical, others coarse ; and his whole style is so pestered with figurative expressions, that it is as affected as it is obscure.
Page 206 - Here thou, great ANNA ! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea.
Page 42 - And who, in time, knows whither we may vent The treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores This gain of our best glory shall be sent, T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores?