ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an article published in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, 29 (1895). Much has been written first and last about certain English words and phrases which are commonly called “Americanisms.” A word used in the Unites States and not in England may be good or bad, but the mere fact that it is in use in one place and not in the other has no bearing as to either its goodness or the reverse. It is passing strange that words not only used in Shakespeare’s time, but used by Shakespeare himself, should have lived to be disdainfully called “Americanisms” by people now living in Shakespeare’s own country. The chapter looks at a few words such as "well" and "ill" which when brought into a little group make a picturesque illustration of the futility of undertaking to shut out a word from good society because it is used in one place where English-speaking people dwell and not in another.
