ABSTRACT
ISO U R ENG LIS H D E G ENE RAT I N G '? 39 that the prevalent practice in this country agrees with the universal custom of an earlier time, from which divergence without good reason has gradually grown up in England. And this brings us to another strongly marked -characteristic of our American speech -its greater permanence and steadiness, so to speak, as compared with that of the mother country. This peculiarity will appear very clearly, where it might least be expected, on close examination of any list of words supposed to have been greatly distorted in their meaning, or even manufactured out of whole cloth, by erring Yankees, a very large proportion of which will almost always be found to be good old English, grown obsolescent or obsolete at home, but preserved in the New World in their pristine vitality and force; and conversely, on examining such a book as "The Lost Beauties of the English Language," by the well known Scotch litterateur Dr. Charles Mackay, more than a hundred of the entries therein listed being perfectly familiar in the United States, however definitely they may have been "lost" in Great Britain. Here are some examples, taken almost at random: Aftermath; bilk, to defraud; blare, to cry out, as with the sound of a trumpet; blear-eyed; blurt, to cry out suddenly; burly; chaffer, to haggle; cleave, to split; clump, to walk awkwardly; croon, to hum a tune; daze; deft; delve; don, to put on; drouth; drowsy; duds, old clothes; dumps, melancholy; gall, sore place; glint; glower; gown; grip, to seize; hale, in good health;
