DEGRADED WORDS. 



By Gilbert M. Tucker. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, May 13, 1879.] 



The fundamental principle in philology, that on close examination 

 of any living language, a large proportion of its words will be found 

 undergoing a process of gradual modification in their significance, 

 or at least in the precise sense in which by common consent their 

 originally recognized significance is generally taken — finds abundant 

 exemplification in English; and the changes in the meaning of familiar 

 words, though apparentlj^ in many cases anomalous at first sight, 

 may nevertheless be classified and grouped in such manner as to 

 suggest the drawing of certain inferences, and to illustrate, indirectly 

 but effectively, some of the important traits of character that prevail 

 among the people by whom the language is employed. Whether 

 parallel processes of modification can be traced in other tongues — 

 a question full of interest — must be left to the comparative phi- 

 lologist; but it is the purpose of this paper to make a slight contribu- 

 tion to the development of the subject at large — the direct influence 

 of moral character upon language — by sketching, inadequately and 

 summarily only, the salient features of one group of changed meanings 

 in English — the group whose nature keeps a record of the follies, 

 weaknesses and common faults of huaiankind, and the daily trials 

 and disappointments that flow from them; the alterations in the 

 meanings of words which are plainly due to the unwise or culpable 

 practices of those who use them. Many of the facts referred to for 

 illustration are of course familiar — so familiar indeed that it is 

 rarely possible to give credit to the authors who originally noted 

 them. 



I. 



To take as the first instance a case where the change is still in 

 progress, there is the adjective pitiful^ which at present we almost 

 invariably employ in an evil sense. " A pitiful subterfuge," we say; 

 that is, a transparent and contemptible attempt at fraud. Yet the 

 dictionaries with one accord give the good meanings precedence — 

 either "melancholy, moving compassion, deserving to be pitied" 



