Degraded Words, 



41 



first indicated primarily the possession of qualities deserving of ap- 

 plause, as plausihilis nomen'''' in Cicero; while speciosus is com- 

 monly best rendered by such expressions as " having a good shape, 

 beautiful, handsome, fine or splendid." Now what a commentary it 

 is upon the proverbial deceitfulness of appearances in this uncertain 

 world, that these terms, which really indicate that a thing seems to 

 be all right, have come to convey so sharply the implication that it 

 is all wrong ! 



There is a noun too that started earliest of all in the same descensus 

 Aver7ii, and has long since reached a point so low that its hereditary 

 claim to respectability has been almost forgotten. This is hypocrite^ 

 the Greek hupokrites in a modern dress — and hupokrites^ as every- 

 body knows, meant originally nothing but a player or actor. Roscius, 

 the elegant speaker and beloved instructor of the greatest Roman 

 orator, was by virtue of his art a hypocrite. Plainly the first step 

 downward was taken when the word began to be used figuratively — 

 when men were called hypocrites (in English or Greek) because their 

 life was found to resemble the histrionic art in striving to appear to 

 be different from what it was. It cannot have taken the common- 

 sense of mankind long time to perceive that such dissimulation is 

 almost always for evil purposes — the sheep's raiment covering the 

 ravening wolf. And so it has come to pass that when we wish to 

 indicate the assumption of virtue for the intents of vice, the word 

 that springs most readily to the lips is the once well-thought-of 

 "hypocrite." 



To counterfeit, likewise, was formerly only to imitate, conveying 

 no insinuation as at present that the imitation was designed to be 

 fraudulently substituted for the original — this added insinuation 

 having been developed by the same process as the present evil signi- 

 ficance of the word hypocrite. To equivocate was merely to call two 

 things by the same name, not necessarily to mean one while leading 

 the hearer to understand the other. Tinsel was really woven of the 

 precious metals, or supposed to be, until the detection of oft-repeated 

 frauds caused it to be taken for granted that the appearance of ex- 

 ceptional richness and value in ornamental trappings of this material 

 is nothing but the appearance, without reality. 



Finally under this head should be mentioned the group of words 

 most characteristic in their present meaning of the special vice of 

 deliberate attempt at deception — the \ Qvh p)retend Siwdi its derivatives. 

 To say nothing of the innocent meaning indicated by their Latin 

 origin, it is not so very long since they were used in English without 

 [Trans, x.'] 6 



