54 



Degraded Words. 



YIII. 



Of the great multitude of other degraded words that do not so 

 readily fall into classes, but illustrate nevertheless each one the pre- 

 valence of some blameworthy course of action or thought, there may 

 be instanced gossip, which denoted first a fellow sponsor in baptism, 

 next an intimate friend, and finally a too-talkative and therefore 

 often dangerous companion; voluble, which was only fluent (and not 

 unduly fluent as at present) when Bishop Hacket, a little more 

 than two hundred years ago, wrote of Archbishop Abbott that " he 

 was of a grave and voluble eloquence;" conceit, properly the equi- 

 valent of idea or ojnnion, but rarely used now except for such opin- 

 ions as the speaker deems ill-founded or absurd; profane, which 

 originally meant only secular or non-sacred, as we still say " profane 

 history," and its opposite, fanatic, which really signifies about the 

 same as inspired; libertine and miscreant, formerly synonymous 

 with free-thinker and infidel, and having reference solely to the 

 man's opinions instead of his actions; obsequious, which once im- 

 plied merely the exercise of affectionate and becoming obedience; 

 fussy, which was once the same as busy; an apology, which was of 

 old only a defence, by no means implying that the thing apologized 

 for was in the slightest degree admitted to be improper, but only 

 that it had been attacked; ringleader and notorious, which have only 

 in modern times become restricted to their present evil sense; bush- 

 whacking, which was originally " a harmless word, denoting simply 

 the process of propelling a boat by pulling the bushes, or of beat- 

 ing them down in order to open a way through a thicket; " ^ a pro- 

 ser, which term really indicates only a person who writes prose, 

 whether tiresome or quite the reverse; casuistry, the science of de- 

 termining what is duty, but more generally applied to specious 

 attempts at making the worse appear the better reason; the adjective 

 Jesuitical, and the verb to jew, which are certainly often used, 

 though perhaps improperly, in a highly offensive sense not at all im- 

 plied by their original applications. 



IX. 



Kot to prolong, however, this somewhat humiliating though per- 

 haps salutary catalogue of human frailties, there is one bad habit 



1 Scheie de Yere, " Americanisms," p. 89. 



