American English. 



347 



VI. 



Of course nobody thinks of denying, nevertheless, that a number of 

 new, and in many cases uacalled-lbr, words and expressions have been 

 invented and now pass current in the United States, or that the 

 meaning of some others has been gradually warped, to the injury of 

 the language, just as has occurred in England. This part of the sub- 

 ject has been laboriously investigated by several diligent students — so 

 laboriously that there is little left to say about it except in the way 

 of correction. Not to speak of articles in periodicals, brief essays, and 

 single chapters, no less than five books devoted entirely to so-called 

 Americanisms in speech have from time to time appeared — Picker- 

 ing's Vocabulary, in 181G ; Noah Webster's "Letter," in 1817; 

 Elwyn's Glossary, in 1850 ; Scheie de Vere's Americanisms, in 1872 ; 

 and Bartlett's Dictionary — most comprehensive of all, and now the 

 standard book of reference — of which the first edition was published 

 in 1848, the second in 1859, the third in 1860, and the fourth, con- 

 siderably enlarged, in 1877. The student of language will find much 

 to interest, and not a little to amuse him, in each of these compila- 

 tions of monstrosities. 



VII. 



John Pickering's Vocabulary, or Collectioit of Words akd 

 Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United 

 States," originated in the author's practice, while living in London 

 during the first two years of this century, of noting down, for the 

 purpose of avoiding them, such of his own verbal expressions as were 

 condemned for American errors by his British friends. After return- 

 ing to this country, he communicated a paper on the subject, consist- 

 ing of an essay and a list of words, to the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, and shortly after, having largely amplified the vocabu- 

 lary, submitted the whole to the candor of his countrymen for their 

 instruction and admonition. The poor man was deeply concerned for 

 the future of the language in America, and very much in earnest in 

 his work. It might indeed be a long time, he thought, before it 

 should be the lot of many Americans to publish works which will 

 be read out of their own country ; yet all who have the least tincture 

 of learning will continue to feel an ardent desire to acquaint them- 

 selves with English authors. Let us then," he proceeds, '* imagine 

 the time to have arrived when Americans shall no longer be able to 

 understand the works of Milton, Pope, Swift, Addison and other 

 English authors justly styled classic without the aid of a translation 



