Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions to medical writers / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    demand for a rule. Shall we reinsert the ce, and ce, in words at present spelled with e and which were derived from older words spelled with the darling diphthongs ? And if you spell hcemorrhage, will you, as you should, pro¬ nounce it he'-mor-ajf It seems to me the etymologic sticklers are false to the old love, however true they may be to the new. Most of our words, for example, beginning with pre, are derived from the Latin prce. There are possibly a thousand of these words, such as prescription prepuce, pretend\ preference, etc. Shall we spell them all prcescription, prcepuce, etc. ? Shall we also be (etymologic¬ ally) correct and write hceresy, hceretic, anapcest, pceony, phaenomenon, mceander, heernatite, cether, dcernon, (Esthetic, apharcesis; diceresis, archceology, palceography, gangrcene, pcedobaptist, coenobite, ccemetery, ccelestial, ceconomy, epiccene, oesophagus, phoenix, solcecism, and hundreds of derivatives and similar words as they are written ? Will you spell diocese, dicecese ? Will you spell fancy, frantic and frenzy with a very etymologically proper ph, instead of an incor¬ rect f? If so, your phancy will make your readers phren- zied, and you phrantic, I fear. Will you write tansy, treacle, and treasure with a th ? If so, lay up your threasure in heaven, and drink much threacle and thansy while your days do last. Etymologic spelling is a long-exploded absurdity. It has led many a poor word-grubber into the quagmires of absurdity. It was, says the great English etymologist, a sort of mania in the sixteenth century, and has thrown confusion and ridicule into the study of language. “ Its ignorant meddlesomeness introduced many false forms,” so that hardly any word now tells its genesis or history by its written form. Every word must be examined separately, its changes both of form and sound must be studied his¬ torically, before we can know much about it. The final dictum of Skeat is as follows : The shortest description of modern spelling is to say that, speaking generally, it represents a Victorian pronunciation of
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