On Certain Abuses in Language [pp. 248-272]

OAT CERTAIN ABUSES IN LANGUAGE.
For a new thing let us by all means have a new name; do not
take and misuse an old name to describe it. If a special name
is needed for declaimers in pot-houses, make a name for them;
do not misuse the name demagogue, which means quite another
kind of people who want their own name for themselves. If a
special name is needed for receptions given to illustrious personages, unfortunate noblemen or kings of many kingdoms, make
a name for them; do not misuse the name ovation, which means
quite another kind of business, and one which needs its own name.
Make new words, by all means; make them, if possible, out of
the rich stores of our own tongue; but make them anyhow, out
of any stores, rather than create confusion and misconception
by using words which have one distinct meaning in some quite
other meaning. Of two unpleasant alternatives, I had rather
talk about " sociology" than talk about demagogues declaiming
in pot-houses, or say that the Claimant received an ovation. As
to most of the words of which I have spoken, I believe that the
rule with which I set out is a sound one. Use them as technical terms when you have occasion to use them in their strict
original sense. Do not use them simply to sound fine, when
the original sense is put quite out of sight. I do not think that
so to do needs any great self-denial; at least I cannot see the
temptation to the abuse of words; I do not see what part of man's
mixed nature receives any pleasure by talking about an ovation
or an ostracism, when something quite different from an ovation
or an ostracism is meant. I do not find the English tongue so
poor as to make it needful to talk in any such way. I do not
want to hide my thoughts, but to set them forth; and I find that,
for that end, the plain English tongue does thoroughly well.
Perhaps my thoughts may not be so deep as those of some of
my neighbors; I certainly do not know about the "unconditioned," nor yet about "metapolitics"-the last new and
strange word that I have come across. But such as my thoughts
are, I find that, except when I need a strictly technical term, the
plain English tongue does for me. I talk of an ovation at Rome
and an ostracism at Athens; I do not talk of them here, be-'
cause we have no such things. I feel no temptation to call
sheriffs' officers Myrmidons any more than to call them Dolopes.
And if I ever write a discourse on the Homeric Achilleus, and
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