isa-normaladvance-1914-00002

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE^tje Woxh StorbeH. E. STORKThe Anglo-Saxon term for vocabulary is word horde. And the term seems very appro¬ priate when we think that a horde is an ag¬ gregation of individuals thrown together promiscuously by mere chance without any idea of uniformity. When Shakespeare speaks of the common horde he means no single class of people. He does not have in mind an or¬ derly group of soldiers he is not thinking of a body of professional men nor does he mean tradesmen exclusively. What he means to sug¬ gest to us is an assemblage of peasants, trades¬ people, commercial travelers, ministers, work- ingmen and idlers, young and old, well dressed and ill-dressed, French as well as English, Irish as well as German, all of them thrown casually together on the street regardless of rank or class. Did you ever pause to think that our English vocabulary is very much like such a common horde or street crowd? As we stand on the street corner and behold with the eye of a rhetorical observer the crowds of words passing and re-passing, we are surprised at their variety and their different personali¬ ties. Each one is different from all others, and has a distinct individuality. There are com¬ mon everyday words in plain working clothes, not beautiful, but nevertheless useful. Among them we recognize such words as smiles, sun¬ shine, tears, sorrow and the many other good workers that are at our service in our daily speech.Alongside of these common words are the elegant words that have an air of aristocracy about them and that are to be used only in polite speech. They are less numerous than the others and always well clad and dignified.There is impudence, a haughty gentleman with turned up nose here we see elegance, a very proper character wearing the finest of jewels  comprehension goes by with a knowing look  and insincerity stares at one with a feigned look of honesty. These are more suited to the holidays of poetry than to the working days of every day speech. Yet they are seen on the streets at all times. Some of them have in¬ teresting life histories and even noted family traditions. If we could stop some of them and engage them in conversation, each one would have much to tell us of its life history and of its lineage. Here, for instance, is curfew, a dignified French gentleman with spectacles and a hooked nose. He is proud of his an¬ cestry. On his mothers side he traces his de¬ scent back through many centuries to the early period of French history, when his French an¬ cestor, couvrir, meaning to cover, flourished. On his fathers side his ancestry goes even farther back to Rome in the time before Christ, Avhen lived his great ancestor, focus, meaning a fireplace. From him sprang the French feu, meaning fire. As a part of his history, he tells of the fires that were always numerous in the early English cities before proper systems of protection had been provided. Among these are the London fires and others that have gone down in history as great disasters. In order to prevent such calamities, as these, city ordinances were passed, requiring the fires on all hearths to be covered at a certain time each evening. This time was indicated by the ring¬ ing of a bell, commonly known as the curfew, or cover-fire bell. Curfew is an old gentle¬ man and has almost outlived the period of his usefulness.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/32438
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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