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French Words - Display of superior knowledge is as great a vulgarity as display of superior wealth - greater indeed, inasmuch as knowledge should tend more definitely than wealth towards discretion and good manners.
— H. W. Fowler
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More quotes by H. W. Fowler
Every one knows an Americanism, at present, when he sees it; how long that will be true is a more anxious question.
The King's English (1906)
Americanisms are foreign words, and should be so treated.
The King's English (1906)
Is the function of newspapers to force upon us against our will the buying of French dictionaries?
The King's English (1906)
The term, then, is obviously a relative one: my pedantry is your scholarship, his reasonable accuracy, her irreducible minimum of education and someone else’s ignorance.
The difficulty is that some French, Latin, and other words are now also English, though the fiction that they are not is still kept up by italics and (with French words) conscientious efforts at pronunciation.
The King's English (1906)
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