The Make-up of the English Vocabulary

is not an exact synonym for tem poral, and earthy, earthly and
earthen differ each from each as well as from terrestrial.
W hat m ost o f us first think of w hen reference is made to the Latin half
o f our vocabulary is that mass o f w ords w hich have at best a sophisticated,
at w orst an artificial flavour: w ords like speculate, cogitate, and m edi
tate, w hich contrast w ith w ords like think, w eigh and brood. We
must not oversimplify this issue. She was always showing o ff says w hat
She continually conducted herself ostentatiously says. But in practice
we do not find ourselves asking w hether w e should use this w ord or
that, drive or im pel, show y or ostentatious. A kind of instinct for
w hat is appropriate operates.
Choosing the best w ord is not always a matter o f choosing the native
Anglo-Saxon w ord instead o f the Latin borrow ing. Our minds enter
different linguistic w orlds according to w here we are, w hom we are
talking to, and what the occasion is. There is a time to say I told him to
shut u p and a time to say I requested him to keep silent. And however
great the overlap between seeming synonyms, ingrained habits prevent
us often from treating them as always interchangeable. We may speak
interchangeably either o f burying someone or o f interring them, but
we should never exclaim o f someone, Oh, shes always got her head
interred in a book!
It should go w ithout saying that it is the Latin part o f our vocabulary
that can trip us up m ost easily. All those w ords that end in -ation, how
easy it is to get one w rong. We are amused w hen someone is shown
up picking the w rong one. We laugh aloud w hen Private Eye records
how a speaker on the radio said The script evolved after three years
o f gesticulation, w hen he should have said after three years o f gest
ation. It is not just the slip-up that is funny, but the image produced
o f radio programme-m akers devoting themselves for three years to
gesticulation.

Monosyllables and Polysyllables

Very often the difference between the homely and the m ore sophisticated
w ord can be m easured in length. We tend to use shorter words (not
always native Anglo-Saxon ones, o f course) in the hom e than in public.
W hen differences or tensions in relationships w ithin the family or
between close friends arise and are at issue, w ords such as vex and