cause, the imputation of preciosity and affectation which such attempts
involve. To the consideration of such persons we could recommend words
like _maid_, _maiden_, _damsel_, _weep_, _bide_, _sojourn_, _seek_,
_heinous_, _swift_, _chide_*, and the many other excellent and expressive
old words which are now falling into colloquial disuse.

There is one curious means by which the life of these words may be
lengthened and by which, possibly, they may regain a current and
colloquial use. They can be still used humorously and as it were in
quotation marks; words like _pelf_, _maiden_, _lad_, _damsel_, and many
others are sometimes used in this way, which at any rate keeps them from
falling into the limbo of silence. Whether any of them have by this means
renewed their life would be an interesting subject of inquiry; it is said
that at Eton the good old word _usher_, used first only for humorous
effect, has now found its way back into the common and colloquial speech
of the school.


V. _Dialectal and Popular Words_.

Whether words may, by conscious effort, be preserved in colloquial usage
is an unsolved question, though perhaps our Society may help to solve it;
there is, however, another and more certain benefit which its members, or
at any rate such of them as are writers, may confer upon the language.
There are many excellent words spoken in uneducated speech and dialect all
about us, which would be valuable additions to our standard vocabulary if
they could be given currency in it. Many of these are dying words like
_bide_, _dight_, _blithe_, _malison_, _vengeance_, and since these are
still spoken in other classes, it might be less difficult to restore them
to educated speech. Others are old words like _thole_ and _nesh_ and _lew_