'naivety', now appear as 'levée', and 'naïveté'. The next step is to
italicize these words, thus treating them as complete aliens, and thus we
often see _rôle_, _dépôt_, &c. The very old English word 'rendezvous' is
now printed _rendezvous_, and 'dilettante' and 'vogue' sometimes are
printed in italics. Among other words which have been borrowed at various
times and more or less naturalized, but which are now being driven out of
the language, are the following: confrere, congee, cortege, dishabille,
distrait, ensemble, fête, flair, mellay (now _mêlée_), nonchalance,
provenance, renconter, &c. On the other hand, it is satisfactory to note
that 'employee' appears to be taking the place of 'employé'.

[Footnote A: For the words marked with an asterisk see notes on page 10.]

The printing in italics and the restoration of foreign accents is
accompanied by awkward attempts to revert to the foreign pronunciation of
these words, which of course much lessens their usefulness in
conversation. Sometimes this, as in _nuance_, or _timbre_* practically
deprives us of a word which most of us are unable to pronounce correctly;
sometimes it is merely absurd, as in 'envelope', where most people try to
give a foreign sound to a word which no one regards as an alien, and which
has been anglicized in spelling for nearly two hundred years.

Members of our Society will, we hope, do what is in their power to stop
this process of impoverishment, by writing and pronouncing as English such
words as have already been naturalized, and when a new borrowing appears
in two forms they will give their preference to the one which is most
English. There are some who may even help to enrich the language by a
bolder conquest of useful terms, and although they may suffer ridicule,
they will suffer it in a good cause, and will only be sharing the
short-lived denunciation which former innovators incurred when they