Art principles in literatureDonnelly, Francis P. (Francis Patrick)
Philosophy
Art principles in literature
Donnelly, Francis P. (Francis Patrick)
Aesthetics; Literature
[4] This “mosaic of etymology” which I offer is not, I think, simply an
ingenious _tour de force_. It has a significance and a practical value.
It may illustrate the composite nature of the English language; it may
amuse a curious reader; it may enliven a Greek class with the touch of
actuality; it may disclose dim vistas into the distant past through the
medium of everyday language, exemplifying history through common things.
All the words of this phantasy are of Greek origin, except the article,
the pronouns, the prepositions and conjunctions, and a few other small
words: “so, as, then, home, let, go, do, all” and parts of the verb
“to be.” Skeat’s _Etymological Dictionary_ (Student’s edition) is the
authority. The exclusively technical words of modern sciences which are
almost wholly Greek have not, for the most part, been mentioned. It is
needless to remark that the prescriptions of the phantom’s pharmacy are
not authoritative.
This _jeu d’esprit_ has attracted so much attention as to be reprinted
by the American Classical Association and to be noticed by several
metropolitan editors. That attention is the motive for giving the article
permanent position in a book with which a novel plea for Greek has a
certain, though remote, connection.
[5] For analysis of thought, see _Model English_, bk. II, chap. X, by F.
P. Donnelly, S. J. Allyn and Bacon: Boston, New York and Chicago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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