These prefixes are commonly translated “honourable” or “august” by English writers on Japan; thus, phrases which merely mean “your face” or “his hand,” for instance, are rendered by “the honourable face” or “the august hand.” But the use of honorifics being, as already stated, almost a matter of habit, they do not usually convey to the Japanese the same import and significance as the word “honourable” would to an Englishman. No doubt, they practically mean that; but the common honorific prefixes, which are monosyllabic, such as _o_, _go_, and _mi_, are glibly uttered. If the Japanese, however, had to use each time in their place the tetrasyllable “honourable,” he would soon grow out of the habit, just as in all probability an Englishman would cease to swear if the word “damn” were not such an easily pronounceable one, short, abrupt, and capable of great emphasis. This word has no equivalent in Japanese and has to be rendered by a periphrasis which would sound as strange to an English ear as the word “honourable” does to a Japanese as a rendering of his common honorific prefixes. Indeed, the use of the English comminatory word is far more eccentric when the word comes to be translated; the Japanese honorific has at least sense, which is more than can always be said for the English swear-word, when it is uttered as indiscriminately as it commonly is. Mr. Mantalini, for instance, would be hard put to it if he were asked to explain what he meant by the little “dems” with which he peppers his speech, while such an expression as “a damn sight” is meaningless, and “a damned good fellow” is an even more hopeless contradiction in terms than “an awfully sweet girl.”