It is curious, reading the fulminations of American purists of the last generation, to note how many of the Americanisms they denounced have not only got into perfectly good usage at home but even broken down all guards across the ocean. /To placate/ and /to antagonize/ are examples. The Oxford Dictionary distinguishes between the English and American meanings of the latter: in England a man may antagonize only another man, in America he may antagonize a mere idea or thing. But, as the brothers Fowler show, even the English meaning is of American origin, and no doubt a few more years will see the verb completely naturalized in Britain. /To placate/, attacked vigorously by all native grammarians down to (but excepting) White, now has the authority of the /Spectator/, and is accepted by Cassell. /To donate/ is still under the ban, but /to transpire/ has been used by the /London Times/. Other old bugaboos that have been embraced are /gubernatorial/, /presidential/ and /standpoint/. White labored long and valiantly to convince Americans that the adjective derived from /president/ should be without the /i/ in its last syllable, following the example of /incidental/, /regimental/, /monumental/, /governmental/, /oriental/, /experimental/ and so on; but in vain, for /presidential/ is now perfectly good English. /To demean/ is still questioned, but English authors of the first rank have used it, and it will probably lose its dubious character very soon. The flow of loan-words in the opposite direction meets with little impediment, for social distinction in America is still largely dependent upon English recognition, and so there is an eager imitation of the latest English fashions in speech. This emulation is most noticeable in the large cities of the East, and particularly in what Schele de Vere called "Boston and the Boston dependencies." New York is but little behind. The small stores there, if they are of any pretentions, are now almost invariably called /shops/. Shoes for the well-to-do are no longer [Pg137] /shoes/, but /boots/, and they are sold in /bootshops/. One encounters, too, in the side-streets off Fifth avenue, a multitude of /gift-shops/, /tea-shops/ and /haberdashery-shops/. In Fifth avenue itself there are several /luggage-shops/. In August, 1917, signs appeared in the New York surface cars in which the conductors were referred to as /guards/. This effort to be English and correct was exhibited over the sign manual of Theodore P. Shonts, president of the Interborough, a gentleman of Teutonic name, but evidently a faithful protector of the king's English. On the same cars, however, painted notices, surviving from some earlier régime, mentioned the guards as /conductors/. /To Let/ signs are now as common in all our cities as /For Rent/ signs. We all know the /charwoman/, and have begun to forget our native modification of /char/, to wit, /chore/. Every apartment-house has a /tradesmen's-entrance/.