VERBALIST: Well, surely its meaning is obvious—a diet of vegetables only, with no particle of animal substance. VEGETARIAN: As a matter of fact, such is not, and has never been, its accepted meaning. The question was often debated in the early years of the Vegetarian Society, and it was always held that the use of eggs and milk was _not_ prohibited. "To induce habits of abstinence from the flesh of animals (fish, flesh, fowl) as food" was the avowed aim of vegetarianism, as officially stated on the title-page of its journal. VERBALIST: But the word "vegetarian"—what other meaning can it have than that which I have attributed to it? VEGETARIAN: Presumably those who invented the word were the best judges of its meaning, and what they meant by it is proved beyond a doubt by the usage of the Society. VERBALIST: But had they a right thus to twist the word from its natural derivation? VEGETARIAN: If you appeal to etymology, that raises another question altogether, and here, too, you will find the authorities against you. No one has a better right to speak on this matter than Professor J. E. B. Mayor, the great Latin scholar, and he states that, looking at the word etymologically, "vegetarian" cannot mean "an eater of vegetables." It is derived from _vegetus_, "vigorous," and means, strictly interpreted, "one who aims at vigour." Mind, I am not saying that the originators of the term "vegetarian" had this meaning in view, but merely that the etymological sense of the word does not favour your contention any more than the historical. VERBALIST: Well, what _does_ "vegetarian" mean, then? How do you explain it yourself? VEGETARIAN: A "vegetarian" is one who abstains from eating the flesh of animals, and whose food is _mainly_ derived from the vegetable kingdom. The above dialogue will show the absurdity and injustice of charging vegetarians, as the late Sir Henry Thompson did, with "equivocal terms, evasion—in short, untruthfulness," because they retain a title which was originally invented for their case. The statement that vegetarians have _changed_ the meaning of their name, owing to inability to find adequate nourishment on purely vegetable diet, is founded on similar ignorance of the facts. Here are two specimens of Sir Henry Thompson's inaccuracy. In 1885 he wrote: "It is high time that we should be spared the obscure language, or rather the inaccurate statement, to which milk and egg consumers are committed, in assuming a title which has for centuries belonged to that not inconsiderable body of persons whose habits of life confer the right to use it."[1] Footnote 1: _Nineteenth Century_, May, 1885.