SHORT WORDS AND LONG WORDS.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTET011."]
SIR,—Although the controversy between the Monosyllabic and the Polysyllabic factions in your columns may appear to be becoming somewhat monotonous, I venture to send you the following examples bearing on the subject. What tragedy
was ever more tersely expressed than that contained in the following utterance
Again, there used to be a negro melody relating, I think, to
Uncle Ned, in which the following lines occur :— " And there grew no wool on the top of his head, On the place where the wool ought to grow."
This was parodied to imitate the diction of a leading news- paper of the time somehow as follows, but I do not vouch for
verbal accuracy:-
" And there subsisted no capillary appendage on the summit of his cranium, on the region where the capillary appendage ought to subsist."
"Boy Gun Joy Fun Gun bust Boy dust."
Sesguipedalia verb.a are generally held 'up `to ridicule, but free use is made of thein by authors who write for effect,-from Homer to Carlyle ; indeed, they would appear essential to what is called word-painting, as instanced in the Greek poet's sounding epithet applied to the waves of the sea, 'TOM/Maw/iota OsAcion-qr.—I .am, Sir, &c.,
[We cannot, to our regret, find space for further letters on this subject.—En.' Spectator.]
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