THE ADMIRALTY'S ENGLISH
Sna,—At a time when so much graver matters occupy our minds, it may seem absurd to bother whether a Government communiqué is in good or bad English. Yet it does seem to me worth while to try to stem degradations of our language, and when the Admiralty, now under the direction of some one who has won fame as a writer, expresses surprise that Admiral Raeder should " demean his uniform," perhaps a cry of distress is allowable. To " demean," of course, means to behave ; one can demean oneself nobly. In the sense of " to lower in dignity " the word, my Concise Oxford Dictionary tells me, is " chiefly used by the uneducated or in imitations
[" Demean," used transitively in the sense of "to lower," is given as a correct usage in the larger dictionaries.—En. The Spectator.]
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