PACIFICIST, PACIFIST, PHILOPACIST, OR— ? [To TER EDITOR OF TRZ
"SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—" C. S." has entered a plea for a competent etymologist or word-coiner to decide upon "the right word" "in our endeavours to get hold of the right idea." I regret I hold no certificate of competence, but I have sufficient audacity to respond to his appeal. He wants 'something shorter, or easier to pronounce, than pacificist." Certainly, he shall have it. He "cannot swallow pacifist, or, indeed, any other fist." The difficulty of that operation would be universally con- fessed. Philopacist, or pacist, seems more to his fancy. The former, though "terribly cumbrous," "seems to be etymologi- cally correct," as also is pacist. Indeed, he can swallow a good gulp after all. He no doubt might swallow philopacist, because possibly it is his own cooking, but such a horrible hybrid is too much for me. Besides, why resort to the Greek for the half when the Latin can supply the whole ? He says plaintively:: "If our aim is to establish (or to discredit) the law of universal peace, and not merely to make peace between combatants, cannot a verb more suitable than facers be utilized ? " ,Certainly he learnt amore long before faxere. And there is Smith IL, who, in the first blush of his desire to become a Tacitus or a Cicero, got right to the end of mare. But facese—gracious, no ! The first conjugation was a thick dose, and "Please, father, don't you think commercial arithmetic would be of much more use than Latin ? " has prevailed long before facere was reached. Let me break it gently to "C. S.'' He seems to like the "Pac " every time, so let him try Pacisamist or Pacamist. (If he is a Londoner he will know how to swallow a mist.) But I have slept on his problem, or rather I tossed about on it when I ought to have been sleeping, and I go still better. There is a more euphonious term, and one more likely to appeal to the Latin-dropped-for-commercial- arithmetic product of our modern schools. I feel I have achieved competence—and fame. I see my bust alongside of Dr. Skeat's. Let the Spectator of the future give "honour to whom honour is due." The right word undoubtedly is [Why do discussions about words and their derivations always become so bitter ? One would imagine "word-men" urbane and bland, yet it is notorious that in their battles grammarians exhaust the vocabularies of invective. Still, " paxamist," like "mobled queen," must be pronounced good.—Era Spectator.]
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