Notes on the composition of scientific papers / by T. Clifford Allbutt.

  • Allbutt, T. Clifford (Thomas Clifford), 1836-1925.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the composition of scientific papers / by T. Clifford Allbutt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    phenomena that have been grouped under the designation of Convergence/ was quoted in Nature with the just comment that the first clause merely repeats the idea of the second in a more cumbrous form. So it is also with this sentence, ‘ The process of parakeratosis is an irregular cornifica- tion/ Scientific writers are too apt to suppose that restatement in bigger words is explanation. Yet I would be no purist in language; language is a living thing in its way, and too often it is the cultured class which would arrest its growth. I would not resent the invasion even of slang; at worst it saves us from the too abstract (p. 143). Some slang words make their way generation by generation into our tongue, and increase its wealth; but we must not use a new word until we are satisfied that no word better, or as good, exists in the language; for generally the lack lies not in the language but in the resources of the innovator. However, a few generations ago ‘ mob/ ‘ sham/ ‘ banter ’ were slang. £ Crest-fallen ’ in the days of cock - fighters was slang; and now we meet ‘ handicap ’ far away from the racecourse. ‘ Dis¬ card ’ and ‘ pell-mell/ which had a like origin, have been good English for three centuries; and from cards ‘ to go one better ’ is now coming in. The word ‘ fad ’ and its congeners are useful novelties, because ‘ crotchet/ ‘ craze/ or ‘ hobby ’ scarcely ex¬ press the same meaning. ‘ Bluff’ now moves in the highest circles—‘ c’etait tout simplement du bluff dynastique ’; and so do ‘ prig/ ‘ gab/ and ‘ stodgy.’ ‘ Fluke ’ is certainly a gain to us, and I