Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood
My teachers never seemed to like the use of certain Anglo-Saxon words like (as Lenny Bruce would say in his coy moments), "the short word for loving."
There was a constant effort in English classes when I went to school (at least in the schools I attended) to stress the elimination of short Anglo-Saxon words when there was another (longer) French derived word. In addition to awkward speech and writing patterns it also produced a gulf between writing for English classes and writing for Physics or History classes. I later adopted the AP Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style and have purged most of the high school English class material.
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Well, sure, because using the short Anglo-Saxon word would mean that you were less educated and lower class. Using the French-based word would mean that you were well educated and higher class.
And .... my reply to that is they can kiss my ass (from the Anglo Saxon "ars" meaning buttocks).