A Plea for Good English

Abstract

I BELIEVE the phrase that “language was given us to conceal our thoughts” only holds good in diplomacy, and it may therefore be reasonably expected that a professor of science should endeavour to teach his pupils to express themselves in clear, concise and literary English. The German language lends itself to a process known as word-building, and for aught I know to the contrary, the word “Schwefelkohlenstoff” may be good, literary German. But this process is altogether foreign to the genius of the English language, and I cannot imagine a more barbaric or misleading conglomeration of verbiage than the phrase “chalk-stuff-gas.” Chalk is popularly associated with lime, or, to speak more accurately, with calcium, and to call a substance “chalk-stuff-gas” which does not contain an atom of calcium appears to me a misuse of language, especially as CO₂ can be prepared in various ways without using any substance containing calcium, or what is popularly known as “chalk” or “lime.” It seems to me that it would be difficult to invent a more suitable phrase than “carbon dioxide,” since it expresses in terse and pointed language the chemical composition of the gas.