Literary Blunders | Page 4
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CHAPTER VII.
SCHOOLBOYS' BLUNDERS.
Cleverness of these blunders-- Etymological guesses--_English as she
is Taught_--Scriptural confusions-- Musical blunders--History and
geography-- How to question--Professor Oliver Lodge's specimens of
answers to examination papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157
CHAPTER VIII.
FOREIGNERS ENGLISH.
Exhibition English--French Work on the Societies of the World--Hotel
keepers' English--Barcelona Exhibition--Paris Exhibition of
1889--How to learn English-- Foreign Guides in so called English
--Addition to God save the King--
Shenstone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188
INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
LITERARY BLUNDERS.
CHAPTER I.
BLUNDERS IN GENERAL.
THE words ``blunder'' and ``mistake'' are often treated as synonyms;
thus we usually call our own blunders mistakes, and our friends style
our mistakes blunders. In truth the class of blunders is a sub- division
of the genus mistakes. Many mistakes are very serious in their
consequences, but there is almost always some sense of fun connected
with a blunder, which is a mistake usually caused by some mental
confusion. Lexicographers state that it is an error due to stupidity and
carelessness, but blunders are often caused
by a too great
sharpness and quickness. Sometimes a blunder is no mistake at all, as
when a man blunders on the right explanation; thus he arrives at the
right goal, but by an unorthodox road. Sir Roger L'Estrange says that
``it is one thing to forget a matter of fact, and another to blunder upon
the reason of it.''
Some years ago there was an article in the Saturday Review on ``the
knowledge necessary to make a blunder,'' and this title gives the clue to
what a blunder really is. It is caused by a confusion of two or more
things, and unless something is known of these things a blunder cannot
be made. A perfectly ignorant man has not sufficient knowledge to
make a blunder.
An ordinary blunder may die, and do no great harm, but a literary
blunder often has an extraordinary life. Of literary blunders probably
the philological are the most persistent and the most difficult to kill. In
this class may be mentioned (1) Ghost words, as they are called by
Professor Skeat--words, that is, which have been registered, but which
never really existed; (2) Real words that exist through a mis
take;
and (3) Absurd etymologies, a large division crammed with delicious
blunders.
1. Professor Skeat, in his presidential address to the members of the
Philological Society in 1886, gave a most interesting account of some
hundred ghost words, or words which have no real existence. Those
who wish to follow out this subject must refer to the Philological
Transactions, but four specially curious instances may be mentioned
here. These four words are ``abacot,'' ``knise,'' ``morse,'' and ``polien.''
Abacot is defined by Webster as ``the cap of state formerly used by
English kings, wrought into the figure of two crowns''; but Dr. Murray,
when he was preparing the New English Dictionary, discovered that
this was an interloper, and unworthy of a place in the language. It was
found to be a mistake for by-cocket, which is the correct word. In spite
of this exposure of the impostor, the word was allowed to stand, with a
woodcut of an abacot, in an important dictionary published
subsequently, although Dr. Murray's remarks were quoted. This shows
how difficult it is to kill a word which has
once found shelter in
our dictionaries. Knise is a charming word which first appeared in a
number of the _Edinburgh Review_ in 1808. Fortunately for the fun of
the thing, the word occurred in an article on Indian Missions, by
Sydney Smith. We read, ``The Hindoos have some very strange
customs, which it would be desirable to abolish. Some swing on hooks,
some run knises through their hands, and widows burn themselves to
death.'' The reviewer was attacked for his statement by Mr. John Styles,
and he replied in an article on Methodism printed in the Edinburgh in
the following year. Sydney Smith wrote: ``Mr. Styles is peculiarly
severe upon us for not being more shocked at their piercing their limbs
with knises . . . it is for us to explain the plan and nature of this terrible
and unknown piece of mechanism. A knise, then, is neither more nor
less than a false print
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