quoting Shakespeare, any more than Shakespeare, if he had infringed on the usage of his day, could have defended himself by quoting Chaucer. Plainly therefore, our standard of expression must be the practice of good writers and speakers of the present day.
WORDS NOT IN GOOD USE
“Every language contains a large stock of words that are not in good prose use. Among these may be mentioned archaisms or obsolete words” (Vide Gardiner, Kitredge and Arnold Manual of Composition and Rhetoric, p 347 and 349)
“Good Use is the use, or general practice at, present of good writers and speakers--the best if we could find them. From this definition it follows, that you should put yourself in the way of hearing and reading good speakers and writers in order to become familiar with their general practice.
“Archaisms or old terms no longer cuffent in good writing must be left to the poet, and even he will do well to use them sparingly. They have no place in prose. Thus the third person in ct/i, of the present indicative of the active verb, is out of place in prose of the twentieth century, though common and in good use as late as Washington’s time. The language of the pulpit is, of course, justified in a certain use of the archaisms found in the King James Bible or other early versions. (Vide Canby and others : English Composition in Theory and Practice by , p 149 - 151)
Usage as Reputable, National, present--Good use or correctness in language, has been admirably defined by Dr. Campbell as (1) Reputable use (2) National use and (3)
Present use. Present use as opposed to past use we need not discuss; for few of us are tempted to use abandoned old words. (Vide Baldwin’s Writing and Speaking, 41).
1365 Minute of Dissent
