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An inkhorn term is a loanword, or a word coined from existing roots, which is deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.


Etymology

An inkhorn is an
inkwell An inkwell is a small jar or container, often made of glass, porcelain, silver, brass, or pewter, used for holding ink in a place convenient for the person who is writing. The artist or writer dips the brush, quill, or dip pen into the inkwell ...
made of
horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various a ...
. It was an important item for many scholars, which soon became symbolic of writers in general. Later, it became a byword for fussy or pedantic writers. The phrase "inkhorn term" is found as early as 1553.


Adoption

Controversy over inkhorn terms was rife from the mid-16th to the mid-17th century, during the transition from
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
to Modern English, when English competed with Latin as the main language of science and learning in England, having just displaced French. Many words, often self-consciously borrowed from
classical literature Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classi ...
, were deemed useless by critics who argued that the understanding of these redundant borrowings depends on knowledge of classical languages. Some borrowings filled a technical or scientific
semantic gap The semantic gap characterizes the difference between two descriptions of an object by different linguistic representations, for instance languages or symbols. According to Andreas Hein, the semantic gap can be defined as "the difference in meani ...
, but others coexisted with Germanic words, often overtaking them. Writers such as
Thomas Elyot Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 149626 March 1546) was an English diplomat and scholar. He is best known as one of the first proponents of the use of the English language for literary purposes. Early life Thomas was the child of Sir Richard Elyot's fir ...
and George Pettie were enthusiastic borrowers whereas Thomas Wilson and
John Cheke Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great ...
opposed borrowing. Cheke wrote: Many of these so-called inkhorn terms, such as ''dismiss'', ''celebrate'', ''encyclopedia'', ''commit'', ''capacity'' and ''ingenious'', stayed in the language. Many other
neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
s faded soon after they were first used; for example, ''expede'' is now obsolete, although the synonym ''expedite'' and the similar word ''impede'' survive. Faced with the influx of loanwords, writers as well known as
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
tried to either resurrect English words, e.g. ''gleeman'' for ''musician'' (see
glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3 ...
), ''sicker'' for ''certainly'', ''inwit'' for ''conscience'', ''yblent'' for ''confused''; or coin brand-new words from English's Germanic roots (''endsay'' for ''conclusion'', ''yeartide'' for ''anniversary'', ''foresayer'' for ''prophet'').


Legacy

Few of these words coined in opposition to inkhorn terms remained in common usage, and the writers who disdained the use of Latinate words often could not avoid using other loanwords. Although the inkhorn controversy was over by the end of the 17th century, many writers sought to return to what they saw as the purer roots of the language.
William Barnes William Barnes (22 February 1801 – 7 October 1886) was an English polymath, writer, poet, philologist, priest, mathematician, engraving artist and inventor. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect, and much other work, including a co ...
coined words, such as ''starlore'' for ''astronomy'' and ''speechcraft'' for ''grammar'', but they were not widely accepted.
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...
famously analysed and criticised the socio-political effects of the use of such words:


See also

*
Aureation Aureation ("to make golden", from la, aureus) is a device in arts of rhetoric that involves the "gilding" (or supposed heightening) of diction in one language by the introduction of terms from another, typically a classical language considered to ...
*
Calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...
*
Classical compound Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical ...
*
Franglais Franglais (; also Frenglish ) is a French blend that referred first to the overuse of English words by French speakers and later to diglossia or the macaronic mixture of French () and English (). Etymology The word ''Franglais'' was first at ...
*
Plain language Plain language is writing designed to ensure the reader understands as quickly, easily, and completely as possible. Plain language strives to be easy to read, understand, and use. It avoids verbose, convoluted language and jargon. In many countr ...
*
Prestige (sociolinguistics) In sociolinguistics, prestige is the level of regard normally accorded a specific language or dialect within a speech community, relative to other languages or dialects. Prestige varieties are language or dialect families which are generally cons ...
* ''
Uncleftish Beholding "Uncleftish Beholding" (1989) is a short text by Poul Anderson, included in his anthology "All One Universe". It is designed to illustrate what English might look like without its large number of loanwords from languages such as French, Greek, a ...
''


References

{{reflist


Further reading


Original texts from the inkhorn debate
Word coinage Linguistic purism History of the English language Historical linguistics