An inkhorn term is a

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

, 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. 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, 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 firs ...

and

George Pettie George Pettie (1548–1589) was an English writer of romances. His style influenced Robert Greene, and paved the way to euphuism. Life He was younger son of John Le Petite or Pettie of Tetsworth and Stoke Talmage, Oxfordshire, by his wife Mary ...

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 e ...

tried to either resurrect English words, e.g. ''gleeman'' for ''musician'' (see glee), ''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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

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 coined words, such as ''starlore'' for ''astronomy'' and ''speechcraft'' for ''grammar'', but they were not widely accepted. George Orwell famously analysed and criticised the socio-political effects of the use of such words:

References

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Etymology

Adoption

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading