Etymologists have long recognized the difference between U. S. and British English, but it was a layman, Henry Louis Mencken (The American Language), who first popularized the idea that U. S. citizens speak a tongue of their own. Eleven years ago the University of Chicago asked slight, bearded Professor Sir William Alexander Craigie, since 1901 co-editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, to collect in definitive form the words that have meanings and currency peculiar to the U. S. Last week in Chicago appeared the first section, A-to-Baggage, of his long-awaited Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles* When complete the...
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