(4 of 4)
Sir: Since the judges for the American Heritage's dictionary have decreed the death penalty for all who use like as a conjunction [Aug. 22], a hangman's noose would have been the appropriate end for Elyot, Shakespeare, Smollett, Southey, Newman, Washington Irving, Darwin and William Morris (of Morris chair fame, not the dictionary's editor). Edmund Spenser should perhaps have been flogged for anticipating the TVese use of host as a transitive verb. Since advise in the sense of "notify" is business and Army English, Willa Gather and Sir Richard Steele must have been members of the industrial-military complex. And since erratas reflects ignorance of Latin, Jonathan Swift was the Dean of ignoramuses. How good that we now have concerned and learned experts to guard the standards of our language and save it from such corrupters.
JOHN ALGEO Gainesville, Fla.