An Etymological Dictionary or Analysis of the English Language - Containing the Radicals and Definitions of Word Derived From the Greek, Latin, and French, Languages; And All the Generally Used Technical and Polite Phrases, Adopted Fro... #265384

There is little danger (though there is some,) of our mistaking the true signification of our vernacular dia lect, — the anglo-saxon. That which we have been ac customed to do from our childhood, we will do, almost instinctively, right. Words, in the use of which we have had so early and long continued experience, will be thor oughly understood. Their various powers will be known without a glossary. But this cannot be said of the mod ern portion of our language. Not having been required in youth, it has been neglected; and we are hurried from the society who speak the other, into a maturer and more refined, whose discourse is, in a great measure, unintelligible to us.