SCOTTICISMS. IN common speech the word Scotticism is employed in a very broad and general sense, not only to denote that perversion or misapplication of English words or phrases peculiar to Scotland, but even to include Scotch words and phrases which have no existence whatever in the English language. A word or a phrase from a French or Latin author is never termed a Gallicism or a Latinism, but that abuse only of an English word or phrase, which arises from the adoption of the French or Latin idiom or phraseology. Yet this distinction, obvious as it is, has not been sufficiently attended to by any of the writers who have hitherto turned their attention to this subject. In the following list of Scotticisms, the author has endeavoured to avoid whatever does not appear to him to fall under the proper acceptation of the word. He has also endeavoured to avoid all those Scotticisms which have been already noted in other collections; though repetitions may very possibly occur, from the difficulty of collating, where there is no corresponding arrangement, or common principle of comparison. A complete collection, comprehending all the Scotticisms already printed that come truly under that appellation, might be extremely useful and valuable, and would not be by any means so extensive as might at first appear, if it were confined to its proper object, and care taken, in gleaning from preceding authors, to exclude English vulgarisms, and other inaccuracies and improprieties of language not more incident to Scotch than to English writers and speakers; all words purely Scotch, especially the technical terms of our law, and of course all the phrases which are at the present day in use among our southern neighbours, without regard to their origin or introduction. Such a work, however, ought to form a separate publication; and in compiling it, recourse must not only be had to the well-known collections of Dr Beattie and Mr Hume, but to every source of whatever authority, whence the smallest hint can be derived. Mr Elphinstone's criticisms will supply some useful suggestions; and a few genuine Scotticisms, not previously remarked, may be gathered from Sir John Sinclair's Observations on the Scottish Dialect, and from a collection of Scotticisms, vulgar Anglicisms, &c. printed at Glasgow in 1799, by Hugh Mitchell, master of the English and French academy. *An English friend, to whose revision these Scotticisms were submitted, on this head makes the following remark. "Professor Stewart, in his Philosophical Essays, speaks of his dislike at a certain mode of expression, which I take to be a decided Scotticism, rather unhappily placed, the subject being just then verbal criticism. But a Scotticism from such a writer of English as he is, is perhaps an honourable national distinction, rather than a blemish. I should not hesitate to say, a disgust at, though I should say, a dislike to any thing. In defence of this, I have only to plead my five degrees of latitude, which in these cases will hold good sometimes against more than five good reasons." |