Friday, July 18, 2008

Quote of the Day

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." James D. Nicoll

4 comments:

Sewicked said...

I love this quote. It's the sig on one of my email addresses.

Sewicked said...

Oh, and may I recommend the Stories of English? It's about the English that we do not speak.

Not Important said...

I love time travel stories where people go back to medieval times where everyone speaks perfect modern English with contemporary vocabulary and such.

Doctor Who doesn't count, because they explain that.

Janice in GA said...

Hooray, the quote even has a correct attribution! I've seen it attributed to others or not attributed at all.

It's a great quote.