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Lexicographers will tell you that language evolves and as new words appear many older words die as part of that evolutionary process. More's the pity.One of the aims of this Blog is to attempt to preserve our language and from time to time I will list extracts from literature or attempt to preserve one particular word that is in danger of disappearing. I would much appreciate it, dear reader, if you could comment and add to the list of words that you feel should not be allowed to decay and be lost from common usage.
Quite by chance I picked up an item in a junk shop in Torrington last week and the lady was insistent that it should be wrapped for fear that I might drop it.It was a copy of The Wiltshire Times dated, Friday July 21, 1972 and had the following extract from a cricket match in it:-
"But the hit of the match came from stumper Mike Goddard who had a very successful match. With the final scoring match he smote a full-bloodied hit into the pavilion for six"
Herewith starts the campaign to preserve "stumper" and "smote" which is a superb word and probably , these days, has been replaced by smashed or, even worse, crashed.
And I rather liked the front page headline, "Man Talked to Himself and Gave Himself Away". Don't we all?
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