DefinitionsAmazement; Delect; Delight; DelightmentMarvelment/ Marvel; Mirific; Wonderment
• amazement (n.): the emotion aroused by something awe-inspiring or astounding; (synonyms): amaze, astonishment, awe, marvel, wonder, wonderment; (archaic): admiration, dread. ~ (The American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus). • amazement (n.): astonishment, surprise, wonder, shock, confusion, admiration, awe, marvel, bewilderment, wonderment, perplexity, stupefaction; [e.g.]: “I stared at her in amazement for a long while”. ~ (Collins English Thesaurus). • amazement (n.): the feeling which accompanies something
extremely surprising; [e.g.]: “He looked at her in <i>amazement</i> at what he saw”; (synonyms):
astonishment; [e.g.]: “She looked at him in astonishment at what she saw”; (related words): feeling
(the experiencing of affective and emotional states; [e.g.]: “He had a feeling of euphoria when he looked at her”;
“She had terrible feeling of guilt when she looked at him”; “She disliked him and the feeling soon became mutual”);
wonder, wonderment, admiration (the feeling aroused by something strange and surprising; [e.g.]: “They looked in wonderment
at what the rising sun revealed”); surprise (the astonishment one feels when something totally unexpected happens to
them); stupefaction (a feeling of stupefied astonishment).
~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). Delect (v.; rare): to delight or take pleasure in something; also, to be a source of pleasure or delight; in later
use also with object (reflexive): to gratify oneself. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary). • delightment (n.): 1. the state or condition of delighting; 2. (a.) an expression or state of delight;
(b.) a cause or occasion of delight; [e.g.]: “And in his delightment and excitement, Alobar had let his tea grow cold, so the shaman warmed his cup”.
~ (page 51 • delightment (n.): 1. pure pleasure; 2. intense thrill of excitement; 3. a self-pleasing state of mind; [e.g.]: “To her delightment, he said yes to her question”. (uploaded by Wolfenstineus; March 17, 2004). ~ (Online Urban Dictionary). __________ Literary Samples. • “‘That I will do with the greatest of *delightment*’, said the elder”. [emphasis
added]. ~ (page 157 • “‘With the greatest of *delightment*, Fourth Father’,
echoed Naras Sharaf as he ended the clandestine transmission”. [emphasis added]. ~
(page 157 • “This is by far the best thing I have heard on here yet. I
will unquestionably track the author down and ransack his other works for further *delightment*. Kudos!” [emphasis
added]. ~ (from A. Derksen, online comment; October 22, 2008, “PodCastle, PC030: Grand Guignol”, by Andy Duncan;
read by Frank Key) • “The whole concept of the story is very intriguing and
interesting and the crescendo of the album offers the listeners pure moments of true musical *delightment*
Excellent work!”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from a review of “A Gentleman’s Hurricane”
(from Mind’s Eye), by Ovidiu; Jan 04, 2010 • delight (v.): I. (trans.v.): to affect with great pleasure or rapture; please highly; give or afford a high degree of satisfaction or enjoyment to; as, ‘a beautiful landscape delights the eye’; ‘harmony delights the ear’; ‘poetry delights the mind’; [e.g.]: “I will delight myself in thy statutes”. (Psalm cxix. 16); “To me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me, no, nor woman either”. (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, ii, 2); II. (intr.v.): to have or take great; pleasure; be greatly pleased or rejoiced: followed by an infinitive or by in; [e.g.]: “The squyer delited nothinge ther-ynne whan that he smote his maister, but he wiste not fro whens this corage to hym come”. (Merlin; E. E. T. S., iii. 434); “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”. (Psalm xl. 8); “The labour we delight in physics pain”. (William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”, ii. 3). [a wrong spelling, in imitation of words like light, might, etc.; the analogical modern spelling would be delite; from Middle English deliten, delyten, from Old French deleiter, deliter = Provinçal delectar = Spanish deleitar, delectar = Portuguese deleitar = Italian delettare, dilettare, from Latin delectare, ‘delight’, ‘please’, freqentive of delicere, ‘allure’; see delicate, delectable, delicious]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delight (n.): 1. a high degree of pleasure or satisfaction; joy; rapture; [e.g.]: “His delight is in the law of the Lord”. (Psalm i. 2); “Thus came I into England with great joy and hearts delight, both to my selfe and all my acquaintance”. (Edward Webbe, “Travels”; ed. Edward Arber, p. 31); “The ancients and our own Elizabethans, ere spiritual megrims had become fashionable, perhaps made more out of life by taking a frank delight in its action and passion”. (James Lowell, “Among my Books”, 2d sermon, p, 249); 2. that which gives great pleasure; that which affords a high degree of satisfaction or enjoyment; [e.g.]: “But, man, what doste thou with alle this? | Thowe doest the delytys of the devylle”. (Political Poems, etc.; ed. Furnivall, p. 172); “Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, | And show the best of our delights”. (William Shakespeare, Macbeth, iv. 1); “Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise,... | To scorn delights, and live laborious days”. (John Milton, “Lycidas”, 1. 72); 3. licentious pleasure; lust (Geoffery Chaucer); (synonyms): 1. joy, pleasure, etc. (see gladness), gratification, rapture, transport, ecstasy, delectation. [a wrong spelling (see the verb); earlier delite; from Middle English delite, delit, delyt, from Old French deleit, delit = Provinçal delieg, deliet = Spanish, Portuguese deleite = Italian diletto, ‘delight’; from the verb]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delighted (part. adj.; in the quotation from Shakspere the meaning of the word is doubtful): 1. greatly pleased; joyous; joyful; [e.g.]: “About the keel delighted dolphins play”. (Edmund Waller, “His Majesty’s Escape”); “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, | To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; | This sensible warm motion to become | A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit | To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside | In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice”. (William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, iii. 1); “But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair—| What was thy delighted measure?” (William Collins, “The Passions”); 2.† delightful; delighted-in; [e.g.]: “If virtue no delighted beauty lack, | Your son-in-law is far more white than black”. (William Shakespeare, “Othello”, i. 3); “Whom hest I love I cross; to make my gift, | The more delay’d, deliyhted”. (William Shakespeare, “Cymbeline”, v. 4). [pp. of delight, verb]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightedly (adv.): in a delighted manner; with delight; [e.g.]: “Delightedly dwells he ’mong fays and talismans, | And spirits; and delightedly believes | Divinities, being himself divine”. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, tr. of Schiller’s “Death of Walleustein”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delighter (n.; rare): one who takes delight; [e.g.]: “Ill-humoured, or a delighter in telling bad stories”. (Isaac Barrow, “Sermons”, I. 250). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightful (adj.): highly pleasling; affording great pleasure and satisfaction: as, ‘a delightful thought’; ‘a delightful prospect’; [e.g.]: “The house is delightful—the very perfection of the old Elizabethan style”. (Lord Macaulay’s “Life and Letters”, I. 191); “After all, to be delightful is to be classic, and the chaotic never pleases long”. (James Russell Lowell, “Among my Books”, 1st sermon, p. 204); (synonyms): delicious, delightful (see delicious); charming, exquisite, enchanting, rapturous, ravishing. [from delight + -ful¹]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightfully (adv.): 1. in a delightful manner; in a manner to afford great pleasure; charmingly; [e.g.]: “How can you more profitably or more delightfully employ yore Sunday leisure than in the performance of such duties as these?” (Bishop Porteous, “Works”, I. ix); 2.† with delight; delightedly; [e.g.]: “O voice once heard | Delightfully, Increase and Multiply; | Now death to hear!” (John Milton, “Paradise Lost”, x. 730). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightfulness (n.): 1. the quality of being delightful, or of affording great pleasure: as, ‘the delightfulness of a prospect or of scenery’; ‘the delightfulness of leisure’; [e.g.]: “Because it [deportment] is a nurse of peace and greatly contributes to the delightfulness of society, [it] hath been always much commended”. (Dr. Isaac Barrow, “Sermons”, I. xxix); 2† the state of being delighted; great pleasure; delight; [e.g.]: “But our desires’ tyrannical extortion | Doth force us there to set our chief delightfulness | Where but a baiting place is all our portion”. (Sir Philip Sidney, “The Complete Works”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightingly (adv.): 1. in a delighting manner; so as to give delight; 2.† with delight; cheerfully; cordially; [e.g.]: “He did not consent clearly and delightingly to Sequiri’s death”. (Jeremy Taylor, “Ductor Dubitantium”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightless (adj.): affording no pleasure or delight; cheerless; [e.g.]: “Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze, | Chills the pale moon, and bids his driving sleets | Deform the day delightless”. (James Thomson, “The Four Seasons: Spring”). [from delight + -less]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightsome (adj.): delightful; imparting delight; [e.g.]: “Then deck thee with thy loose, delightsome robes, | And on thy wings bring delicate perfumes”. (George Peele, “The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe”, 1594); “The Kingdom of Tonquin is in general healthy enough, especially in the dry season, when also it is very delightsome”. (William Dampier, “Dampier’s Voyages”, II. i. 31). [from delight + -some]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightsomely (adv.): in a delightful manner; in a way to give or receive delight; [e.g.]: “I have not lived my life delightsomely”. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Balin and Balan”). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • delightsomeness (n.): the quality of giving delight; charmfulness; [e.g.]: “The delightsomeness of our dwellings shall not be envied”. (Rev. Charles Wheatly, “Schools of the Prophets”, 1721, “Sermon at Oxford”, p. 38). ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). (left-clicking the yellow rectangles
with the capital ‘U’ opens each in a new web page). • marvelment (n.; pl. marvelments): a source or cause for wonder. [etymology: marvel, from Middle English merveile, mervayle, ‘something causing astonishment, miracle’ (from Latin mīrābilia, noun derivative from neuter plural of mīrābilis, ‘causing wonder, remarkable’, from mīrārī, ‘to be surprised, look with wonder at’ + -bilis, ‘capable of acting or being acted upon’) + -ment, from Latin -mentum; akin to Latin -men, ‘suffix denoting concrete result’]. ~ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). • marvelment (n.): 1. the state of marvelling; amazement; 2. something causing such a state; a marvel. [from marvel + -ment]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary). __________ Random Literary Samples. • “Hugh Laurie is the epitome of class and style, not to mention a brilliant actor. Even with all those *marvelment*
characteristics, he’s able to maintain his integrity, modesty and priceless sense of humor! I can’t think of anyone
who is deserving of an Emmy more than he!”. [emphasis added]. ~ (online comment by
Aeritrish, May 18, 2007, in “Why Hugh Laurie Is the Coolest Man On Earth”, by Ray Richmond; May 14, 2007, Past
Deadline; The Hollywood Reporter • “His book is yet another of those all-purpose guides to the
new industry of motion pictures, a blend of potted history, social history, technical explanation and *marvelment*
at the rise of this extraordinary business and the huge sums that it was starting to earn”. [emphasis
added]. ~ (from “Motography”, by urbanora, Feb 09, 2010, The Bioscope • “I get a chill when I think about where we were
technologically in 1995. Not a shiver of *marvelment* over the progress we made to reach that era, but an
incapacitating shudder to think of the Hell on Earth we had to endure to go online in the mid-1990s. The dial-up
screeches, the disconnections should someone pick up a phone, the endless wait-time to download. Let’s never go back.
Promise me we’ll never go back”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “AOL Spent $300
Million Just On Promotional Discs In The 1990s”, by Mike Schuster; Dec 28, 2010, The Daily Feed, Minyanville • marvel (n.): 1. one which evokes surprise, admiration, or wonder; (synonyms): wonder, miracle, phenomenon, marvel; these nouns denote one which evokes amazement or admiration; [e.g.]: “saw the wonders of Paris”; “a miracle of culinary art”; “a phenomenon of medical science”; “a marvel of modern technology”; 2. (archaic): strong surprise; astonishment; (v.): marvels, marvelled or marvelling; intr.v.): to become filled with wonder or astonishment; (tr.v.): to feel amazement or bewilderment at or about; [e.g.]: “We marvelled at how they walked away unhurt from the car accident”. [Middle English merveille, marvail, from Old French merveille, from Vulgar Latin *miribilia, alteration of Latin mīrābilia, ‘wonderful things’, from neuter pl. of mīrābilis, ‘wonderful’, from mīrārī, ‘to wonder’, from mīrus, ‘wonderful’]. ~ (American Heritage Dictionary). • marvel (n.): something which causes feelings of wonder; [e.g.]: “the wonders of modern science”; (synonyms): wonder; (related words): happening, natural event, occurrence, occurrent (an event which happens); (v.): 1. be amazed at; [e.g.]: “We marvelled at the child’s linguistic abilities”; (synonyms): wonder; (related words): react, respond (show a response or a reaction to something); 2. express astonishment or surprise about something; (related words): give tongue to, utter, express, verbalise (articulate; either verbally or with a cry, shout, or noise; [e.g.]: “She expressed her anger”; “He uttered a curse”). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). (left-clicking the yellow rectangles with the capital ‘U’ opens each in a new web page). 
Mirific; Mirificence: • mirifically (adv.): in a mirific manner. ~ (Collins English Dictionary). • mirific (adj.; rare): wonder-working; wonderful; [e.g.]: “More numerous, wonder-working, and mirific”. (Thomas Urquhart, tr. of “The Works Of Francis Rabelais”, iii. 4.; Davies). [= French mirifique = Spanish mirifico = Portuguese, Italian mirifico, from Latin mirificus, ‘causing wonder or admiration’, ‘extraordinary’, from mirus, ‘wonderful’ + facere, ‘make’]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • mirific (adj.): working wonders; rousing astonishment, marvellous; also
mirificent, working wonders, accent on the ‘if’; and mirifical, mirificence; used since the fifteenth century;
Blackwoods ‘Edinburgh Magazine’ (1853) pointed to ‘the mirific diminishment of the contents of a brandy bottle’.
~ (page 431 • mirific (adj.): working wonders; wonderful. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary). • mirific (adj.): achieving wonderful things or working wonders. ~ (Collins English Dictionary). • mirific (adj.): working wonders; marvellous; [e.g.]: “[Sebastian Pasquale]
talked all through dinner, giving me an account of his mirific adventures in foreign cities”. (page 72 • mirific (adj.): (literary) working wonders; wonderful; (synonyms): mirifical; [e.g.]: “The Spirit of Grace, in whose mirific power our Saviour first, and his Apostles afterward, proclaimed the Gospel”. (page 192, Chapter One, Part Four, “The Constant Communicant”, Arthur Bury; 1681, Stephen Botton, Oxford); “See the very intelligible Theorist is at hand in our Necessity, to teach the impetuous Motions of mirifick Exultation”. (page 140, Section Thirty-Two, “An Essay towards the Theory of the Intelligible World”, Thomas d’Urfey; 1700, London); “There is the Doctor, whom Mrs. P. does not condescend to visit; that man educates a mirific family, and is loved by the poor for miles round”. (page 120, Chapter Thirty-One, “The Book of Snobs”, William Makepeace Thackeray; 1848, Punch Office, London); “A carpet overgrown with huge, gorgeous flowers, and the walls overgrown with huge, gorgeous flowers of another but equally mirific plant”. (page 133, Chapter One, Part Three, “Lilian”, Arnold Bennett; 1922, Cassell, London); “In as blasé a tone as I could manage, in such mirific circumstances, I murmured, ‘Ma’am, if you would care to glance out of the window—over there—you will see a flying saucer’”. (page 186, Chapter Five, “The Power of Positive Nonsense”, Leo Rosten; 1977, McGraw-Hill, New York). [etymology: from Latin mirificus and Middle French mirifique]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary). • mirific (adj.): wonder-working; marvellous. ~ (Steve Chrisomalis’ Phrontistery). • mirific, mirifical (adj.): wonder-working; magical. ~ (Luciferous Logolepsy Lexicon). • mirifick (n.): marvellous, wonderfully done; ſtrangely wrought. [from Latin mirificus]. ~ (page 43 • mirifical (adj.; rare): same as mirific. [from mirific + -al]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • mirifical (adj.): working wonders; wonderful. [origin: the earliest known use of the adjective mirifical is in the late 1500s; OED’s earliest evidence for mirifical is from around 1572, in the writing of William Forrest, poet: mirifical is a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element; etymons: Latin mīrificus + ‑al, suffix¹]. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary). • mirifical (adj.; obsolete, rare): magical, wonderful. [etymology: from mirific + -al]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary). • mirifical (adj.): if something is wonderful, marvellous or excellent, it is said to be mirifical; pronunciation—mi
as me; ri as in recall; fi as in fee; cal as in culture; [e.g.]: “The student writes mirifical essays in the magazine which attract readers”;
(synonyms): amazing, wonderful. ~ (Daily Dose Of Vocabulary • mirificent (adj.; rare): causing wonder; [e.g.]: “Enchantment Agrippa defines to be nothing but the conveyance of a certain mirificent power into the thing enchanted”. (Dr. Henry More, “Mystery of Iniquity”, 1664, I. xviii. § 3). (Encyc. Dict.). [from Late Latin as if *mirificen(t-)s (in deriv. Late Latin mirificentia), from Latin mirus, ‘wonderful’ + facere, ‘make’; cf. mirific]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia). • mirificent (adj.): wonderful. ~ (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary). • mirificent (adj.): working wonders; wonderful. ~ (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary). • mirificent (adj.; obsolete, rare): wonderful; wondrous; awesome. [etymology: from mirific + -ent]. ~ (Wiktionary English Dictionary). • mirificence (n.): doing wonders. [from Latin mirificentia]. ~ (page 43 • mirificence (n.): doing wonders; admirable excellence; (synonyms): admirability, admirableness. [origin: the only known use of the noun mirificence is in the early 1700s; OED’s only evidence for mirificence is from 1727, in a dictionary by Nathan Bailey, lexicographer and schoolmaster; mirificence is of multiple origins; either (i) a borrowing from Latin, or, (ii) formed within English, by derivation; etymons: Latin mirificentia; ‘mirificent’, adjective + ‑ence, suffix]. ~ (Oxford English Dictionary). ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Random Literary Samples. • “The Sharded *Mirificence*: | You are mine own pavonine blowth, my toft, | You are my senescent monopoly! |
Throned in red porphyry and onyx soft | Rieved from the Garden Papadopoli! | The micronated music spireth “Alice!” | Impendent rebecks, miradors sky-blue, |
In sharded skiffs bear frangipanni-chalice | To the *mirificent* and paraspastic You! | Randolph Badford {paraspasm =
an obsolete term for bilateral muscle spasms of the legs}. [emphases and curly-bracketed insert added]. ~ (page 2 • “A lover of his native tongue will tremble to think what that tongue would have become, if all the vocables from the
Latin and the Greek which were introduced or endorsed by illustrious names {during the Reformation, and extended to the Restoration of
Charles the Second, and beyond it}, had been admitted on the
strength of their recommendation; if ‘torve’ and ‘tetric’ (Thomas Fuller), ‘cecity’ (Richard Hooker), ‘fastide’ and ‘trutinate’ (“State Papers”), ‘immanity’
(William Shakespeare), ‘insulse’ and ‘insulsity’ (John Milton, prose), ‘scelestick’ (Owen Feltham), ‘splendidious’ (Michael Drayton), ‘pervicacy’ (Richard
Baxter), ‘stramineous’, ‘ardelion’ (Robert Burton), ‘lepid’ and ‘sufflaminate’ (Isaac Barrow), ‘facinorous’ (John Donne), ‘immorigerous’, ‘clancular’,
‘ferity’, ‘ustulation’, ‘stultiloquy’, ‘lipothymy’ (λειποθυμία), ‘hyperaspist’ (all in Jeremy Taylor),
if ‘mulierosity’, ‘subsannation’, ‘coaxation’, ‘ludibundness’, ‘delinition’, ‘septemfluous’, ‘medioxumous’,
*‘mirificent’*, ‘palmiferous’ (all in Henry More), ‘pauciloquy’ and ‘multiloquy’ (Joseph Beaumont, “Psyche”; 1648); if ‘dyscolous’ (John Foxe),
‘ataraxy’ (Richard Allestree), ‘moliminously’ (Ralph Cudworth), ‘luciferously’ (Sir Thomas Browne), ‘immarcescible’ (Bishop Hall), ‘exility’, ‘spinosity’,
‘incolumity’, ‘solertiousness’, ‘lucripetous’, ‘inopious’, ‘eluctate’, ‘eximious’ (all in John Hacket), ‘arride’ (ridiculed by Ben Johnson), with the
hundreds of other words like these, and even more monstrous than are some of these, not to speak of such Italian as ‘leggiadrous’ (a favourite word in
Beaumont’s “Psyche”), ‘amorevolous’ (John Hacket), had not been rejected and disallowed by the true instinct of the national mind. A great many too were
allowed and adopted, but not exactly in the shape in which they first were introduced among us; they were made to drop their foreign termination, or
otherwise their foreign appearance, to conform themselves to English ways, and only so were finally incorporated into the great family of English words”.
[emphasis and square-bracketed insert added]. ~ (page 110 • “As I mentioned in the ‘A Philosophical Compendiary’ chapter of my book ‘The Numinous Way of Pathei-Mathos’, my
philosophy of pathei-mathos has connexions to the culture of ancient Greece, exemplified by the many Greek terms and phrases I use in an attempt to express
certain philosophical concepts. Such use of such terms also serves to intimate that my philosophy has some connexion to the Graeco-Roman mystical, and
paganus, traditions, one of which traditions is outlined in the Ιερός Λόγος tractate of the Corpus
Hermeticum where it is written that: ‘...every psyche—embodied in flesh—can | By the *mirificence* of the circumferent deities coursing the heavens |
Apprehend the heavens, and honour, and physis presenced, and the works of theos; | Can understand divine influence as wyrdful change | And thus, regarding
what is good and what is bad, discover all the arts of honour’; my translation, from ‘Ιερός Λόγος: An
Esoteric Mythos’, a translation of and a commentary on the Third Tractate of the Corpus Hermeticum; 2015. Furthermore, I also use certain Greek and Latin
terms in a specific way, such that the meaning I assign to them is not necessarily identical to how they were understood in classical times or the same as
the meaning ascribed to them in modern Greek and Latin lexicons”.
[emphasis added]. ~ (page 8 • “English With Tears”. Stock Exchange lists fail to reveal what buyers are offering or sellers demanding for words, but a cable announcing that Mr. Charles K. Ogden has sold his “Basic English” system to the British Government for £23,000 {=£1.13 million, or $2.26 million, in 2024 monetary values} suggests that they are enjoying a “bullish” market. Compared with John Milton, to whom the bookseller Tompkyns paid £18 {=£5,220 in 2024 monetary values} for “Paradise Lost”, in which a vocabulary of about 8,000 words is employed, the bespectacled Cambridge don who invented “Basic English”, limited to 850 words, seems not to have made a bad bargain. What sort of a bargain the British Government has made is another matter. Nor is it clear what it intends doing with its purchase. Mr. Ogden made his bow as an exponent of a simplified English language away back in 1923. Like the inventors of “Volapuk” and “Esperanto”, he was inspired by the ideal of creating an international language, and English, he contended, possesses the qualities most needed for international use. It is the natural language of the governments of more than 500,000,000 persons, and the spread of the talking film, in Latin America especially, has made it a more or less garbled secondary language for millions more. Why not, argued Mr. Ogden, make English so simple that lesser breeds, who know not the tongue that Shakespeare and Damon Runyon spake, will realise the advantages of learning it. But seeing that there are still more than 1,500 languages in use in the world, the job of establishing any one tongue as even the secondary language of, say, half of those who speak the 1,500 others must present formidable difficulties. The fate of the best-known predecessor of “Basic English” was indicated in a satirical London Punch Magazine dialogue: “What is Esperanto, father?” “A universal language, my son”. “Who speaks it, father?” “Nobody, my boy, nobody”. But undeterred by the sad history of other “universal” languages, Mr. Ogden went ahead. He decided that all but a few of the words in an average English dictionary of from 60,000 to 80,000 words (the New English Dictionary contains 400,000) are unnecessary. Shakespeare, he says, employed 16,000 words (Shakespearian scholars claim to have counted 20,000), while a teashop waitress uses about 7,000 or 8,000. Although, judging by the case of the waitress, one can get through life with 7,000 or 8,000 words, most learners take at least four years to obtain a working knowledge of English. Mr. Ogden claims that two hours work daily for a month should enable anyone to master “Basic English”. The chief feature of this system is the wholesale elimination of verbs, the number of which has been reduced to eighteen, namely: come, get, give, go, keep, let, make, put, seem, take, be, do, have, say, see, send, may, will. Since “love”, for example, is no longer a verb, a lover pouring forth his passion in “Basic English” would inform his inamorata that he “has love for her”—which, somehow, suggests a rather limited amount of that commodity. “Love”, like many other verbs, still figures as a basic noun and one can indulge in what seems to me like cheating, by adding “-ing” or “-ed” to such nouns. Thus, one cannot say: “I love”, but one can announce: “I am loving” which, I suggest, might mean either that the speaker is actively making love or is himself of a loving nature. Having thrown verbs galore overboard. Mr. Ogden drastically compressed the vocabulary by a careful selection of nouns from groups of synonyms. The result, whether one likes it or not, is a triumph of ingenuity. Years ago I read in the “London Times” a long article which provided a clear exposition of “Basic English” and it was not until I reached the last paragraph (which provided the information) that I found that the writer had not gone beyond the Ogden vocabulary of 850 words. Various books have been translated into “Basic English”, including the Bible, in which we learn that Christ “put out” the money changers from the Temple. I have merely glanced at one or two of these works, but the pages I read conveyed their meaning clearly enough. This, however, by no means reconciles me to the idea of exchanging the English of Shakespeare, not to mention that of Sir Thomas Browne or Henry James, for Mr. Ogden’s. Doubtless there are thousands of words in the dictionary that most of us go through life without using. Some of us have scraped along on the Continent with something roughly equivalent to basic French or Italian. But much more is necessary to an appreciation of the literature of our own or other countries. Many of the 399,000 words that Mr. Ogden has discarded from the “New English Dictionary” are scientific or technical terms that few require to use. But there are thousands of others which great writers have chosen to employ to convey fine shades of meaning or emotion. Maybe it is not strictly necessary for Henry James to use words like “immarcescible” and *“mirificent”*. It might be argued that “unfading” or “wonderful” would convey his meaning. >But an artist in words must be allowed to choose his colours, and the Henry James canvases certainly would not be the fascinating things they often are if painted in “Basic English”. The international use of “Basic English” even for utilitarian purposes would, I imagine, present substantial obstacles at least for the English. Some who have been so misguided as to be born Rooshans, Turks or Prooshans may set enthusiastically to work learning Mr. Ogden’s 850 words, but any of the oppressed English who wish to write or speak to them will be faced with the more difficult task of unlearning thousands of words. When trying to acquire a foreign language, I have set myself the task of memorising a dozen or so words daily while shaving and dressing and have found that a week later I probably remembered half of them. But imagine carrying out this process in reverse—preparing daily lists of words it was one’s duty to forget! Like Macbeth, one would call in vain for some sweet oblivious antidote to cleanse one of the perilous stuff weighing upon the memory. Though it is doubtless possible to learn French without tears, the unlearning of English would, I fear, involve most
distressing emotional storms”. [emphasis and curly-bracketed inserts added]. ~ (page 4 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ • wonderment (n.): 1. the emotion aroused by something awe-inspiring or astounding; (synonyms): amaze, amazement, astonishment, awe, marvel, wonder; (archaic): admiration, dread; 2. one which evokes great surprise and admiration; (synonyms): astonishment, marvel, miracle, phenomenon, prodigy, sensation, stunner, wonder; (idioms): one for the books, the eighth wonder of the world. ~ (The American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus). • wonderment (n.): 1. rapt surprise; awe; 2. puzzled interest; 3. something that excites wonder. ~ (Collins English Dictionary). • wonderment (n.): the feeling aroused by something strange and surprising; [e.g.]: “With a feeling of utter wonderment she looked towards the setting sun”; (synonyms): wonder, admiration; (related words): amazement, astonishment (the feeling which accompanies something extremely surprising; [e.g.]: “He looked on with astonishment at such a rare sight”; awe (an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration; [e.g.]: “With a feeling of awe he stared over the edge of the abyss”). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0). __________ • “I didn’t expect her to say this and kind of caught me off-guard. I just looked and smiled in *wonderment*
of why this was said. ... In essence, it sort of gives an up to date credence to the influence and freshness of what is
currently occurring in youthful circles today”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “Albures, or Dirty Spanish 101”, by Sergio Gomez;
Jan 7, 2009, Mex Connect • “Townshend later told her afterward that her performance made him weep, and at the end, you can see Barbra Streisand turn to
Townshend and ask in *wonderment*, ‘Did you write that song?’”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “Amid Dreary
Concert Season, Bettye LaVette’s Triumphant Return”, by Art Levine; Aug 05, 2010, Huffington Post • “Sometimes the world’s best golfers look like weekend
hackers. As they watched defending champ Padraig Harrington implode with a quintuple-bogey eight on the par-3 8th hole
Sunday, CBS’ team didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ‘That was close to a shank’, Faldo said in *wonderment*
as Harrington hit the second of two balls into the water”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from
“PGA Championship Duel; Vick Interview Serve CBS Well”, by Michael McCarthy; Aug 16, 2009, USA Today • “The Indians looked at him in *wonderment* that he
should laugh”. [emphasis added]. ~ (page 11 • “She deliberately snapped the string, and, amid a shower of
pearls, the flowers fell to the waiting lover. She gazed at him until the tears blinded her and she buried her face on
the shoulder of Jeremy Sambrooke, who forgot his beloved statistics in *wonderment* at girl babies who insisted
on growing up”. [emphasis added]. ~ (Chapter Four: ‘Aloha Oe’, in the 1919
volume “The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii”, by Jack London; Mills & Boon, London • “Around them, the Grand Central crowd looks on in *wonderment*, trying to figure out what’s going on—a little scared, but delighted too”. [emphasis added]. ~ (from “Pranksters Stand Still for Five Minutess in Grand Central Station”, by Cory Doctrow, Feb 01, 2008, Boing Boing ).
(left-clicking the yellow rectangles with the capital ‘U’ opens each in a new web page). The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.
Richard’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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