A History of English Language

The renaissance, 1500-1650 215
of these is often uncertain; they may have been of dialectal provenience. Some were
definitely coinages, such as Spenser’s bellibone (a fair maid, possibly from belle et
bonne), blatant, braggadocio, chirrup, cosset (lamb), delve (pit, den), dit (song), scruze
(apparently a telescope word combining screw and squeeze), squall (to cry), and wrizzled
(wrinkled, shriveled). Finally, many were simply adaptations and derivatives of old
words, such as baneful, briny, changeful, drear (from dreary), hapless, oaten, sunshiny,
or wolfish. Some of the innovations had a look much more rustic and strange than these,
and, as in the case of inkhorn terms and oversea words, opinion varied as to their
desirability. Sidney criticized Spenser for the “framing of his stile to an old rustick
language,” and Ben Jonson went so far as to say that “Spenser in affecting the ancients
writ no language.” But the poet also had his defenders. His friend “E.K.” wrote,“…in my
opinion it is one special prayse of many whych are dew to this poete, that he hath
laboured to restore as to their rightfull heritage such good and naturall English words as
have ben long time out of use and almost cleane disherited.” The defenders, moreover,
could have pointed to the fact that the same method of enriching the language was being
urged in France. The words that English acquired in this way are not nearly so numerous
as those obtained from outside, but when all is said the fact remains that to Spenser and
others who shared his views we owe a great many useful words. Belt, bevy, craggy,
dapper, forthright, glen, glee, glance, surly, blandishment, birthright, changeling, elfin,
endear, disrobe, don, enshrine, drizzling, fleecy, grovel, gaudy, gloomy, merriment,
rancorous, shady, verdant, wakeful, wary, and witless by no means exhaust the list. Many
of these have passed from the language of poetry into common use, and, what is equally
important, a vital principle of English word formation was being kept alive.
169. Methods of Interpreting the New Words.
The difftculty for the reader presented by these new words of many different origins was
met in various ways. In many cases the context or the reader’s knowledge of Latin was
expected to make the meaning clear. But the interpretation was not left entirely to chance.
Explanations were sometimes added parenthetically. When Elyot uses the word
circumspection he adds, “whiche signifieth as moche as beholdynge on every parte.” In
using the word magnanimity he says, “But nowe I remembre me, this worde
magnanimitie beinge yet straunge, as late borowed out of the latyne, shall nat content all
men”; he therefore explains what it means. Again, he says, “Industrie hath nat ben so
longe tyme used in the englisshe tonge…. It is a qualitie procedying of witte and
experience, by the whiche a man perceyveth quickly, inventeth fresshly, and consayleth
spedily.” This is not our way of using the word, but he also uses it in the sense of
diligence in performance. A simpler way, where an equivalent word or expression
existed, was to combine the new and the old in a self-interpreting pair. Thus he says
“animate or give courage,” “devulgate or set forth,” “explicating or unfolding,” “difficile
or hard,” “education or bringing up of children,” “adminiculation or aid,” “ostent or
show,” “excerped or gathered out of,” “obfuscate or hid,” and “celerity, commonly called
speediness.” Where no help like this was given, however, many a word must have