When some Americans speak of the virtues of English, they almost always begin by glorifying its enormous vocabulary, which is at least twice as large as that of any other language. But this is not what enchants the foreigner; on the contrary, the vast reaches of the vocabulary naturally alarm him. The thing that really wins him is the clarity and simplicity of the language. We use, for all our store of Latin polysyllables, a great many more short words than long ones, and we are always trying to make the long ones short. What was once puniligrion is now pun; what was gasoline only yesterday is already gas. No other European language has so many three-letter words, nor so many four-word sayings. “First come, first served”—that is typically English, for it is bold, plain, and short.
