“ When really learned men write books for other learned men to read, they are justified in using as many learned words as they please—their audience will understand them ”
Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (1880). copy citation
| Author | Mark Twain |
|---|---|
| Source | A Tramp Abroad |
| Topic | understanding writing |
| Date | 1880 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/119/119-h/119-h.htm |
Context
“They all do it.”
“Who is ‘all’?”
“Everybody. Everybody that writes elegantly. Anybody has a right to that wants to.”
“I think you are mistaken.” I then proceeded in the following scathing manner. “When really learned men write books for other learned men to read, they are justified in using as many learned words as they please—their audience will understand them; but a man who writes a book for the general public to read is not justified in disfiguring his pages with untranslated foreign expressions. It is an insolence toward the majority of the purchasers, for it is a very frank and impudent way of saying, ‘Get the translations made yourself if you want them, this book is not written for the ignorant classes.’ There are men who know a foreign language so well and have used it so long in their daily life that they seem to discharge whole volleys of it into their English writings unconsciously, and so they omit to translate, as much as half the time.”
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