James Augustus Henry Murray

“ Every one who knows the history of the word knows that it has been used freely by good writers for nearly a century, and that it was current English as early as 1624 at least. The tirade against this long-established word appears to have been begun by some uninformed writer in Punch about 1861, who, ignorant of the fact that it had been freely used by Coleridge, Martineau, Gladstone, Newman, Mill, Mansel, Peel, Rawlinson, Dickens, Charles Reade, and scores beside, feebly tried to brand it as “this American solecism.” ”

“ When will people learn that the history of words, as of anything else, can be learned only by putting oneself in the position of a learner, and ought not to be invented to give support to pet prejudices or aversions? Let a man who has a chronic antipathy to reliable say frankly, “I know nothing about the history of this word, and I care less ”

“ Words that are not Wanted (7th S. viii. 85) .—I am sorry to find in ‘N. & Q.’ statements about the good, useful, well-formed, and ancient word reliable, of the kind that one used to see in the pre-scientific stage of our knowledge of English. ”