Show SHORTER FORM WELL CHOSEN state depa departments Department rt ments 8 use of the word altogether proper and orthodox to not a few readers of the eng elsh and american notes the word which was used by both governments ern ments must have seemed a no novel vol and rather unpleasing substitute tor for or shortening of the familiar identical 1 tho the word has long been used however in diplomatic correspondence and documents no doubt because ot of the influence exerted by the french once the common language of international exchanges and still familiar to more diplomats than any other one tongue the french say eay and write Id entique and of that I dentle is a na natural tural translation the shorter form however has a valid claim for preference in that it says exactly what identical says and does it without the pleonasm or redundancy which marks so many of our words ending in test leal why we persist in lengthening such sufficiently long words as philosophic and geographic with a wholly needless at al it would be hard to explain almost as hard as to explain the frequent appearance pe arance of such absurdities as disembark disassociate coincidentally and superimpose one should not be too fussy about such things however for in language whatever is is right and enough usage makes any usage right |