I regret to see that vile and barbarous vocable _talented_, stealing out of
the newspapers into the leading reviews and most respectable publications
of the day. Why not _shillinged, farthinged, tenpenced,_ &c.? The formation
of a participle passive from a noun is a licence that nothing but a very
peculiar felicity can excuse. If mere convenience is to justify such
attempts upon the idiom, you cannot stop till the language becomes, in the
proper sense of the word, corrupt. Most of these pieces of slang come from
America.[1]
[Footnote 1:
See "_eventuate_," in Mr. Washington Irving's "Tour On the Prairies,"
_passim_.--ED.]
* * * * *
Never take an iambus as a Christian name. A trochee, or tribrach, will do
very well. Edith and Rotha are my favourite names for women.
_July_ 9. 1832.