Neology, or the novelty of words and phrases, is an innovation, which,
with the opulence of our present language, the English philologer is
most jealous to allow; but we have puritans or precisians of English,
superstitiously nice! The fantastic coinage of affectation or caprice
will cease to circulate from its own alloy; but shall we reject the ore
of fine workmanship and solid weight? There is no government mint of
words, and it is no statutable offence to invent a felicitous or daring
expression unauthorised by Mr. Todd! When a man of genius, in the heat
of his pursuits or his feelings, has thrown out a peculiar word, it
probably conveyed more precision or energy than any other established
word, otherwise he is but an ignorant pretender!
Julius Caesar, who, unlike other great captains, is authority on words as
well as about blows, wrote a large treatise on "Analogy," in which that
fine genius counselled to "avoid every unusual word as a rock!"[19] The
cautious Quintilian, as might be expected, opposes all innovation in
language. "If the new word is well received, small is the glory; if
rejected, it raises laughter."[20] This only marks the penury of his
feelings in this species of adventure. The great legislator of words,
who lived when his own language was at its acme, seems undecided, yet
pleaded for this liberty. "Shall that which the Romans allowed to
Caecilius and to Plautus be refused to Virgil and Varius?" The answer to
the question might not be favourable to the inquirer. While a language
is forming, writers are applauded for extending its limits; when
established, for restricting themselves to them. But this is to imagine
that a perfect language can exist! The good sense and observation of
Horace perceived that there may be occasions where necessity must become
the mother of invented words:--
----Si forte necesse est
Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum.
If you write of things abstruse or new,
Some of your own inventing may be used,
So it be seldom and discreetly done.