From ‘Longs and Shorts’, The Spectator, 12 June 1915:
Names of things in constant use should never be too long. The cinematograph has inevitably dwindled into the “cinema,” while young America calls these shows the “movies.” But the passion for polysyllables, though considerably abated, has not died out of the Press. (How could it, when so much work is paid for by length?) Not so many years ago Mr. Punch’s famous advice to those about to marry was referred to in a leading daily as “the memorable monosyllabic monition of the Democritus of Fleet Street.”
The world would be much drearier if journalism were shorn of these decorations, and refused to conciliate those minds which find magic and consolation in “that blessed word Mesopotamia.” Authors like Matthew Arnold, for example, may boldly repeat words and phrases, much as a composer employs a leading motive; but the essence of journalism, as practised by some of its most illustrious representatives, is paraphrase, or at least the avoidance of repetition.
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