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Subject:Re: Latin vs. Germanic From:Christopher Knight <knight -at- ADA -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 31 Jul 1997 16:24:58 PDT
The distinction is basic to English, and is well-known to poets and
other "creative" writers. Since most of us TW drones learned to choose
the simplest and shortest of alternative word possibilities, we usually
choose words with Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) rather than Latin/French roots.
It's true that "click" is Germanic and "choose" French in origin, but so
what. Both words are short and precise. The choice should be based on
the context and as I argued in my earlier posting, "choose" and "select"
are more inclusive than "click". For the writer who had to write for
extreme computer-neophytes, well that's another context.
Cheers!
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