Belittled and Jefferson

As far as we know, the first person to use the word belittle in writing was Thomas Jefferson.

This was in 1785.

There was this French naturalist who had been insisting that species of animals in America, including humans, were naturally smaller and inferior to the ones in Europe. And Jefferson was furious about this, and he answered that with an emphatic rejection of what he called this new theory on the tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side of the Atlantic.

When he wrote this, a lot of people were really appalled by his use of the term belittled. And in fact, that there was a critic in England who wrote, belittle, what an expression. It may be an elegant one in Virginia and even perfectly intelligible, but for our part, all we can do is to guess at its meaning. For shame, Mr. Jefferson. Why, after trampling upon the honor of our country and representing it as little better than a land of barbarism, why, we say, perpetually trample also so upon the very grammar of our language, oh, spare, we beseech you, our mother tongue.

Yeah, that kind of complaint from the British side of the Atlantic is never stopped.

Never.

No, never.

The Americans are always accused of doing harmful things to the language.

But it’s such a small word, belittle.

How could you complain about that?

Yes, and now it’s perfectly legitimate.

Also, the theory about things being smaller in the new world is ridiculous.

What’s the evidence for that?

You’ve got to support that claim.

I don’t see that as being true.

No, I don’t either.

We’ll talk to you just about any way we can, including on social media.

Try us out.

All of our handles and nicknames are on our website at waywordradio.org.