Note 65 — DISSERTATION III.

It is regretted that the adjectives, indissoluble, irreparable were derived immediately from the Latin, indissolubilis, irreparabilis, and not from the English verbs, dissolve, repair. Yet dissolvable, indissolvable, repairable and irrepairable, are better words than indissoluble, reparable, irreparable. They not only preserve the analogy, but they are more purely English words; and I have been witness to a circumstance which alone ought to determine their excellence and give them currency: People of ordinary education have found difficulty in understanding such derivatives as irreparable, indissoluble; but the moment the words irrepairable, indissolveable are pronounced, they are led to the meaning by a previous acquaintance with the words repair and dissolve. Numberless examples of this will occur to a person of observation, sufficient to make him abhor and reject the pedantry of authors, who have labored to strip their native tongue of its primitive English dress, and load it with fantastic ornaments.