Word: invention
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...introduction and the division of the essay proper under various legitimate, well ordered heads. The exposition should be as concise as possible and ought to exhibit independent thorough study. The speaker properly complained of a desire upon the part of many writers to assimilate rather than to invent and on the part of more, rather to arrange the work of others than to assimilate it. As the next forensic is to be of some length, all are advised to select a subject which will not "give out" before the forensic does. Especial care should be taken in the formation...
...hear something deliciously wicked about any prominent person, about Congress, about Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard. It tickles us to learn that others are so depraved: for we seem righteous in comparison. And so long as people take delight in the sins of others, so long will newspapers continue to invent their pleasing little anecdotes about our iniquities. There is no help...
...little wings," nor three, nor four little wings either as some birds apparently have, and that "it cannot be." It is possible that we mistake the poet's meaning in this verse, but really, we have not been able to discover any, and so had to invent one for ourselves...
...every way, under the convenient name of "hazing" when it was looked upon merely as a joke for a new student to be assaulted or his property destroyed, simply because he was a new student, and could not resist. Great was the honor meted out to one who could invent some form of annoyance more offensive or humiliating. No one stopped to look at the question from the other standpoint. No one thought it was an unmanly thing for four or five men to enter a man's room, and knowing him to be powerless to insult him in every...
Some literary wags were once assembled at a late dinner in London, when one of them made a large wager that he would invent a word that would soon be recognized as one of the most expressive. The next day the city was placarded with huge posters containing the strange-looking word "humbug," and it is needless to relate that it travelled like wildfire, was accepted by even the most fastidious, and is today understood wherever the English language is spoken...