These days, you don't hear many English teachers advocating "purity of diction"--at least not in those terms.
But back in the 19th century, language mavens were greatly concerned about maintaining the honor and good standing of English words. In his popular textbook The Manual of the Art of Prose Composition (1867), Methodist minister John Mitchell Bonnell explained that the "diction of a writer is said to be pure when he employs no words except such as belong to the English language, as it is at present used by the best writers and speakers."
Never mind that in terms of its abundant hoard of loanwords and borrowings, English vocabulary is (and always has been) about as pure as the driven slush.
For the complete article, go to The Triumph of Slang: Bosh, Humbug, and the Survival of 19th-Century Barbarisms.
Comments
Ah, that was thoroughly refreshing! After years of toughing it out in the classroom with students who use text-spellings, better confined to the arthritic future of teen thumbing on mini phone pads, I miss educated talk about words. I thank you!