Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/216

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Selective Tendencies, etc.

before she makes known her desire; or he may anticipate some one in doing anything that he succeeds in doing first; or he may anticipate an obligation by meeting it before its time; but he doesn’t anticipate any act by expecting to perform the act.”[1]

Good usage has extended the meaning of this word, in a popular way, until it signifies also the looking forward with pleasure or confidence to something expected—to anticipate a good time. This modification may become eventually the principal meaning of the word; and like many other questionable changes of a similar kind, it has gone too far probably to be recalled.

Tea is tea, and nothing else.”[2] To call strong beef broth beef-tea, is offensive and inaccurate; but there is no importunate reason for confining the meaning of tea to an infusion made from the dried leaves of the tea-plant. English is richer because this word

  1. The Worth of Words. (Bell.)
  2. Words and Their Uses. (White.)

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