No time to Google, Joel, no time, old chap ;-).
You're right about my being despondent: it is difficult to see why we
have to add syllables to perfectly serviceable and quite elegant
words. Press -- pressure -- pressurise come to mind, and I still
can't get used to the way some training experts use the word
"competency" when "competence" was perfectly adequate ...
Chris
~~ >-)-
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
+44 (0)7092 251126
www.threeshoes.co.uk
homepage.mac.com/zuiko
On 25 Jul 2006, at 22:07, Joel Wilcox wrote:
> You didn't Google, Chris, as Piers hinted. If memory serves, the
> "slough of despond" is from "Pilgrim's Progress." (At least that's
> what I assume Google would yield -- I didn't actually Google it
> either.) I recall reading somewhere that at one time if there were
> but two books in a English-speaking family's home, one would be the
> Bible and the other "Pilgrim's Progress."
>
> I think Chuck is right that "despondency" would be the normal nounal
> form now, which I am guessing makes you as despondent as it does me,
> since you are also a lover of words.
>
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