Date:  Mon, 13 Nov 1995 16:06:14 -0500

From:  "Suzanne Legault: English" <E7E4LEG[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]TOE.TOWSON.EDU>

Subject: Re: Th Power of Words



On Nov. 13, Beverly Dumas wrote:



>Just now I picked up the business card the new owner handed me. It

>introduces her as "Jennifer Thacker, Esthetician."



>I REALLY do not know whether I can go back!

____________________________



  Outlandish as it may seem, it's echt-American; in fact, I first used it as

an exam item in American English in '77. (Quit subtracting!)  I had found it,

honest-to-god, in a Yellow Pages ad under "Beauty." It was even more florid in

context, as I recall--something along the lines of "Institute of Cosmetolgy"

where one could train to become a licensed "esthetician." My intent was to test

reading of the Pyles and Marckwardt texts I was then using, each of which

discussed verbal inflation as a hallmark of a distinctively "American" style.



  As a closet classicist (who prefers eating in English to starving in Greek),

may I urge B.D. to return to the nail-competent J., who is doing her part,

albeit unwittingly, to prove that Greek and Latin still live.