[ti:Belittle] [ar:Warren Scheer] [al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]go to 51voa.com for more... [00:10.16]Now, the VOA [00:14.24]Special English program [00:16.63]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:19.56]Today's word is belittle. [00:23.05]It was first used [00:25.39]by Thomas Jefferson, [00:27.43]the third president [00:28.97]of the United States. [00:30.41]Many years ago, [00:33.90]a French naturalist, [00:36.14]the Count de Buffon, [00:38.13]wrote some books [00:39.37]about natural history. [00:41.06]The books were a great success [00:43.55]even though some critics [00:45.99]did not like them. [00:47.23]Some critics said, [00:50.00]"Count Buffon is more [00:52.94]of a poet than a scientist." [00:55.34]Thomas Jefferson did not [00:59.22]like what the Count had said [01:01.06]about the natural wonders [01:02.56]of the New World. [01:04.01]It seemed to Jefferson [01:07.19]that the Count had gone [01:09.33]out of his way to speak [01:10.82]of natural wonders in America [01:12.76]as if they were unimportant. [01:15.95]This troubled Thomas Jefferson. [01:19.48]He too was a naturalist, [01:23.26]as well as a farmer, inventor, [01:26.80]historian, writer and politician. [01:31.28]He had seen the natural [01:33.82]wonders of Europe. [01:35.06]To him, they were no more important [01:39.19]than those of the New World. [01:41.53]In seventeen eighty-eight, [01:46.31]Thomas Jefferson wrote about [01:48.65]his home state, Virginia. [01:51.41]While writing, he thought [01:55.19]of its natural beauty and then [01:57.98]of the words of Count de Buffon. [02:00.93]At that moment, Jefferson created [02:04.81]a new word ¨C belittle. [02:07.89]He said, "The Count de Buffon [02:11.73]believes that nature [02:13.32]belittles her productions [02:15.01]on this side of the Atlantic." [02:17.50]Noah Webster, [02:20.78]the American word expert, [02:22.97]liked this word. [02:24.71]He put it in his English language [02:28.00]dictionary in eighteen-oh-six. [02:31.18]ˇ®Belittle [02:32.88]¨C to make small, unimportant.' [02:36.06]Americans had already accepted [02:39.99]Jefferson's word [02:41.24]and started to use it. [02:42.88]In seventeen ninety-seven, [02:45.96]the Independent Chronicle newspaper [02:49.05]used the word to describe [02:51.04]a politician the paper supported. [02:53.68]"He is an honorable man," [02:56.86]the paper wrote, [02:57.91]"so let the opposition [02:59.80]try to belittle him [03:01.19]as much as they please." [03:03.23]In eighteen forty-four, [03:07.31]the Republican Sentinel [03:09.70]of Virginia wrote this [03:11.40]about the opposition party: [03:13.87]"The Whigs may attempt [03:16.61]to belittle our candidates ... [03:18.75]that is a favorite game of theirs." [03:21.59]In eighteen seventy-two, [03:25.82]a famous American word expert [03:28.85]decided that the time [03:31.09]had come to kill this word. [03:33.28]He said, "Belittle has no chance [03:38.01]of becoming English. [03:39.65]And as more critical writers [03:42.98]of America, like those of Britain, [03:45.57]feel no need of it, [03:47.42]the sooner it is forgotten, [03:49.65]the better." [03:50.80]This expert failed [03:53.84]to kill the word. [03:55.23]Today, belittle is used, [03:58.36]not only in the United States [04:00.80]and England, [04:01.85]but in other countries [04:03.78]where the English language is spoken. [04:06.07]It seems that efforts [04:08.46]to belittle the word [04:09.90]did not stop people from using it. [04:12.98](MUSIC) [04:24.28]You have been listening [04:26.77]to the VOA Special English program [04:30.05]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [04:32.59]I'm Warren Scheer.