“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” – James D. Nicoll
And somebody actually asked for an example. I went looking for the original context of the quote and could not find it using the Google Search engine. Does anybody know who James D. Nicoll is or where this was originally published?
I’ve found two sites attributing this quote (or part of it at least) to Booker T. Washington. He’s only quoted as “We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
Having been through six on-line biographical dictionaries, a couple of encyclopedias, and several web searches, my suggestion would be to go to one (or more) of the numerous sites where the quote is found and ask them where they stole it.
There is a James B Nicoll that posts to the talk.origins newsgroups that is probably not your man. There is also a James Davis Nicoll whose name shows up in some literary web sites, but always in a way that provides no information.
The attribution to Washington seems to indicate that Nicoll repeated and enlarged upon the Washington quotation, but that is purely a Wild Ass Guess on my part. (Ask some of the Washington sites for the original citation for him, as well.)
In general, if a quotation is attributed to somebody who is more famous and someone who is less famous, if you can’t find a clear citation about the attribution, assume it was said by the less famous one.