Word: spencerian
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...urchins who pursed small mouths and whistled or gargled the words of his wan fables, a somewhat severe shade, one to be kept properly prisoned in the dusty darkness of a schoolroom desk. The urchins, now grown into babbitts or clowns or bigwigs, sang their geography, etched Spencerian parabolas into their copy books, played "duck on a rock" at recess, spelled out the stories in McGuffey's; then they walked home on dusty roads, swinging their book straps and talking to each other, stopping to cut their initials into fence rails or the bark of a tree. The songs they...
...Boston Public Library, it seems, is to play the role of Rebecca. When some disciple of pure English, anxious to struggle out of the habit of saying "atta boy," telephones for help, it will draw forth from this well the correct equivalent in Chaucerian, Spencerian or Tennysonian diction. No longer will the proprietor of the esoteric den use "Shoppe" for "Shop"; on more can stenographers delude anyone into thinking that Sanskrit is good English; no more will street-car conductors be able to say "Watch yer step" instead of 'Take care of the drop" without meeting the haughty stare...