eventeenth
century, for the recovering of what was lost of their own, for the
expelling of that which had intruded from abroad; and these with
excellent effect.

But more effectual than these societies were the efforts of single men,
who in this merited well of their country{126}. In respect of words
which are now entirely received by the whole nation, it is often possible
to designate the writers who first substituted them for some affected
Gallicism or unnecessary Latinism. Thus to Lessing his fellow-countrymen
owe the substitution of 'zartgefuehl' for 'delicatesse', of
'empfindsamkeit' for 'sentimentalitaet', of 'wesenheit' for 'essence'.
It was Voss (1786) who first employed 'alterthuemlich' for 'antik'.
Wieland too was the author or reviver of a multitude of excellent words,
for which often he had to do earnest battle at the first; such were
'seligkeit', 'anmuth', 'entzueckung', 'festlich', 'entwirren', with many
more. For 'maskerade', Campe would have fain substituted 'larventanz'.
It was a novelty when Buesching called his great work on geography
'erdbeschreibung' instead of 'geographie'; while 'schnellpost' instead
of 'diligence', 'zerrbild' for 'carricatur' are also of recent
introduction. In regard of 'woerterbuch' itself, J. Grimm tells us he
can find no example of its use dating earlier than 1719.

Yet at the same time it must be acknowledged that some of these
reformers proceeded with more zeal than knowledge, while others did
whatever in them lay to make the whole movement absurd--even as there
ever hang on the skirts of a noble movement, be it in literature or
politics or higher things yet, those who contribute their little all to
bring ridicule and contempt upon it. Thus in the reaction against
foreign interlopers which ensued, and in the zeal to purify the language
from them, some went to such extravagant excesses as to desire to get
rid of 'testament', 'apostel', which last Campe would have replaced by
'lehrbote', with other words like these, consecrated by longest use, and
to find native substitutes in their room; or they understood so little
what words deserved to be called foreign, or how to draw the line
between them and native, that they would fain have gotten rid of
'vater', 'mutter', 'wein', 'fenster', 'meister', 'kelch'{127}; the first
three of which belong to the German language by just as good a right as
they do to the Latin and the Greek; while the other three have been
naturalized so long