A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue (1712) [ Concepts ]
… morals fell to corrupt our language; which last was not like to be much improved by those, who at that time made up the court of king Charles the second; either such, who had followed him in his banishment, or who had been altogether … conversant in the dialect as those fanatic times; or young men, who had been educated in the fame country; so that the court, which used to be the standard of propriety and correctness of speech, was then, and, I think, hath ever since … filled with a succession of affected phrases, and new conceited words, either borrowed from the current style of the court, or from those, who under the character of men of wit and pleasure pretended to give the law. Many of these …
Corruption | Eloquence
Anthology