dilatory raven

'Because the English language has Germanic roots but is heavily influenced by Latin and by French, even non-specialist users of the language—that vast majority of people who are not writers—have luxurious linguistic resources to draw upon. Essentially, English gives two ways of saying almost anything—it offers binary modes of expressing a virtual entirety. For centuries, Latin was the language of the learned, and a principal influence on the literate. In English-speaking cultures, and in both written and spoken English, shifting between a more formal Latinate lexicon and the more down-to-earth Old English words can be immensely effective, if in a way that is largely undetectable
to the casual listener. When Winston Churchill declaimed, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender,” he knew how those mostly Old English'