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Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

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Who said, "English is a language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary"?

Question #41640. Asked by griffinj.

Related Trivia Topics: World   English   Quotes  
ngshake
Answer has 12 votes
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ngshake

Answer has 12 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
The correct, complete quote appears to be:

"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

See, for example,
link http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

Jun 27 2006, 11:43 AM
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