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1,344. Custom; Disgust;
Vulgarity
"We are all offended by low terms, but are not disgusted alike by
the same compositions, because we do not agree to censure the
same terms as low. No word is naturally or intrinsically meaner
than another; our opinion therefore of words, as of other things
arbitrarily and capriciously established, depends wholly upon
accident and custom. The cottager thinks those apartments
splendid and spacious which an inhabitant of palaces will despise
for their inelegance; and to him who has passed most of his hours
with the delicate and polite, many expressions will seem sordid
which another, equally acute, may hear without offence; but a
mean term never fails to displease him to whom it appears mean,
as poverty is certainly and invariably despised, though he who is
poor in the eyes of some, may by others be envied for his
wealth."
Johnson: Rambler #168 (October 26, 1751)
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