The subject of the suffix "-ese" was discussed in the newsgroup alt.english.usage . The following is a list in which that suffix is used to indicate a jargon or style of writing which I made with the use of the online *Merriam-Webster's Collegiate* at www.m-w.com . The dates given come from that dictionary. It's possible that the Collegiate contains some "-ese" words referring to jargon which I missed.

1843 Johnsonese 1882 journalese 1884 officialese 1885 telegraphese 1914 legalese 1944 governmentese (also governmentalese in the dictionary at Infoplease.com) 1949 bureaucratese 1951 sociologese 1954 educationese

The Collegiate treated many of these as identifying a given jargon, without indicating that there was something undesirable with the jargon in question. It does define "officialese" as "the characteristic language of official statements : wordy, pompous, or obscure language." But where it defines "Johnsonese" as "a literary style characterized by balanced phraseology and Latinate diction" the dictionary at Infoplease.com defines it as "a literary style characterized by rhetorically balanced, often pompous phraseology and an excessively Latinate vocabulary: so called from the style of writing practiced by Samuel Johnson." Where the Collegiate defines "journalese" as "a style of writing held to be characteristic of newspapers." the dictionary at Infoplease.com defines it as "a manner of writing or speaking characterized by clichés, occasional neologism, archness, sensationalizing adjectives, unusual or faulty syntax, etc., used by some journalists, esp. certain columnists, and regarded as typical journalistic style."

I also took a look at some of these words in *The Century Dictionary* of 1895 and its Supplement of 1909. Of "Johnsonese," the Century says the following:

(quote, with pronunciation symbols replaced by ASCII IPA)

*Johnsonese* /dZAns@n'is/ or -/'iz/, _n._ (< _Johnson_ (see def.) + _-ese._ The surname _Johnson_ is also written _Jonson,_ ME. _Jonson,_ i.e. John's son : see _John._) The style or language of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84), or an imitation of it ; a pompous, inflated style, characterized by words of classical origin (often manufactured).

for publication, he (Johnson) did his sentences out of English into _Johnsonese._ _Macaulay,_ Boswell's Johnson.

If the Easy Chair may speak in _Johnsonese,_ laughter is a condiment, not a comestible. _G. W. Curtis,_ Harper's Mag., LXXVI. 637.

(end quote)

The Collegiate defines "telegraphese" as "language characterized by the terseness and ellipses that are common in telegrams." The Century Supplement defines it as follows:

(quote, with pronunciation symbols replaced by ASCII IPA)

*telegraphese* /,tEl@gr&fis/, _n._ (_telegraph_ + _-ese._) A very terse style, such as that in which telegrams are commonly written ; a style marked by very short sentences. (Rare.)

We rather relish the leisurely semicolons and sentences of the eighteenth century after being confronted with the "_telegraphese_" of many a modern stylist. _Athenæum,_ Oct. 7, 1905, p. 469.

(end quote)

-- Raymond S. Wise Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

OED adds:

1876 stagese 1888 Barnumese 1889 newspaperese 1895 cablegramese 1898 Carlylese 1899 Kiplingese 1899 golfese 1900 novelese 1906 guide-bookese 1907 Carrollese 1910 commercialese 1915 translatorese 1927 headlinese 1935 officese 1948 poetese 1951 Washingtonese 1951 Pentagonese 1952 cablese 1955 initialese 1955 mobese 1957 translationese 1958 Time-ese 1959 acadamese 1960 computerese 1961 psychologese 1967 translatese