This troubled Thomas Jefferson.He was also a naturalist, as well as a farmer, an inventor, a historian, a writer and a politician.He had seen the natural wonders of Europe.To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.

　　In 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia.While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Comte de Buffon.At that moment, Jefferson created a new word — belittle.He said, “Comte de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic.”

　　Noah Webster,

　　the American word expert, liked this word.He put it in the English language dictionary in 1806, “Belittle — to make small, unimportant.”

　　Americans had already accepted Jefferson's word and started to use it.In 1797, the Independent Chronicle used the word to describe a politician the paper supported.“He is an honorable man，” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.”

　　In 1872, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word.He said, “Belittle has no chance of becoming English.And as more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it, the sooner it is forgotten, the better.”

　　This expert failed to kill the word.Today, belittle is used where the English language is spoken.

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