Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/211

 It also has been sapiently declared that one can not build a tunnel; and that therefore it is incorrect to say so. Let us see. We can not build a hole, but we can dig one provided the surrounding walls need no structural support—for the walls limit the hole, make it possible for a hole to be a hole; and for that reason they may be regarded as part of it. Ordinarily, a tunnel is a thing as much of builded walls as it is of the (digged) excavation. Hence it is not incorrect to use the term build in this sense. A tunnel, properly speaking, however, is cut or bored. The same objection has been made to the word build when the construction of a canal is signified; and the same objection falls to the ground, since while the canal may be digged, its walls, embankments, may also be built, and almost always they are; hence building a canal—that is to say, digging the channel, constructing the embankments, building walls of masonry and locks of wood and stone, etc.—is not necessarily an incorrect form of speech.