morsica

Updated: August 19, 2026

A man of another nation perhaps another man of his own nation would have cared rather for what I said than how I said it; but he, as if too zealous for the honor of his beautiful language to endure a hurt to it even in that moment of grief, lifting his hat, and bowing for the last time, responded with a "Morde, non morsica, signore!" and passed in under the pines, and next day to Italy.

William Dean Howells - Suburban Sketches