[…] the “genius of the language;” but that is merely a mythological term; the German calls the same thing the ‘Sprach-gefühl’, ‘speech-feeling,’ or ‘linguistic instinct:’ both are expressions of a convenient dimness, under which inexact thinkers often hide an abundance of indefinite or erroneous conceptions. What is really meant is the sum, or resultant, of the preferences of the language-users, as determined by the already existing material and usages of their speech; outside of certain narrow limits of variation, they are not themselves tempted to suggest, nor will they ratify and accept as suggested by any one, new meanings, new phrases, new words.
- Whitney (1875), Pag. 150