...Yet I have to admit that, until reading
Mark Forsyth’s “The Elements of Eloquence,” I had never paused to
analyze with any precision the way in which we customarily sequence
adjectives. Mr. Forsyth explains that, in English, adjectives follow the
pattern opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose—“so you
can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling
knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll
sound like a maniac.”
