Chapter 1

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THE VERBALIST:

_A MANUAL_ DEVOTED TO BRIEF DISCUSSIONS OF THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG USE OF WORDS AND TO SOME OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THOSE WHO WOULD SPEAK AND WRITE WITH PROPRIETY.

BY ALFRED AYRES.

We remain shackled by timidity till we have learned to speak with propriety.--JOHNSON.

As a man is known by his company, so a man's company may be known by his manner of expressing himself.--SWIFT.

NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 1887.

COPYRIGHT BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1881

Transcriber's Note

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Archaic spellings have been retained as printed.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The title-page sufficiently sets forth the end this little book is intended to serve.

For convenience' sake I have arranged in alphabetical order the subjects treated of, and for economy's sake I have kept in mind that "he that uses many words for the explaining of any subject doth, like the cuttle-fish, hide himself in his own ink."

The curious inquirer who sets himself to look for the learning in the book is advised that he will best find it in such works as George P. Marsh's "Lectures on the English Language," Fitzedward Hall's "Recent Exemplifications of False Philology," and "Modern English," Richard Grant White's "Words and Their Uses," Edward S. Gould's "Good English," William Mathews' "Words: their Use and Abuse," Dean Alford's "The Queen's English," George Washington Moon's "Bad English," and "The Dean's English," Blank's "Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech," Alexander Bain's "English Composition and Rhetoric," Bain's "Higher English Grammar," Bain's "Composition Grammar," Quackenbos' "Composition and Rhetoric," John Nichol's "English Composition," William Cobbett's "English Grammar," Peter Bullions' "English Grammar," Goold Brown's "Grammar of English Grammars," Graham's "English Synonymes," Crabb's "English Synonymes," Bigelow's "Handbook of Punctuation," and other kindred works.

Suggestions and criticisms are solicited, with the view of profiting by them in future editions.

If "The Verbalist" receive as kindly a welcome as its companion volume, "The Orthoëpist," has received, I shall be content.

A. A. NEW YORK, _October_, 1881.

Eschew fine words as you would rouge.--HARE.

Cant is properly a double-distilled lie; the second power of a lie.--CARLYLE.

If a gentleman be to study any language, it ought to be that of his own country.--LOCKE.

In language the unknown is generally taken for the magnificent.--RICHARD GRANT WHITE.

He who has a superlative for everything, wants a measure for the great or small.--LAVATER.

Inaccurate writing is generally the expression of inaccurate thinking.--RICHARD GRANT WHITE.

To acquire a few tongues is the labor of a few years; but to be eloquent in one is the labor of a life.--ANONYMOUS.

Words and thoughts are so inseparably connected that an artist in words is necessarily an artist in thoughts.-WILSON FLAGG.

It is an invariable maxim that words which add nothing to the sense or to the clearness must diminish the force of the expression.--CAMPBELL.

Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas.--MACAULAY.

He who writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in words can proceed from nothing but confusedness in the thoughts which give rise to them.--COBBETT.

THE VERBALIST.

A--AN. The second form of the indefinite article is used for the sake of euphony only. Herein everybody agrees, but what everybody does not agree in is, that it is euphonious to use _an_ before a word beginning with an aspirated _h_, when the accented syllable of the word is the second. For myself, so long as I continue to aspirate the _h's_ in such words as _heroic_, _harangue_, and _historical_, I shall continue to use _a_ before them; and when I adopt the Cockney mode of pronouncing such words, then I shall use _an_ before them. To my ear it is just as euphonious to say, "I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon _an_ high mountain and eminent," as it is to say _an_ harangue, _an_ heroic, or _an_ historical. _An_ is well enough before the doubtful British aspiration, but before the distinct American aspiration it is wholly out of place. The reply will perhaps be, "But these _h's_ are silent; the change of accent from the first syllable to the second neutralizes their aspiration." However true this may be in England, it is not at all true in America; hence we Americans should use _a_ and not _an_ before such _h's_ until we decide to ape the Cockney mode of pronouncing them.

Errors are not unfrequently made by omitting to repeat the article in a sentence. It should always be repeated when a noun or an adjective referring to a distinct thing is introduced; take, for example, the sentence, "He has a black and white horse." If two horses are meant, it is clear that it should be, "He has a black and _a_ white horse." See THE.

ABILITY--CAPACITY. The distinctions between these two words are not always observed by those who use them. "_Capacity_ is the power of receiving and retaining knowledge with facility; _ability_ is the power of applying knowledge to practical purposes. Both these faculties are requisite to form a great character: capacity to conceive, and ability to execute designs. Capacity is shown in quickness of apprehension. Ability supposes something done; something by which the mental power is exercised in executing, or performing, what has been perceived by the capacity."--Graham's "English Synonymes."

ABORTIVE. An outlandish use of this word may be occasionally met with, especially in the newspapers. "A lad was yesterday caught in the act of _abortively_ appropriating a pair of shoes." That is abortive that is untimely, that has not been borne its full time, that is immature. We often hear _abortion_ used in the sense of failure, but never by those that study to express themselves in chaste English.

ABOVE. There is little authority for using this word as an adjective. Instead of, "the _above_ statement," say, "the _foregoing_ statement." _Above_ is also used very inelegantly for _more than_; as, "above a mile," "above a thousand"; also, for _beyond_; as, "above his strength."

ACCIDENT. See CASUALTY.

ACCORD. "He [the Secretary of the Treasury] was shown through the building, and the information he desired was _accorded_ him."--Reporters' English.

"The heroes prayed, and Pallas from the skies _Accords_ their vow."--Pope.

The goddess of wisdom, when she granted the prayers of her worshipers, may be said to have _accorded_; not so, however, when the clerks of our Sub-Treasury answer the inquiries of their chief.

ACCUSE. See BLAME IT ON.

ACQUAINTANCE. See FRIEND.

AD. This abbreviation for the word _advertisement_ is very justly considered a gross vulgarism. It is doubtful whether it is permissible under any circumstances.

ADAPT--DRAMATIZE. In speaking and in writing of stage matters, these words are often misused. To _adapt_ a play is to modify its construction with the view of improving its form for representation. Plays translated from one language into another are usually more or less _adapted_; i. e., altered to suit the taste of the public before which the translation is to be represented. To _dramatize_ is to change the form of a story from the narrative to the dramatic; i. e., to make a drama out of a story. In the first instance, the product of the playwright's labor is called an _adaptation_; in the second, a _dramatization_.

ADJECTIVES. "Very often adjectives stand where adverbs might be expected; as, 'drink _deep_,' 'this looks _strange_,' 'standing _erect_.'

"We have also examples of one adjective qualifying another adjective; as, '_wide_ open,' '_red_ hot,' 'the _pale_ blue sky.' Sometimes the corresponding adverb is used, but with a different meaning; as, 'I found the way _easy_--_easily_'; 'it appears _clear_--_clearly_.' Although there is a propriety in the employment of the adjective in certain instances, yet such forms as '_indifferent_ well,' '_extreme_ bad,' are grammatical errors. 'He was interrogated _relative_ to that circumstance,' should be _relatively_, or _in relation to_. It is not unusual to say, 'I would have done it _independent_ of that circumstance,' but _independently_ is the proper construction.

"The employment of adjectives for adverbs is accounted for by the following considerations:

"(1.) In the classical languages the neuter adjective may be used as an adverb, and the analogy would appear to have been extended to English.

"(2.) In the oldest English the adverb was regularly formed from the adjective by adding 'e,' as 'soft, soft_e_,' and the dropping of the 'e' left the adverb in the adjective form; thus, '_clæne_,' adverb, became 'clean,' and appears in the phrase '_clean_ gone'; '_fæste_, fast,' 'to stick _fast_.' By a false analogy, many adjectives that never formed adverbs in _-e_ were freely used as adverbs in the age of Elizabeth: 'Thou didst it _excellent_,' '_equal_ (for _equally_) good,' '_excellent_ well.' This gives precedent for such errors as those mentioned above.

"(3.) There are cases where the subject is qualified rather than the verb, as with verbs of incomplete predication, 'being,' 'seeming,' 'arriving,' etc. In 'the matter seems _clear_,' 'clear' is part of the predicate of 'matter.' 'They arrived _safe_': 'safe' does not qualify 'arrived,' but goes with it to complete the predicate. So, 'he sat _silent_,' 'he stood _firm_.' 'It comes _beautiful_' and 'it comes _beautifully_' have different meanings. This explanation applies especially to the use of participles as adverbs, as in Southey's lines on Lodore; the participial epithets applied there, although appearing to modify 'came,' are really additional predications about 'the water,' in elegantly shortened form. 'The church stood _gleaming_ through the trees': 'gleaming' is a shortened predicate of 'church'; and the full form would be, 'the church stood _and gleamed_.' The participle retains its force as such, while acting the part of a coördinating adjective, complement to 'stood'; 'stood gleaming' is little more than 'gleamed.' The feeling of adverbial force in 'gleaming' arises from the subordinate participial form joined with a verb, 'stood,' that seems capable of predicating by itself. '_Passing_ strange' is elliptical: 'passing (surpassing) _what is_ strange.'"--Bain.

"The comparative adjectives _wiser_, _better_, _larger_, etc., and the contrasting adjectives _different_, _other_, etc., are often so placed as to render the construction of the sentence awkward; as, 'That is a much _better_ statement of the case _than_ yours,' instead of, 'That statement of the case is much _better than_ yours'; 'Yours is a _larger_ plot of ground _than_ John's,' instead of, 'Your plot of ground is _larger than_ John's'; 'This is a _different_ course of proceeding _from_ what I expected,' instead of, 'This course of proceeding is _different from_ what I expected'; 'I could take no _other_ method of silencing him _than_ the one I took,' instead of, 'I could take no method of silencing him _other than_ the one I took.'"--Gould's "Good English," p. 69.

ADMINISTER. "Carson died from blows _administered_ by policeman Johnson."--"New York Times." If policeman Johnson was as barbarous as is this use of the verb _to administer_, it is to be hoped that he was hanged. Governments, oaths, medicine, affairs--such as the affairs of the state--are _administered_, but not blows: _they_ are _dealt_.

ADOPT. This word is often used instead of _to decide upon_, and of _to take_; thus, "The measures _adopted_ [by Parliament], as the result of this inquiry, will be productive of good." Better, "The measures _decided upon_," etc. Instead of, "What course shall you _adopt_ to get your pay?" say, "What course shall you _take_," etc. _Adopt_ is properly used in a sentence like this: "The course (or measures) proposed by Mr. Blank was _adopted_ by the committee." That is, what was Blank's was _adopted_ by the committee--a correct use of the word, as _to adopt_, means, to assume as one's own.

_Adopt_ is sometimes so misused that its meaning is inverted. "Wanted to adopt," in the heading of advertisements, not unfrequently is intended to mean that the advertiser wishes to be _relieved_ of the care of a child, not that he wishes to _assume_ the care of one.

AGGRAVATE. This word is often used when the speaker means to provoke, irritate, or anger. Thus, "It _aggravates_ [provokes] me to be continually found fault with"; "He is easily _aggravated_ [irritated]." To _aggravate_ means to make worse, to heighten. We therefore very properly speak of _aggravating_ circumstances. To say of a person that he is _aggravated_ is as incorrect as to say that he is _palliated_.

AGRICULTURIST. This word is to be preferred to _agriculturalist_. See CONVERSATIONIST.

ALIKE. This word is often most bunglingly coupled with _both_. Thus, "These bonnets are both alike," or, worse still, if possible, "both just alike." This reminds one of the story of Sam and Jem, who were very like each other, especially Sam.

ALL. See UNIVERSAL.

ALL OVER. "The disease spread _all over_ the country." It is more logical and more emphatic to say, "The disease spread _over all_ the country."

ALLEGORY. An elaborated metaphor is called an _allegory_; both are figurative representations, the words used signifying something beyond their literal meaning. Thus, in the eightieth Psalm, the Jews are represented under the symbol of a vine:

"Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it."

An allegory is sometimes so extended that it makes a volume; as in the case of Swift's "Tale of a Tub," Arbuthnot's "John Bull," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," etc. Fables and parables are short allegories.

ALLOW. This word is frequently misused in the West and South, where it is made to do service for _assert_ or _to be of opinion_. Thus, "He _allows_ that he has the finest horse in the country."

ALLUDE. The treatment this word has received is to be specially regretted, as its misuse has well-nigh robbed it of its true meaning, which is, to intimate delicately, to refer to without mentioning directly. _Allude_ is now very rarely used in any other sense than that of to speak of, to mention, to name, which is a long way from being its legitimate signification. This degradation is doubtless a direct outcome of untutored desire to be fine and to use big words.

ALONE. This word is often improperly used for _only_. That is _alone_ which is unaccompanied; that is _only_ of which there is no other. "Virtue _alone_ makes us happy," means that virtue unaided suffices to make us happy; "Virtue _only_ makes us happy," means that nothing else can do it--that that, and that only (not alone), can do it. "This means of communication is employed by man _alone_." Dr. Quackenbos should have written, "By man _only_". See also ONLY.

AMATEUR--NOVICE. There is much confusion in the use of these two words, although they are entirely distinct from each other in meaning. An _amateur_ is one versed in, or a lover and practicer of, any particular pursuit, art, or science, but _not_ engaged in it professionally. A _novice_ is one who is new or inexperienced in any art or business--a beginner, a tyro. A professional actor, then, who is new and unskilled in his art, is a _novice_ and not an _amateur_. An amateur may be an artist of great experience and extraordinary skill.

AMELIORATE. "The health of the Empress of Germany is greatly _ameliorated_." Why not say _improved_?

AMONG. See BETWEEN.

AMOUNT OF PERFECTION. The observant reader of periodical literature often notes forms of expression which are perhaps best characterized by the word _bizarre_. Of these queer locutions, _amount of perfection_ is a very good example. Mr. G. F. Watts, in the "Nineteenth Century," says, "An _amount of perfection_ has been reached which I was by no means prepared for." What Mr. Watts meant to say was, doubtless, that a _degree of excellence_ had been reached. There are not a few who, in their prepossession for everything transatlantic, seem to be of opinion that the English language is generally better written in England than it is in America. Those who think so are counseled to examine the diction of some of the most noted English critics and essayists, beginning, if they will, with Matthew Arnold.

AND. Few vulgarisms are more common than the use of _and_ for _to_. Examples: "Come _and_ see me before you go"; "Try _and_ do what you can for him"; "Go _and_ see your brother, if you can." In such sentences as these, the proper particle to use is clearly _to_ and not _and_.

_And_ is sometimes improperly used instead of _or_; thus, "It is obvious that a language like the Greek _and_ Latin" (language?), etc., should be, "a language like the Greek _or the_ Latin" (language), etc. There is no such thing as a Greek and Latin language.

ANSWER--REPLY. These two words should not be used indiscriminately. An _answer_ is given to a question; a _reply_, to an assertion. When we are addressed, we _answer_; when we are accused, we _reply_. We _answer_ letters, and _reply_ to any arguments, statements, or accusations they may contain. Crabb is in error in saying that _replies_ "are used in personal discourse only." _Replies_, as well as _answers_, are written. We very properly write, "I have now, I believe, _answered_ all your questions and _replied_ to all your arguments." A _rejoinder_ is made to a _reply_. "Who goes there?" he cried; and, receiving no _answer_, he fired. "The advocate _replied_ to the charges made against his client."

ANTICIPATE. Lovers of big words have a fondness for making this verb do duty for _expect_. _Anticipate_ is derived from two Latin words meaning _before_ and _to take_, and, when properly used, means, to take beforehand; to go before so as to preclude another; to get the start or ahead of; to enjoy, possess, or suffer, in expectation; to foretaste. It is, therefore, misused in such sentences as, "Her death is hourly _anticipated_"; "By this means it is _anticipated_ that the time from Europe will be lessened two days."

ANTITHESIS. A phrase that opposes contraries is called an _antithesis_.

"I see a chief who leads my chosen sons, All armed with points, _antitheses_, and puns."

The following are examples:

"Though gentle, yet not dull; Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full."

"Contrasted faults through all their manners reign; Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And e'en in penance planning sins anew."

The following is an excellent example of _personification_ and _antithesis_ combined:

"Talent convinces; Genius but excites: That tasks the reason; this the soul delights. Talent from sober judgment takes its birth, And reconciles the pinion to the earth; Genius unsettles with desires the mind, Contented not till earth be left behind."

In the following extract from Johnson's "Life of Pope," individual peculiarities are contrasted by means of antitheses:

"Of genius--that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates--the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical vigor Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more; for every other writer, since Milton, must give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be said that, if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by some external occasion or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without consideration and published without correction. What his mind could supply at call or gather in one excursion was all that he sought and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce or chance might supply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller."

There are forms of antithesis in which the contrast is only of a secondary kind.

ANY. This word is sometimes made to do service for _at all_. We say properly, "She is not _any_ better"; but we can not properly say, "She does not see _any_," meaning that she is blind.

ANYBODY ELSE. "Public School Teachers are informed that _anybody else's_ is correct."--"New York Times," Sunday, July 31, 1881. An English writer says: "In such phrases as anybody else, and the like, _else_ is often put in the possessive case; as, 'anybody else's servant'; and some grammarians defend this use of the possessive case, arguing that _somebody else_ is a compound noun." It is better grammar and more euphonious to consider _else_ as being an adjective, and to form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and _s_ to the word that _else_ qualifies; thus, anybody's else, nobody's else, somebody's else.

ANYHOW. "An exceedingly vulgar phrase," says Professor Mathews, in his "Words: Their Use and Abuse." "Its use, _in any manner_, by one who professes to write and speak the English tongue with purity, is unpardonable." Professor Mathews seems to have a special dislike for this colloquialism. It is recognized by the lexicographers, and I think is generally accounted, even by the careful, permissible in conversation, though incompatible with dignified diction.

ANXIETY OF MIND. See EQUANIMITY OF MIND.

APOSTROPHE. Turning from the person or persons to whom a discourse is addressed and appealing to some person or thing absent, constitutes what, in rhetoric, is called the _apostrophe_. The following are some examples:

"O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness?" "Sail on, thou lone imperial bird Of quenchless eye and tireless wing!"

"Help, angels, make assay! Bow, stubborn knees! and heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe: All may yet be well!"

APPEAR. See SEEM.