The Verbalist

Part 1

Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

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.

Part 2

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, softe,' 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.

Continue reading The Verbalist free in the Wunder reader →