Part 16

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. The name of this ancient body has been adopted by a branch of the Masonic fraternity, but in a perverted form--Knights Templar; and this form is commonly seen in print, whether referring to the old knights or to their modern imitators. This doubtless is due to the erroneous impression that Templar is an adjective, and so can not take the plural form; while in fact it is a case of two nouns in apposition--a double designation--meaning Knights of the order of Templars. Hence the plural should be Knights Templars, and not Knights Templar. Members of the contemporaneous order of St. John of Jerusalem were commonly called Knights Hospitallers.

LADY. To use the term lady, whether in the singular or in the plural, simply to designate the sex, is in the worst possible taste. There is a kind of pin-feather gentility which seems to have a settled aversion to using the terms man and woman. Gentlemen and ladies establish their claims to being called such by their bearing, and not by arrogating to themselves, even indirectly, the titles. In England, the title lady is properly correlative to lord; but there, as in this country, it is used as a term of complaisance, and is appropriately applied to women whose lives are exemplary, and who have received that school and home education which enables them to appear to advantage in the better circles of society. Such expressions as "She is a fine lady, a clever lady, a well-dressed lady, a good lady, a modest lady, a charitable lady, an amiable lady, a handsome lady, a fascinating lady," and the like, are studiously avoided by persons of refinement. Ladies say, "we women, the women of America, women's apparel," and so on; vulgar women talk about "us ladies, the ladies of America, ladies' apparel," and so on. If a woman of culture and refinement--in short, a lady--is compelled from any cause soever to work in a store, she is quite content to be called a sales-woman; not so, however, with your young woman who, being in a store, is in a better position than ever before. She, Heaven bless her! boils with indignation if she is not denominated a sales-lady. Lady is often the proper term to use, and then it would be very improper to use any other; but it is very certain that the terms lady and gentleman are least used by those persons who are most worthy of being designated by them. With a nice discrimination worthy of special notice, one of our daily papers recently said: "Miss Jennie Halstead, daughter of the proprietor of the 'Cincinnati Commercial,' is one of the most brilliant young women in Ohio."

In a late number of the "London Queen" was the following: "The terms ladies and gentlemen become in themselves vulgarisms when misapplied, and the improper application of the wrong term at the wrong time makes all the difference in the world to ears polite. Thus, calling a man a gentleman when he should be called a man, or speaking of a man as a man when he should be spoken of as a gentleman; or alluding to a lady as a woman when she should be alluded to as a lady, or speaking of a woman as a lady when she should properly be termed a woman. Tact and a sense of the fitness of things decide these points, there being no fixed rule to go upon to determine when a man is a man or when he is a gentleman; and, although he is far oftener termed the one than the other, he does not thereby lose his attributes of a gentleman. In common parlance, a man is always a man to a man, and never a gentleman; to a woman, he is occasionally a man and occasionally a gentleman; but a man would far oftener term a woman a woman than he would term her a lady. When a man makes use of an adjective in speaking of a lady, he almost invariably calls her a woman. Thus, he would say, 'I met a rather agreeable woman at dinner last night'; but he would not say, 'I met an agreeable lady'; but he might say, 'A lady, a friend of mine, told me,' etc., when he would not say, 'A woman, a friend of mine, told me,' etc. Again, a man would say, 'Which of the ladies did you take in to dinner?' He would certainly not say, 'Which of the women,' etc.

"Speaking of people en masse, it would be to belong to a very advanced school to refer to them in conversation as 'men and women,' while it would be all but vulgar to style them 'ladies and gentlemen,' the compromise between the two being to speak of them as 'ladies and men.' Thus a lady would say, 'I have asked two or three ladies and several men'; she would not say, 'I have asked several men and women'; neither would she say, 'I have asked several ladies and gentlemen.' And, speaking of numbers, it would be very usual to say, 'There were a great many ladies, and but very few men present,' or, 'The ladies were in the majority, so few men being present.' Again, a lady would not say, 'I expect two or three men,' but she would say, 'I expect two or three gentlemen.' When people are on ceremony with each other [one another], they might, perhaps, in speaking of a man, call him a gentleman; but, otherwise, it would be more usual to speak of him as a man. Ladies, when speaking of each other [one another], usually employ the term woman in preference to that of lady. Thus they would say, 'She is a very good-natured woman,' 'What sort of a woman is she?' the term lady being entirely out of place under such circumstances. Again, the term young lady gives place as far as possible to the term girl, although it greatly depends upon the amount of intimacy existing as to which term is employed."

LANGUAGE. A note in Worcester's Dictionary says: "Language is a very general term, and is not strictly confined to utterance by words, as it is also expressed by the countenance, by the eyes, and by signs. Tongue refers especially to an original language; as, 'the Hebrew tongue.' The modern languages are derived from the original tongues." If this be correct, then he who speaks French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian, may properly say that he speaks five languages, but only one tongue.

LAY--LIE. Errors are frequent in the use of these two irregular verbs. Lay is often used for lie, and lie is sometimes used for lay. This confusion in their use is due in some measure, doubtless, to the circumstance that lay appears in both verbs, it being the imperfect tense of to lie. We say, "A mason lays bricks," "A ship lies at anchor," etc. "I must lie down"; "I must lay myself down"; "I must lay this book on the table"; "He lies on the grass"; "He lays his plans well"; "He lay on the grass"; "He laid it away"; "He has lain in bed long enough"; "He has laid up some money," "in a stock," "down the law"; "He is laying out the grounds"; "Ships lie at the wharf"; "Hens lay eggs"; "The ship lay at anchor"; "The hen laid an egg." It will be seen that lay always expresses transitive action, and that lie expresses rest.

"Here lies our sovereign lord, the king, Whose word no man relies on; He never says a foolish thing, Nor ever does a wise one."

--Written on the bedchamber door of Charles II, by the Earl of Rochester.

LEARN. This verb was long ago used as a synonym of teach, but in this sense it is now obsolete. To teach is to give instruction; to learn is to take instruction. "I will learn, if you will teach me." See TEACH.

LEAVE. There are grammarians who insist that this verb should not be used without an object, as, for example, it is used in such sentences as, "When do you leave?" "I leave to-morrow." The object of the verb--home, town, or whatever it may be--is, of course, understood; but this, say these gentlemen, is not permissible. On this point opinions will, I think, differ; they will, however, not differ with regard to the vulgarity of using leave in the sense of let; thus, "Leave me be"; "Leave it alone"; "Leave her be--don't bother her"; "Leave me see it."

LEND. See LOAN.

LENGTHY. This word is of comparatively recent origin, and, though it is said to be an Americanism, it is a good deal used in England. The most careful writers, however, both here and elsewhere, much prefer the word long: "a long discussion," "a long discourse," etc.

LENIENCY. Mr. Gould calls this word and lenience "two philological abortions." Lenity is undoubtedly the proper word to use, though both Webster and Worcester do recognize leniency and lenience.

LESS. This word is much used instead of fewer. Less relates to quantity; fewer to number. Instead of, "There were not less than twenty persons present," we should say, "There were not fewer than twenty persons present."

LESSER. This form of the comparative of little is accounted a corruption of less. It may, however, be used instead of less with propriety in verse, and also, in some cases, in prose. We may say, for example, "Of two evils choose the less," or "the lesser." The latter form, in sentences like this, is the more euphonious.

LIABLE. Richard Grant White, in inveighing against the misuse of this word, cites the example of a member from a rural district, who called out to a man whom he met in the village, where he was in the habit of making little purchases: "I say, mister, kin yer tell me whar I'd be li'ble to find some beans?" See, also, APT.

LIE. See LAY.

LIKE--AS. Both these words express similarity; like (adjective) comparing things, as (adverb) comparing action, existence, or quality. Like is followed by an object only, and does not admit of a verb in the same construction. As must be followed by a verb expressed or understood. We say, "He looks like his brother," or "He looks as his brother looks." "Do as I do," not "like I do." "You must speak as James does," not "like James does." "He died as he had lived, like a dog." "It is as blue as indigo"; i. e., "as indigo is."

LIKE, TO. See LOVE.

LIKELY. See APT.

LIT. This form of the past participle of the verb to light is now obsolete. "Have you lighted the fire?" "The gas is lighted." Het for heated is a similar, but much greater, vulgarism.

LOAN--LEND. There are those who contend that there is no such verb as to loan, although it has been found in our literature for more than three hundred years. Whether there is properly such a verb or not, it is quite certain that it is only those having a vulgar penchant for big words who will prefer it to its synonym lend. Better far to say "Lend me your umbrella" than "Loan me your umbrella."

LOCATE--SETTLE. The use of the verb to locate in the sense of to settle is said to be an Americanism. Although the dictionaries recognize to locate as a neuter verb, as such it is marked "rarely used," and, in the sense of to settle, it is among the vulgarisms that careful speakers and writers are studious to avoid. A man settles, not locates, in Nebraska. "Where do you intend to settle?" not locate. See, also, SETTLE.

LOGGERHEADS. "In the mean time France is at loggerheads internally."--"New York Herald," April 29, 1881. Loggerheads internally?!

LOOKS BEAUTIFULLY. It is sometimes interesting to note the difference between vulgar bad grammar and genteel bad grammar, or, more properly, between non-painstaking and painstaking bad grammar. The former uses, for example, adjectives instead of adverbs; the latter uses adverbs instead of adjectives. The former says, "This bonnet is trimmed shocking"; the latter says, "This bonnet looks shockingly." In the first sentence the epithet qualifies the verb is trimmed, and consequently should have its adverbial form--shockingly; in the second sentence the epithet qualifies the appearance--a noun--of the bonnet, and consequently should have its adjectival form--shocking. The second sentence means to say, "This bonnet presents a shocking appearance." The bonnet certainly does not really look; it is looked at, and to the looker its appearance is shocking. So we say, in like manner, of a person, that he or she looks sweet, or charming, or beautiful, or handsome, or horrid, or graceful, or timid, and so on, always using an adjective. "Miss Coghlan, as Lady Teazle, looked charmingly." The grammar of the "New York Herald" would not have been any more incorrect if it had said that Miss Coghlan looked gladly, or sadly, or madly, or delightedly, or pleasedly. A person may look sick or sickly, but in both cases the qualifying word is an adjective. The verbs to smell, to feel, to sound, and to appear are also found in sentences in which the qualifying word must be an adjective and not an adverb. We say, for example, "The rose smells sweet"; "The butter smells good, or bad, or fresh"; "I feel glad, or sad, or bad, or despondent, or annoyed, or nervous"; "This construction sounds harsh"; "How delightful the country appears!"

On the other hand, to look, to feel, to smell, to sound, and to appear are found in sentences where the qualifying word must be an adverb; thus, "He feels his loss keenly"; "The king looked graciously on her"; "I smell it faintly." We might also say, "He feels sad [adjective], because he feels his loss keenly" (adverb); "He appears well" (adverb).

The expression, "She seemed confusedly, or timidly," is not a whit more incorrect than "She looked beautifully, or charmingly." See ADJECTIVES.

LOVE--LIKE. Men who are at all careful in the selection of language to express their thoughts, and have not an undue leaning toward the superlative, love few things: their wives, their sweethearts, their kinsmen, truth, justice, and their country. Women, on the contrary, as a rule, love a multitude of things, and, among their loves, the thing they perhaps love most is--taffy.