Part 26

QUITE. This word originally meant completely, perfectly, totally, entirely, fully; and this is the sense in which it was used by the early writers of English. It is now often used in the sense of rather; as, "It is quite warm"; "She is quite tall"; "He is quite proficient." Sometimes it is incorrectly used in the sense of considerable; as, quite an amount, quite a number, quite a fortune. Quite, according to good modern usage, may qualify an adjective, but not a noun. "She is quite the lady," is a vile phrase, meaning, "She is very or quite ladylike."

RAILROAD DEPOT. Few things are more offensive to fastidious ears than to hear a railway station called a depot. A depot is properly a place where goods or stores of any kind are kept; and the places at which the trains of a railroad--or, better, railway--stop for passengers, or the points from which they start and at which they arrive, are, properly, the stations.

RAILWAY. The English prefer this word to railroad.

RAISE THE RENT. An expression incorrectly used for increase the rent.

RARELY. It is no uncommon thing to see this adverb improperly used in such sentences as, "It is very rarely that the puppets of the romancer assume," etc.--"Appletons' Journal," February, 1881, p. 177. "But," says the defender of this phraseology, "rarely qualifies a verb--the verb to be." Not at all. The sentence, if written out in full, would be, "It is a very rare thing that," etc., or "The circumstance is a very rare one that," etc., or "It is a very rare occurrence that," etc. To those who contend for "It is very rarely that," etc., I would say, It is very sadly that persons of culture will write and then defend--or rather try to defend--such grammar.

RATIOCINATE. See EFFECTUATE.

REAL.--This adjective is often vulgarly used in the sense of the adverb very; thus, real nice, real pretty, real angry, real cute, and so on.

RECOMMEND. This word, which means to commend or praise to another, to declare worthy of esteem, trust, or favor, is sometimes put to strange uses. Example: "Resolved, that the tax-payers of the county be recommended to meet," etc. What the resolving gentlemen meant was, that the tax-payers should be counseled to meet.

REDUNDANCY. See PLEONASM.

RELIABLE. This is a modern word which is often met with; but it is not used by our careful writers. They prefer its synonym trustworthy, and argue that, in consequence of being ill-formed, reliable can not possibly have the signification in which it is used.

REMAINDER. See BALANCE.

RENDITION. This word is much misused for rendering. Example: "The excellence of Mr. Gilbert's rendition of certain characters, Sir Peter and Sir Antony, for instance, is not equaled," etc. Rendition means the act of yielding possession, surrender, as the rendition of a town or fortress. The sentence above should read, "The excellence of Mr. Gilbert's rendering," etc. Rendition is also sometimes improperly used for performance.

REPLY. See ANSWER.

REPUTATION. See CHARACTER.

RESIDE. A big word that Mr. Wouldbe uses where Mr. Is uses the little word live.

RESIDENCE. In speaking of a man's domicile, it is not only in better taste but more correct to use the term house than residence. A man has a residence in New York, when he has lived here long enough to have the right to exercise the franchise here; and he may have a house in Fifth Avenue where he lives. People who are live in houses; people who would be reside in residences. The former buy things; the latter purchase them.

REST. See BALANCE.

RESTIVE. Some of the dictionaries, Richard Grant White, and some other writers, contend that this word, when properly used, means unwilling to go, standing still stubbornly, obstinate, stubborn, and nothing else. In combating this opinion, Fitzedward Hall says: "Very few instances, I apprehend, can be produced, from our literature, of this use of restive." Webster gives impatient, uneasy, as a second meaning; and this is the sense in which the word is nearly always used.

RETIRE. It is only the over-nice who use retire in the sense of go to bed.

REVEREND--HONORABLE. Many persons are in doubt whether they should or should not put the before these adjectives. Emphatically, yes, they should. See "Words and Their Uses," by Richard Grant White, for a full discussion of the question; also "Good English," by Edward S. Gould.

RHETORIC. The art which has for its object the rendering of language effective is called rhetoric. Without some study of the art of composition, no one can expect to write well, or to judge the literary work of others.

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance."

RIDE--DRIVE. Fashion, both in England and in this country, says that we must always use the second of these words when we speak of going out in a carriage, although ride means, according to all the lexicographers, "to be carried on a horse or other animal, or in any kind of vehicle or carriage."

RIGHT. Singularly enough, this word is made, by some people, to do service for ought, in duty bound, under obligation to; thus, "You had a right to tell me," meaning, "You should have told me." "The Colonists contended that they had no right to pay taxes," meaning, "They were under no obligation to pay taxes," i. e., that it was unjust to tax them.

RIGHT HERE. The expressions "right here" and "right there" are Americanisms. Correctly, "just here" and "just there."

ROLLING. The use of this participial adjective in the sense of undulating is said to be an Americanism. Whether an Americanism or not, it would seem to be quite unobjectionable.

RUBBERS. This word, in common with gums and arctics, is often, in defiance of good taste, used for overshoes.

SABBATH. This term was first used in English for Sunday, or Lord's day, by the Puritans. Nowadays it is little used in this sense. The word to use is Sunday.