Part 9

"Take great care not to be too free in your use of the verb to do in any of its times or modes. It is a nice little handy word, and, like our oppressed it, it is made use of very often when the writer is at a loss for what to put down. To do is to act, and therefore it never can, in any of its parts, supply the place of a neuter verb. 'How do you do?' Here do refers to the state, and is essentially passive or neuter. Yet, to employ it for this purpose is very common. Dr. Blair, in his 23d Lecture, says: 'It is somewhat unfortunate that this Number of the "Spectator" did not end, as it might have done, with the former beautiful period.' That is to say, done it. And then we ask, Done what? Not the act of ending, because in this case there is no action at all. The verb means to come to an end, to cease, not to go any further. This same verb to end is sometimes an active verb: 'I end my sentence'; then the verb to do may supply its place; as, 'I have not ended my sentence so well as I might have done'; that is, done it; that is, done, or performed, the act of ending. But the Number of the 'Spectator' was no actor; it was expected to perform nothing; it was, by the Doctor, wished to have ceased to proceed. 'Did not end as it very well might have ended....' This would have been correct; but the Doctor wished to avoid the repetition, and thus he fell into bad grammar. 'Mr. Speaker, I do not feel so well satisfied as I should have done if the Right Honorable Gentleman had explained the matter more fully.' To feel satisfied is--when the satisfaction is to arise from conviction produced by fact or reasoning--a senseless expression; and to supply its place, when it is, as in this case, a neuter verb, by to do, is as senseless. Done what? Done the act of feeling! 'I do not feel so well satisfied as I should have done, or executed, or performed the act of feeling'! What incomprehensible words!"

DON'T. Everybody knows that don't is a contraction of do not, and that doesn't is a contraction of does not; and yet nearly everybody is guilty of using don't when he should use doesn't. "So you don't go; John doesn't either, I hear."

DOUBLE GENITIVE. An anecdote of Mr. Lincoln--an anecdote of Mr. Lincoln's. We see at a glance that these two phrases are very different in meaning. So, also, a portrait of Brown--a portrait of Brown's. No precise rule has ever been given to guide us in our choice between these two forms of the possessive case. Sometimes it is not material which form is employed; where, however, it is material--and it generally is--we must consider the thought we wish to express, and rely on our discrimination.

DRAMATIZE. See ADAPT.

DRAWING-ROOM. See PARLOR.

DRESS--GOWN. Within the memory of many persons the outer garment worn by women was properly called a gown by everybody, instead of being improperly called a dress, as it now is by nearly everybody.

DRIVE. See RIDE.

DUE--OWING. These two words, though close synonyms, should not be used indiscriminately. The mistake usually made is in using due instead of owing. That is due which ought to be paid as a debt; that is owing which is to be referred to as a source. "It was owing to his exertions that the scheme succeeded." "It was owing to your negligence that the accident happened." "A certain respect is due to men's prejudices." "This was owing to an indifference to the pleasures of life." "It is due to the public that I should tell all I know of the matter."

EACH OTHER. "Their great authors address themselves, not to their country, but to each other."--Buckle. Each other is properly applied to two only; one another must be used when the number considered exceeds two. Buckle should have written one another and not each other, unless he meant to intimate that the Germans had only two great authors, which is not probable.

EAT. Grammarians differ very widely with regard to the conjugation of this verb; there is no doubt, however, that from every point of view the preferable forms for the preterite and past participle are respectively ate and eaten. To refined ears the other forms smack of vulgarity, although supported by good authority. "I ate an apple." "I have eaten dinner." "John ate supper with me." "As soon as you have eaten breakfast we will set out."

EDITORIAL. The use of this adjective as a substantive is said to be an Americanism.

EDUCATION. This is one of the most misused of words. A man may be well acquainted with the contents of text-books, and yet be a person of little education; on the other hand, a man may be a person of good education, and yet know little of the contents of text-books. Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Forrest knew comparatively little of what is generally learned in schools; still they were men of culture, men of education. A man may have ever so much book-knowledge and still be a boor; but a man can not be a person of good education and not be--so far as manner is concerned--a gentleman. Education, then, is a whole of which Instruction and Breeding are the parts. The man or the woman--even in this democratic country of ours--who deserves the title of gentleman or lady is always a person of education; i. e., he or she has a sufficient acquaintance with books and with the usages of social intercourse to acquit himself or herself creditably in the society of cultivated people. Not moral worth, nor learning, nor wealth, nor all three combined, can unaided make a gentleman, for with all three a man might be uneducated--i. e., coarse, unbred, unschooled in those things which alone make men welcome in the society of the refined.

EFFECTUATE. This word, together with ratiocinate and eventuate, is said to be a great favorite with the rural members of the Arkansas legislature.

EFFLUVIUM. The plural of this word is effluvia. It is a common error with those who have no knowledge of Latin to speak of "a disagreeable effluvia," which is as incorrect as it would be to talk about "a disagreeable vapors."

EFFORT WITHOUT EFFECT. "Some writers deal in expletives to a degree that tires the ear and offends the understanding. With them everything is excessively, or immensely, or extremely, or vastly, or surprisingly, or wonderfully, or abundantly, or the like. The notion of such writers is that these words give strength to what they are saying. This is a great error. Strength must be found in the thought, or it will never be found in the words. Big-sounding words, without thoughts corresponding, are effort without effect."--William Cobbett. See FORCIBLE-FEEBLE.

EGOIST. "One of a class of philosophers who professed to be sure of nothing but their own existence."--Reid.

EGOTIST. "One who talks much of himself."

"A tribe of egotists for whom I have always had a mortal aversion."--"Spectator."

EITHER. This word means, strictly, the one or the other of two. Unlike both, which means two taken collectively, either, like each, may mean two considered separately; but in this sense each is the better word to use. "Give me either of them" means, Give me the one or the other of two. "He has a farm on either side of the river" would mean that he has two farms, one on each (or either) side of the river. "He has a farm on both sides of the river" would mean that his farm lies partly on the one side of the river and partly on the other. The use of either in the sense of each, though biblical and defensible, may be accounted little if any better than an affectation. Neither is the negative of either. Either is responded to by or, neither by nor; as, "either this or that," "neither this nor that." Either and neither should not--strictly--be used in relation to more than two objects. But, though both either and neither are strictly applicable to two only, they have been for a very long time used in relation to more than two by many good writers; and, as it is often convenient so to use them, it seems probable that the custom will prevail. When more than two things are referred to, any and none should be used instead of either and neither; as, "any of the three," not, "either of the three"; "none of the four," not, "neither of the four."

EITHER ALTERNATIVE. The word alternative means a choice offered between two things. An alternative writ, for example, offers the alternative of choosing between the doing of a specified act or of showing cause why it is not done. Such propositions, therefore, as, "You are at liberty to choose either alternative," "Two alternatives are presented to me," "Several alternatives presented themselves," and the like, are not correct English. The word is correctly used thus: "I am confronted with a hard alternative: I must either denounce a friend or betray my trust." We rarely hear the word alternate or any of its derivatives correctly pronounced.

ELDER. See OLDER.

ELEGANT. Professor Proctor says: "If you say to an American, 'This is a fine morning,' he is likely to reply, 'It is an elegant morning,' or perhaps oftener by using simply the word elegant. This is not a pleasing use of the word." This is not American English, Professor, but popinjay English.

ELLIPSIS. The omission of a word or of words necessary to complete the grammatical construction, but not necessary to make the meaning clear, is called an ellipsis. We almost always, whether in speaking or in writing, leave out some of the words necessary to the full expression of our meaning. For example, in dating a letter to-day, we should write, "New York, August 25, 1881," which would be, if fully written out, "I am now writing in the city of New York; this is the twenty-fifth day of August, and this month is in the one thousand eight hundred and eighty-first year of the Christian era." "I am going to Wallack's" means, "I am going to Wallack's theatre." "I shall spend the summer at my aunt's"; i. e., at my aunt's house.

By supplying the ellipses we can often discover the errors in a sentence, if there are any.

ENJOY BAD HEALTH. As no one has ever been known to enjoy bad health, it is better to employ some other form of expression than this. Say, for example, he is in feeble, or delicate, health.

ENTHUSE. This is a word that is occasionally heard in conversation, and is sometimes met with in print; but it has not as yet made its appearance in the dictionaries. What its ultimate fate will be, of course, no one can tell; for the present, however, it is studiously shunned by those who are at all careful in the selection of their language. It is said to be most used in the South. The writer has never seen it anywhere in the North but in the columns of the "Boston Congregationalist."

EPIGRAM. "The word epigram signified originally an inscription on a monument. It next came to mean a short poem containing some single thought pointedly expressed, the subjects being very various--amatory, convivial, moral, eulogistic, satirical, humorous, etc. Of the various devices for brevity and point employed in such compositions, especially in modern times, the most frequent is a play upon words.... In the epigram the mind is roused by a conflict or contradiction between the form of the language and the meaning really conveyed."--Bain.

Some examples are: