The Verbalist Part 16

Also to denote the possessive case; as, Brown's house; the king's command; Moses' staff; for conscience' sake; the boys' garden.

Also with _s_ to denote the plural of letters, figures, and signs; as, Cross your _t_'s, dot your _i_'s, and mind your _p_'s and _q_'s; make your 5's better, and take out the _x_'s.

CAPITALS.--A capital letter should begin every sentence, every line of verse, and every direct quotation.

All names of the Deity, of Jesus Christ, of the Trinity, and of the Virgin Mary must begin with a capital. p.r.o.nouns are usually capitalized when they refer to the Deity.

Proper names, and nouns and adjectives formed from proper names, names of streets, of the months, of the days of the week, and of the holidays, are capitalized.

t.i.tles of n.o.bility and of high office, when used to designate particular persons, are capitalized; as, the Earl of Dunraven, the Mayor of Boston, the Baron replied, the Cardinal presided.

THE PARAGRAPH.--In writing for the press, the division of matter into paragraphs is often quite arbitrary; in letter-writing, on the contrary, the several topics treated of should, as a rule, be isolated by paragraphic divisions. These divisions give one's letters a shapely appearance that they otherwise never have.

PURCHASE. This word is much preferred to its synonym _buy_, by that cla.s.s of people who prefer the word _reside_ to _live_, _procure_ to _get_, _inaugurate_ to _begin_, and so on. They are generally of those who are great in pretense, and who would be greater still if they were to pretend to all they have to pretend to.

PURPOSE. See PROPOSE.

QUANt.i.tY. This word is often improperly used for _number_. _Quant.i.ty_ should be used in speaking of what is measured or weighed; _number_, of what is counted. Examples: "What _quant.i.ty_ of apples have you, and what _number_ of pineapples?" "Delaware produces a large _quant.i.ty_ of peaches and a large _number_ of melons."

QUIT.--This word means, properly, to leave, to go away from, to forsake; as, "Avaunt! _quit_ my sight." This is the only sense in which the English use it. In America, it is generally used in the sense of to leave off, to stop; as, "_Quit_ your nonsense"; "_Quit_ laughing"; "_Quit_ your noise"; "He has _quit_ smoking," and so on.

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, rail_way_--stop for pa.s.sengers, or the points from which they start and at which they arrive, are, properly, the _stations_.

RAILWAY. The English prefer this word to rail_road_.

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 a.s.sume," 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 circ.u.mstance 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 un.o.bjectionable.

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_.

SARCASM. Bain says that _sarcasm_ is vituperation softened in the outward expression by the arts and figures of disguise--epigram, innuendo, irony--and embellished with the figures of ill.u.s.tration. Crabb says that _sarcasm_ is the indulgence only of personal resentment, and is never justifiable.

SATIRE. The holding up to ridicule of the follies and weaknesses of mankind, by way of rebuke, is called _satire_. Satire is general rather than individual, its object being the reformation of abuses. A _lampoon_, which has been defined as a _personal satire_, attacks the individual rather than his fault, and is intended to injure rather than to reform.

Said Sheridan: "Satires and lampoons on particular people circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the friends of the parties than by printing them."

SAW. The imperfect tense of the verb _to see_ is carelessly used by good writers and speakers when they should use the perfect; thus, "I never _saw_ anything like it before," when the meaning intended is, "I _have_ never [in all my life] _seen_ anything like it before [until now]." We say properly, "I never _saw_ anything like it _when I was in Paris_"; but, when the period of time referred to extends to the time when the statement is made, it must be _have seen_. Like mistakes are made in the use of other verbs, but they are hardly as common; yet we often hear such expressions as, "I _was_ never in Philadelphia," "I never _went_ to the theatre in my life," instead of _have been_ in Philadelphia, and _have gone_ to the theatre.

SECTION. The use of this word for region, neighborhood, vicinity, part (of the town or country), is said to be a Westernism. A _section_ is a division of the public lands containing six hundred and forty acres.

SEEM--APPEAR. Graham, in his "English Synonymes," says of these two words: "What _seems_ is in the mind; what _appears_ is external. Things _appear_ as they present themselves to the eye; they _seem_ as they are represented to the mind. Things _appear_ good or bad, as far as we can judge by our senses. Things _seem_ right or wrong as we determine by reflection. Perception and sensation have to do with appearing; reflection and comparison, with seeming. When things are not what they _appear_, our senses are deceived; when things are not what they _seem_, our judgment is at fault."

"No man had ever a greater power over himself, or was less the man he _seemed_ to be, which shortly after _appeared_ to everybody, when he cared less to keep on the mask."--Clarendon.

SELDOM OR EVER. This phrase should be "seldom _if_ ever," or "seldom or _never_."

SERAPHIM. This is the plural of _seraph_. "One of the _seraphim_." "To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry." See CHERUBIM.

SET--SIT. The former of these two verbs is often incorrectly used for the latter. To _set_; imperfect tense, _set_; participles, _setting_, _set_. To _sit_; imperfect tense, _sat_; participles, _sitting_, _sat_.