Write It Right Part 8

_Square_ for _Block_. "He lives three squares away." A city block is seldom square.

_Squirt_ for _Spurt_. Absurd.

_Stand_ and _Stand for_ for _Endure_. "The patient stands pain well."

"He would not stand for misrepresentation."

_Standpoint_ for _Point of View_, or _Viewpoint_.

_State_ for _Say_. "He stated that he came from Chicago." "It is stated that the president is angry." We state a proposition, or a principle, but say that we are well. And we say our prayers--some of us.

_Still Continue_. "The rain still continues." Omit still; it is contained in the other word.

_Stock_. "I take no stock in it." Disagreeably commercial. Say, I have no faith in it. Many such metaphorical expressions were un.o.bjectionable, even pleasing, in the mouth of him who first used them, but by constant repet.i.tion by others have become mere slang, with all the offensiveness of plagiarism. The prime objectionableness of slang is its hideous lack of originality. Until mouth-worn it is not slang.

_Stop_ for _Stay_. "Prayer will not stop the ravages of cholera." Stop is frequently misused for stay in another sense of the latter word: "He is stopping at the hotel." Stopping is not a continuing act; one cannot be stopping who has already stopped.

_Stunt_. A word recently introduced and now overworked, meaning a task, or performance in one's trade, or calling,--doubtless a variant of stint, without that word's suggestion of allotment and limitation.

It is still in the reptilian stage of evolution.

_Subsequent_ for _Later_, or _Succeeding_. Legitimate enough, but ugly and needless. "He was subsequently hanged." Say, afterward.

_Substantiate_ for _Prove_. Why?

_Success_. "The project was a success." Say, was successful. Success should not have the indefinite article.

_Such Another_ for _Another Such_. There is ill.u.s.trious authority for this--in poetry. Poets are a lawless folk, and may do as they please so long as they do please.

_Such_ for _So_. "He had such weak legs that he could not stand." The absurdity of this is made obvious by changing the form of the statement: "His legs were such weak that he could not stand." If the word is an adverb in the one sentence it is in the other. "He is such a great bore that none can endure him." Say, so great a bore.

_Suicide_. This is never a verb. "He suicided." Say, He killed himself, or He took his own life. See _Commit Suicide_.

_Supererogation_. To supererogate is to overpay, or to do more than duty requires. But the excess must be in the line of duty; merely needless and irrelevant action is not supererogation. The word is not a natural one, at best.

_Sure_ for _Surely_. "They will come, sure." Slang.

_Survive_ for _Live_, or _Persist_. Survival is an outliving, or outlasting of something else. "The custom survives" is wrong, but a custom may survive its utility. Survive is a transitive verb.

_Sustain_ for _Incur_. "He sustained an injury." "He sustained a broken neck." That means that although his neck was broken he did not yield to the mischance.

_Talented_ for _Gifted_. These are both past participles, but there was once the verb to gift, whereas there was never the verb "to talent." If Nature did not talent a person the person is not talented.

_Tantamount_ for _Equivalent_. "Apology is tantamount to confession."

Let this ugly word alone; it is not only illegitimate, but ludicrously suggests catamount.

_Tasty_ for _Tasteful_. Vulgar.

_Tear Down_ for _Pull Down_. "The house was torn down." This is an indigenous solecism; they do not say so in England.

_Than Whom_. See _Whom_.

_The_. A little word that is terribly overworked. It is needlessly affixed to names of most diseases: "the cholera," "the smallpox," "the scarlet fever," and such. Some escape it: we do not say, "the sciatica," nor "the locomotor ataxia." It is too common in general propositions, as, "The payment of interest is the payment of debt."

"The virtues that are automatic are the best." "The tendency to falsehood should be checked." "Kings are not under the control of the law." It is impossible to note here all forms of this misuse, but a page of almost any book will supply abundant instance. We do not suffer so abject slavery to the definite article as the French, but neither do we manifest their spirit of rebellion by sometimes cutting off the oppressor's tail. One envies the Romans, who had no article, definite or indefinite.

_The Following_. "Washington wrote the following." The following what?

Put in the noun. "The following animals are ruminants." It is not the animals that follow, but their names.

_The Same_. "They cooked the flesh of the lion and ate the same." "An old man lived in a cave, and the same was a cripple." In humorous composition this may do, though it is not funny; but in serious work use the regular p.r.o.noun.

_Then_ as an Adjective. "The then governor of the colony." Say, the governor of the colony at that time.

_Those Kind_ for _That Kind_. "Those kind of things." Almost too absurd for condemnation, and happily not very common out of the cla.s.s of a.n.a.lphabets.

_Though_ for _If_. "She wept as though her heart was broken." Many good writers, even some devoid of the lexicographers' pa.s.sion for inclusion and approval, have specifically defended this locution, backing their example by their precept. Perhaps it is a question of taste; let us attend their cry and pa.s.s on.

_Thrifty_ for _Thriving_. "A thrifty village." To thrive is an end; thrift is a means to that end.

_Through_ for _Done_. "The lecturer is through talking." "I am through with it." Say, I have done with it.

_To_. As part of an infinitive it should not be separated from the other part by an adverb, as, "to hastily think," for hastily to think, or, to think hastily. Condemnation of the split infinitive is now pretty general, but it is only recently that any one seems to have thought of it. Our forefathers and we elder writers of this generation used it freely and without shame--perhaps because it had not a name, and our crime could not be pointed out without too much explanation.

_To_ for _At_. "We have been to church," "I was to the theater." One can go to a place, but one cannot be to it.

_Total_. "The figures totaled 10,000." Say, The total of the figures was 10,000.

_Transaction_ for _Action_, or _Incident_. "The policeman struck the man with his club, but the transaction was not reported." "The picking of a pocket is a criminal transaction." In a transaction two or more persons must have an active or a.s.senting part; as, a business transaction, Transactions of the Geographical Society, etc. The Society's action would be better called Proceedings.

_Transpire_ for _Occur_, _Happen_, etc. "This event transpired in 1906." Transpire (_trans_, through, and _spirare_, to breathe) means leak out, that is, become known. What transpired in 1906 may have occurred long before.

_Trifling_ for _Trivial_. "A trifling defect"; "a trifling error."

_Trust_ for _Wealthy Corporation_. There are few trusts; capitalists have mostly abandoned the trust form of combination.

_Try an Experiment_. An experiment is a trial; we cannot try a trial.

Say, make.

_Try and_ for _Try to_. "I will try and see him." This plainly says that my effort to see him will succeed--which I cannot know and do not wish to affirm. "Please try and come." This colloquial slovenliness of speech is almost universal in this country, but freedom of speech is one of our most precious possessions.

_Ugly_ for _Ill-natured_, _Quarrelsome_. What is ugly is the temper, or disposition, not the person having it.

_Under-handed_ and _Under-handedly_ for _Under-hand._ See _Off-handed._

_Unique_. "This is very unique." "The most unique house in the city."

There are no degrees of uniqueness: a thing is unique if there is not another like it. The word has nothing to do with oddity, strangeness, nor picturesqueness.

_United States_ as a Singular Noun. "The United States is for peace."

The fact that we are in some ways one nation has nothing to do with it; it is enough to know that the word States is plural--if not, what is State? It would be pretty hard on a foreigner skilled in the English tongue if he could not venture to use our national name without having made a study of the history of our Const.i.tution and political inst.i.tutions. Grammar has not a speaking acquaintance with politics, and patriotic pride is not schoolmaster to syntax.

_Unkempt_ for _Disordered_, _Untidy_, etc. Unkempt means uncombed, and can properly be said of nothing but the hair.