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                                THE
                             VERBALIST:

                             _A MANUAL_
                              DEVOTED
             TO BRIEF DISCUSSIONS OF THE RIGHT AND THE
                         WRONG USE OF WORDS
                                AND
          TO SOME OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THOSE WHO
               WOULD SPEAK AND WRITE WITH PROPRIETY.


                                BY
                           ALFRED AYRES.


 We remain shackled by timidity till we have learned to speak with
 propriety.--JOHNSON.

 As a man is known by his company, so a man's company may be known
 by his manner of expressing himself.--SWIFT.

                          [Illustration]

                             NEW YORK:
                     D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
                     1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
                               1887.




                           COPYRIGHT BY
                     D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
                               1881




    Transcriber's Note

    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Archaic
    spellings have been retained as printed.




PREFATORY NOTE.


The title-page sufficiently sets forth the end this little book is
intended to serve.

For convenience' sake I have arranged in alphabetical order the subjects
treated of, and for economy's sake I have kept in mind that "he that
uses many words for the explaining of any subject doth, like the
cuttle-fish, hide himself in his own ink."

The curious inquirer who sets himself to look for the learning in the
book is advised that he will best find it in such works as George P.
Marsh's "Lectures on the English Language," Fitzedward Hall's "Recent
Exemplifications of False Philology," and "Modern English," Richard
Grant White's "Words and Their Uses," Edward S. Gould's "Good English,"
William Mathews' "Words: their Use and Abuse," Dean Alford's "The
Queen's English," George Washington Moon's "Bad English," and "The
Dean's English," Blank's "Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech,"
Alexander Bain's "English Composition and Rhetoric," Bain's "Higher
English Grammar," Bain's "Composition Grammar," Quackenbos' "Composition
and Rhetoric," John Nichol's "English Composition," William Cobbett's
"English Grammar," Peter Bullions' "English Grammar," Goold Brown's
"Grammar of English Grammars," Graham's "English Synonymes," Crabb's
"English Synonymes," Bigelow's "Handbook of Punctuation," and other
kindred works.

Suggestions and criticisms are solicited, with the view of profiting by
them in future editions.

If "The Verbalist" receive as kindly a welcome as its companion volume,
"The Orthoëpist," has received, I shall be content.

                                                  A. A.
 NEW YORK, _October_, 1881.




    Eschew fine words as you would rouge.--HARE.

    Cant is properly a double-distilled lie; the second power of a
    lie.--CARLYLE.

    If a gentleman be to study any language, it ought to be that of his
    own country.--LOCKE.

    In language the unknown is generally taken for the
    magnificent.--RICHARD GRANT WHITE.

    He who has a superlative for everything, wants a measure for the
    great or small.--LAVATER.

    Inaccurate writing is generally the expression of inaccurate
    thinking.--RICHARD GRANT WHITE.

    To acquire a few tongues is the labor of a few years; but to be
    eloquent in one is the labor of a life.--ANONYMOUS.

    Words and thoughts are so inseparably connected that an artist in
    words is necessarily an artist in thoughts.-WILSON FLAGG.

    It is an invariable maxim that words which add nothing to the sense
    or to the clearness must diminish the force of the
    expression.--CAMPBELL.

    Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found
    together. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion
    of ideas.--MACAULAY.

    He who writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in words can proceed
    from nothing but confusedness in the thoughts which give rise to
    them.--COBBETT.




THE VERBALIST.


A--AN. The second form of the indefinite article is used for the sake of
euphony only. Herein everybody agrees, but what everybody does not agree
in is, that it is euphonious to use _an_ before a word beginning with an
aspirated _h_, when the accented syllable of the word is the second. For
myself, so long as I continue to aspirate the _h's_ in such words as
_heroic_, _harangue_, and _historical_, I shall continue to use _a_
before them; and when I adopt the Cockney mode of pronouncing such
words, then I shall use _an_ before them. To my ear it is just as
euphonious to say, "I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a
tender one, and will plant it upon _an_ high mountain and eminent," as
it is to say _an_ harangue, _an_ heroic, or _an_ historical. _An_ is
well enough before the doubtful British aspiration, but before the
distinct American aspiration it is wholly out of place. The reply will
perhaps be, "But these _h's_ are silent; the change of accent from the
first syllable to the second neutralizes their aspiration." However true
this may be in England, it is not at all true in America; hence we
Americans should use _a_ and not _an_ before such _h's_ until we decide
to ape the Cockney mode of pronouncing them.

Errors are not unfrequently made by omitting to repeat the article in a
sentence. It should always be repeated when a noun or an adjective
referring to a distinct thing is introduced; take, for example, the
sentence, "He has a black and white horse." If two horses are meant, it
is clear that it should be, "He has a black and _a_ white horse." See
THE.

ABILITY--CAPACITY. The distinctions between these two words are not
always observed by those who use them. "_Capacity_ is the power of
receiving and retaining knowledge with facility; _ability_ is the power
of applying knowledge to practical purposes. Both these faculties are
requisite to form a great character: capacity to conceive, and ability
to execute designs. Capacity is shown in quickness of apprehension.
Ability supposes something done; something by which the mental power is
exercised in executing, or performing, what has been perceived by the
capacity."--Graham's "English Synonymes."

ABORTIVE. An outlandish use of this word may be occasionally met with,
especially in the newspapers. "A lad was yesterday caught in the act of
_abortively_ appropriating a pair of shoes." That is abortive that is
untimely, that has not been borne its full time, that is immature. We
often hear _abortion_ used in the sense of failure, but never by those
that study to express themselves in chaste English.

ABOVE. There is little authority for using this word as an adjective.
Instead of, "the _above_ statement," say, "the _foregoing_ statement."
_Above_ is also used very inelegantly for _more than_; as, "above a
mile," "above a thousand"; also, for _beyond_; as, "above his strength."

ACCIDENT. See CASUALTY.

ACCORD. "He [the Secretary of the Treasury] was shown through the
building, and the information he desired was _accorded_
him."--Reporters' English.

    "The heroes prayed, and Pallas from the skies
    _Accords_ their vow."--Pope.

The goddess of wisdom, when she granted the prayers of her worshipers,
may be said to have _accorded_; not so, however, when the clerks of our
Sub-Treasury answer the inquiries of their chief.

ACCUSE. See BLAME IT ON.

ACQUAINTANCE. See FRIEND.

AD. This abbreviation for the word _advertisement_ is very justly
considered a gross vulgarism. It is doubtful whether it is permissible
under any circumstances.

ADAPT--DRAMATIZE. In speaking and in writing of stage matters, these
words are often misused. To _adapt_ a play is to modify its construction
with the view of improving its form for representation. Plays translated
from one language into another are usually more or less _adapted_; i.
e., altered to suit the taste of the public before which the translation
is to be represented. To _dramatize_ is to change the form of a story
from the narrative to the dramatic; i. e., to make a drama out of a
story. In the first instance, the product of the playwright's labor is
called an _adaptation_; in the second, a _dramatization_.

ADJECTIVES. "Very often adjectives stand where adverbs might be
expected; as, 'drink _deep_,' 'this looks _strange_,''standing
_erect_.'

"We have also examples of one adjective qualifying another adjective;
as, '_wide_ open,' '_red_ hot,' 'the _pale_ blue sky.' Sometimes the
corresponding adverb is used, but with a different meaning; as, 'I found
the way _easy_--_easily_'; 'it appears _clear_--_clearly_.' Although
there is a propriety in the employment of the adjective in certain
instances, yet such forms as '_indifferent_ well,' '_extreme_ bad,' are
grammatical errors. 'He was interrogated _relative_ to that
circumstance,' should be _relatively_, or _in relation to_. It is