Five Hundred Mistakes of Daily Occurrence in Speaking, Pronouncing, and Writing the English Language, Corrected, Walton Burgess [short novels to read txt] 📗

of the reign of Queen Elizabeth: “This” [a communication to Mary Queen of Scots] “they effected by conveying their letters to her by means of a brewer that supplied the family with ale through a chink in the wall of her apartment.” A queer brewer that—to supply ale through a chink in the wall! How easy the alteration to make the passage clear! “This they effected by conveying their letters to her through a chink in the wall of her apartment, by means of a brewer that supplied the family with ale.”

272. “Lavater wrote on Physiognomy:” in the last word sound the g distinctly, as g is always pronounced before n, when it is not in the same syllable; as, indignity, &c.

273. “She is a very amiable girl:” pronounce girl as if written gurl; gal is a vulgarism; gehl or gul is an affectation of which many polite persons are guilty.

274. “He built a large granary:” do not pronounce granary so as to rhyme with tannery. Call the word grainary. Both pronunciations, however, are given by scholars.

275. Beware of using Oh! and O indiscriminately: Oh! is used to express the emotion of pain, sorrow, or surprise; as, “Oh! the exceeding grace of God.” O is used to express wishing, exclamation, or a direct address to a person; as,

“O mother, will the God above
Forgive my faults like thee?”

276. Be careful to sound distinctly the r in such words as farther, martyr, charter, murder, &c. Never say, fah-ther, mah-tyr, chah-ter and muh-der. On the other hand, avoid trilling the r, as mur-er-der, r'r'robber. It is altogether too tragical for common life.

277. “The Duke of Wellington was an Irishman, but knew nothing of the Irish language:” beware of saying Ierishman for Irishman, or Ierish for Irish; a very common mistake, which the “Know-Nothings” are quick to detect.

278. “He did it unbeknown to us:” say, unknown, &c.

279. “He lives in affluence, as he is in affluent circumstances:” beware of placing the accent in affluence and affluent on the syllable flu instead of on af, a very common error.

280. “If I say, ‘They retreated back,’ I use a word that is superfluous, as back is implied in the syllable re in retreated:” never place the accent on flu in superfluous, but always on per.

281. “In reading Paley’s ‘Evidences of Christianity,’ I unexpectedly lit on the passage I wanted:” say, met with the passage, &c.

282. A gentleman having selected a book from the library shelves of the Mechanics’ Institute, went to the librarian to have the volume registered under his name, and said, “I have taken the life of Julius Cæsar.” “I shall then,” responded the librarian, “charge the work to Mr. Brutus!” Be careful how you “take the lives” of distinguished men.

283. “He has a bayonet to his gun:” never say baggonet. This error is a peculiarity of the Wiltshire dialect, in England. In an old Wiltshire song the following stanza occurs:

“A hornet zet in a holler tree,
A proper spiteful twoad was he;
And merrily zung while he did zet,—
His sting as sharp as a baggonet.”

284. “Aunt Deborah is down with the rheumatiz:” say, rheumatism; this is one among the isms, though a very unpopular one.

285. “It is obligatory upon every honest man to go to the polls to-day:” accent lig, and not ga.

286. “On the contrary:” accent con, not tra. The old song takes up with a bad pronunciation, for the sake of a good rhyme:

“Mistress Mary,
Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?”

287. “That is altogether above my bend:” say, out of my power.

288. “He has absquatulated, and taken the specie with him:” absconded is a more classical word.

289. “It’s eenamost time we had started:” say, almost.

290. “I haven’t ary one:” say, I have neither, or, I haven’t either.

291. “That man is in a bad box:” say, bad predicament, or bad situation.

292. It may be doubted whether to say of a man “that he barked up the wrong tree,” is a complimentary or elegant metaphor.

293. “I will retain two-thirds, and give you the balance:” say, remainder.

294. “I calculate to go by steam:” say, “I expect.”

295. Avoid using the phrase “I cave in,” for “I give up.” It savors of slang.

296. Do not say, “chicken fixings,” for “trifles,” or “extras,” connected with dress.

297. “He is a cute man:” this is an inelegant abbreviation of acute, and employed to mean smart. It may, however, be properly applied to Yankees!

298. “He dickered with him an hour:” say, “he bargained.” This is a word somewhat peculiar to New-York.

299. “Do don’t” is a vulgar usage of the Southern States, especially Georgia, for “do not.”

300. “He is done gone:” say, ruined.

301. “We had a dreadful fine time:” say, very, or exceedingly.

302. “It rains, and I want an umbrella the worst kind:” say, “I am greatly in want,” &c. An umbrella of the worst kind would not be likely to answer the best of purposes on a rainy day!

303. “The whole concern fizzled out:” say, proved a failure.

304. “As soon as I mentioned it to him, he flared up:” say, he became excited, or grew violent.

305. “The choir sang Old Hundred:” pronounce Hundred as written, and not Hunderd.

306. “The message was sent by his aid-de-camp:” pronounce as if written ade-de-kawng, avoiding, however, as much as possible a twang on the last syllable.

307. “My beard is long:” don’t say baird.

308. “The blacksmith blows the bellows:” pronounce as written, and not bellus.

309. “Let me help you to some catsup:” avoid saying ketchup.

310. “It is new China ware:” do not say, chaney ware; this latter article exists only in the traditions of old women.

311. “The combatants parted in good humor:” accent the first syllable—never the second.

312. “We poled the raft up the creek:” pronounce as if written krik.

313. “Then spake the warrior bold:” pronounce in two syllables, as war-yur, not war-ri-or.

314. In using the word venison, sound the i: venzun is a common, though not elegant pronunciation.

315. Tapestry is divided tap-es-try and not ta-pes-try.

316. “He is only a subaltern:” accent the first syllable of subaltern.

317. “The barge is at the quay:” pronounce quay, kay.

318. “The path over the meadow was queachy:” this word, meaning soft or boggy, is now obsolete, and cannot be used with propriety.

319. “He talks pulpitically:” this word, which some who copy Chesterfield persist in using, has never by any good authority been admitted into the language.

320. To peff, meaning to cough faintly (like a sheep), is hardly a useable word.

321. Be careful to distinguish between pencil, an instrument for writing, and pensile, meaning hanging down.

322. To yank is a vulgarism, meaning to twitch powerfully.

323. Avoid the slang phrase, “I used to could.” Say, “I could formerly.”

324. “She takes on about it greatly:” say, grieves.

325. “He staved off the case two days longer:” say, he put off, or delayed.

326. “He made a great splurge:” say, he made a blustering effort.

327. “I reckon it is going to rain:” say, I think, or expect. Reckon applies to calculation.

328. “The basket is pretty large:” avoid, if possible, the use of the word pretty out of its legitimate signification; the language abounds with substitutes more elegant.

329. “She weighs a plaguy sight:” say, a great deal.

330. “He made tracks at sundown:” say, he left, or escaped.

331. “He was compelled to fork over the cash:” say, to pay over.

332. “To flunk out” is a vulgar expression for to retire through fear; the most that can be tolerated is, to sneak out.

333. “When last observed, he was going at full chisel:” say, at the top of his speed.

334. “That bill is a counterfeit:” the last syllable is pronounced as if written fit, and not feet.

335. “I am very much obliged to you:” do not say obleeged.

336. The following sentence affords an example of three words of similar pronunciation, but different signification: “It is not easy to pare a pear with a pair of scissors.”

337. “The robber entered the dwelling, and secretly carried off the silver:” say, thief; a robber attacks violently, and commits his depredations by main force; a thief is one who uses secrecy and deception.

338. “Go and fetch me my riding-whip:” say, bring. Fetch means to go and bring; go and fetch is repetition.

339. To leave and to quit are often used as synonymous terms, though improperly; to leave implies a design of returning soon—to quit, an absence of a long time, or forever; as, in Shakespeare:—

“——the very rats
Instinctively had quit it.”—Tempest, i. 2.

“I shall leave my house for a month before next Autumn; but I shall not be obliged to quit it until after Christmas.”

340. Mute and dumb. A dumb man has not the power to speak; a mute man either does not choose, or is not allowed to speak. It is, therefore, more proper to say of a person who can neither hear nor speak, that he is “deaf and dumb,” than that he is a “deaf mute.”

341. Strong and robust. These words are frequently misused: a strong man is able to bear a heavy burden, but not necessarily for a long time; a robust man bears continual fatigue with ease; a strong man may be active and nimble; while an excess of muscular development, together with a clumsiness of action, exclude these qualities from the robust man:—

“Strong as a tower in hope, I cry Amen!”
Shakespeare, Richard II. i. 3.

“For one who, though of drooping mien, had yet
From nature’s kindliness received a frame
Robust as ever rural labor bred.”
Wordsworth, Excursion, VI.

342. “Isaac Newton invented the law of gravitation:” say, discovered. “Galileo discovered the telescope:” say, invented.

343. To hear and to listen have each distinct degrees of meaning. To hear implies no effort or particular attention. To listen implies some eagerness to hear. An old proverb says, “They that listen seldom hear any good of themselves.”

344. Ought and should both express obligation, but the latter is not so binding as the former. “Children ought to love their parents, and should be neat in their appearance.”

345. Alone and only are often misapplied. “He only could do it,” means that no other but himself could do it; “he alone could do it,” should mean that he, without the assistance of others, could do it.

346. “Please the pigs.”—(Old Proverb.) This is a corruption from “Please the pyx.” The pyx is the receptacle which contains the consecrated wafer on Romish altars; and the exclamation is equal to “Please God.” This corruption is as curious a one as that of “tawdry” from “’t Audrey,” or “at St. Audrey’s Fair,” famous for the sale of frippery—showy, cheap, and worthless.

347. “The partridge is a delightful bird:” do not say patridge. Also, do not say pasley for parsley.

348. “After this, let him hide his diminished head:” this common phrase is a poetical quotation from Milton, and is therefore proper to be used even when it does not literally express the idea:—

“At whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads.”

349. “That bourne from whence no traveler returns.” How often are precisely these words spoken? They are improperly quoted from Shakespeare, in Hamlet, and correctly read as follows:—

“That undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No traveler returns.”

350. “Bring me my waistcoat:” pronounce as if written waste-coat, and not weskut. It should rhyme, as it did in an old ballad, with “laced coat.”

351. “Your bonnet to its right use.”—(Shakespeare:) never say bunnet.

352. “It is not cold enough to wear my gloves:” pronounce as if written gluvs, and to rhyme with loves. In “Fair Rosamond” the following illustrative stanza occurs:—

“He said he had his gloves from France:
The Queen said, ‘That can’t be:
If you go there for glove-making,
It is without the g.’”

353. “Egad! what great good luck!” This word is now inelegantly used, except in certain species of poetry, where it is introduced with much effect, as in the following distich:—

“All tragedies, egad!