L. P. Meredith

“ When, after traversing the ocean, you find yourself in the arid desert of Sahara, where there is no aroma of sweet flowers, or anything at all to regale your exhausted energies; where there is no herb nor herbaceous plant near you; where you are almost famished for want of some potable fluid; where you are in constant fear of being harassed by truculent nomads—then will you realize that there are no joys comparable to those that exist around the hearthstone of your humble home. ”

“ After a moment's reflection, it will appear to any one, that to mention the thousands upon thousands of proper names, the erroneous pronunciation of which is rather to be expected than the correct, would require an elaborate volume. Every one who has striven to become a fine orthoepist has longed for the ability to comprehend the pronunciation of that myriad of names, any one of which is apt to confront him in any book or paper he may chance to pick up. ”

“ But when a man stands forth as an orator, a teacher, a minister, or a professor of some college, it is certainly not unreasonable for those that sit under his instruction, to expect and demand that his speech should be almost free from errors. ”

“ It will doubtless be useless to rehearse any of the arguments commonly employed to prove the necessity of having some sovereign standard, to the guidance of which we must be willing to submit. Those for whom this work is intended will be willing to admit that. Nor is it necessary to assert that as far as the English speakers of the United States are interested, the only works that lay claim to such a position are the dictionaries of Webster and Worcester. ”

“ Probably there has never been a public speaker so perfect in diction, that he has not in moments of embarrassment, or when much absorbed in his subject, been guilty of grammatical inaccuracies or mistakes of pronunciation; and doubtless he is as often aware of them as his listeners are, as soon as they drop from his lips, but it would be foolish to call attention to them by going back to correct them. ”

“ A diamond of the finest cut, with its faces and facets so arranged as to secure the greatest degree of brilliancy—whence the name. The name to many conveys the idea of paste, or imitation. A rose diamond may be just as pure, but its depth does not permit it to be made a brilliant of without a much greater loss of substance. ”

“ If the person or thing spoken of exerts an action that does not pass over to an object, use rise, rose, risen, rising. To avoid further repetition in the method I have adopted to impress upon the mind the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs by contrasted sentences, I would refer the reader to the remarks under Lay. "I will raise in the morning at five," should be, "I will rise," etc. "I will raise the window," etc., is correct, for the action passes to or affects the window. "I will raise myself if I have the strength" is correct, because an object, myself, is furnished. ”

“ The very use of the word limb indicates what is passing in the mind of the speaker—a thought of leg, an indelicate meaning attached to it, and a fear to speak the word. The mind of the listener is affected similarly and the result is that a conversation intended to be perfectly pure, has a slight stain left upon it. If we could pass through life without ever finding it necessary to speak of our legs to strangers, there would be no danger of compromising ourselves ”

“ A person may make a speech, write a book, or do anything else calculated to do good, or more rarely, evil, but the intention to accomplish the object spoken of must be present, before the word can be properly used. ”

“ But a person may set a hen; that is, place her in position on eggs. One sits up in a chair, but he sets up a post. One sits down on the ground, but he sets down figures. Set is also an intransitive verb and has special meanings attached to it as such, but they may be readily understood [Pg 42] by a little study of the dictionary, and no confusion need arise. The sun sets. Plaster of Paris sets. A setter dog sets. One sets out on a journey. Sit may also be used in two senses as a transitive verb, as: "The general sits his horse well," and "The woman sat herself down."
Sew—sō, not sū. ”

“ Although errors of speech are at all times to be deprecated, and are generally criticised without much leniency, it must be admitted that unless they are very gross, reasonable excuses are to be taken for those who have never made their language a subject of close study, and whose only use of words is entirely impromptu in the business affairs of life, in the home circle, or in the social gathering. ”

“ Up is used only with wake, waked and waking, but even then it is one of our most senseless superfluities. There is no stronger meaning in the assertion that a man was waked up, than that he was waked or awakened. If waking up meant to wake and make get up, it would be different, but it does not. One may be waked up and it is just as likely that he will go to sleep again as if he were simply awakened. ”

“ Gondola—gŏn ́do-la, not gon-dō ́la.
Got. There are some sticklers for niceties that overdo themselves in contending that the use of the verb got is generally unnecessary and incorrect in conjunction with have and had. Get means to procure, to obtain, to come into possession of, etc., and it is a very tame assertion that one simply has a thing that cost much mental or physical labor. A scholar has his lesson, but did it creep into his head while he passively shut his eyes and went to sleep? On the contrary, he got it or learned it by hard study, and it is proper to say that he has got it. ”

“ Their guardian, himself a great lover of drama, having foolish confidence in their success, grants them plenary indulgence in all their whims. They are habitués of the theatre, and have fitted up a suite of apartments next to a suit of rooms occupied by some stock actors, with whom they are bound in indissoluble bonds of friendship. There they spend the day in practice, and if you should call at any hour, there is no telling what will present itself to you. ”

“ It is not intended to instruct those whose education has been so neglected that they are guilty of the grossest violation of syntax and orthoepy, nor to cultivate the taste of those whose selection of words and cant and slang phrases betrays the low grade of the associations by which they have been surrounded. ”

“ It is fortunate for the reputation of those who bear the name of being good scholars, that errors in the pronunciation of most proper names are excusable, which is not the case with the mistakes that have before been laid down. ”

“ Dolorously and Dolorousness are similarly accented; but dolor is pronounced dō ́lor.
Doubt. "I do not doubt but that it is so," is a very [Pg 19] common error. The meaning conveyed is just the opposite to that which the speaker intends. He declares in other words, that he has no doubt but a doubt that it is so; or he does not doubt that it is false. "I have no doubt but," and "there is no doubt but,"—are similar mistakes. The word "but" should be left out.
Dough-face means one that is easily molded to one's will, or readily changed in his views, and not a putty-faced or white-faced person. ”

“ The bare thought of being so criticised should be so galling to any one bearing the dignified title of "professor," that he ought to be stimulated to endeavor [Pg 70] to make himself an authority concerning the proprieties of speech. ”

“ Whichever form is used in narrative, it is not at all harmonious to give the exact words of one speaker and only the substance of the remarks of another, at least without regard to regularity in alternation. ”

“ Many a student, in order to become instructed in certain branches, has been compelled to reluctantly sit for months or years at the feet of those that he felt were far inferior to him in common school education, hearing hourly such violations of orthoepy and syntax as would be a discredit to school children. ”

“ Modulate means to vary or inflect in a musical manner, and although the word might often be used with propriety in such sentences as the above, yet it is not always what is meant by the speaker. A person's voice may be perfectly modulated and yet the tone may be so high that it is desirable, upon certain occasions, to have it moderated. ”

“ The possibility of its becoming worthless in a short time is strange, especially when it is not on account of any work claiming superiority, but merely because error long persisted in finally becomes more authoritative than the original exemplar. With little effort, however, we can discern the causes. Persons are apt to acquire the pronunciation and use of the greater number of words by imitation, rather than by study. ”

“ Or you may see a viscount with falcon, a rampant villain, a jocund host, or an irate, splenetic old man with spectacles, pronouncing with senile vehemence a curse upon some fragile female in negligee before him, who beseeches the aid of an immobile statue in a niche in the wall. ”

“ By this reference to each, I have not only corrected errors in an impartial manner, but have also stopped up that loop-hole through which so many try to escape by saying, when they are called to account according to one dictionary, that they do not accept that as their standard. As far as the people of this [Pg vii] country are concerned, there is no escape from the conclusion that a person is considered a correct or an incorrect speaker of English, according to whether or not he conforms his discourse to one of the above mentioned authorities. ”

“ A person has a sum of money, but he got or earned it by his labor. Another has good friends, but he got or secured them by his pleasant address. The great causes of the warfare against this word are, I think, that have and had, though generally used as auxiliaries, can sometimes be used as principal verbs and make good sense; and that it has not been recollected that in the majority of cases got either stands for, or can be substituted for another verb. In confirmation [Pg 23] of this last statement, is appended the following composed by Dr. ”

“ Illusions are deceptions arising from a temporarily or permanently disordered imagination, or from phenomena occurring in nature: thus we speak of the illusions of fancy, of dreams, and of optical illusions. The mirage of the desert and the fata Morgana are instances of the latter.
Demonstrative—de-mŏn ́stra-tive, not dĕm ́on-strā-tive.
Demonstrator—dĕm ́on-strā-tor, not de-mŏn ́strā-tor. Worcester allows the latter.
Depot—de-pō ́ or dē ́pō, not dā ́pō, nor dĕp ́po. Worcester sanctions de-pō ́ only. I once had a friend, deceased now, of course, who called it de-pŏt ́. ”

“ Leg is certainly a less euphonious word than limb, and if the latter had the same signification attached to it, there would be no objection to its employment; but limb means arm just as much as it does leg. There is nothing immodest in the sound or meaning of the word leg ”

“ The French is déshabillé, pronounced about like dā-zä-be-yā, without any particular accent. Some persons, in their vain efforts to get the peculiar liquid sound of the double l, sometimes used, distort the word terribly, pronouncing it even as broad as dĭs-ha-beel ́yuh.
Desideratum—de-sid-e-rā ́tum, not de-sĭd-er-ăt ́um; plural, de-sĭd-er-ā ́ta. Something particularly desired.
Desperado—des-per-ā ́do, not des-per-ä ́do.
Dessert—dĕz-zërt ́, not dĕz ́zert, nor dĕs ́sert: dessert-spoon (dez-zërt ́-spoon) .
Die. One dies of a disease, not with it.
Differ. One differs with a person in opinion ”

“ It will be admitted that if anything is perfect it can not be more so; and as soon as it is less so it fails to be perfect at all. So, if anything is correct it is perfectly free from error; it can not be made more correct, and if its correctness is detracted from, it is not quite correct any longer. A straight line is one that does not vary from a perfectly direct course in the slightest degree ”

“ See. It is not uncommon to meet with people that incorrectly use see in the imperfect tense, as: "I see him yesterday," instead of, "I saw him yesterday." See is never used in any tense but the present, without [Pg 41] an auxiliary, as did, shall, etc.
Seignior—sēn ́yur, not sān ́yor.
Seine—sēn, not sān. A net for catching fish.
Senile—sē ́nīle, not sĕn ́īle. Pertaining to old age.
Separate, not seperate. The loss of the a is not noticed in the pronunciation, but the mistake frequently occurs in writing this word as it does in the words inseparable, inseparableness, separation, etc. ”

“ It is not always safe to trifle thus with some of the serious, practical old followers of Esculapius. Before now they have given such rebukes as to make people ashamed that they did not say leg in the first place; or they have left the bedside abruptly with such a remark as: "When you find out whether it is your arm or your leg, send for me again." If people will persist in using limb for leg, it is to be hoped that they will adopt some adjective prefix to remove all ambiguity. How would north-east, south-east, etc., do? ”

“ Though a person's descent from Belgravia or Billingsgate is in a great measure revealed by the propriety of his discourse, yet this refers principally to those words that are employed by the masses in the every-day conversations of life, rather than to technicalities and words related to particular professions, the use of which is generally confined to the specially instructed. ”

“ Dragomans, not dragomen, is the plural of dragoman, an Eastern interpreter.
Drama—drä ́ma or drā ́ma, not drăm ́a. Worcester says drā ́ma or drăm ́a.
Dramatis Personæ—drăm ́a-tīs per-sō ́nē, not dra-măt ́is pĕr ́so-nē.
Drank, not drunk, is the imperfect tense of drink. ”