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Jeopardize. This is a modern word that we could easily do without, as it means neither more nor less than its venerable progenitor to jeopard, which is preferred by careful writers.

Jug. What the American calls a pitcher the Englishman calls a jug.

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"Our American friend," says an English writer, plains of our continual misuse of 'jug' for 'pitcher,' saying that the practice is of very recent origin, and that the word 'jug' is comparatively new. The word is an old one, and, if not found in the English Bible, has a pedigree of respectable antiquity; nor are we disposed to object to it. Only think of an English lady speaking of her 'cream pitcher'!"

And an American woman—what an Anglomaniac she'd have to be to call a pitcher of any sort a jug!

Just going to. Instead of "I am just going to go," it is better to say, "I am just about to go."

Just next. "Is not 'next' sufficiently definite? This is a single example out of scores noticed every day showing the endeavors of newspaper writers to strengthen what they say."-N. C. Advocate.

Kids. It is better usage to speak of one's gloves than of one's kids. When silk gloves are meant, we never speak of them as silks.

Kind. See POLITE.

Kind of. We say properly, "What kind of man is he?" and not "What kind of a man is he?" The a in such sentences is a superfluity.

Kinsman. Kinship is defined as the state of being related by blood, hence relatives by marriage are not properly kinsmen. And yet it would seem that kinsfolk may be used in speaking of all who are related by family tiesall relatives, whether related by blood or by marriage. The

term kinsman is to be preferred to either relative, relation, or connection.

Knights Templars. The name of this ancient body has been adopted by a branch of the Masonic fraternity, but in a perverted form-Knights Templar; and this form is commonly seen in print, whether referring to the old knights or to their modern imitators. This doubtless is due to the erroneous impression that Templar is an adjective, and so can not take the plural form; while in fact it is a case of two nouns in apposition—a double designation-meaning Knights of the order of Templars. Hence the plural should be Knights Templars, and not Knights Templar. Members of the contemporaneous order of St. John of Jerusalem were commonly called Knights Hospitallers.

Lady. To use the term lady, whether in the singular or in the plural, simply to designate the sex, is in the worst possible taste. There is a kind of pin-feather gentility that seems to have a settled aversion to using the terms man and woman. Gentlemen and ladies establish their claims to being called such by their bearing, and not by arrogating to themselves, even indirectly, the titles. In England, the title lady is properly correlative to lord; but there, as in this country, it is used as a term of complaisance, and is appropriately applied to women whose lives are exemplary, and who have received that school and home education that enables them to appear to advantage in the better circles of society. Such expressions as "She is a fine lady, a clever lady, a well-dressed lady, a good lady, a modest lady, a charitable lady, an amiable lady, a handsome lady, a fascinating lady," and the like, are studiously avoided by persons of refinement. Ladies say "We women, the women of America, women's apparel," and so on; vulgar women talk about

"Us ladies, the ladies of America, ladies' apparel," and so on. If a woman of culture and refinement-in short, a lady-is compelled from any cause soever to work in a store, she is quite content to be called a sales-woman; not so, however, with your young woman who, being in a store, is in a better position than ever before. She-Heaven bless her!-seethes with indignation if she is not called a saleslady. Lady is often the proper term to use, and then it would be very improper to use any other term; but it is very certain that the terms lady and gentleman are least used by those persons who are most worthy of being designated by them. With a nice discrimination worthy of special notice, one of our daily papers recently said: "Miss Jennie Halstead, daughter of the proprietor of the Cincinnati Commercial, is one of the most brilliant young women in Ohio."

In a late number of the London Queen was the following: "The terms ladies and gentlemen become in themselves vulgarisms when misapplied, and the improper application of the wrong term at the wrong time makes all the difference in the world to ears polite. Thus, calling a man a gentleman when he should be called a man, or speaking of a man as a man when he should be spoken of as a gentleman; or alluding to a lady as a woman when she should be alluded to as a lady, or speaking of a woman as a lady when she should properly be termed a woman. Tact and a sense of the fitness of things decide these points, there being no fixed rule to go upon to determine when a man is a man or when he is a gentleman; and, although he is far oftener termed the one than the other, he does not thereby lose his attributes of a gentleman. In common parlance, a man is always a man to a man, and never a gentleman ; to a woman, he is occasionally a man and occasionally a gentle

man; but a man would far oftener term a woman a woman than he would term her a lady. When a man makes use of an adjective in speaking of a lady, he almost invariably calls her a woman. Thus he would say, 'I met a rather agreeable woman at dinner last night'; but he would not say, 'I met an agreeable lady'; but he might say, ‘A lady, a friend of mine, told me,' etc., when he would not say, 'A woman, a friend of mine, told me,' etc. Again, a man would say, 'Which of the ladies did you take in to dinner?' He would certainly not say, 'Which of the women,' etc.

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"Speaking of people en masse, it would be to belong to a very advanced school to refer to them in conversation as men and women,' while it would be al. but vulgar to style them 'ladies and gentlemen,' the compromise between the two being to speak of them as 'ladies and men.' Thus a lady would say, 'I have asked two or three ladies and several men'; she would not say, 'I have asked several men and women'; neither would she say, 'I have asked several ladies and gentlemen.' And, speaking of numbers, it would be very usual to say, 'There were a great many ladies, and but very few men present,' or, The ladies were in the majority, so few men being present.' Again, a lady would not say, 'I expect two or three men,' but she would say, 'I expect two or three gentlemen. When people are on ceremony with each other [one another], they might, perhaps, in speaking of a man, call him a gentleman; but, otherwise, it would be more usual to speak of him as a man. Ladies, when speaking of each other [one another], usually employ the term woman in preference to that of lady. Thus they would say, 'She is a very good-natured woman,' ' What sort of a woman is she?' the term lady being entirely out of place under such circumstances. Again, the term young lady gives place as far as possible to the term girl, although

it greatly depends upon the amount of intimacy existing as to which term is employed."

"Let the word lady go, and let ladylikeness be cultivated and intensified under the name of woman.

"Man and woman are much more sonorous, humane, and desirable terms than gentleman and lady. It may also be said that in nine cases out of ten their use is much more gentlemanly and ladylike.”—N. Y. Sun, Aug. 14, 1887.

"There's one good thing about the new woman-she doesn't call herself the new lady.”—Albany Press-Knickerbocker.

Last-Latter. Last should not be used of two only, since last is a superlative; and latter should not be used of more than two, since latter is a comparative.

Lay-Lie. Errors are frequent in the use of these two irregular verbs. Lay is often used for lie, and lie is sometimes used for lay. This confusion in their use is due, in some measure, doubtless, to the circumstance that lay appears in both verbs, it being the imperfect tense of to lie. We say, "A mason lays bricks," "A ship lies at anchor," etc.; "I must lie down"; "I must lay myself down"; "I must lay this book on the table"; "He lies on the grass"; "He lays his plans well"; He lay on the grass"; "He laid it away"; "He has lain in bed long enough"; "He has laid up some money"; "He is laying out the grounds"; Ships lie at the wharf"; "Hens lay eggs"; "The ship lay at anchor"; "The hen laid an egg." It will be seen that lay always expresses transitive action, and

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"Here lies our sovereign lord, the king,

Whose word no man relies on;

He never says a foolish thing,

Nor ever does a wise one."

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