the balance [remainder] was wiped out [paid].”—N. Y. Sun.

Banister. By common consent, a corruption of the word balustrade, the name in architecture of a railing formed of a range of balusters supporting a hand rail or coping.

Barbarism. Defined as an offense against good usage, by the use of an improper word-i. e., a word that is antiquated or improperly formed. Preventative, enthuse, agriculturalist, donate, etc., are barbarisms. See also SOLECISM.

Barn. A good old verb that seems to have fallen into comparative disuse.

"On Thursday afternoon last, under a flattering sun, he started for the sixth time to barn the hay."—Corr. N. Y. Sun.

Beastly. A colloquialism much used by the English; as, "What beastly weather!" "I'm beastly tired," "She's beastly ugly," etc. This use of the word, coarse as it is, is often affected by persons of culture. It is never defensible save in the phrase "beastly drunk."

Beau. A word used by the uneducated instead of to escort.-De Vere.

Been to. We not infrequently hear a superfluous to tacked to a sentence; thus, "Where have you been to?" Before. Sometimes absurdly used in the sense of rather than.

"Death before madness."-N. Y. Times.

This is like the man that died and made a will.

Beg. We often see letters begin with the words, "I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor," etc. We should write, "I beg leave to acknowledge," etc. No one would say, "I beg to tell you," instead of, "I beg leave to tell you."

Begin-Commence. These words have the same meaning; careful speakers, however, ordinarily prefer to use the former. Indeed, there is rarely any good reason for giving the preference to the latter. See also COM

MENCE.

Being. See Is BEING.

Being built. See Is BEING.

Belong. We frequently hear such expressions as, "We all belong,' ," "Do you belong," and the like, meaning, belong to an association of some sort. The only authority for this locution is vulgar usage.

Belongings. An old idiomatic expression now coming into use again.

Beside-Besides. In the later unabridged editions of Webster's Dictionary we find the following remarks concerning the use of these two words: "Beside and besides, whether used as prepositions or [as] adverbs, have been considered synonymous from an early period of our literature, and have been freely interchanged by our best writers. There is, however, a tendency in present usage to make the following distinction between them: 1. That beside be used only and always as a preposition, with the original meaning by the side of; as, to sit beside a fountain; or with the closely allied meaning aside from, or out of; as, this is beside our present purpose: Paul, thou art beside thyself.' The adverbial sense to be wholly transferred to the cognate word. 2. That besides, as a preposition, take the remaining sense, in addition to; as, besides all this; besides the consideration here offered: 'There was a famine in the land besides the first famine.' And that it also take the adverbial sense of moreover, beyond, etc., which had been divided between the words; as, besides, there are other considerations which [that] belong to this case,"

Best. See AT BEST.

Be that as it will. Properly, Be that as it may.

"

Between. This word is often misused for among; thus, "The word fellow, however much in use it may be between men, sounds very objectionable from the lips of women."-London Queen. Should be, "among men.' Between is used in reference to two things, parties, or persons; among, in reference to a greater number. "Castor and Pollux with one soul between them." "You have among you many a purchased slave."

When used to express contrast, the word may be correctly used in speaking of more than two; as, “True, the three boys are brothers, but there is a great difference between them."

Better. Often incorrectly used instead of more than ; as, "It is better than a year since I saw him."

Black-Blacken. Each of these two verbs means, to make black, yet they should not be used indiscriminately. Shoes and eyes are blacked, and reputations are blackened.

"He saw a calm, composed, dignified man, . . . his boots well blackened [blacked], his hands properly gloved,” etc. Nothing is more despicable than a desire to blacken the reputation of others. Blame it on. Here is a gross vulgarism that we sometimes hear from persons of considerable culture. They use it in the sense of accuse or suspect; thus, his brother," meaning that he accuses or suspects his brother of having done it, or of being at fault for it.

"He blames it on

Bogus. A colloquial term incompatible with dignified diction.

Both. We sometimes hear such absurd sentences as, "They both resemble each other very much"; "They are both alike”; “They both met in the street." Both is like

wise redundant in the following sentence: "It performs at the same time the offices of both the nominative and the objective case." Also redundant in such a sentence as, "He lost all his live stock-both horses, cows, and sheep."

Both is sometimes so used in negative sentences that the meaning is doubtful. "Both candidates were not appointed." Were both rejected? or was one rejected and the other appointed? A little care ordinarily enables one to avoid ambiguity.

Bound. The use of this word in the sense of doomed, determined, resolved, certain, or will be compelled is a barbarism. Not, "He is bound to do it," but, "He is determined, resolved, or certain to do it." Not, "He is bound to fail," but, "He is doomed, or destined, or sure to fail."

"The Russian nobleman is fast degenerating; he is bound [destined, or will be compelled] to yield his place to new blood."-Corr. N. Y. Sun.

"If the Queen should insist upon [on] the appointment of her son [her son's being appointed], there is bound [certain] to be a ministerial crisis.”—N. Y. Sun.

Here is a sentence in which the meaning of bound is not clear: "The Government is bound, in such a personal matter, to respect the Queen's wishes."-N. Y. Sun. Does the writer mean bound in honor, or will be compelled?

Bran-new. A corruption of brand-new.

Bravery-Courage. The careless often use these two words as though they were interchangeable. Bravery is inborn, is instinctive; courage is the product of reason, calculation. There is much merit in being courageous, little merit in being brave. Men that are simply brave are careless, while the courageous man is always cautious. Bravery often degenerates into temerity. Moral courage is that firmness of principle that enables a man to do what he

deems to be his duty although his action may subject him to adverse criticism. True moral courage is one of the rarest and most admirable of virtues.

Alfred the Great, in resisting the attacks of the Danes, displayed bravery; in entering their camp as a spy, he displayed courage.

Bring-Fetch-Carry. The indiscriminate use of these three words is very common. To bring is to convey to or toward-a simple act: to fetch means to go and bring -a compound act; to carry often implies motion from the speaker, and is followed by away or off, and thus is opposed to bring and fetch. Yet one hears such expressions as, "Go to Mrs. D.'s and bring her this bundle; and hereyou may fetch her this book also." We use the words correctly thus: "Fetch, or go bring, me an apple from the cellar"; "When you come home, bring some lemons"; Carry this book home with you."

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British against American English. "The most important peculiarity of American English is a laxity, irregularity, and confusion in the use of particles. The same thing is, indeed, observable in England, but not to the same extent, though some gross departures from idiomatic propriety, such as different to for different from, are common in England, which none but very ignorant persons would be guilty of in America. . . . In the tenses of the verbs, I am inclined to think that well-educated Americans conform more closely to grammatical propriety than the corresponding class in England. . . . In general, I think we may say that, in point of naked syntactical accuracy, the English of America is not at all inferior to that of England; but we do not discriminate so precisely in the meaning of words, nor do we habitually, in either conversation or in writing, express ourselves so gracefully or employ so

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