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.

1

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.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

I, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.

1884.

7083
MAR
12
1884-

COPYRIGHT BY

D. AFFLETON AND COMPANY,

1881.

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,"