they hardly can be used, independently of the name of the writer, as Mrs., or Miss, or a female Christian name. They are, besides, philological absurdities, because they are fabricated on the false assumption that their primaries indicate men. They are, moreover, liable to the charge of affectation and prettiness, to say nothing of pedantic pretension to accuracy.

"If the ess is to be permitted, there is no reason for excluding it from any noun that indicates a person; and the next editions of our dictionaries may be made complete by the addition of writress, officeress, manageress, superintendentess, secretaryess, treasureress, walkeress, talkeress, and so on to the end of the vocabulary."

On the other hand, there are those that think the use of authoress should be left to individual tastes. It can not be denied, however, that we could get on quite as well without it.

Avenge-Revenge. We avenge wrong done to others, and revenge wrong done to ourselves.

"With tears in her eyes she related the insult she had received, and entreated me to avenge her."

Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come,

Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius."

"The just avenger of his injured ancestors."

Avocation. Often misused for vocation. Our avocations are the things we do for the love of doing them; our vocations are the things we do for gain.

"Every man should have two things: a vocation and an avocation. The number of Americans who [that] find their avocation in book-collecting has greatly increased within the last few years."

"Let your authorship be a pastime, not a trade; let it be your avocation, not your vocation."

น 'The tracing of resemblances among the objects' and events of the world is a constant avocation of the human mind." See VOCATION.

Avoid. We often see this word, which means to shun, to keep away from, misused in the sense of prevent or hinder, thus:

it."

"There shall be no cause of complaint if I can avoid

Awful.

Persons with only a limited vocabulary at their command frequently use this word when some other word of a less repulsive mien would be chosen by persons of better taste and more culture.

correct.

A while since. An expression often heard but not We should say, "A while ago." See SINCE. Bad cold. Inasmuch as colds are never good, why say a bad cold? We may talk about slight colds and severe colds, but not about bad colds.

Badly. Sometimes inelegantly used for very much; thus, "I shall miss you badly," "I have wanted to see you badly."

Baggage. See LUGGAGE.

Balance. This word is frequently and very erroneously used in the sense of rest, remainder. It properly means the excess of one thing over another, and in this sense, and in no other, should it be used. Hence it is improper to talk about the balance of the edition, of the evening, of the money, of the toasts, of the men, etc. In such cases the proper word to use is rest or remainder. Balance is properly used in speaking of accounts-the difference between the debits and the credits.

"It sold to them by the square foot land which [that] it had bought at acre prices, generally [usually] taking one third in cash and part of the miner's pay every month until

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.

as,

Beastly. A colloquialism much used by the English; 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, "He blames it on his brother," meaning that he accuses or suspects his brother of having done it, or of being at fault for it.

Bogus. A colloquial term incompatible with dignified diction.

Both. We sometimes hear such absurd sentences as,

'They both resemble each other very much"; both alike"; "They both met in the street."

They are Both is like