your brother, if you can." In such sentences as these, the proper particle to use is clearly to and not and. And is sometimes improperly used instead of or; thus, "It is obvious that a language like the Greek and Latin" (language ?), etc., should be, "a language like the Greek or the Latin" (language), etc. There is no such thing as a Greek and Latin language. Answer-Reply. These two words should not be used indiscriminately. An answer is given to a question; a reply, to an assertion. When we are addressed, we answer; when we are accused, we reply. We answer letters, and reply to any arguments, statements, or accusations they may contain. Crabb is in error in saying that replies “are used in personal discourse only." Replies, as well as answers, are written. We very properly write, "I have now, I believe, answered all your questions and replied to all your arguments." A rejoinder is made to a reply. "Who goes there?" he cried; and, receiving no answer, he fired. "The advocate replied to the charges made against his client." Anticipate. Lovers of big words have a fondness for making this verb do duty for expect. Anticipate is derived from two Latin words meaning before and to take, and, when properly used, means, to take beforehand; to go before so as to preclude another; to get the start or ahead of; to enjoy, possess, or suffer, in expectation; to foretaste. It is, therefore, misused in such sentences as, "Her death is hourly anticipated"; "By this means it is anticipated that the time from Europe will be lessened two days." Antithesis. A phrase that opposes contraries is called an antithesis. "I see a chief who leads my chosen sons, All armed with points, antitheses, and puns." The following are examples: "Though gentle, yet not dull; Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full." The following is an excellent example of personification and antithesis combined: "Talent convinces ; Genius but excites : That tasks the reason; this the soul delights. In the following extract from Johnson's "Life of Pope," individual peculiarities are contrasted by means of antith eses: “Of genius—that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical vigor Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more; for every other writer, since Milton, must give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be said that, if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by some external occasion or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without consideration and published without correction. What his mind could supply at call or gather in one excursion was all that he sought and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to con dense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce or chance might supply. If the flights of Dryden, therefore. are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller." There are forms of antithesis in which the contrast is only of a secondary kind. Any. This word is sometimes made to do service for at all. We say properly, "She is not any better"; but we can not properly say, “She does not see any," meaning that she is blind. Anybody else. "Public School Teachers are informed that anybody else's is correct."-" New York Times," Sunday, July 31, 1881. An English writer says: "In such phrases as anybody else, and the like, else is often put in the possessive case; as, ‘anybody else's servant'; and some grammarians defend this use of the possessive case, arguing that somebody else is a compound noun." It is better grammar and more euphonious to consider else as being an adjective, and to form the possessive by adding the apostrophe and s to the word that else qualifies; thus, any. body's else, nobody's else, somebody's else. Anyhow. "An exceedingly vulgar phrase," says Professor Mathews, in his "Words: Their Use and Abuse." "Its use, in any manner, by one who professes to write and speak the English tongue with purity, is unpardonable." Professor Mathews seems to have a special dislike for this colloquialism. It is recognized by the lexicographers, and I think is generally accounted, even by the careful, permissible in conversation, though incompatible with dignified diction. Anxiety of Mind. See EQUANIMITY OF MIND. Apostrophe. Turning from the person or persons to whom a discourse is addressed and appealing to some person or thing absent, constitutes what, in rhetoric, is called the apostrophe. The following are some examples: "O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, Of quenchless eye and tireless wing!" "Help, angels, make assay ! Bow, stubborn knees! and heart with strings of steel, All may yet be well!" Appear. See SEEM. Appreciate. If any word in the language has cause to complain of ill-treatment, this one has. Appreciate means, to estimate justly-to set the true value on men or things, their worth, beauty, or advantages of any sort whatsoever. Thus, an overestimate is no more appreciation than is an underestimate; hence it follows that such expressions as, "I appreciate it, or her, or him, highly," can not be correct. We value, or prize, things highly, not appreciate them highly. This word is also very improperly made to do service for ise, or increase, in value; thus, "Land appreciates rapidly in the West." Dr. L. T. Townsend ... blunders in the use of appreciate in his "Art of Speech," vol. i, p. 142, thus: "The laws of harmony . . . may allow copiousness . . . in parts of a discourse . . . in order that the condensation of other parts may be the more highly appreciated." ... Apprehend-Comprehend. ... The English often use the first of these two words where we use the second. Both express an effort of the thinking faculty; but to apprehend is simply to take an idea into the mind-it is the mind's first effort—while to comprehend is fully to understand. We are dull or quick of apprehension. Children apprehend much that they do not comprehend. Trench says: "We apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend." “Apprehend," says Crabb, expresses the weakest kind of belief, the having [of] the least idea of the presence of a thing." Apt. Often misused for likely, and sometimes for liable. "What is he apt to be doing? "Where shall I be apt to find him?” “If properly directed, it will be apt to reach me." In such sentences as these, likely is the proper word to use. 'If you go there, you will be apt to get into trouble." Here either likely or liable is the proper word, according to the thought the speaker would convey. " Arctics. See RUBBERS. Artist. Of late years this word has been appropriated by the members of so many crafts, that it has wellnigh been despoiled of its meaning. Your cook, your barber, your tailor, your boot-maker, and so on to satiety, are all artists. Painters, sculptors, architects, actors, and singers, nowadays, generally prefer being thus called, rather than to be spoken of as artists. As. "Not as I know" read, "not that I know." "This is not as good as the last ": read, "not so good." |