Write It Right. A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

'I loaned him ten dollars.' We lend, but the act of lending, or, less literally, the thing lent, is a loan.

Locate

'After many removals the family located at Smithville.' Some dictionaries give locate as an intransitive verb having that meaning, but – well, dictionaries are funny.

Lots, or a Lot, for Much, or Many

'Lots of things.' 'A lot of talk.'

Love for Like

'I love to travel.' 'I love apples.' Keep the stronger word for a stronger feeling.

Lunch for Luncheon

But do not use luncheon as a verb.

Mad for Angry

An Americanism of lessening prevalence. It is probable that anger is a kind of madness (insanity), but that is not what the misusers of the word mad mean to affirm.

Maintain for Contend

'The senator maintained that the tariff was iniquitous.' He maintained it only if he proved it.

Majority for Plurality

Concerning votes cast in an election, a majority is more than half the total; a plurality is the excess of one candidate's votes over another's. Commonly the votes compared are those for the successful candidate and those for his most nearly successful competitor.

Make for Earn

'He makes fifty dollars a month by manual labor.'

Mansion for Dwelling, or House

Usually mere hyperbole, a lamentable fault of our national literature. Even our presidents, before Roosevelt, called their dwelling the Executive Mansion.

Masculine for Male

See Feminine.

Mend for Repair

'They mended the road.' To mend is to repair, but to repair is not always to mend. A stocking is mended, a road repaired.

Meet for Meeting

This belongs to the language of sport, which persons of sense do not write – nor read.

Militate

'Negligence militates against success.' If 'militate' meant anything it would mean fight, but there is no such word.

Mind for Obey

This is a reasonless extension of one legitimate meaning of mind, namely, to heed, to give attention.

Minus for Lacking, or Without

'After the battle he was minus an ear.' It is better in serious composition to avoid such alien words as have vernacular equivalents.

Mistaken for Mistake

'You are mistaken.' For whom? Say, You mistake.

Monarch for King, Emperor, or Sovereign

Not only hyperbolical, but inaccurate. There is not a monarch in Christendom.

Moneyed for Wealthy

'The moneyed men of New York.' One might as sensibly say, 'The cattled men of Texas,' or, 'The lobstered men of the fish market.'

Most for Almost

'The apples are most all gone.' 'The returning travelers were most home.'

Moved for Removed

'The family has moved to another house.' 'The Joneses were moving.'

Mutual

By this word we express a reciprocal relation. It implies exchange, a giving and taking, not a mere possessing in common. There can be a mutual affection, or a mutual hatred, but not a mutual friend, nor a mutual horse.

Name for Title and Name

'His name was Mr. Smith.' Surely no babe was ever christened Mister.

Necessaries for Means

'Bread and meat are necessaries of life.' Not so; they are the mere means, for one can, and many do, live comfortably without them. Food and drink are necessaries of life, but particular kinds of food and drink are not.

Necessities for Necessaries

'Necessities of life are those things without which we cannot live.'

Nee

Feminine of ne, born. 'Mrs. Jones, nee Lucy Smith.' She could hardly have been christened before her birth. If you must use the French word say, nee Smith.

Negotiate

From the Latin negotium. It means, as all know, to fix the terms for a transaction, to bargain. But when we say, 'The driver negotiated a difficult turn of the road,' or, 'The chauffeur negotiated a hill,' we speak nonsense.

Neither – or for Neither – nor