A dictionary word, to swell the book.
'A party named Brown.' The word, used in that sense, has the excuse that it is a word. Otherwise it is no better than 'pants' and 'gent.' A person making an agreement, however, is a party to that agreement.
'He pays attention.' 'She paid a visit to Niagara.' It is conceivable that one may owe attention or a visit to another person, but one cannot be indebted to a place.
'Laziness does not pay.' 'It does not pay to be uncivil.' This use of the word is grossly commercial. Say, Indolence is unprofitable. There is no advantage in incivility.
Seldom heard in England, though common here. 'I peeked out through the curtain and saw him.' That it is a variant of peep is seen in the child's word peek-a-boo, equivalent to bo-peep. Better use the senior word.
Also sometimes used to denote distinction, or particularity. Properly a thing is peculiar only to another thing, of which it is characteristic, nothing else having it; as knowledge of the use of fire is peculiar to Man.
'Three people were killed.' 'Many people are superstitious.' People has retained its parity of meaning with the Latin
'Five dollars
'The child is perpetually asking questions.' What is done perpetually is done continually and forever.
Everything that occurs is phenomenal, for all that we know about is phenomena, appearances. Of realities, noumena, we are ignorant.
'He plead guilty.'
'Fish and fowl were plenty.'
A foolish word, like 'authoress.'
Not all verse is poetry; not all poetry is verse. Few persons can know, or hope to know, the one from the other, but he who has the humility to doubt (
'He fired at him point blank.' This usually is intended to mean directly, or at short range. But point blank means the point at which the line of sight is crossed downward by the trajectory – the curve described by the missile.
Hemlock is poisonous, but a rattlesnake is venomous.
The word is not plural because it happens to end with
'To possess knowledge is to possess power.' Possess is lacking in naturalness and unduly emphasizes the concept of ownership.
This error is very common. 'It is practically conceded.' 'The decision was practically unanimous.' 'The panther and the cougar are practically the same animal.' These and similar misapplications of the word are virtually without excuse.
'I predicate my argument on universal experience.' What is predicated of something is affirmed as an attribute of it, as omnipotence is predicated of the Deity.
Literally, a prejudice is merely a prejudgment – a decision before evidence – and may be favorable or unfavorable, but it is so much more frequently used in the latter sense than in the former that clarity is better got by the other word for reasonless approval.
An awkward and needless word much used in discussion of national armaments, as, 'Our preparedness for war.'
'Professor Swackenhauer presided at the piano.' 'The deviled crab table was presided over by Mrs. Dooley.' How would this sound? 'The ginger pop stand was under the administration of President Woolwit, and Professor Sooffle presided at the flute.'
