Verbal Pitfalls: A Manual of 1500 Words Commonly Misused ... Arranged Alphabetically, with 3000 References and Quotations, and the Ruling of the Dictionaries |
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Common terms and phrases
adjective adverb Alford Allowed by Wb ALMS Ameri American applied asked best writers better book of Daniel called Chaucer Colloquial common conjunction correct Defended denote dictionary distinction doubt employed England English English language expression female Fitzedward Hall followed French Gaul gentleman give given graduate grammar grammarians Hall hear heard idiomatic implies John kind Knights Templar lady language Latin latter leave meaning modern never nice noun object Obsolete once one's origin participle person phrase plural preposition present preterite pronoun properly question quotes rarely reference replied Richard Grant White seems sense sentence Shakspere signification singular slang society solecism sometimes speakers speaking speech spelled substituted superfluous synonym term thing tion tive transitive verb truth usage verb verbal Violincello vulgar Wighill woman word wrong York young
Popular passages
Page 200 - A man of a polite imagination is let into a great many pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable companion in 'a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows, than another does in the possession.
Page 184 - By and by we hear news of shipwreck in the same place, and then we are to blame, if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that, comes out a hideous monster, with fire and smoke, and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave. While in the meantime, two armies fly in, represented with four swords and bucklers, and then what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field?
Page 117 - Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another : and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Page 28 - A genuine book is that which was written by the person whose name it bears, as the author of it. An authentic book is that which relates matters of fact, as they really happened.
Page 104 - ... rests upon a rich and comprehensive basis : it cannot be rendered adequately, either by German or by Greek, the two richest of human languages ; and without this expressive word, we should all be disarmed for one great case, continually recurrent, of social enormity. A vast mass of...
Page 218 - A friend of mine (why should I not please myself, though I displease him, by brightening my page with the initials of the most exquisite of humorists, JH ?) told me that he once heard five " wells," like pioneers, precede the answer to an inquiry about the price of land.
Page 7 - ON THE STUDY OF WORDS. Lectures Addressed (originally) to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training School, Winchester.
Page 34 - 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 belong to this case.
Page 80 - We read only the other day a report of a lecture on the poet Crabbe, in which she who was afterwards Mrs. Crabbe was spoken of as 'a female to whom he had formed an attachment.
Page 83 - A flock of girls is. called a bevy; a bevy of wolves is called a pack; a pack of thieves is called a gang; a gang of angels, a host; a host of porpoises, a shoal; a shoal of buffalo, a herd; a herd of children, a troop; a troop of partridges, a covey; a covey of beauties, a galaxy; a galaxy of ruffians, a horde; a horde of rubbish, a heap; a heap of oxen, a drove; a drove of blackguards, a mob; a mob of whales, a school; a school of worshipers, a congregation; a congregation of engineers, a corps;...