PREVENTATIVE-preventive; as if there were such an English verb as preventate. RESIDENTER-resident; as if the verb were resident and not reside. RETIRACY-retirement; as if there were such an English adjective as retirate. STRATEGETICAL-strategic; as if the noun were strateges, and not strategos. TRANSMOGRIFY-transform; as if there were such a Latin root as mogr-. UNCONSCIONABLE enormous, unjustifiable; a word built up of etymological blunders. § 45. Under the head of Ill-formed Words may properly be included those barbarisms that arise from violation of the rules of Grammatical Etymology. Such are the following: EXERCISE.-UNAUTHORIZED WORDS TO BE CORRECTED. Mr. Ward's buggies have a good deal of goity about them. The Rev. Mr. Scott will funeralize Mrs. Strong on this day three weeks. If the house is come-at-able at all, it is only by a circumbendibus. The neighborhood is much less troubled with latrociny since the Spensers have absquatulated. I disremember the exact date of his embracement of religion, but it is certain that he has attended none of our jollifications since that event. With his foolish hurryment, he jeopardized the lives of the whole family. It was a strategetical movement, but it was not performed in a judgmatical manner. Moral law always involves the idea of oughtness. What external circumstances can happify an unforgiven sinner? A sense of goneness in the visceral region is one of the most annoyful symptoms of the disease. He is too go-ahead-ative ever to be found in a state of betweenity as to different courses of action. This venerable residenter has come forth to-day from his retiracy, in answer to a very inexpected call. Argufy the question how it will affect us pocketually. FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES. § 46. It is a violation of purity to use in discourse a word or phrase borrowed from some other language, when the same idea could be expressed by an English term. He who is guilty of such a practice may justly be suspected of the contemptible fault called pedantry. Sometimes this pedantry is displayed by the unnecessary use of Latin and Greek terms, but far more frequently it is French that is dragged in to give an air of elegance and fashion to style. These French words are called Gallicisms; a word derived from the ancient name of France. A few of these French phrases are useful additions to our vocabulary, because they express ideas that no Engglish word will express so well: but the following list contains those for which this apology can not be advanced. LIST OF GALLICISMS. Affaire du cœur-a love affair. ion. Amende honorable—satisfaction, Apropos to the purpose. Beau monde-the fashionable world. Beaux arts-fine arts. Dernier ressort-the last resort. * Chateau would be proper in speaking of a house in France. École-school. Empressement-earnestness (in manner). Embonpoint-corpulence. En masse-in mass Jeu d'esprit a display of wit. Mauvaise honte-false shame. Nous verrons-we shall see. Vis-à-vis face to face. EXERCISES.-CORRECTION OF GALLICISMS INTO PURE ENGLISH. All the élevés of that école have a penchant for the beaux arts. The emperor seems to have embonpoint, but I do not like the hauteur of his manner. The chateau of the senator was soon surrounded by the canaille, but he went forth, and spoke to them in a very brusque manner. The entire beau monde have been for a week on the qui vive to hear the denouement of the matter. The young men gave us quite a jeu d'esprit; but, under the circumstances, it was condemned as malapropos. Just as he was about to cut off the tough wing with a coup de grace of his knife, the goose slipped from under his fork, out of the plate, and landed in the lap of a lady just opposite. "Madam," said he, with the utmost sang-froid, "I will thank you for that goose." Her dress is very outré, and there is always something bizarre about her head. Moreover her agremens are too glaring for the rest of her dress. There I met my ci-devant governess, who, with a great deal of empressement, bade me welcome to the occasion. MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES.-CORRECTION OF BARBARISMS OF DIFFERENT KINDS. I have got myself into a hobble about this brat of yours, and I want you to take the jackanapes away. In sooth I wis she looks lorn enow, if looks will bring any boot to her. He that was so remarkable for candidness has at last learned to dissimule. The dernier ressort of the emperor will be to make the amende honorable, but nous verrons. He repeated a rigmarole of nonsense in a humdrum manner, and cruciated us for three full hours. For whose behoof will this petit-maitre accompany the party? I defy you to conject all the on-dits that we have heard sith our arrival hither. This affaire du cœur between the young people brought the two families to loggerheads, and eventuated in transmogrifying the whole neighborhood into a quarrelous community. Every thing goes helter-skelter and topsy-turvy when the boss gets on a spree. Sooth to say, it irks me to hear such a man hold forth for an hour. The gaseity of his style totally unfits his sermons for the awakenment of the irreligious. This painting is merely a coup d'essai, but the scene is drawn au naturel. CHAPTER VI. PROPRIETY. § 47. The words and phrases of a piece of composition must not only be such as belong to the language, but they must be the right words to convey the meaning intended. This property of good style is called Propriety. It may be considered under two subordinate heads; Lexical Propriety and Decorous Propriety. The former is generally violated through ignorance; the latter, through ill-breeding or bad taste. I. LEXICAL PROPRIETY. § 48. Lexical Propriety is violated when a word is used in a sense which good usage does not give to it. Strictly speaking, Lexical Propriety would include the proper use of synonyms; but that topic is, by most writers on Rhetoric, referred to the head of Precision, and will be most conveniently treated in that connection. § 49. Lexical Propriety may be divided, for the sake of convenience, into three subordinate heads; (1) the dis crimination of paronyms, (2) the proper use of prepositions, and (3) the proper use of words generally. I. THE DISCRIMINATION OF PARONYMS. § 50. Words are said to be Paronyms when they are derived from the same root, whether that root belongs to the original English (Anglo-Saxon) stock, or has been introduced into the language from some other tongue. For instance, the following words are paronyms, being all derived from the Latin root, signifying to put or place: compose, depose, interpose, oppose, dispose, impose expose, repose, transpose, propose, and suppose. In many cases, the derived words retain a very close connection with the common radical; so that the cognate paronyms have a very perceptible relation in meaning. But in other cases, one or both of the paronyms have changed their signification so much that scarcely any trace of the relation is left, except what exists in the form of the words. On this and the following pages, lists of paronymous words are given, arranged in cognate pairs. The pupil is required to acquaint himself with their meaning, if he does not already know it; and in reciting, give, in his own language, as nearly as he can, the precise difference between the words of each pair. |