Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1882-03-22

and The like. Some writers never
begin anything; they always ''inau-
gurate" or initiate" or, at the very
best, commence" it; if a speaker or
singer is well received by his audi
ence, he receives all ''ovation;" if q
man is kindhearted he is called a
humanitarian" G. e., q believer on
! ly In the human nature of Christi,
which is to attribute a grave heresy
to a man under pretext of compli-
menting him; and ifone of this like
goes to church he always speaks of
it as the sanctuary" We eshort
all who read this article to eschew
these and I'll similar errors. What
ever you may say in the freedom of
conversation, when you take your
pens use plain words to express
plain meanings. If you mean
granted, don't say accorded" if a
speaker has talked fifteen minutes
on subject, don't say that he "al-
ludcd" to it, which means merely
to touch and pass 10y topic; if you
mean think, don't say Consider"
which denotes the careful weighing
of thing; don't say residence" for
house, individual" for person,
portion" for part, purchase" for
buy, and be chary of vicinity" for
neighborhood. In short, don't be
stilted.
Allied TO this class of errors is
that careless and slangy use ofwords
which results from an effort to be
colloquial and easy in writing. 1t
is not easy to be familiar without
becoming vulgar, but the art can be
learned in writing as well as in So
cial intercourse. Careful writers
will avoid all such phrases as the
following: Balance for remainder,
bound" for determined, claim"
for assert, ''indorse" for approve,
loan for lend, Gown for confess.
\ very common kind Of mistake is
the misuse of small words through
mere carelessness; as, to say "less'
when fewer is meant, or To use
such for 50. This last might be
indefinitely increased.
There is also class Of nisused
words, all too common, that are
positively vulgar. Under this head
of course, comes all slang, of which
no woll-brcd man ought to be gull
" under any circumstances. TO
slang may be added such words as
these; "and" in phases like try to
do;" ''apt' used for likely; got" III
combinations Ike che has got a for
tune; "hcalthy" for wholesome
(lobstcrs are usually healthy, but
they are considered unwholesome);
companion" for wife; female for
woman; "ladv" for woman or wife
(these last three are the supcrlatives
Of yulgarity); ''party'' for person;
posted" for informed; retire" for
90 to bed; superior as thus appli-
ed, "she is a very superior person"
Probably the examples will suffice.
Still another class of misused words
are m;semployed in such ways as to
leave room for the charitable infer
ence that the writer is ignorant of
their real meaning. When one uses
"alternative," the proposition "be-
tween" and the conjunctions both
and" or ''neithel no" to refer to
more than two objects, it is evil
dent that he is guilty of nothing
worse than gross ignorance. The
same conclusion follows when one
calls two objects couple" wien
the two objects are not united by
any sort of bond. 1t is doubtful
whether pair should not be restrict
ed to two objects SO united. "Dis-
tinguished" is often wrongly used
by those who are not accustomed to
discriminate between two words of
similar meaning.