St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-12-31
INCORRECT USE OF WORDS
Examples Of the Misuse of Language
Common Among People Of
Educa ton.

him little, says the San Francisco Bull
letin. Thought is conveyed from one
mind to another by words; and in Or
der that there may be perfect meet
ing OF minds among men-in order,
that is, that the hearer or reader may
take the exact meaning which the
speaker or writer intends to express,
it is necessary that words be used and
understood rightly. If a word means
| one thing to speaker and another to
his hearers, they will fail to catch his
! thoughts, or, rather, they will attrib-
ute to him thought that is not his.
Many times persons who are quite in
accord with one another dispute be-
cause they mistake the meaning of
words. It should, therefore, as Her.
| bert Spencer said, be matter of con-
science not to misuse words; it should
also be a matter of conscience to re-
sist misuse of them. Especially"
added Spencer, Should our own Ian
guage be thus guarded. If, as several
unbiased foreign judges hold, the Eng
fish language will be, and ought to be,
the universal language, it becomes the
more duty of mankind to check bad
habits of speech"
Possibly no other vernacular tongue
is so greatly misused by the common
atty as English. The English Is a
polyglot language rasped from many
sources, and words imported from
other languages, such as the Latin and
Greek, are very liable to acquire
strange, incorrect meanings. Take,
for instance, the word exemplary"
The true meaning of exemplary" is
that which serves for an example. In
the popular mind, however, 'exem-
plary" is word of general approval.
Even when used in the sense of serv-
ing as an example, the example is pre-
sumeG to be good example,; that is,
am example which ought to be fol-
lowed. There is no good reason for
thus narrowing the meaning of use
full word. A drunkard may be as ex-
emplary of drunkards as a sober man
of this kind. Exemplary conduct may
be very despicable.
To precisian-and precisian is
not always contemplate, though he is
frequently contemptuous-the or
binary newspaper gives offense con-
stantly by misusing words. The term
real estate" for example, is employed
by the newspapers as a synonym for
land. Real estate" however, is
technical term Of the lawyers and
means not land, but an interest in
land. When man sells groceries he
does not speak of selling personal es-
tate. Why, then, when he sells land,
does he describe the transaction as a
sale of real estate?
Another word, commonly misused,
is execute" which is employed in the
sense of putting to death by sentence
of a court A man is hanged or shot
or beheaded or killed with electricity.
1t is not the man but the sentence that
is executed. Limited" means re-
stricted to certain limits. 1t does not
mean small or brief, as in the phrases
a limited price" or a limited &C
quaintance." Replaced means put
back into the same place. A book
taken from shelf may be replaced.
But it is error to say that Mayor
Schmitz replaced Mayor Phelan, or
that, among the moderns, agnosticism
has replaced religion. To replace is
not the same as to displace or to
supersede.
Superior" means higher. It does
not mean able or virtuous, as, in the
common phrase "a superior person."
TRANSFERRED" literally means to
breathe through, and is employed cor
rectly, though fguratively, of any
thing that passes off insensibly. Per-
spiration may transpire; so may a
secret; but it is absurd to say that an
event transpired when one means that
it occurred or took place. The news of
concealed forgery may transpire long
while after the forgery was done. "Wit.
ness" which, however, is Saxon word,
means one who gives testimony from
personal knowledge. One does not wit.
ness a balloon in the air ''Defalcate" |
is used in the newspapers as synonym
for embezzle. Defalcate, however,
means nothing more than to lop off or |
detract from. A defalcation may be an
act of honesty as we'll as of theft. One
defalcates when he takes from sum of
money an amount justly due to him
self.
Ot course, the meanings of words
change from time to time. and what was
incorrect in the nineteenth century may
become corr ect in the tw ,ntleth. 'Pecu-
mary" once meant wealthy in cattle
Nice" in Chaucer's day, meant foolish
Or ignorant Fond" formerly meant
foolish. But in words, as in dress.
gentleman should be conservatives;
should lean slightly to the archaic,