Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

| instance, who invariably mixes up
| cavalry" and Calvary" although 1t
goes without saying that he thoroughly
| understands the difference between, the
two, both as TO spelling and meaning.
| In writing he never makes this mis-
take, but often in talking. especially II
the conversation happens to be in the
nature of an argument, he will start to
say Calvary" for cavalry" His
trouble is with "v' and "a"
| Another acquaintance specializes on
getting horizontal" and vertical con-
fused. When he wants to speak of an
| up-and-down direction he says "hori-
zontal," and when he wants to say a
thing is horizontal he designates 1t as
vertical"
The trouble he has had with these
terms in the past insures that he viii
have difficulty with them in the future.
The more he uses his will power, the
less likely he is to forget.
| Another man insists on confusing
| prone" which means face downward,
with "supine," which means lying on
the back. although this is a common
error Of confusion. INDUCED in by many
persons. In loose coloquial usage
prone" means lying fiat. without refer
ence to position; The terms come from
the Latin for hand" and spine" re-
spectively. Prone" means face down.
ward, and "Supine" means face upward,
which would seem to be easy enough to
remember, but Just let one make the
mistake once. look 1t up in the diction-
airy. and then watch the fun begin.
When he attempted to use one or the
other Of the words. especially before
some one who. he knows, will be wait
ing to catch him up" there i'm
mediately arises a sense of fear that he
will use the wrong one, and this feeling,
like that Of falling from height. will
plunge him headlong into the very one
he fears, unless he is extremely careful.
y Il n
Happy is the man who loves his Eng
lish so we'll that he rather enjoys these
errors which creep into converse ton
and sometimes into writing.
He is not irked by them so much as
amused. He realizes that many Of
them form a part of the conversation
of "the people," brawny men and
women who have had neither the time
nor opportunity to perfect themselves in
the niceties of speech.
He knows that eternal correctness
tends to make Jack a. dull boy, indeed
The man who uses his native tongue
gayly. without worrying overmuch about
it, comes out the winner whereas he
WHO peTpetually is fearful bllHC ne Will
make mistake" loses something out
of the pure Joy of life.
1t is much easier for the gay user of
English to understand the state of
mind of the querulous user, for every
one has. at some time or other, gone in
for correctness" Purity OF speech Is
an ideal which dies hard. but it has
died so many times, and in the best
books and speech. too. that 1t should
be used to 1t by this time.
The man who believes in the sanctity
of grammatical purity has every right
to his belief. He does a great deal to
save the language from those low-brows
who would, through ignorance or in
difference, prostitute a great tongue to
the level of the gutter. His mistake
comes. we believe, in taking himself
| and his beliefs too seriously. The errors
of others are not capital crimes, in the
| republic Of letters. nor are they aimed
particularly at him. He is not, nor
have his brothers ever been, the
custodian Of the English language.
Rather the man who ventures, who
, dares, who sometimes makes mistakes
through the very fertility of his at
tempts. is he who makes the language
what 1t Is and what it shall be.