Ambrose Bierce - Write It Right. A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

"He pays attention." "She paid a visit to Niagara." It is conceivable that one may owe attention or a visit to another person, but one cannot be indebted to a place.

"Laziness does not pay." "It does not pay to be uncivil." This use of the word is grossly commercial. Say, Indolence is unprofitable. There is no advantage in incivility.

Seldom heard in England, though common here. "I peeked out through the curtain and saw him." That it is a variant of peep is seen in the child's word peek-a-boo, equivalent to bo-peep. Better use the senior word.

Also sometimes used to denote distinction, or particularity. Properly a thing is peculiar only to another thing, of which it is characteristic, nothing else having it; as knowledge of the use of fire is peculiar to Man.

"Three people were killed." "Many people are superstitious." People has retained its parity of meaning with the Latin populus , whence it comes, and the word is not properly used except to designate a population, or large fractions of it considered in the mass. To speak of any stated or small number of persons as people is incorrect.

"Five dollars per day." "Three per hundred." Say, three dollars a day; three in a hundred. If you must use the Latin preposition use the Latin noun too: per diem ; per centum .

"The child is perpetually asking questions." What is done perpetually is done continually and forever.

Everything that occurs is phenomenal, for all that we know about is phenomena, appearances. Of realities, noumena, we are ignorant.

"He plead guilty."

"Fish and fowl were plenty."

A foolish word, like "authoress."

Not all verse is poetry; not all poetry is verse. Few persons can know, or hope to know, the one from the other, but he who has the humility to doubt ( if such a one there be ) should say verse if the composition is metrical.

"He fired at him point blank." This usually is intended to mean directly, or at short range. But point blank means the point at which the line of sight is crossed downward by the trajectory – the curve described by the missile.

Hemlock is poisonous, but a rattlesnake is venomous.

The word is not plural because it happens to end with s .

"To possess knowledge is to possess power." Possess is lacking in naturalness and unduly emphasizes the concept of ownership.

This error is very common. "It is practically conceded." "The decision was practically unanimous." "The panther and the cougar are practically the same animal." These and similar misapplications of the word are virtually without excuse.

"I predicate my argument on universal experience." What is predicated of something is affirmed as an attribute of it, as omnipotence is predicated of the Deity.

Literally, a prejudice is merely a prejudgment – a decision before evidence – and may be favorable or unfavorable, but it is so much more frequently used in the latter sense than in the former that clarity is better got by the other word for reasonless approval.

An awkward and needless word much used in discussion of national armaments, as, "Our preparedness for war."

"Professor Swackenhauer presided at the piano." "The deviled crab table was presided over by Mrs. Dooley." How would this sound? "The ginger pop stand was under the administration of President Woolwit, and Professor Sooffle presided at the flute."

"I do not pretend to be infallible." Of course not; one does not care to confess oneself a pretender. To pretend is to try to deceive; one may profess quite honestly.

No such word as preventative.

"The man died previous to receipt of the letter."

Stilted.

"I propose to go to Europe." A mere intention is not a proposal.

"He made a proposition." In current slang almost anything is a proposition. A difficult enterprise is "a tough proposition," an agile wrestler, "a slippery proposition," and so forth.

"A rock of vast proportions." Proportions relate to form; dimensions to magnitude.

Good Scotch, but bad English.

"The proverbial dog in the manger." The animal is not "proverbial" for it is not mentioned in a proverb, but in a fable.

"Jones promises to quit drinking." In another sense, too, the word is commonly misused, as, "He has quit the town." Say, quitted.

"She is quite charming." If it is meant that she is entirely charming this is right, but usually the meaning intended to be conveyed is less than that – that she is rather, or somewhat, charming.

In this country a word-of-all-work: "raise children," "raise wheat," "raise cattle." Children are brought up, grain, hay and vegetables are grown, animals and poultry are bred.

"It is real good of him." "The weather was real cold."

"I could not realize the situation." Writers caring for precision use this word in the sense of to make real, not to make seem real. A dream seems real, but is actually realized when made to come true.

To remember is to have in memory; to recollect is to recall what has escaped from memory. We remember automatically; in recollecting we make a conscious effort.

"He redeemed his good name." Redemption (Latin redemptio , from re and dimere ) is allied to ransom, and carries the sense of buying back; whereas to retrieve is merely to recover what was lost.

"A man's honesty redounds to his advantage." We make a better use of the word if we say of one (for example) who has squandered a fortune, that its loss redounds to his advantage, for the word denotes a fluctuation, as from seeming evil to actual good; as villification may direct attention to one's excellent character.

"He was refused a crown." It is the crown that was refused to him. See Given .