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

"Flattery of the people is the demagogue's regular means to political preferment." Regular properly relates to a rule ( regula ) more definite than the law of antecedent and consequent.

A word not yet admitted to the vocabulary of the fastidious, but with a strong backing for the place.

"On receiving your bill I will remit the money." Remit does not mean that; it means give back, yield up, relinquish, etc. It means, also, to cancel, as in the phrase, the remission of sins.

"The actor's rendition of the part was good." Rendition means a surrender, or a giving back.

A vile word, improperly made. It assumes the Latinized spelling, "reporter." The Romans had not the word, for they were, fortunately for them, without the thing.

"He repudiated the accusation."

"They reside in Hohokus." Stilted.

See Mansion .

"They were alike in that respect." The misuse comes of abbreviating: the sentence properly written might be, They were alike in respect of that – i.e., with regard to that. The word in the bad sense has even been pluralized: "In many respects it is admirable."

"They went to their respective homes." The adjective here (if an adjective is thought necessary) should be several. In the adverbial form the word is properly used in the sentence following: John and James are bright and dull, respectively. That is, John is bright and James dull.

"The bad weather is responsible for much sickness." "His intemperance was responsible for his crime." Responsibility is not an attribute of anything but human beings, and few of these can respond, in damages or otherwise. Responsible is nearly synonymous with accountable and answerable, which, also, are frequently misused.

These words have directly contrary meanings; the dictionaries' disallowance of their identity would be something to be thankful for, but that is a dream.

English of the "genteel" sort. See Genteel .

"Rev. Dr. Smith."

On horseback one does drive, and in a vehicle one does ride, but a distinction is needed here, as in England; so, here as there, we may profitably make it, riding in the saddle and driving in the carriage.

See Bedder and Mealer – if you can find them.

"They stood round." See Around .

Questionably derived and problematically needful.

Vulgar – hardly better than slang.

"He had no say in determining the matter." Vulgar.

A scholar is a person who is learned, not a person who is learning.

"He scored an advantage over his opponent." To score is not to win a point, but to record it.

There is no such word.

"He secured a position as book-keeper." "The dwarf secured a stick and guarded the jewels that he had found." Then it was the jewels that were secured.

A most absurd locution.

"A self-confessed assassin." Self is superfluous: one's sins cannot be confessed by another.

"The play caused a great sensation." "A sensational newspaper." A sensation is a physical feeling; an emotion, a mental. Doubtless the one usually accompanies the other, but the good writer will name the one that he has in mind, not the other. There are few errors more common than the one here noted.

"She sensed the fragrance of roses." Society English.

"A setting hen."

This word belongs to the peasantry of speech.

"Settle the bill." "I shall take it now and settle for it later."

"Shades of Noah! how it rained!" "O shades of Caesar!" A shade is a departed soul, as conceived by the ancients; one to each mortal part is the proper allowance.

"He didn't stand a show." Say, He had no chance.

Good usage now limits this word to cases of nausea, but it is still legitimate in sickly, sickness, love-sick, and the like.

"I side with the Democrats." "He always sided with what he thought right."

A form of whiskers named from a noted general of the civil war, Ambrose E. Burnside. It seems to be thought that the word side has something to do with it, and that as an adjective it should come first, according to our idiom.

A reasonless transposition for which it is impossible to assign a cause, unless it is abbreviated from side o' the hill.

See Endways .

"He came here not long since and died."

An Americanism that is dying out. But "smart" has recently come into use for fashionable, which is almost as bad.

"A cold snap." This is a word of incomprehensible origin in that sense; we can know only that its parents were not respectable. "Spell" is itself not very well-born.

See As – as .

"If you see it in the Daily Livercomplaint it is so." "Is that so?" Colloquial and worse.

This word rightly means to make solemn, not to perform, or celebrate, ceremoniously something already solemn, as a marriage, or a mass. We have no exact synonym, but this explains, rather than justifies, its use.

"He was hurt some."

"I would as soon go as stay." "That soldier would sooner eat than fight." Say, rather eat.

"A long space of time." Space is so different a thing from time that the two do not go well together.

"We shall spend the summer in Europe." Spend denotes a voluntary relinquishment, but time goes from us against our will.