The word fictious is of Prior’s own coining; it is barbarous.
“The punishment that belongs to that great and criminous guilt is the forfeiture of his right and claim to all mercies.”—Hammond. Criminous is a barbarism.
“Which, even in the most overly view, will appear incompatible with any sort of music.”—Kames’s Elements. Overly is a Scotticism; in England it is now obsolete. The proper term is cursory or superficial.
“Who should believe, that a man should be a doctor for the cure of bursten children?”—Steele. The participle bursten is now obsolete.
“Callisthenes, the philosopher, that followed Alexander’s court, and hated the king, being asked, how one should become the famousest man in the world, answered, By taking away him that is.”—Bacon’s Apophth. The superlative is a barbarism; it should be, “most famous.”
SOLECISM.
“I do not like these kind of men.” Here the plural word these is joined to a noun singular; it should be, “this kind.” “Those sort,” “these kind of things,” are gross solecisms.
“Neither do I see it is any crime, farther than ill manners, to differ in opinion from the majority of either, or both houses; and that ill manners I have often been guilty of.”—Swift’s Examiner. Here is another egregious solecism. He should have said, “those ill manners,” or “that species of ill manners.”
“The landlord was quite unfurnished of every kind of provision.”—Sheridan’s Life of Swift. We say, “to furnish with,” not “to furnish of.” Furnished and unfurnished are construed in the same manner. It should be, “unfurnished with.”
“A child of four years old was thus cruelly deserted by its parents.” This form of expression frequently occurs, and is an egregious solecism. It should be, “a child four years old,” or “aged four years,” not “of four years.” Those who employ this incorrect phraseology, seem misled by confounding two very different modes of expression, namely, “a child of four years of age,” or “of the age of four years,” and “a child four years old.” The preposition of is requisite in the two first of these forms, but inadmissible in the third. They would not say, “I am of four years old,” but “I am four years old;” hence, consistently, they ought to say, “a child four years old.” “At ten years old, I was put to a grammar school.”—Steele. Grammatically this is, “I old at ten years.”