Polite. This word is much used by persons of doubtful culture, where those of the better sort use the word kind. We accept kind, not polite invitations; and, when any one has been obliging, we tell him that he has been kind; and, when an interviewing reporter tells us of his having met with a polite reception, we may be sure that the person by whom he has been received deserves well for his considerate kindness. "I thank you and Mrs. Pope for my kind reception."—Atterbury.
Portion. This word is often incorrectly used for part. A portion is properly a part assigned, allotted, set aside for a special purpose; a share, a division. The verb to portion means to divide, to parcel, to endow. We ask, therefore, "In what part [not, in what portion] of the country, state, county, town, or street do you live?"—or, if we prefer grandiloquence to correctness, reside. In the sentence, "A large portion of the land is unfilled," the right word would be either part or proportion, according to the intention of the writer.
Posted. A word very much and very inelegantly used for informed. Such expressions as, "I will post you," "I must post myself up," "If I had been better posted," and the like, are, at the best, but one remove from slang.
Predicate. This word is often very incorrectly used in the sense of to base; as, "He predicates his opinion on insufficient data." Then we sometimes hear people talk about predicating an action upon certain information or upon somebody's statement. To predicate means primarily to speak before, and has come to be properly used in the sense of assumed or believed to be the consequence of. Examples: "Contentment is predicated of virtue"; "Good health may be predicated of a good constitution." He who is not very sure that he uses the word correctly would do better not to use it at all.
Prejudice—Prepossess. Both these words mean, to incline in one direction or the other for some reason not founded in justice; but by common consent prejudice has come to be used in an unfavorable sense, and prepossess in a favorable one. Thus, we say, "He is prejudiced against him," and "He is prepossessed in his favor." We sometimes hear the expression, "He is prejudiced in his favor," but this can not be accounted a good use of the word.
Prepositions. The errors made in the use of the prepositions are very numerous. "The indolent child is one who [that?] has a strong aversion from action of any sort."—Graham's "English Synonymes," p. 236. The prevailing and best modern usage is in favor of to instead of from after averse and aversion, and before the object. "Clearness ... enables the reader to see thoughts without noticing the language with which they are clothed."—Townsend's "Art of Speech." We clothe thoughts in language. "Shakespeare ... and the Bible are ... models for the English-speaking tongue."—Ibid. If this means models of English, then it should be of; but if it means models for English organs of speech to practice on, then it should be for; or if it means models to model English tongues after, then also it should be for. "If the resemblance is too faint, the mind is fatigued while attempting to trace the analogies." "Aristotle is in error while thus describing governments."—Ibid. Here we have two examples, not of the misuse of the preposition, but of the erroneous use of the adverb while instead of the preposition in. "For my part I can not think that Shelley's poetry, except by snatches and fragments, has the value of the good work of Wordsworth or Byron."—Matthew Arnold. Should be, "except in snatches." "Taxes with us are collected nearly [almost] solely from real and personal estate."—"Appletons' Journal." Taxes are levied on estates and collected from the owners.
"If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, I may hope to be pardoned for their brevity." Cobbett comments on this sentence as follows: "We may commend him for the beauty of his works, and we may pardon him for their brevity, if we deem the brevity a fault; but this is not what he means. He means that, at any rate, he shall have the merit of brevity. 'If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, I may hope to be pardoned on account of their brevity.' This is what the Doctor meant; but this would have marred a little the antithesis: it would have unsettled a little of the balance of that seesaw in which Dr. Johnson so much delighted, and which, falling into the hands of novel-writers and of members of Parliament, has, by moving unencumbered with any of the Doctor's reason or sense, lulled so many thousands asleep! Dr. Johnson created a race of writers and speakers. 'Mr. Speaker, that the state of the nation is very critical, all men will allow; but that it is wholly desperate, few will believe.' When you hear or see a sentence like this, be sure that the person who speaks or writes it has been reading Dr. Johnson, or some of his imitators. But, observe, these imitators go no further than the frame of the sentences. They, in general, take care not to imitate the Doctor in knowledge and reasoning."
The rhetoricians would have us avoid such forms of expression as, "The boy went to and asked the advice of his teacher"; "I called on and had a conversation with my brother."
Very often the preposition is not repeated in a sentence, when it should be. We say properly, "He comes from Ohio or from Indiana"; or, "He comes either from Ohio or Indiana."
Prepossess. See [Prejudice].