Residence. In speaking of a man's domicile, it is not only in better taste but more correct to use the term house than residence. A man has a residence in New York, when he has lived here long enough to have the right to exercise the franchise here; and he may have a house in Fifth Avenue where he lives. People who are live in houses; people who would be reside in residences. The former buy things; the latter purchase them.
Rest. See [Balance].
Restive. Some of the dictionaries, Richard Grant White, and some other writers, contend that this word, when properly used, means unwilling to go, standing still stubbornly, obstinate, stubborn, and nothing else. In combating this opinion, Fitzedward Hall says: "Very few instances, I apprehend, can be produced, from our literature, of this use of restive." Webster gives impatient, uneasy, as a second meaning; and this is the sense in which the word is nearly always used.
Retire. It is only the over-nice who use retire in the sense of go to bed.
Reverend—Honorable. Many persons are in doubt whether they should or should not put the before these adjectives. Emphatically, yes, they should. See "Words and Their Uses," by Richard Grant White, for a full discussion of the question; also "Good English," by Edward S. Gould.
Rhetoric. The art which has for its object the rendering of language effective is called rhetoric. Without some study of the art of composition, no one can expect to write well, or to judge the literary work of others.
"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance."
Ride—Drive. Fashion, both in England and in this country, says that we must always use the second of these words when we speak of going out in a carriage, although ride means, according to all the lexicographers, "to be carried on a horse or other animal, or in any kind of vehicle or carriage."
Right. Singularly enough, this word is made, by some people, to do service for ought, in duty bound, under obligation to; thus, "You had a right to tell me," meaning, "You should have told me." "The Colonists contended that they had no right to pay taxes," meaning, "They were under no obligation to pay taxes," i. e., that it was unjust to tax them.
Right here. The expressions "right here" and "right there" are Americanisms. Correctly, "just here" and "just there."