die: A word often misapplied especially by persons accustomed to use inane superlatives as “She died with laughing”; “I thought she’d have died.” Die, as a hyperbole, means, “to have a great desire for,” and this sense is an undesirable perversion.
difference: Careful note should be made of the appropriate prepositions. The Standard Dictionary says: “Difference between the old and the new; differences among men; a difference in character; of action, of style; (less frequently) a difference (controversy) with a person; a difference of one thing from (incorrectly to) another.”
different from: Different to, though common in England, is not sustained by good authority. The best literary usage is uniformly from, following the analogy of the verb differ; one thing differs from or is different from another.
differ from, differ with: One thing may differ from another, or one person may differ from another, as in physique; but one person may differ with another in opinion.
dippy: An extreme vulgarism for “mentally unbalanced.”
direct should not be used where address is intended. Do not say “Direct your letters to me at Cook’s;” say, rather, “Address your letters,” etc.
directly, which means “in a direct or straight course or manner,” and so “without medium,” has not unnaturally been extended to signify “without medium or intervention of time; immediately.” American critics have objected to this use, but in England it is popular.
disappoint: Since disappoint implies frustration or defeat, one cannot be agreeably disappointed; rather agreeably surprised.
discharge. Compare [ASSUME].
discreet, discrete: Both words are derived from the Latin discretus, pp. of discerno, dis + cerno, separate, and formerly discreet was also spelt discrete, and even had the meaning of “separate, distinct,” which sense now belongs exclusively to discrete. Discreet is used with the signification of “evincing discernment, judicious, prudent.”