each other: Strictly applied to two only, whereas one another implies more than two. “The two friends congratulated each other” (i. e., each one the other). “This commandment I give unto you that ye love one another:” Yet this expression is now used carelessly as a reciprocal pronoun; and Whittier writes “To worship rightly is to love each other.”
effect, affect: Distinguish carefully between these terms. To effect means to accomplish; to affect, to influence. By concerted action men may effect reforms which shall affect their condition.
effluvia: A word often used incorrectly from the mistaken idea that it is of the singular number. Do not say “What a disagreeable effluvia” when you wish to draw attention to an unpleasant smell. If you must use the word, say “effluvium.”
egg. Compare [BAD].
either: An adjective denoting “one or the other of two” often used incorrectly with a plural verb; as, “Either are likely to sail.” Now, inasmuch as “either” means “one or the other” of two the verb in the sentence should be in the singular and to be correct the sentence should be “Either is likely to sail.” However, in its best and strictest usage either, as has already been said, means “one or the other of these,” as, “either horn of a dilemma”; but there is authority for its use as “any” and “each of two” or “both.” The former of these is, however, a distinctly improper use, and the latter—though sanctioned by “on either side one, and Jesus in the midst,” (John xix, 18) is better left unsaid.
either you or I are (am or is) right: Which should it be? You are; I am; who is—which of the two? The complete sentence is clearly “Either you (are right) or I (am right).” If the pronoun had been coupled, as in “Both you and I” the plural verb would of course follow; but the very fact of this would seem to indicate that where they are distinctly disjoined, as here, the verb should not be plural and should therefore be singular. Yet who could say “either you or I am right.” Peculiar as it is—it being impossible to say either “you is” or “I is” the solution is to be found in the use of is; and the correct rendering is, “Either you or I—one of us,—is right.” Dr. Latham cites the rule thus, “Wherever the word either or neither precedes the pronouns, the verb is in the third person.” He adds a second rule to the effect that if the disjunctive is without the word either or neither, then the verb agrees with the first of the two pronouns. He would therefore say “either you or I is right,” but “you or I are right.” It is, however, questionable whether usage bears with him.
elder, eldest; older, oldest: Discriminate carefully between these terms. Elder and eldest are correctly applied only to persons and usually only to persons in the same family, as, “his elder brother.” Older and oldest are used of persons or things without any restriction, “the oldest inhabitant”; “the older road is now closed.”
elegant: Often misused for pleasant. Elegant refers to qualities of refinement, grace, taste or polish. One may say “an elegant gown”; “an elegant outfit”; but not “an elegant time” nor “an elegant view.”
else: E. S. Gould and certain other critics take exception to a possessive use of this word, upon which the former says “A comparatively modern and a superlatively ridiculous custom has been introduced by putting not the noun but the adjective, else, in the possessive case.... Else, in the way it is used, means besides ... [one] might as well say somebody besides’s, etc. The proper construction of the several phrases is somebody’s else, nobody’s else.”
On this subject the Standard Dictionary says: “The expressions some one else, any one else, every one else, somebody else, which are in good usage, are treated as substantive phrases and have the possessive inflection upon else; as, somebody else’s umbrella; but some people prefer to treat them as elliptical expressions; as, the umbrella is somebody’s else (i. e., other than the person previously mentioned).”