hearty: As applied to the appetite is so common at this day that it seems perhaps hypercritical to object to it; and the dictionaries of course give the sense, for it is the lexicographer’s duty to record the language as it exists not as it ought to exist. That is hearty which proceeds from the heart; to extend the sentiment to the appetite, or to a meal, or to its eater, as is done by common usage, seems taking a liberty with the word, and applying a fine and expressive term to a comparatively unworthy object.
heir: Pronounce without aspirating the h. Distinguish between heir apparent and heir presumptive. The former is “one who must by course of law become the heir if he survive his ancestor”; the latter, “one whose present legal expectation of becoming heir may be defeated by the birth of a person in near degree of relationship.” Thus, a man may to-day be heir presumptive to his bachelor brother who by marriage may in a year’s time become the father of a son, who will then become heir apparent; and by this circumstance the claims of the former heir presumptive are quashed.
The Standard Dictionary says: “Heir is often colloquially applied to one who receives or is to receive a property by will. In legal terminology such a person is a devisee or legatee, not an heir.” As an heir does not exist till death either by will or operation of law, it is only by impropriety of speech that one talks of the heirs of the living.
help has the meaning of “assist”; it has also the somewhat opposed meaning of “prevent, hinder, or refrain from.” This veiled negative makes the correct application of the word difficult. Take, for example, the sentence “Make no more noise than you can help.” I can not help doing a thing is I can not refrain from doing it: that is, I can not not do it, which means I must do it. The correct form of the sentence just given is shown by filling in the ellipsis, whence it appears that not should also be supplied: “Make no more noise than (such as) you can (not) help (making).” Help includes aid, but aid may fall short of the meaning of help.
hence, thence, whence: As in meaning these words embrace from it is pleonastic to precede them by the word thus implied. Do not say, “go from hence,” “from thence he went to Rome,” “from whence did you come.” From is redundant in all these sentences.
hen-party: A vulgar term for a social gathering of ladies. Compare STAG-PARTY.
herd: A term sometimes applied indiscriminately to persons as well as beasts. Herd is correctly used to designate, “a number of animals feeding or herding together;” when applied to persons the true designation is “a disorderly rabble,” or “the lower classes,” as the vulgar herd.
him and me: It is a vulgar error to use the objective for the nominative. One should not say, “Him and me are going to Bermuda,” say, rather, “He and I (or preferably ‘we’) are going to Bermuda.” Do not say, “Between you and I,” but say, “Between you and me,” or “Between us.”
hire. Compare [LEASE].
holocaust: A term sometimes misused owing to a lexicographical error which attributes to the word the meaning of “any great disaster.” According to this the Johnstown Flood, the Galveston storm, and the fire in the Paris bazaar all were holocausts, but this is erroneous. Holocaust is derived from the Greek holos, entire, whole, and kaustos, burnt, and its principal meaning is “a sacrificial offering burnt whole or entirely consumed.” Figuratively, the term may be applied to destruction by fire, as the burning of the steamer “General Slocum” in the East River, New York, or the great fire in Baltimore, but not to loss as by shipwreck or collision unless attended by fire.