ornery: A barbarous dialectism for “ordinary” which can not be too severely condemned.
other: This word is often improperly omitted from general comparisons; for instance, “All men are better than he” obviously should be “All other men,” etc., as the person excepted of necessity belongs to the class embraced by “all men.”
other, otherwise: When these words introduce a clause of comparison they should be followed by the conjunction than, instead of which the words but and except are often erroneously introduced. Than is indeed the conjunction of simple comparison, and should be used after adjectives in the comparative degree. In better usage else is also followed by than, unless the word is introduced, as frequently, without appreciably adding effect to the sentence; as, “She did nothing (else) but weep,” though even here the introduction of the unnecessary word would make than the preferable sequence. “He knew no other course than this”—not but or except. “It can not operate otherwise than for good”—not but. “No quicker did he climb the rope than (not but) back he fell.”
ought. Compare [AUGHT].
ought, hadn’t. See [HAD OUGHT].
out of sight: An intense vulgarism for “superb.”
over and above, if redundant, is an undesirable expression. Avoid the addition of words to a sentence that fail to add to the sense. “Over and above his debts illness had now to be provided for.” It were better to say “In addition to his debts,” etc.
over, across: Over is sometimes misused for “across.” Do not say “go over the bridge” when you mean across it.
overflowed: The banks of a river may be overflowed; they should never be spoken of as overflown. There is no verb to overfly, but there is one to overflow the participles of which are overflowed, overflowing. The termination—flown used commonly by the illiterate is the past participle of fly. Although flown originally meant “flooded” the word in the sense is now obsolete.
over, not over: Opposed by some writers when used as equivalent to more than, not more than, but defensible as having a tinge of metaphor suggestive of overflowing quantity or overtopping height and having the support of literary usage.