[291] A word is not necessarily ungrammatical by reason of having a rival form that is more common. The regular words, beseeched, blowed, bursted, digged, freezed, bereaved, hanged, meaned, sawed, showed, stringed, weeped, I admit for good English, though we find them all condemned by some critics.
[292] "And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leapt on them."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Acts, xix, 16. In Scott's Bible, and several others, the word is "leaped." Walker says, "The past time of this verb is generally heard with the diphthong short; and if so, it ought to be spelled leapt, rhyming with kept."—Walker's Pron. Dict., w. Leap. Worcester, who improperly pronounces leaped in two ways, "l~ept or l=ept," misquotes Walker, as saying, "it ought to be spelled lept."—Universal and Critical Dict., w. Leap. In the solemn style, leaped is, of course, two syllables. As for leapedst or leaptest, I know not that either can be found.
[293] Acquit is almost always formed regularly, thus: acquit, acquitted, acquitting, acquitted. But, like quit, it is sometimes found in an irregular form also; which, if it be allowable, will make it redundant: as, "To be acquit from my continual smart."—SPENCER: Johnson's Dict. "The writer holds himself acquit of all charges in this regard."—Judd, on the Revolutionary War, p. 5. "I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box."—SHAK.
[294]
"Not know my voice! O, time's extremity!
Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue?"
—SHAK.: Com. of Er.
[295] Whet is made redundant in Webster's American Dictionary, as well as in Wells's Grammar; but I can hardly affirm that the irregular form of it is well authorized.
[296] In S. W. Clark's Practical Grammar, first published in 1847—a work of high pretensions, and prepared expressly "for the education of Teachers"—sixty-three out of the foregoing ninety-five Redundant Verbs, are treated as having no regular or no irregular forms. (1.) The following twenty-nine are omitted by this author, as if they were always regular; belay, bet, betide, blend, bless, curse, dive, dress, geld, lean, leap, learn, mulet, pass, pen, plead, prove, rap, reave, roast, seethe, smell, spoil, stave, stay, wake, wed, whet, wont. (2.) The following thirty-four are given by him as being always irregular; abide, bend, beseech, blow, burst, catch, chide, creep, deal, freeze, grind, hang, knit, lade, lay, mean, pay, shake, sleep, slide, speed, spell, spill, split, string, strive, sweat, sweep, thrive, throw, weave, weep, wet, wind. Thirty-two of the ninety-five are made redundant by him, though not so called in his book.
In Wells's School Grammar, "the 113th Thousand," dated 1850, the deficiencies of the foregoing kinds, if I am right, are about fifty. This author's "List of Irregular Verbs" has forty-four Redundants, to which he assigns a regular form as well as an irregular. He is here about as much nearer right than Clark, as this number surpasses thirty-two, and comes towards ninety-five. The words about which they differ, are—pen, seethe, and whet, of the former number; and catch, deal, hang, knit, spell, spill, sweat, and thrive, of the latter.
[297] In the following example, there is a different phraseology, which seems not so well suited to the sense: "But we must be aware of imagining, that we render style strong and expressive, by a constant and multiplied use of epithets"—Blair's Rhet., p. 287. Here, in stead of "be aware," the author should have said, "beware," or "be ware;" that is, be wary, or cautious; for aware means apprised, or informed, a sense very different from the other.
[298] Dr. Crombie contends that must and ought are used only in the present tense. (See his Treatise, p. 204.) In this he is wrong, especially with regard to the latter word. Lennie, and his copyist Bullions, adopt the same notion; but Murray, and many others, suppose them to "have both a present and [a] past signification."