Trite Expressions
Words and phrases which may once have been striking and effective, or witty and felicitous, but which have become worn out by oft-repeated use, should be avoided. The following hackneyed phrases will serve to illustrate: “The staff of life,” “gave up the ship,” “counterfeit presentment,” “the hymeneal altar,” “bold as a lion,” “throw cold water upon,” “the rose upon the cheek,” “lords of creation,” “the weaker sex,” “the better half,” “the rising generation,” “tripping the light fantastic toe,” “the cup that cheers but does not inebriate,” “in the arms of Morpheus,” “the debt of nature,” “the bourne whence no traveler returns,” “to shuffle off this mortal coil,” “the devouring element,” “a brow of alabaster.”
Pet Words
Avoid pet words, whether individual, provincial, or national in their use. Few persons are entirely free from the overuse of certain words. Young people largely employ such words as delightful, delicious, exquisite, and other expressive adjectives, which constitute a kind of society slang.
Overworked Expressions
Words and phrases are often taken up by writers and speakers, repeated, and again taken up by others, and thus their use enlarges in ever-widening circles until the expressions become threadbare. Drop them before they have reached that state. Function, environment, trend, the masses, to be in touch with, to voice the sentiments of—these are enough to illustrate the kind of words referred to.
Very Vulgar Vulgarisms
No one who has any regard for purity of diction and the proprieties of cultivated society will be guilty of the use of such expressions as yaller for yellow, feller for fellow, kittle for kettle, kiver for cover, ingons for onions, cowcumbers for cucumbers, sparrowgrass for asparagus, yarbs for herbs, taters for potatoes, tomats for tomatoes, bile for boil, hain’t for ain’t or isn’t, het for heated, kned for kneaded, sot for sat or set, teeny for tiny, fooling you for deceiving you, them for those, shut up for be quiet, or be still, or cease speaking, went back on me for deceived me or took advantage of me, a power of people for a great many people, a power of money for great wealth, a heap of houses for many houses, lots of books for many books, lots of corn for much corn or large quantities of corn, gents for gentlemen, and many others of a similar character.
CHAPTER II
Choice of Words
Our American writers evince much variety in their graces of diction, but in the accurate choice of words James Russell Lowell and William Cullen Bryant stand out conspicuous above the rest. So careful and persistent was the latter, that during the time that he was editor of The Evening Post, of New York City, he required the various writers upon that paper to avoid the use of a long list of words and expressions which he had prepared for them, and which were commonly employed by other papers. This list was not only used, but enlarged by his successors.