140. In a recently issued work on Arithmetic, the following is given: “If for 72 cents I can buy 9 lbs. of raisins, how much can I purchase for $14 49?” say, “what quantity can I,” &c. Who would think of saying, “how much raisins?”
141. Words to be Carefully Distinguished.—Be very careful to distinguish between indite and indict (the former meaning to write, and the latter to accuse); key and quay; principle and principal; marshal and martial; counsel and council; counsellor and councillor; fort and forte; draft and draught; place and plaice (the latter being the name of a fish); stake and steak; satire and satyr; stationery and stationary; ton and tun; levy and levee; foment and ferment; fomentation and fermentation; petition and partition; Francis and Frances; dose and doze; diverse and divers; device and devise; wary and weary; salary and celery; radish and reddish; treble and triple; broach and brooch; ingenious and ingenuous; prophesy and prophecy (some clergymen sounding the final syllable of the latter word long, like the former); fondling and foundling; lightning and lightening; genus and genius; desert and dessert; currier and courier; pillow and pillar; executer and executor (the former being the regular noun from the verb “to execute,” and the latter a strictly legal term); ridicule and reticule; lineament and liniment; track and tract, lickerish and licorice (lickerish signifying dainty, and licorice being a plant, or preparation from it); statute and statue; ordinance and ordnance; lease and leash; recourse and resource; straight and strait (straight meaning direct, and strait, narrow); immerge and emerge; style and stile; compliment and complement; bass and base; contagious and contiguous; eminent and imminent; eruption and irruption; precedent and president; relic and relict.
142. “The number of emigrants arriving in this country is increasing and alarming:” say, immigrants. Emigrants are those going out from a country; immigrants, those coming into it.
143. “I prefer radishes to cucumbers:” pronounce radishes exactly as spelt, and not redishes; also, the first syllable of cucumber like fu in fuel, and not as if the word were spelled cowcumber.
144. “The two last letters were dated from Calcutta:” say, the last two, &c.
145. “The soil in those islands is so very thin, that little is produced in them beside cocoa-nut trees:” “beside cocoa-nut trees” means strictly alongside, or by the side, of them. Besides, or except, should be used. Besides also signifies in addition to: as, “I sat beside the President, and conversed with him besides.”
146. “He could neither read nor write:” say, more properly, write nor read. All persons who can write can read, but not all who read can write. This sentence, as corrected, is much stronger than in the other form.
147. “He was bred and born among the hills of the Hudson:” say, born and bred, which is the natural order.
148. “This House To Let:” more properly, to be let.
149. Here, there, where, with verbs of motion, are generally better than hither, thither, whither; as, “Come here; Go there.” Hither, thither, and whither, which were used formerly, are now considered stiff and inelegant.