Words and Their Uses, Past and Present: A Study of the English Language |
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Page 1
... hundred and thirty or forty years ago , in the newly laid out street of Cambridge ( and there is reason for believing that the meeting was likely to be about where Gore Hall now stands ) , yours might have been somewhat more grimly ...
... hundred and thirty or forty years ago , in the newly laid out street of Cambridge ( and there is reason for believing that the meeting was likely to be about where Gore Hall now stands ) , yours might have been somewhat more grimly ...
Page 13
... hundred years ago by Oliver Cromwell in his reply to the committee that waited upon him . from Parliament to ask him to take the title of king . In the course of his refusal to yield to their request , he said , - " Words have not their ...
... hundred years ago by Oliver Cromwell in his reply to the committee that waited upon him . from Parliament to ask him to take the title of king . In the course of his refusal to yield to their request , he said , - " Words have not their ...
Page 16
... hundred years ago by William Caxton , our first printer -a " simple person , " as he de- scribes himself , but an observant , a thoughtful , and a very intelligent man , and one to whom English literature is much indebted . He was not ...
... hundred years ago by William Caxton , our first printer -a " simple person , " as he de- scribes himself , but an observant , a thoughtful , and a very intelligent man , and one to whom English literature is much indebted . He was not ...
Page 17
... the reign of Henry IV . , and died a hundred years before Shakespeare wrote his first play . He says , too , in another part of his preface , that he wrote in the idiom and with the vocabulary in use among educated 2 INTRODUCTION . 17.
... the reign of Henry IV . , and died a hundred years before Shakespeare wrote his first play . He says , too , in another part of his preface , that he wrote in the idiom and with the vocabulary in use among educated 2 INTRODUCTION . 17.
Page 18
... hundred years seems by contrast to have been one of almost absolute linguistic stagnation . This , how- ever , is mere seeming . The period of which Cax- ton speaks was one in which the language was crystallizing into its present form ...
... hundred years seems by contrast to have been one of almost absolute linguistic stagnation . This , how- ever , is mere seeming . The period of which Cax- ton speaks was one in which the language was crystallizing into its present form ...
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Common terms and phrases
absurd action adjective American Anglo-Saxon authority auxiliary verb British called century Chaucer common compound correct criticism dative dictionary distinction eminent England English language etymology example existence express fact feminine following passage formal grammar French gender give grammar grammarians Greek guage heard hundred idiom ignorance inflection instance king lady Latin Latin language learned letter lish meaning meant merely misuse mood newspapers noun object participle passive passive voice peculiar perfect person phrase plural possession predicate present preterite pronoun puellam question readers reason RICHARD GRANT WHITE risum seems sense sentence Shakespeare simple singular speak speakers speech style substantive superfluous sure tence tense thing thou thought tion total depravity transitive verb transpire usage verb verbal verbal noun voice Webster's Dictionary woman word writers written wrote
Popular passages
Page 238 - If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir.
Page 342 - And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
Page 157 - Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant...
Page 344 - Elmer; who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing whiles I am with him.
Page 397 - In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Page 75 - That cherubim, which now appears as a God to a human soul, knows very well that the period will come about in eternity, when the human soul shall be as perfect as he himself now is : nay, when she shall look down upon that degree of perfection, as much as she now falls short of it.
Page 69 - The sense of feeling can indeed give us a notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except colours ; but at the same time it is very much straitened and confined in its operations to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects.
Page 71 - There are few words in the English language which are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed sense than those of the fancy and the imagination.
Page 71 - He can converse with a picture and find an agreeable companion in a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows, than another does in the possession.
Page 360 - tis so frequent, this is stranger still. Of man's miraculous mistakes, this bears The palm, " That all men are about to live," For ever on the brink of being born : All pay themselves the compliment to think They one day shall not drivel, and their pride On this reversion takes up ready praise; At least their own; their future selves...