Words and Their Uses, Past and Present: A Study of the English Language |
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Page 16
... 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 only a printer , but a writer ; and as a part of his literary labor ...
... 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 only a printer , but a writer ; and as a part of his literary labor ...
Page 34
... person who uses them to give him the air of a cultivated man , because he does not know exactly what they mean . Such words sometimes become a fashion among such people , who are numerous enough to set and keep up a fashion ; and they ...
... person who uses them to give him the air of a cultivated man , because he does not know exactly what they mean . Such words sometimes become a fashion among such people , who are numerous enough to set and keep up a fashion ; and they ...
Page 35
... persons who are precise as to their subjunctive mood ; how as to the former I cannot conjecture . So , some of them , when they wish to be very fine indeed , say , " I were going to Europe last fall , but were prevented by the ...
... persons who are precise as to their subjunctive mood ; how as to the former I cannot conjecture . So , some of them , when they wish to be very fine indeed , say , " I were going to Europe last fall , but were prevented by the ...
Page 38
... person any person of sufficient intelli- gence and education to be intrusted with the writing of an official letter much more the drafting of a law . ― " The Board of Police is hereby authorized in its discretion to pay out of the ...
... person any person of sufficient intelli- gence and education to be intrusted with the writing of an official letter much more the drafting of a law . ― " The Board of Police is hereby authorized in its discretion to pay out of the ...
Page 39
... persons who have some knowledge of English and some sense of decorum . But here , the free , independent , and intelligent American citizen produces advertise- ments in which sense and decorum are set at naught with an absoluteness that ...
... persons who have some knowledge of English and some sense of decorum . But here , the free , independent , and intelligent American citizen produces advertise- ments in which sense and decorum are set at naught with an absoluteness that ...
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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...