Chapter CLXXII: Section II: Of Propriety

Propriety of language consists in the selection and right construction of such words as the best usage has appropriated to those ideas which we intend to express by them. Impropriety embraces all those forms of error, which, for the purpose of illustration, exercise, and special criticism, have been so methodically and so copiously posted up under the various heads, rules, and notes, of this extensive Grammar. A few suggestions, however, are here to be set down in the form of precepts.

PRECEPT I.--Avoid low and provincial expressions: such as, "Now, _says I_, boys;"--"_Thinks I to myself;"--"To get into a scrape_;"--"Stay here _while_ I come back;"--"_By jinkers;"--"By the living jingoes_."

PRECEPT II.--In writing prose, avoid words and phrases that are merely poetical: such as, _morn, eve, plaint, corse, weal, drear, amid, oft, steepy;--"what time_ the winds arise."

PRECEPT III.--Avoid technical terms: except where they are necessary in treating of a particular art or science. In technology, they are proper.

PRECEPT IV.--Avoid the recurrence of a word in different senses, or such a repetition of words as denotes paucity of language: as, "His own _reason_ might have suggested better _reasons_."--"Gregory _favoured_ the undertaking, for no other reason than this; that the manager, in countenance, _favoured_ his friend."--"I _want_ to go and see what he _wants_."

PRECEPT V.--Supply words that are wanting: thus, instead of saying, "This action increased his former services," say, "This action increased _the merit of_ his former services."--"How many [_kinds of_] substantives are there? Two; proper and common."--See _E. Devis's Gram._, p. 14. "These changes should not be left to be settled by chance or by caprice, but [_should be determined_] by the judicious application of the principles of Orthography."--See _Fowlers E. Gram._, 1850, p. 170.

PRECEPT VI.--Avoid equivocal or ambiguous expressions: as, "His _memory_ shall be lost on the earth."--"I long since learned to like nothing but what you _do_."

PRECEPT VII.--Avoid unintelligible, inconsistent, or inappropriate expressions: such as, "I have observed that the superiority among these coffee-house politicians proceeds from _an opinion_ of gallantry and fashion."--"These words do not convey even an _opaque_ idea of the author's meaning."

PRECEPT VIII.--Observe the natural order of things or events, and do not _put the cart before the horse_: as, "The scribes _taught and studied_ the Law of Moses."--"They can neither _return to nor leave_ their houses."--"He tumbled, _head over heels_, into the water."--"'Pat, how did you carry that quarter of beef?' 'Why, I thrust _it through a stick_, and threw _my shoulder over it_.'"