The Verbalist / A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety.

Opening of the book

THE
VERBALIST:
A MANUAL
DEVOTED
TO BRIEF DISCUSSIONS OF THE RIGHT AND THE
WRONG USE OF WORDS
AND
TO SOME OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THOSE WHO
WOULD SPEAK AND WRITE WITH PROPRIETY.
BY
ALFRED AYRES.
We remain shackled by timidity till we have
learned to speak with propriety.—Johnson.
As a man is known by his company, so a man's
company may be known by his manner of expressing
himself.—Swift.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1887.
COPYRIGHT BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1881
Transcriber's Note
Minor typographical errors have been
corrected
without
note.
Archaic
spellings
have
been
retained
as
printed.
All Greek words have mouse-hover
transliterations,
γενόμενος,
and
appear as printed in the original
publication.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The title-page sufficiently sets forth the end this little
book is intended to serve.
For convenience' sake I have arranged in alphabetical
order the subjects treated of, and for economy's sake I
have kept in mind that "he that uses many words for the
explaining of any subject doth, like the cuttle-fish, hide
himself in his own ink."
The curious inquirer who sets himself to look for the
learning in the book is advised that he will best find it
in such works as George P. Marsh's "Lectures on the
English
Language,"
Fitzedward
Hall's
"Recent
Exemplifications
of
False
Philology,"
and
"Modern
English," Richard Grant White's "Words and Their Uses,"
Edward S. Gould's "Good English," William Mathews' "Words:
their Use and Abuse," Dean Alford's "The Queen's English,"
George Washington Moon's "Bad English," and "The Dean's
English," Blank's "Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech,"
Alexander Bain's "English Composition and Rhetoric,"

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