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The Grammar of English Grammars

Part 1 — CHAPTER III.—OF WORDS.

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CORRECTIONS RESPECTING THE FIGURE, OR FORM, OF WORDS.

RULE I.—COMPOUNDS.

"Professing to imitate Timon, the manhater."—Goldsmith corrected. "Men load hay with a pitchfork."—Webster cor. "A peartree grows from the seed of a pear."—Id. "A toothbrush is good to brush your teeth."—Id. "The mail is opened at the post-office."—Id. "The error seems to me twofold."—Sanborn cor. "To preëngage means to engage beforehand."—Webster cor. "It is a mean act to deface the figures on a milestone."—Id. "A grange is a farm, with its farm- house."—Id. "It is no more right to steal apples or watermelons, than [to steal] money."—Id. "The awl is a tool used by shoemakers and harness-makers."—Id. "Twenty-five cents are equal to one quarter of a dollar."—Id. "The blowing-up of the Fulton at New York, was a terrible disaster."—Id. "The elders also, and the bringers-up of the children, sent to Jehu."—ALGER, FRIENDS, ET AL.: 2 Kings, x, 5. "Not with eyeservice as menpleasers."—Col., iii, 22. "A good-natured and equitable construction of cases."—Ash cor. "And purify your hearts, ye double-minded."—James, iv, 8. "It is a mean-spirited action to steal; i.e., To steal is a mean-spirited action."—A. Murray cor. "There is, indeed, one form of orthography which is akin to the subjunctive mood of the Latin tongue."—Booth cor. "To bring him into nearer connexion with real and everyday life."—Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 459. "The commonplace, stale declamation of its revilers would be silenced."—Id. cor. "She [Cleopatra] formed a very singular and unheard-of project."—Goldsmith cor. "He [William Tell] had many vigilant, though feeble-talented and mean-spirited enemies."—R. Vaux cor. "These old-fashioned people would level our psalmody," &c.—Gardiner cor. "This slow-shifting scenery in the theatre of harmony."—Id. "So we are assured from Scripture itself."—Harris cor. "The mind, being disheartened, then betakes itself to trifling."—R. Johnson cor. "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them."—Bible cor. "Tarry we ourselves how we will."—W. Walker cor. "Manage your credit so, that you need neither swear yourself, nor seek a voucher."—Collier cor. "Whereas song never conveys any of the abovenamed sentiments."—Dr. Rush cor. "I go on horseback."—Guy cor. "This requires purity, in opposition to barbarous, obsolete, or new-coined words."—Adam cor. "May the ploughshare shine."—White cor. "Whichever way we consider it."—Locke cor.

"Where'er the silent e a place obtains, The voice foregoing, length and softness gains."—Brightland cor.

RULE II.—SIMPLES.

"It qualifies any of the four parts of speech above named."—Kirkham cor. "After a while they put us out among the rude multitude."—Fox cor. "It would be a shame, if your mind should falter and give in."—Collier cor. "They stared a while in silence one upon an other."—Johnson cor. "After passion has for a while exercised its tyrannical sway."—Murray cor. "Though set within the same general frame of intonation."—Rush cor. "Which do not carry any of the natural vocal signs of expression."—Id. "The measurable constructive powers of a few associable constituents."—Id. "Before each accented syllable or emphatic monosyllabic word."—Id. "One should not think too favourably of one's self."—Murray's Gram., i, 154. "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you?"—2 Cor., xiii, 5. "I judge not my own self, for I know nothing of my own self."—See 1 Cor., iv, 3. "Though they were in such a rage, I desired them to tarry a while."—Josephus cor. "A, in stead of an, is now used before words beginning with u long."—Murray cor. "John will have earned his wages by next new year's day."—Id. "A new year's gift is a present made on the first day of the year."—Johnson et al. cor. "When he sat on the throne, distributing new year's gifts."—Id. "St. Paul admonishes Timothy to refuse old wives' fables."—See 1 Tim., iv, 7. "The world, take it all together, is but one."—Collier cor. "In writings of this stamp, we must accept of sound in stead of sense."—Murray cor. "A male child, a female child; male descendants, female descendants."—Goldsbury et al. cor. "Male servants, female servants; male relations, female relations."—Felton cor.

"Reserved and cautious, with no partial aim, My muse e'er sought to blast an other's fame."—Lloyd cor.

RULE III.—THE SENSE.

"Our discriminations of this matter have been but four-footed instincts."—Rush cor. "He is in the right, (says Clytus,) not to bear free-born men at his table."—Goldsmith cor. "To the short-seeing eye of man, the progress may appear little."—The Friend cor. "Knowledge and virtue are, emphatically, the stepping-stones to individual distinction."—Town cor. "A tin-peddler will sell tin vessels as he travels."—Webster cor. "The beams of a wooden house are held up by the posts and joists."—Id. "What you mean by future-tense adjective, I can easily understand."—Tooke cor. "The town has been for several days very well-behaved."—Spectator cor. "A rounce is the handle of a printing-press."—Webster cor. "The phraseology [which] we call thee-and-thouing [or, better, thoutheeing,] is not in so common use with us, as the tutoyant among the French."—Walker cor. "Hunting and other outdoor sports, are generally pursued."—Balbi cor. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden."—Scott et al. cor. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son to save it."—See ALGER'S BIBLE, and FRIENDS': John, iii, 16. "Jehovah is a prayer-hearing God: Nineveh repented, and was spared."—Observer cor. "These are well-pleasing to God, in all ranks and relations."—Barclay cor. "Whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle."—Bible cor. "The words coalesce, when they have a long-established association."—Mur. cor. "Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them."—MODERN BIBLE: Ps. cxviii, 19. "He saw an angel of God coming in to him."—Acts, x, 3. "The consequences of any action are to be considered in a twofold light."—Wayland cor. "We commonly write twofold, threefold, fourfold, and so on up to tenfold, without a hyphen; and, after that, we use one."—G. Brown. "When the first mark is going off, he cries, Turn! the glassholder answers, Done!"—Bowditch cor. "It is a kind of familiar shaking-hands (or shaking of hands) with all the vices."—Maturin cor. "She is a good-natured woman;"—"James is self-opinionated;"—"He is broken-hearted."—Wright cor. "These three examples apply to the present-tense construction only."—Id. "So that it was like a game of hide-and-go-seek."—Gram. cor.

"That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face."—Shak.

RULE IV.—ELLIPSES.

"This building serves yet for a schoolhouse and a meeting-house."—G. Brown. "Schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, if honest friends, are to be encouraged."—Discip. cor. "We never assumed to ourselves a faith-making or a worship-making power."—Barclay cor. "Potash and pearlash are made from common ashes."—Webster cor. "Both the ten-syllable and the eight-syllable verses are iambics."—Blair cor. "I say to myself, thou say'st to thyself, he says to himself, &c."—Dr. Murray cor. "Or those who have esteemed themselves skillful, have tried for the mastery in two-horse or four-horse chariots."—Ware cor. "I remember him barefooted and bareheaded, running through the streets."—Edgeworth cor. "Friends have the entire control of the schoolhouse and dwelling-house." Or:—"of the schoolhouses and dwelling-houses" Or:—"of the schoolhouse and the dwelling-houses" Or:—"of the schoolhouses and the dwelling-house." Or:—"of the school, and of the dwelling-houses." [For the sentence here to be corrected is so ambiguous, that any of these may have been the meaning intended by it.]—The Friend cor. "The meeting is held at the first-mentioned place in Firstmonth; at the last-mentioned, in Secondmonth; and so on."—Id. "Meetings for worship are held, at the same hour, on Firstday and Fourthday." Or:—"on Firstdays and Fourthdays."—Id. "Every part of it, inside and outside, is covered with gold leaf."—Id. "The Eastern Quarterly Meeting is held on the last Seventhday in Secondmonth, Fifthmonth, Eighthmonth, and Eleventhmonth."—Id. "Trenton Preparative Meeting is held on the third Fifthday in each month, at ten o'clock; meetings for worship [are held,] at the same hour, on Firstdays and Fifthdays."—Id. "Ketch, a vessel with two masts, a mainmast and a mizzenmast."—Webster cor. "I only mean to suggest a doubt, whether nature has enlisted herself [either] as a Cis-Atlantic or [as a] Trans-Atlantic partisan."—Jefferson cor. "By large hammers, like those used for paper-mills and fulling-mills, they beat their hemp."—Johnson cor. "ANT-HILL, or ANT-HILLOCK, n. A small protuberance of earth, formed by ants, for their habitation."— Id. "It became necessary to substitute simple indicative terms called pronames or pronouns."

"Obscur'd, where highest woods, impenetrable To light of star or sun, their umbrage spread."—Milton cor.

RULE V.—THE HYPHEN.

"Evil-thinking; a noun, compounded of the noun evil and the imperfect participle thinking; singular number;" &c.—Churchill cor. "Evil-speaking; a noun, compounded of the noun evil and the imperfect participle speaking."—Id. "I am a tall, broad-shouldered, impudent, black fellow."—Spect, or Joh. cor. "Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend."—Shak. or Joh. cor. "A popular license is indeed the many-headed tyranny."—Sydney or Joh. cor. "He from the many-peopled city flies."—Sandys or Joh. cor. "He many-languaged nations has surveyed."—Pope or Joh. cor. "The horse-cucumber is the large green cucumber, and the best for the table."—Mort. or Joh. cor. "The bird of night did sit, even at noon-day, upon the market-place."—Shak. or Joh. cor. "These make a general gaol-delivery of souls not for punishment."—South or Joh. cor. "Thy air, thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first."—Shak. or Joh. cor. "His person was deformed to the highest degree; flat-nosed and blobber-lipped."—L'Estr. or Joh. cor. "He that defraudeth the labourer of his hire, is a blood-shedder."—Ecclus., xxxiv, 22. "Bloody-minded, adj., from bloody and mind; Cruel, inclined to bloodshed."—Johnson cor. "Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanour."—Shak. or Joh. cor. "A young fellow, with a bob-wig and a black silken bag tied to it."—Spect. or Joh. cor. "I have seen enough to confute all the bold-faced atheists of this age."—Bramhall or Joh. cor. "Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound."—Joh. Dict., w. Bolt. "For what else is a red-hot iron than fire? and what else is a burning coal than red-hot wood?"—Newton or Joh. cor. "Poll-evil is a large swelling, inflammation, or imposthume, in the horse's poll, or nape of the neck, just between the ears."—Far. or Joh. cor.

"Quick-witted, brazen-fac'd, with fluent tongues, Patient of labours, and dissembling wrongs."—Dryden cor.

RULE VI.—NO HYPHEN.

"From his fond parent's eye a teardrop fell."—Snelling cor. "How great, poor jackdaw, would thy sufferings be!"—Id. "Placed, like a scarecrow in a field of corn."—Id. "Soup for the almshouse at a cent a quart."—Id. "Up into the watchtower get, and see all things despoiled of fallacies."—Donne or Joh. cor. "In the daytime she [Fame] sitteth in a watchtower, and flieth most by night."—Bacon or Joh. cor. "The moral is the first business of the poet, as being the groundwork of his instruction."—Dryd. or Joh. cor. "Madam's own hand the mousetrap baited."—Prior or Joh. cor. "By the sinking of the airshaft, the air has liberty to circulate."—Ray or Joh. cor. "The multiform and amazing operations of the airpump and the loadstone."—Watts or Joh. cor. "Many of the firearms are named from animals."—Johnson cor. "You might have trussed him and all his apparel into an eelskin"—Shak. or Joh. cor. "They may serve as landmarks, to show what lies in the direct way of truth."—Locke or Joh. cor. "A packhorse is driven constantly in a narrow lane and dirty road."—Locke or Joh. cor. "A millhorse, still bound to go in one circle."—Sidney or Joh. cor. "Of singing birds, they have linnets, goldfinches, ruddocks, Canary birds, blackbirds, thrushes, and divers others."—Carew or Joh. cor. "Cartridge, a case of paper or parchment filled with gunpowder; [or, rather, containing the entire charge of a gun]."—Joh. cor.

"Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, The time of night when Troy was set on fire, The time when screechowls cry, and bandogs howl." SHAKSPEARE: in Johnson's Dict., w. Screechowl.

PROMISCUOUS CORRECTIONS IN THE FIGURE OF WORDS.

LESSON I.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"They that live in glass houses, should not throw stones."—Adage. "If a man profess Christianity in any manner or form whatsoever."—Watts cor. "For Cassius is aweary of the world." Better: "For Cassius is weary of the world."—Shak. cor. "By the coming-together of more, the chains were fastened on."—W. Walker cor. "Unto the carrying-away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month."—Bible cor. "And the goings-forth of the border shall be to Zedad."—Id. "And the goings-out of it shall be at Hazar Enan."—See Walker's Key "For the taking-place of effects, in a certain particular series."—West cor. "The letting-go of which was the occasion of all that corruption."—Owen cor. "A falling-off at the end, is always injurious."—Jamieson cor. "As all holdings-forth were courteously supposed to be trains of reasoning."—Dr. Murray cor. "Whose goings-forth have been from of old, from everlasting."—Bible cor. "Sometimes the adjective becomes a substantive."—Bradley cor. "It is very plain, that I consider man as visited anew."—Barclay cor. "Nor do I anywhere say, as he falsely insinuates."—Id. "Everywhere, anywhere, elsewhere, somewhere, nowhere"—L. Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 115. "The world hurries off apace, and time is like a rapid river."—Collier cor. "But to new-model the paradoxes of ancient skepticism."—Dr. Brown cor. "The southeast winds from the ocean invariably produce rain."—Webster cor. "Northwest winds from the highlands produce cold clear weather."—Id. "The greatest part of such tables would be of little use to Englishmen."—Priestley cor. "The ground-floor of the east wing of Mulberry-street meeting-house was filled."—The Friend cor. "Prince Rupert's Drop. This singular production is made at the glasshouses."—Barnes cor.

"The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life."—Pope.

LESSON II.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah."—Bible cor. "In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, began Omri to reign over Israel."—Id. "He cannot so deceive himself as to fancy that he is able to do a rule-of-three sum." Better—"a sum in the rule of three."—Qr. Rev. cor. "The best cod are those known under the name of Isle-of-Shoals dun-fish."—Balbi cor. "The soldiers, with downcast eyes, seemed to beg for mercy."—Goldsmith cor. "His head was covered with a coarse, wornout piece of cloth."—Id. "Though they had lately received a reinforcement of a thousand heavy-armed Spartans."—Id. "But he laid them by unopened; and, with a smile, said, 'Business to-morrow.'"—Id. "Chester Monthly Meeting is held at Moorestown, on the Thirdday following the second Secondday"—The Friend cor. "Eggharbour Monthly Meeting is held on the first Secondday."—Id. "Little-Eggharbour Monthly Meeting is held at Tuckerton on the second Fifthday in each month."—Id. "At three o'clock, on Firstday morning, the 24th of Eleventhmonth, 1834," &c.—Id. "In less than one fourth part of the time usually devoted."—Kirkham cor. "The pupil will not have occasion to use it one tenth part so much."—Id. "The painter dips his paintbrush in paint, to paint the carriage."—Id. "In an ancient English version of the New Testament."—Id. "The little boy was bareheaded."—Red Book cor. "The man, being a little short-sighted, did not immediately know him."—Id. "Picture-frames are gilt with gold."—Id. "The parkkeeper killed one of the deer."—Id. "The fox was killed near the brickkiln."—Id. "Here comes Esther, with her milkpail"—Id. "The cabinet-maker would not tell us."—Id. "A fine thorn-hedge extended along the edge of the hill."—Id. "If their private interests should be everso little affected."—Id. "Unios are fresh-water shells, vulgarly called fresh-water clams."—Id.

"Did not each poet mourn his luckless doom, Jostled by pedants out of elbow-room."—Lloyd cor.

LESSON III.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"The captive hovers a while upon the sad remains."—Johnson cor. "Constantia saw that the hand-writing agreed with the contents of the letter."—Id. "They have put me in a silk night-gown, and a gaudy foolscap"—Id. "Have you no more manners than to rail at Hocus, that has saved that clod-pated, numb-skulled ninny-hammer of yours from ruin, and all his family?"—Id. "A noble, (that is, six shillings and eight pence,) is [paid], and usually hath been paid."—Id. "The king of birds, thick-feathered, and with full-summed wings, fastened his talons east and west."—Id. "To-morrow. This—supposing morrow to mean morning, as it did originally—is an idiom of the same kind as to-night, to-day."—Johnson cor. "To-day goes away, and to-morrow comes."—Id. "Young children, who are tried in Gocarts, to keep their steps from sliding."—Id. "Which, followed well, would demonstrate them but goers-backward"—Id. "Heaven's golden-winged herald late he saw, to a poor Galilean virgin sent."—Id. "My pent-house eyebrows and my shaggy beard offend your sight."—Id. "The hungry lion would fain have been dealing with good horseflesh."—Id. "A broad-brimmed hat ensconsed each careful head."—Snelling cor. "With harsh vibrations of his three-stringed lute."—Id. "They magnify a hundred-fold an author's merit."—Id. "I'll nail them fast to some oft-opened door."—Id. "Glossed over only with saintlike show, still thou art bound to vice."—Johnson's Dict., w. Saintlike. "Take of aqua-fortis two ounces, of quicksilver two drachms."—Id. cor. "This rainbow never appears but when it rains in the sunshine."—Id. cor.

"Not but there are, who merit other palms; Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with psalms."—Pope.

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