THE USE AND MISUSE OF WORDS.
Reading edition
[Brief, pointed, practical paragraphs discussing the use and misuse of words and phrases will be printed in this department. All readers of The Writer are invited to contribute to it. Contributions are limited to 400 words; the briefer they are, the better.]
"Cenotaph."—We are told that a cenotaph is a monument "in memory of one buried elsewhere"—otherwise, "an empty tomb." A recent number of a popular magazine contains an article on "Memorials of Edgar Allen Poe." When the author asked to be directed to the grave of the poet, the sexton pointed to the cenotaph of white marble in the corner at the intersection of two streets, and we are told that "the remains" were "transferred to this more conspicuous spot from the family lot in the rear of the church." Are not "high-sounding" words too often used without reference to their suitableness? Mr. Pecksniff called his daughter "a playful warbler,"—not that she was, we are told, "at all vocal," but that Mr. Pecksniff was in the habit of using a word that rounded a sentence well.
P. MCA. C. East Bridgewater, Mass.