should be restricted to dialogue, and even there employed seldom. Its frequent appearance in writing is a sign of vulgarity. The slang of one age quickly dies out, and becomes obscure to another. At times, however, a slang word is found useful and forces its way into the literary language, as mob, banter.

The following examples of the slang use of nice are chosen from hundreds in one book:

"The table-steward is very nice to 'Sonny,' as he calls the little boy."

"The Irishman was a nice little chap, with a nice cheerful face."

"Sliding on their knees, they made holes in their nice new trousers."

There is still a good use of nice, as in "He separated them with nice (= subtle) discrimination."

Some words and phrases used as slang: blooming, bounder, bedrock, sweet, cute, chuck, flabbergast, incog, stunner, gent, artful dodger, rot, chronic, jolly glad, beans, comfy, much of a muchness, buttered up, pal, kidney, a toss up, to cut up rough, to run the show, a tall order, to peter out.

Several of those are abbreviations. We must distinguish between abbreviations like bus, consols, etc., which are allowed, and those which are not, as sub (=subscription), sov (= sovereign), cert (= certain), etc.

TECHNICAL TERMS. In any profession, trade, game, or other form of activity of head or hand, special words are necessary. Such occur in this passage from an amateur yacht-builder's description of his work: "The moulds or shapes are all set up transversely at their respective stations and bound together by the inwales and longitudinal stringers....You, a novice, would never believe the amount of cramping, shoring, and gunwale-gripping each of these inside diagonal strakes requires." But a technical term, when used loosely beyond its own department, is apt to be unintelligible; or it may sound pedantic, and may even verge on slang. Crescendo and psychological-the latter is slang-are

blemishes in the following: "We had been enjoying ourselves hugely; crescendo as we went on." "Instead of using the ladder, the footman stood on the polished top of the table; and at that psychological moment his master entered." Other technical terms often loosely used are: potential, dynamic, static, transcendental, connotation, chiaroscuro, chromatic, bunkered, ploughed, hypothecate, to corner. It must be remembered, however, that technical terms when found useful for general purposes have been transferred to the common stock: as disaster, humour, complexion, cement, pulverize, phalanx. Disaster was a term of mediæval astrology: humour and complexion were terms of

mediæval medicine.

Foreign WordS. The best justification for using a foreign word in English is the lack of a term for some foreign custom, object, etc. Guide books to foreign countries, accounts of travel, novels where the scene is laid abroad, may indulge in foreign phrases for the sake of local colour; but this liberty should not be abused. The French expressions in this sentence from an account of a sojourn in France may pass: "Thus, while I drink my vin ordinaire, my brewer finds the sale of his small beer diminished—while I discuss my flask of cinq francs, my modicum of port hangs on my wine-merchant's hands—while my côtelette à la Maintenon is smoking on my plate, the mighty sirloin hangs on its peg in the shop of my blue-aproned friend in the village (Scott: Quentin Durward, Introduction). But there is no excuse for the foreign words in "Rupert is well known, and a persona grata"; or in "The concert is to be al fresco on the after-deck.” A foreign word, however, is not to be avoided merely because it is foreign. If no English word exists, or if the foreign word is more expressive, use the foreign word. Otherwise, prefer the English word as more intelligible; and never use foreign phrases merely for display.

The following are, as a rule, inexcusable: soubriquet, amour propre, en fête, contretemps, résumé, fait accompli, chef d'œuvre, collaborateur, joie de vivre, confrère, répandu, bêtise, émeute, terrain,

démenti, habitué, flâneur, mal de mer, quand même, déjeuner, vraisemblance, éclaircissement, rapprochement, penchant, sans, entourage, au fait, début, éclat, mise-en-scène, augenblick, zeitgeist, schadenfreude, ewig weibliches, quondam, cultus, sine qua non, terra incognita, tabula rasa, rara avis, ne plus ultra.

Nor, again, is anything gained by an unidiomatic translation of some foreign phrase. Cela va sans dire often appears as "That goes without saying "-unidiomatic, and unnecessary; for "needless to say," or "of course" would do. Sang froid has been translated in the following, but the translation is far from being an improvement: "The latter, without losing cold blood, approached with his wonted freedom."

NEOLOGISM. New discoveries and inventions often demand new words or new applications of old; as telegram, typewriter, radium, boycott. But, except for very urgent reasons, writers should not coin words. Two unnecessary words of recent coining are aliveness and all-through-alikeness. To express Mr Caxton's pedantry of diction, Bulwer Lytton coined two strange forms: "Is there no mission in thy native land, O planeticose and exallotriote spirit?" "Picturesque means fit to be put into a picture; we want a word literatesque, fit to be put into a book," says Bagehot in one of his essays; but Bagehot's coinage has not become popular.

SYNONYMS. Words indicating widely different ideas, as tree and horse, are easy to distinguish. But English, like other languages, contains groups of words so similar in meaning as to be frequently regarded as exact equivalents. These words are called synonyms. The quality of a writer's style depends, in great measure, on his ability to discriminate the shades of meaning conveyed by synonyms. For it is rare to find two or more words always exactly alike in meaning: even when one word may be substituted for another, the one usually expresses the meaning more fully or more vividly than the other. Discover and invent are synonyms of find out; but they must be kept distinct. When we find out

something already existent but previously hidden, we discover : when we find out some new combination of things, some new device, we invent. "The South Pole," we say, "has yet to be discovered"; but, "A satisfactory flying-machine has yet to be invented." Again, take the word courage. Synonymous with it are the words boldness, bravery, valour, prowess, daring, pluck, gallantry, audacity, heroism. Courage of varying intensity is indicated by boldness, bravery, valour; the last being the strongest. Bravery and valour are used of actions that command admiration. Boldness sometimes suggests a touch of what is expressed by audacity, venturesome or presumptuous daring. Prowess means valorous deeds, especially in war. Daring suggests the seeking for danger and rejoicing in it. Pluck implies unexpected courage in the face of difficulties; gallantry, dash; heroism, magnanimous self-sacrifice.

MALAPROPISM. It is only after much study that ability to discriminate synonyms and to use them correctly, can be acquired. But there are certain common mistakes that must be guarded against, mistakes arising from confusion of sense and sound in words resembling each other. Macaulay (Essay on Milton) writes "the observation of the sabbath," instead of “observance.” Observation means "watching, beholding": observance, "watching, keeping." Deprecate, "pray against, or express strong disapproval of," is often confused with depreciate, "represent as of little value." These two words should change places in the following: "In commercial advertising one praises one's own wares, in political one deprecates the wares of one's opponent," and, "We cannot depreciate too strongly the mistaken policy of attacking the Lord Mayor's action."

Such blunders often arise from the misapprehension of long words; and when ludicrous, this blundering is properly called malapropism. Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan's Rivals is blamed for her "select words ingeniously misapplied" and for decking "her dull chat with hard words she don't understand." To this Mrs Malaprop replies: "An attack upon my language!...an aspersion

upon my parts of speech!...sure if I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!" Here reprehend, oracular, derangement and epitaphs are ingeniously misapplied for comprehend, vernacular, arrangement and epithets. Mrs Malaprop has illiterate, progeny, supercilious, orthodoxy, superstitious, illegible, interceded, allegory, caparisons, and some fifty other blunders for obliterate, prodigy, superficial, orthography, superfluous, ineligible, intercepted, alligator, comparisons, etc. Long before Sheridan's day, this type of blunder was a stock device on the stage for raising a laugh. See Launcelot's blunders in The Merchant of Venice, e.g. Act II Scene ii. Novelists also use this trick: as Dickens in Oliver Twist: "Oh! you know me, do you?' cried the Artful...' Wery good. That's a case of deformation of character, any way.' ... 'I beg your pardon,' said the Dodger, 'Did you redress yourself to me, my man?'" Miss Bronte has in Shirley: "The Fieldhead estate and the de Walden estate were delightfully contagious-a malapropism which rumour had not failed to repeat to Shirley." Lytton has in The Caxtons: "You might as well turn a circle into an isolated triangle.' 'Isosceles !' corrected my father."

SPECIAL MISUSES OF MEANING.

Aggravate, "increase the weight of, the gravity of," is needlessly made equal to "vex "" or "irritate"; as "His behaviour was extremely aggravating."

Avocation is properly opposed to vocation. The latter means "one's regular calling"; the former, "a distraction from the regular routine"; as "Let your authorship be a pastime, not a trade; let it be your avocation, not your vocation." Avocation, however, is frequently made to indicate one's regular occupation; as "No one could pursue his ordinary avocation, whether as doctor or lawyer."

Condign, properly equal to "merited," has been restricted to an epithet of punishment, with the sense of "heavy"; as "He deserves condign punishment."