WORD AND PHRASE : TRUE AND FALSE USE IN ENGLISH.
Word and Phrase: True and False Use in English. By Joseph Fitzgerald, A.M. (A. C. McLurg and Co., Chicago $1.25.)—The author of this strange work is much exercised over the " degra- dati at" of words, our "senseless" orthography, or "sceno- graphy," as he terms it, and the excessive Latinisation of our vo..abulary. Yet while many of his criticisms levelled against the misuse of words are both just and valuable, his own style is often so disfigured by a blight of pedantic and absurd expres- sions that it becomes in the highest degree wearisome, and rouses feelings of intense irritation in the reader. Affectations such as 'Don Quijote," " Ati glic," " pal mary," and " iguorantism " are cases in point, and sentences such as the following: " Would not the word in such a case be the fittest and properest possible, despite the dictionarians' note of obsoletion ? " are as numerous as they are annoying. In discussing Irishisms Mr. Fitzgerald speaks of the "comehether "—surely an American mispronuncia- tion—and of " Limbrick " being used by old-fashioned people for "Limerick." It would be interesting to know whether this latter error is American-Irish or of native origin. A good index somewhat redeems the book, but it is not likely to be of much service to the inquiring reader who wishes to acquire exactitude untainted by pedantry.
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