fr 
502 Mr. Pickering on the present state of the English language 
OLD for szale ; in this expression, o/d bread. New England. From the fol- 
lowing extract this seems also to be a Scofticism. “ The Scotticism old 
bread seems no way inferior to the Anglicism stale bread.” London 
Monthly Magazine, Apr. 1800, p. 239. 
ONCE IN A WHILE. Dr. Witherspoon has put this among the “local 
phrases and terms” of the Middle States : “ He will once in a while, i. e. 
sometimes get drunk.” Druid, No.7. It is often used in New England. 
ONTO. A writer in the Cambridge Literary Miscellany (vol. ii. p. 217) pro- 
poses this as a new preposition in our language, to be used in such phrases 
as these : “An army marches on‘o the field of battle; a man leaps onto a 
fence,” &c. In the examples, however, which he gives, there seems to be 
no need of any thing more than the old simple prepositions, on, ufon, or to, 
The vulgar, indeed, constantly say on-to, or onto ; nor is it, as this writer 
supposes, a new term in writing. A friend has referred me to the works 
of Mr. Marshall, the well known English writer on Agriculture, who uses 
it; but he frequently divides it into its two parts, oz and fo. “ When 
the stack has risen too high to be conveniently forked on to from the 
ground,” &c. Rural Econ. Yorkshire, vol. ii. p- 144, London edit. 1788. 
_ And in his Gloucestershire (speaking of the method of feeding cattle in 
Wiltshire) he uses the compound: “The hay is all carried onto the land 
upon men’s backs,” &c. vol. ii. p. 154, and in other flaces. - But Mar- 
shall’s works are written in the most familiar style ; and some of the Eng- 
lish Reviewers have censured him for what they call (in one of his works) “a 
new-fangled language of his own.” See Brit. Crit. vol. xxii. p. 93. I had 
supposed that o% to had never beed used by any American writer; but an 
obliging friend has given me the following example: “ Take all your ci- 
garrs and tobacco, and in som¢ calm evening carry them on ¢o the com- 
mon,” &c. Lecture on the evil tendency of the use of tobacco upon young 
hersons, by Benjamin Waterhouse, M. D, p- 32. 
TO BE OPPOSED TO; to oppose. 
this motion, but others, who were 
“ Several members were in favour of 
offosed to receding from the ground 
already taken,” &c. Marsh. Life of Washing. yol. y. p. 206, et assim, 
Dr. Franklin many years ago censured this use of the verb as an innovation, 
See the note on the word Improve. 
