Loculius in Falrica. 



125 



Fabulous for very great. — One may properly speak of the fabulous 

 wealth of an impostor, meaning the property that he falsely pretends 

 to have. But what nonsense it is, when one thinks of it, to say that 

 a lady's jewels are of "fabulous value," meaning that they cost a 

 great deal of money ! 



Impertinent for insolent.— An impertinent remark is one that has 

 no connection with the matter under discussion. But the use of the 

 term ought not to imply any censure on the good manners of the per- 



Temperance and Protective.— Without expressing any opinion as to 

 the advisability of indulging in alcoholic beverages, one may properly 

 denounce, from grammatical considerations only, the absurdity of 

 speaking of a man who abjures them entirely, as "strictly tempe- 

 rate;" how can one be temperate in the use of that which he does 

 not use? And similarly, without expressing any opinion as to the 

 wisdom of a national policy of limiting importations from foreign 

 countries, one may point out that the name " protective tariff," as 

 applied to a tariff by which this result is brought about, is objection- 

 able, for the reason" that it begs the whole question at issue. Such a 

 tariff restricts, limits. Whether it really protects anything, in any 

 proper application of the term, is disputed. 



Dividend.— -It may be worth while to call attention to the obvious 

 fact that a dividend is that which is to be divided. A railroad's divi- 

 dend, for instance, is a certain share of the profits, set aside by the 

 directors for division among the stockholders. It is sometimes con- 

 venient, of course, and perhaps not highly censurable, to speak of one 

 of the proprietors as receiving " his dividend," meaning his share of 

 the dividend; but it should be remembered that this expression is 

 only justifiable as a rough sort of contraction, much like saying 

 "governments" and "railroads" when one means government bonds 

 and railroad securities; and it is to be regretted that the definition of 

 dividend in each of the two English dictionaries most in use in this 

 country is so worded as apparently to confuse dividend with quotient. 

 Webster's, as usual, is a little worse than Worcester's. 



Circumstance for event. — We continually hear people say that they 

 will "relate a circumstance" that occurred under their own observa- 

 tion. A circumstance occur ! They might as well speak of the mo- 

 tionless scenery at a theatre as performing. 



Demean for debase. — This blunder seems to have arisen partly 

 from an imagined relationship between the verb demean and the ad- 

 jective mean, and partly from the fact that the verb is used in a good 

 many rather familiar passages in old and standard writers, in such 

 connection that debase would have made equally good sense. A rec- 



