Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/110

genteel got never correctly used for man as a mere indication of sex. Compare

genteel is sometimes improperly applied to persons who are preferably spoken of as polite or well-bred. If used with regard to persons, it should only be in connection with some specific characteristic, as "a person of genteel speech or appearance," or to indicate suitability to the condition of a well-bred person, as in the expression "a genteel fortune."

genuine. Compare.

get a gait or move on: Slang phrases for "hasten one's steps or actions," which, while it may not be so expressive, is more elegant and refined.

get over: Sometimes used for deny or refute. One doesn't get over a charge but refutes it.

git: Vulgarism used in the imperative for get out.

go. See.

go back on: A colloquialism for abandon, deceive, play false. Inelegant and not used by persons accustomed to nice discriminations of speech.

going is sometimes used as a synonym for just about. One frequently hears, "I am just going to sing," from a person who is about to do so. The verb go, in the transitive, is sometimes used loosely in the colloquial sense of "endure" or "wager." Polite speech does not sanction such locutions as "I can not go that music;" "I will go you a dollar on the race."