Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/220

string take is not so distinctly archaic, and its use in reference to the erasure of words is very frequent; as, "It is ordered that the words objected to be stricken out." In the best literary usage of both countries struck is preferred to stricken when no implication of misfortune is conveyed in it. Stricken is the appropriate participial adjective; as, "a stricken man"; "a stricken deer."—.

string, to get on a: A harmless but inelegant equivalent for "to hoax," which is to be preferred.

subtile, subtle: "Subtile and subtle have been constantly used as interchangeable by good writers but there seems to be a present tendency to distinguish them by making subtile an attribute of things and subtle a characteristic of mind." A penetrating perfume is described as subtile, whereas a wily sage's predominating characteristic is subtlety.

succeed should not be used now in the archaic sense of "to make successful, promote"; as, "to succeed an enterprise."

succeed himself: An absurd phrase. A person who takes the place of a predecessor succeeds him; one who has occupied a public office for a term prescribed by law and is reelected to that office succeeds his own previous term of office but not himself.

such: This word is often erroneously used for "so." Do not say "I never saw such a high building"; say, rather, "... so high, a building. "