Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/90

 , a spelling which follows middle English analogy, is the preferred form according to literary usage.

enjoy: A word often misused. Do not say "I enjoy bad health" nor "I enjoy good health," when you suffer from illness or are in a perfect state of health. One enjoys health (here good is superfluous), but how can one enjoy bad health?

enthuse, said to be of journalistic origin, is characterized as slang by the, meaning "manifest enthusiasm or delight."

enthusiast, fanatic: Discriminate carefully between these words. An enthusiast is one who is ardently zealous in any pursuit; a fanatic is one whose mind is imbued with excessive or extravagant notions on religious subjects.

epithet: Often misused from the mistaken idea that an epithet must necessarily be opprobrious in character or imply opprobrium. An epithet is an adjective or a phrase or word used adjectively to describe some quality or attribute of its object, as in " a benevolent man," "Father Æneas," "benevolent" and "father" are epithets.

equally as well: An erroneous phrase rendered correctly equally well. The introduced conjunction has no grammatical place in the sentence, the meaning of which is clear without it. 74