p. 214 | THE NICE USE OF WORDS

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 1, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 14

THE NICE USE OF WORDS.

I USE nice in the sense of fit and elegant. No young lady who has enjoyed the advantages of a good education should make mistakes in the use of her native vocabulary. She ought, as by intuition, to pitch at once upon the right word to express her thought.

Let me illustrate by some examples:—

“I did not anticipate your sorrowful tidings,” writes Anna to Maria, meaning that she did not expect them. She would have been very cruel had she anticipated them, for anticipation always carries with it a certain soft ringing of joy-bells.

“I was not in the least disappointed when I heard of your cousin’s death,” observes Miss Rachel to her friend, Miss Susan. She should say she was not surprised. To have been disappointed would have implied that she had hoped for the person’s death, a state of mind quite unlikely.

“How can she be so disinterested, when everybody else is so full of enthusiasm?” cries Tillie. Not disinterested, please, but uninterested, or, better still, indifferent.

When you wish to have a remark repeated, “I beg pardon?” interrogatively, is preferable to “What, ma’am?” or “What, sir?”

You beg pardon when you have unintentionally offended, when you differ in opinion and wish to state the fact, and when you have done something awkward. You say, “Excuse me,” when it is necessary to interrupt a conversation, to pass between some one and the fire or the window, or to leave the room or the table.

A little attention to these seemingly small matters will help our girls to become elegant and attractive women.—Christian at Work.