Five Hundred Mistakes Corrected

Elder and eldest are applied to persons--older and oldest to things

100. "Victoria is Queen of the United Kingdom:" say, United Kingdoms. Who ever speaks of the United State of America?

WORDS TO BE CAREFULLY DISTINGUISHED.--Be very careful to distinguish between indite and indict (the former meaning to write, and the latter to accuse); key and quay; principle and principal; marshal and martial; counsel and council; counsellor and councillor; fort and forte; draft and draught; place and plaice (the latter being the name of a fish); stake and steak; satire and satyr; stationery and stationary; ton and tun; levy and levee; foment and ferment; fomentation and fermentation; petition and partition; Francis and Frances; dose and doze; diverse and divers; device and devise; wary and weary; salary and celery; radish and reddish; treble and triple; broach and brooch; ingenious and ingenuous; prophesy and prophecy (some clergymen sounding the final syllable of the latter word long, like the former); fondling and foundling; lightning and lightening; genus and genius; desert and dessert; currier and courier; pillow and pillar; executer and executor (the former being the regular noun from the verb "to execute," and the latter a strictly legal term); ridicule and reticule; lineament and liniment; track and tract, lickerish and licorice (lickerish signifying dainty, and licorice being a plant, or preparation from it); statute and statue; ordinance and ordnance; lease and leash; recourse and resource; straight and strait (straight meaning direct, and strait, narrow); immerge and emerge; style and stile; compliment and complement; bass and base; contagious and contiguous; eminent and imminent; eruption and irruption; precedent and president; relic and relict.