Ambrose Bierce: A lightship warning us off the shoals of language misuse

My old friend and colleague Bill Hipple, whom I first met on the terrace of the Moana Hotel in Honolulu just before the outbreak of World War II, has sent me a small treasure.

It is a copy of “Write It Right: The Lost Book,” by Ambrose Bierce, the celebrated San Francisco journalist, wit, critic, short story writer and satirist.

Not only is “Write It Right” a lost book, Bierce himself seems to be a lost writer; he is rarely quoted anymore; I rarely see his name in book reviews and other literary writings; and his injunctions on writing the language have vanished into oblivion as Bierce did himself.

For years, in the late 19th Century and early 20th, as a gadfly journalist in San Francisco, he was the source and arbiter of literary fashion in the West.

The new “Write It Right” (Terriam Publishers, Toluca Lake, 1986) has a preface by Edward B. Gannon and Richard S. Gannon noting: “The highest cultural achievement of any nation, the arts notwithstanding, is its language. It is for just this reason that the publishers of this book sense its importance.”

Edward B. Gannon, Hipple discloses, is “Eddie Gannon, the caddymaster at Lakeside Golf Club,” where Hipple may often be found. “He is a word lover, and he published (the book) on his own.”

Evidently Bierce feared that the language was being weakened and endangered by carelessness and imprecision.

“The author’s main purpose in this book is to teach precision in writing,” he says, “and of good writing (which, essentially, is clear thinking made visible) precision is the capital concern.”

I will quote just a few examples from Bierce’s “Blacklist,” choosing some which, as he feared, have become accepted.

“ Afraid . Do not say ‘I am afraid it will rain.’ Say, I fear that it will rain.”

I’m afraid that one’s a lost cause.

“ Alleged. ‘The alleged murderer.’ One can allege a murder, but not a murderer.”

Today our papers are full of alleged murderers, thanks to the danger of lawsuits; that one, too, is lost.

“ Anticipate for expect . ‘I anticipate trouble.’ To anticipate is to act on an expectation in a way to promote or forestall the event expected.”

Though many people still make that distinction, the erroneous use today is more common.

“ Anxious for eager . ‘I was anxious to go.’ Anxious should not be followed by an infinitive. Anxiety is contemplative; eagerness, alert for action.”

Does that make you anxious?

“ Appreciate for highly value . In the sense of value, it means value justly, not highly. In another and preferable sense it means to increase in value.”

I appreciate that one.

“ Badly for bad . ‘I feel badly.’ ‘He looks badly.’ The former sentence implies defective nerves of sensation, the latter, imperfect vision. Use the adjective.”

Do you make that mistake? Don’t feel bad. So do many others.

“ Bug for beetle , or for anything. Do not use it.”

Perhaps Bierce never heard that charming verse:

Little bugs have littler bugs

Upon their backs to bite ‘em;

And littler bugs have littler bugs,

And on ad infinitum.

“ Casualties for losses in battle. The essence of casualty is accident, absence of design. Death and wounds in battle are produced otherwise, are expectable and expected, and, by the enemy, intentional.”

Casualties , I have an idea, is a euphemism used by the military to make losses sound less real.

“ Chance for opportunity. ‘He had a good chance to succeed.’

“ Candidate for aspirant . In American politics, one is not a candidate for an office until formally named (nominated) for it by a convention, or otherwise, as provided by law or custom.”

Today we might read that a candidate had a good chance to be nominated, but lost out, a casualty of politics.

“ Gotten for got . This has gone out of good use, though in such compound words as begotten and misbegotten it persists respectably.”

Strangely, when I use got , which I always do, people advise me that the proper form is gotten .

“ Helpmeet for helpmate . In Genesis, Adam’s wife is called ‘an help meet for him,’ that is, fit for him. The ridiculous word appears to have had no other origin.”

“ Juvenile for child. This needless use of the adjective for the noun is probably supposed to be humorous, like ‘canine’ for dog, ‘optic’ for eye, ‘anatomy’ for body, and the like. Happily the offense is not very common.”

Today good children are called children; bad children are commonly called juveniles, and not humorously.

“ Smart for bright or able . An Americanism that is fast dying out. But smart has recently come into use for fashionable, which is almost as bad.”

Bierce’s report of smart’s death was premature. Today it means both bright and fashionable.

“ Unique . ‘This is very unique.’ There are no degrees of uniqueness; a thing is unique if there is not another like it.”

Grammarians are still fighting to preserve this unique meaning of unique , but it’s a losing battle.

“ Verbal for oral . All language is verbal, but audible speech is oral.”

Samuel Goldwyn seemed completely to confuse that point with his famous dictum: “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

In 1913, bored and embittered by life in the United States, Bierce went to Mexico to join Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries, and was never seen again.

His end was clouded; his prose, never.