Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults

Generally for Usually.  “The winds are generally high.”  “A fool is generally vain.”  This misuse of the word appears to come of abbreviating:  Generally speaking, the weather is bad.  A fool, to speak generally, is vain.

Gent for Gentleman.  Vulgar exceedingly.

Genteel.  This word, meaning polite, or well mannered, was once in better repute than it is now, and its noun, gentility, is still not infrequently found in the work of good writers.  Genteel is most often used by those who write, as the Scotchman of the anecdote joked—­wi’ deeficulty.

Gentleman.  It is not possible to teach the correct use of this overworked word:  one must be bred to it.  Everybody knows that it is not synonymous with man, but among the “genteel” and those ambitious to be thought “genteel” it is commonly so used in discourse too formal for the word “gent.”  To use the word gentleman correctly, be one.

Genuine for Authentic, or Veritable. “A genuine document,” “a genuine surprise,” and the like.

Given.  “The soldier was given a rifle.”  What was given is the rifle, not the soldier.  “The house was given a coat (coating) of paint.”  Nothing can be “given” anything.

Goatee.  In this country goatee is frequently used for a tuft of beard on the point of the chin—­what is sometimes called “an imperial,” apparently because the late Emperor Napoleon III wore his beard so.  His Majesty the Goat is graciously pleased to wear his beneath the chin.

Got Married for Married.  If this is correct we should say, also, “got dead” for died; one expression is as good as the other.

Gotten for Got.  This has gone out of good use, though in such compounded words as begotten and misbegotten it persists respectably.

Graduated for Was Graduated.

Gratuitous for Unwarranted.  “A gratuitous assertion.”  Gratuitous means without cost.

Grueling.  Used chiefly by newspaper reporters; as, “He was subjected to a grueling cross-examination.”  “It was grueling weather.”  Probably a corruption of grilling.

Gubernatorial.  Eschew it; it is not English, is needless and bombastic.  Leave it to those who call a political office a “chair.”  “Gubernatorial chair” is good enough for them.  So is hanging.