Dublin.
_Misapplication of Terms_ (Vol. ix., p. 361.).--Your correspondent is quite
entitled to the references he demands, and which I had considered
superfluous. I beg to refer him to the school dictionaries in use by my
boys, viz. Mr. Young's and Dr. Carey's edition of _Ainsworth_, abridged by
Dr. Morell; also to the following, all I possess, viz. Dr. Adam
Littleton's, 4to. 4th ed., 1703; Robertson's ed. of _Gouldman_, 4to., 1674;
and Gesner's _Thesaurus_, 4 vols. fol. I may add that the observations of
Horne Tooke are quite to my mind, especially when applied to the "legendary
stories of nurses and old women." (Todd's _Johnson_.)
Working in the same direction as your correspondent who has caused this
invasion of your space, I cannot resist the opportunity of protesting
against the use of "opened up" and "opened out," as applied to the
developments of national enterprise and industry. These expressions, common
to many, and frequently to be read in the "leading journal," stand a fair
chance of becoming established vulgarisms. It is, however, something worse
than slipshod when a paper of equal pretension, and more particularly
addressed to the families of the educated classes, informs its readers
"that some of the admirers of the late Justice Talfourd contemplate the
erection of a _cenotaph over his grave_ in the cemetery at Norwood."
(_Illustrated News_, March 25, 1854.)