as saying, "it ought to be spelled _lept_."--_Universal and
Critical Dict., w. Leap_. In the solemn style, _leaped_ is, of course, two
syllables. As for _leapedst_ or _leaptest_, I know not that either can be
found.

[293] _Acquit_ is almost always formed regularly, thus: _acquit, acquitted,
acquitting, acquitted._ But, like _quit_, it is sometimes found in an
irregular form also; which, if it be allowable, will make it redundant: as,
"To be _acquit_ from my continual smart."--SPENCER: _Johnson's Dict._ "The
writer holds himself _acquit_ of all charges in this regard."--_Judd, on
the Revolutionary War_, p. 5. "I am glad I am so _acquit_ of this
tinder-box."--SHAK.

[294]

"Not know my voice! O, time's extremity!
Hast thou so crack'd and _splitted_ my poor tongue?"
--SHAK.: _Com. of Er._

[295] _Whet_ is made redundant in Webster's American Dictionary, as well as
in Wells's Grammar; but I can hardly affirm that the irregular form of it
is well authorized.

[296] In S. W. Clark's Practical Grammar, first published in 1847--a work
of high pretensions, and prepared expressly "for the education of
Teachers"--_sixty-three_ out of the foregoing ninety-five Redundant Verbs,
are treated as having no regular or no irregular forms. (1.) The following
twenty-nine are _omitted_ by this author, as if they were _always regular_;
belay, bet, betide, blend, bless, curse, dive, dress, geld, lean, leap,
learn, mulet, pass, pen, plead, prove, rap, reave, roast, seethe, smell,
spoil, stave, stay, wake, wed, whet, wont. (2.) The following thirty-four
are _given_ by him as being _always irregular_; abide, bend, beseech, blow,
burst, catch, chide, creep, deal, freeze, grind, hang, knit, lade, lay,
mean, pay, shake, sleep, slide, speed, spell, spill, split, string, strive,
sweat, sweep, thrive, throw, weave, weep, wet, wind. Thirty-two of the
ninety-five are made redundant by him, though not so called in his book.

In Wells's School Grammar, "the 113th Thousand," dated 1850, the
deficiencies of the foregoing kinds, if I am right, are about fifty. This
author's "List of Irregular Verbs" has forty-four Redundants, to which he
assigns a regular form as well as an irregular. He is here about as much
nearer right than Clark, as this number surpasses thirty-two, and comes
towards ninety-five. The words about which they differ, are--_pen, seethe_,
and _whet_, of the former number; and _catch, deal, hang, knit, spell,
spill, swe