lling stone cannot fail to strike you, for it does not try; but a
marksman firing at you may fail to hit you; and I hope he always will.

_Favor_ for _Resemble_. "The child favors its father."

_Feel of_ for _Feel_. "The doctor felt of the patient's head." "Smell
of" and "taste of" are incorrect too.

_Feminine_ for _Female_. "A feminine member of the club." Feminine
refers, not to sex proper, but to gender, which may be defined as the
sex of words. The same is true of masculine.

_Fetch_ for _Bring_. Fetching includes, not only bringing, but going
to get--going for and returning with. You may bring what you did not
go for.

_Finances_ for _Wealth_, or _Pecuniary Resources_.

_Financial_ for _Pecuniary_. "His financial reward"; "he is
financially responsible," and so forth.

_Firstly_. If this word could mean anything it would mean firstlike,
whatever that might mean. The ordinal numbers should have no adverbial
form: "firstly," "secondly," and the rest are words without meaning.

_Fix_. This is, in America, a word-of-all-work, most frequently
meaning repair, or prepare. Do not so use it.

_Forebears_ for _Ancestors_. The word is sometimes spelled forbears, a
worse spelling than the other, but not much. If used at all it should
be spelled _forebeers_, for it means those who have _been_ before. A
forebe-er is one who fore-was. Considered in any way, it is a
senseless word.

_Forecasted_. For this abominable word we are indebted to the weather
bureau--at least it was not sent upon us until that affliction was
with us. Let us hope that it may some day be losted from the language.

_Former_ and _Latter_. Indicating the first and the second of things
previously named, these words are unobjectionable if not too far
removed from the names that they stand for. If they are they confuse,
for the reader has to look back to the names. Use them sparingly.

_Funeral Obsequies_. Tautological. Say, obsequies; the word is now
used in none but a funereal sense.

_Fully_ for _Definitively_, or _Finally_. "After many preliminary
examinations he was fully committed for trial." The adverb is
meaningless: a defendant is never partly committed for trial. This is
a solecism to which lawyers are addicted. And sometimes they have been
heard to say "fullied."

_Funds_ for _Money_. "He was out of funds." Funds are not money in
general, but sums of money or credit available for particular
purposes.

_Furnish_ for _Provide_, or _Su