the senior word.

_Peculiar_ for _Odd_, or _Unusual_. Also sometimes used to denote
distinction, or particularity. Properly a thing is peculiar only to
another thing, of which it is characteristic, nothing else having it;
as knowledge of the use of fire is peculiar to Man.

_People_ for _Persons_. "Three people were killed." "Many people are
superstitious." People has retained its parity of meaning with the
Latin _populus_, whence it comes, and the word is not properly used
except to designate a population, or large fractions of it considered
in the mass. To speak of any stated or small number of persons as
people is incorrect.

_Per_. "Five dollars _per_ day." "Three _per_ hundred." Say, three
dollars a day; three in a hundred. If you must use the Latin
preposition use the Latin noun too: _per diem; per centum_.

_Perpetually_ for _Continually_. "The child is perpetually asking
questions." What is done perpetually is done continually and forever.

_Phenomenal_ for _Extraordinary_, or _Surprising_. Everything that
occurs is phenomenal, for all that we know about is phenomena,
appearances. Of realities, noumena, we are ignorant.

_Plead_ (pronounced "pled") for _Pleaded_. "He plead guilty."

_Plenty_ for _Plentiful_. "Fish and fowl were plenty."

_Poetess_. A foolish word, like "authoress."

_Poetry_ for _Verse_. Not all verse is poetry; not all poetry is
verse. Few persons can know, or hope to know, the one from the other,
but he who has the humility to doubt (if such a one there be) should
say verse if the composition is metrical.

_Point Blank_. "He fired at him point blank." This usually is intended
to mean directly, or at short range. But point blank means the point
at which the line of sight is crossed downward by the trajectory--the
curve described by the missile.

_Poisonous_ for _Venomous_. Hemlock is poisonous, but a rattlesnake is
venomous.

_Politics_. The word is not plural because it happens to end with s.

_Possess_ for _Have_. "To possess knowledge is to possess power."
Possess is lacking in naturalness and unduly emphasizes the concept of
ownership.

_Practically_ for _Virtually_. This error is very common. "It is
practically conceded." "The decision was practically unanimous." "The
panther and the cougar are practically the same animal." These and
similar misapplications of the word are virtually without excuse.

_Predicate_ for _Found_, or _Base_. "I predicate my argument on
univers