VALUABLE. The following sentence, which recently appeared in one of the more fastidious of our morning papers, is offered as an example of extreme slipshodness in the use of language: "Sea captains are among the most _valuable_ contributors to the Park aviary." What the writer probably meant to say is, "Sea captains are among those whose contributions to the Park aviary are the most valuable."
VAST. This word is often met with in forcible-feeble diction, where it is used instead of _great_ or _large_ to qualify such words as number, majority, multitude, and the like. Big words and expletives should be used only where they are really needed; where they are not really needed, they go wide of the object aimed at. The sportsman that hunts small game with buck-shot comes home empty-handed.
VERACITY. The loss would be a small one if we were to lose this word and its derivatives. Truth and its derivatives would supply all our needs. In the phrase so often heard, "A man of truth and veracity," _veracity_ is entirely superfluous, it having precisely the same meaning as truth. The phrase, "A big, large man," is equally good diction.
VERBIAGE. An unnecessary profusion of words is called _verbiage_: verbosity, wordiness.
"I thought what I read of it _verbiage_."--Johnson.
Sometimes a better name than verbiage for wordiness would be _emptiness_. Witness: "Clearness may be developed and cultivated in three ways, (_a_) By constantly practicing in heart and life the thoughts and ways of honesty and frankness." The first sentence evidently means, "Clearness may be _attained_ in three ways"; but what the second sentence means--if it means anything--is more than I can tell. Professor L. T. Townsend, "Art of Speech," vol. i, p. 130, adds: "This may be regarded as the surest path to greater transparency of style." The transparency of Dr. Townsend's style is peculiar. Also, p. 144, we find: "The laws and rules[1] thus far laid down[2] furnish ample foundation for[3] the general statement that an easy and natural[4] expression, an exact verbal incarnation of one's thinking,[5] together with the power of using appropriate figures, and of making nice discriminations between approximate synonyms,[6] each being an important factor in correct style, are attained in two ways.[7] (1) Through moral[8] and mental discipline. (2) Through continuous and intimate[9] acquaintance with such authors as best exemplify those attainments."[10]
