Pants for Trousers. Abbreviated from pantaloons, which are no longer worn. Vulgar exceedingly.

Partially for Partly. A dictionary word, to swell the book.

Party for Person. “A party named Brown.” The word, used in that sense, has the excuse that it is a word. Otherwise it is no better than “pants” and “gent.” A person making an agreement, however, is a party to that agreement.

Patron for Customer.

Pay for Give, Make, etc. “He pays attention.” “She paid a visit to Niagara.” It is conceivable that one may owe attention or a visit to another person, but one cannot be indebted to a place.

Pay. “Laziness does not pay.” “It does not pay to be uncivil.” This use of the word is grossly commercial. Say, Indolence is unprofitable. There is no advantage in incivility.

Peek for Peep. Seldom heard in England, though common here. “I peeked out through the curtain and saw him.” That it is a variant of peep is seen in the child’s world peek-a-book, equivalent to bo-peep. Better use 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.

Comment Problems

Dear readers:

A few weeks ago I was forced to turn off comments by the ever-increasing flood of comment spam, much of it incredibly filthy. That, and a new job, have interfered with my daily posting schedule. I hope to have the comment problem solved in the next few days: it's not as easy as it ought to be. Even before that, daily posts should continue as long as I'm at home. (I will be out of town December 2nd-5th.)

As long as this is the last post, you will know that comments are still turned off. As soon as it disappears, you may comment at will. Thank you for your patience.