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critical beyond measure or reason; a carping critic; a captious censor. "Hypercritics in English poetry." Dryden.

I, the ninth letter of the English alphabet, takes its form from the Phoenician, through the Latin and the Greek. The Phoenician letter was probably of Egyptian origin. Its original value was nearly the same as that of the Italian I, or long e as in mete. Etymologically I is most closely related to e, y, j, g; as in di…

Stephen. Impersonal verb (Gram.), a verb used with an indeterminate subject, commonly, in English, with the impersonal pronoun it; as, it rains; it snows; methinks (it seems to me). Many verbs which are not strictly impersonal are often used impersonally; as, it goes well with him.

ndant by a sort of personification. Most actions for the specific recovery of property in English and American law are in the nature of actions in personam against a person alleged to be unlawfully withholding the property.

One who is on the point of taking the degree of master of arts at an English university. Walton.

ness; also, that which is offensive to refined taste or purity of mind. The indelicacy of English comedy. Blair. Your papers would be chargeable with worse than indelicacy; they would be immoral. Addison.

the privileges of a denizen; to naturalize. [R.] Words indenizened, and commonly used as English. B. Jonson.

the action, and performs the office of a verbal noun. Some grammarians make two forms in English: (a) The simple form, as, speak, go, hear, before which to is commonly placed, as, to speak; to go; to hear. (b) The form of the imperfect participle, called the infinitive in -ing; as, going is as easy as standing.…

argely of stems with variable terminations or suffixes which were once independent words. English is both agglutinative, as, manlike, headache, and inflective, as, he, his, him. Cf. Agglutinative.

A character or personification in the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice and sometimes of another. See Vice. Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming gets the opinion of a wit. B. Jonson.

o health, credit, reputation, property, etc. Without being injurious to the memory of our English Pindar. Dryden.

feature in social or national life or habits. We ordered a lunch (the most delightful of English institutions, next to dinner) to be ready against our return. Hawthorne.

case, but in Greek it was merged into the dative, and in Latin into the ablative. In Old English it was a separate case, but has disappeared, leaving only a few anomalous forms. Instrumental errors, those errors in instrumental measurements, etc., which arise, exclusively from want of mathematical accuracy in an instr…

ch is foreign or irrelevant; as, to interlard a conservation with oaths or allusions. The English laws . . . [were] mingled and interlarded with many particular laws of their own. Sir M. Hale. They interlard their native drinks with choice Of strongest brandy. J. Philips.

To arrange in alternate lines; as, to interline Latin and English. Locke.

A form of English drama or play, usually short, merry, and farcical, which succeeded the Moralities or Moral Plays in the transition to the romantic or Elizabethan drama.

so to dreams, signs, conduct, mysteries, etc.; as, to interpret the Hebrew language to an Englishman; to interpret an Indian speech. Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matt. i. 23. And Pharaoh told them his dreams; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh. Gen. xli. 8.…

introductory to other treatises, or to a course of study; a guide; as, an introduction to English literature.

The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet (i) corresponding with the English i.

The frequent use of the sound of iota (that of English e in be), as among the modern Greeks; also, confusion from sounding Littré.