solecism

noun

1. An error or improper usage.

   “[…]to suppose that the general concern of this Country can be directed by thirteen heads, or one head without competent powers, is a solecism, the bad effects of which every Man who has had the practical knowledge to judge from, that I have, is fully convinced of; tho' none perhaps has felt them in so forcible, and distressing a degree.”

   “Why leave the non-enumerated articles, covered by the act of 1864, subject only to this lower rate of duty? Why this distinction? Such a result would, we think, be a solecism, and contrary to the spirit and purpose of the act. It cannot reasonably be supposed that such was the intent of the clause in question.”

   “For this reason she was fond of seeing great crowds and large stretches of country, of reading about revolutions and wars, of looking at historical pictures—a class of efforts as to which she had often committed the conscious solecism of forgiving them much bad painting for the sake of the subject.”

2. An error or improper usage.

   “The "simple" metaphor, such as the instance given, becomes the "continued" metaphor when the analogy or similitude is worked out in a series of phrases and expressions based on the primary metaphor; it is in such "continued metaphors" that the solecism of "mixed" metaphors is likely to occur.”

   “Eliot and Gertrude Stein had a solemn conversation, mostly about split infinitives and other grammatical solecisms and why Gertrude Stein used them.”

   “Prepositions are also prone to particular solecisms and infelicities.”

   “On June 12th The Economist’s pages featured an activist investor “honing in on the dearth of energy experience” on a company’s board. A few readers honed in on a solecism: the original phrase is to “home in” on something, like the creatures that find their way back to their nests—that is, they “home”—with surprising precision.”

3. An error or improper usage.

   “1778, Fanny Burney, Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World, Letter LXVIII: EVELINA TO THE REV. MR. VILLARS. Clifton, Sept. 28th., "Best young woman!" repeated Mr. Lovel; "'pon honour, Jack, you have made a most unfortunate speech; however, if Lady Louisa can pardon you,-and her Ladyship is all goodness,-I am sure nobody else can; for you have committed an outrageous solecism in good manners."”

   “Under this plea, felons of the worst kind might claim, till this time, to be taken out of the hands of the law judges, and to be tried at the bishops’ tribunals; and at these tribunals, such a monstrous solecism had Catholicism become, the payment of money was ever welcomed as the ready expiation of crime.”

   “I was aware that some one, apparently at a vast distance, was calling me by my Christian name. [...] In the short space it took to cover the road between the path from Hamilton's shop and the first plank of the Combermere Bridge I had thought over half-a-dozen people who might have committed such a solecism, and had eventually decided that it must have been some singing in my ears.”

   “To build a church for the admiration of "the man in the street", who sees it from outside, or of the tourist who pays it a passing visit, or of the artist, or of anyone else whatsoever except that of the faithful who use the church for prayer, the hearing of Mass, and the reception of the sacraments, is to commit a solecism in the liturgy of all the material arts.”

   “In the South every negro preacher is ex officio a D.D., and is commonly addressed as Doctor. This enables white Southerners to show a decent respect for his sacred office, and yet avoid the solecism of calling him Mister.”