Impropriety

As a rhetorical term, defined as an error in using words in a sense different from their recognized signification. Impute. Non-painstaking writers not unfrequently use impute instead of ascribe . "The numbers [of blunders] that have been imputed to him are endle ."—"Apple tons' Journal." The use of impute in this connection is by no means indefensible; still it would have been better to use ascribe . In our midst. The phrases in our midst and in their midst are generally supposed to be of recent introduction; and, though they have been used by some respectable writers, they neverthele find no favor with those who study propriety in the use of language. To the phrase in the midst no one objects. "Jesus came and stood in the midst." "There was a hut in the midst of the forest."