Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GRAM'MAR, n. [Fr. grammaire; L. grammatica; Gr. γραμματικη, from γραμμα, a letter, from γραφω, to write. See Grave.]

1. In practice, the art of speaking or writing a language with propriety or correctness, according to established usage. As a science, grammar treats of the natural connection between ideas and words, and develops the principles which are common to all languages.
2. A system of general principles and of particular rules for speaking or writing a language; or a digested compilation of customary forms of speech in a nation; also, a book containing such principles and rules.
3. Propriety of speech. To write grammar, we must write according to the practice of good writers and speakers. [“Grammar is a term borrowed from the Greek, and used with little variation by the Latins, French, English, &c.; but the Welsh are under no necessity of borrowing from others, while they have so significant a term of their own as llythyreg.” The Rev. John Walters's Diss. on the Welsh Language, Cowbridge, 1771, 8vo. p. 32. – E. H. B.]