@cerberus I'm reading some of the preliminary articles in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 1st edition again. It quotes Horace's Ars Poetica: "usus, Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi." It provides an unattributed translation, also found in Popular Science Monthly, Vol 76 from 1910, in the article The Growth of a Language by Dr. Charles W. Super. I was wondering how accurate it is. The provided translation is is follows:

@Tonepoet Only the last and part of the second last line are a translation of that line.

It is accurate enough.

Although there may be a small error, but I think that is open to interpretation.

Perhaps you should post it on latin.stackexchange.com !

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001793.html

This article may interest you.

> I labor to be concise, I become obscure: nerves and spirit fail him, that aims at the easy: one, that pretends to be sublime, proves bombastical: he who is too cautious and fearful of the storm, crawls along the ground: he who wants to vary his subject in a marvelous manner, paints the dolphin in the woods, the boar in the sea. The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it lack skill.

Also Horatius.

As you see, mixed metaphors are mentioned.