The

The word “the” implies existence and uniqueness; it is a mistake to talk of “the son of So-and-So” if So-and-So has a fine family of ten sons. ¹ People who refer to “the Oxford Movement” imply that Oxford only moved once; and those quaint people who say that “A is quite the gentleman” imply both the doubtful proposition that there is only one gentleman in the world, and the indubitably false proposition that he is that man. Probably A is one of those persons who add to the confusion in the use of the definite article by speaking of his wife as “the wife.”