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Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style_5

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  1. internecine 191 of the phrase “according to Mr. John- tence from the biography could be son,” it tends to apply only to the “word rewritten this way: preferred” phrase. And the clause about photographs is almost a non sequitur.) The prosecutor’s arguments did not So the story was revised for a later edi- foreshadow his future philosophy. tion: There seemed to be nothing in the controversy about. . . . “Vandalism” was the word pre- ferred by Martin D. Franks, executive director of the committee, to describe The latter quotation from the book is last night’s incident, according to unwieldy and obscure, somehow tying Mark Johnson, the campaign com- professional memberships to the cliché mittee’s press secretary. . . . about success and tacking on a quota- What he described as “sensitive tion with still another idea. A rescue at- files” were still safely under lock and tempt would be futile. key, he said. INTERNECINE. Internecine (pro- The revised story (saying nothing about nounced inter-NIECE-sin, among other photographs) is an improvement. (But ways) is a useful adjective in the sense of “What he described as” is unnecessary, mutually destructive. It comes from the inasmuch as “sensitive files” is in quota- Latin internecinus, meaning murderous. tion marks and the sentence ends with A word so derived should be expected to “he said.”) bear the concept of deadliness. Indeed The passages below are from a biog- internecine originally meant character- raphy. Nothing but thorough recasting ized by bloodshed or slaughter. of the sentences could help them. It came to mean deadly to both adver- saries in an armed conflict. This is a use- In terms of the prosecutor’s future ful interpretation, for no other single philosophy, there seemed not to be word expresses the idea. one word in the controversy about the Still later, it was given another twist. freedom of the press provided under Evidently assuming that the first six let- the First Amendment. ters came from internal, some began ap- plying internecine to internal conflicts, In terms of professional memberships, e.g., “America’s internecine struggle of moreover, nothing succeeded like suc- the 1860s.” cess, as Black himself noted in an in- Now we often find the element of terview published after his death—“I deadliness, the essence of internecine, was trying a lot of cases against cor- slighted or forgotten altogether and the porations, jury cases, and I found out word serving merely as a synonym for that all the corporation lawyers were internal in connection with verbal, polit- in the Klan. . . .” ical, or other harmless disagreements within a group. Sticking an “in terms of” into a sentence In a TV forum, a newspaper publisher is no replacement for clear thinking. No was discussing South Africa’s leadership: one can be expected to speak in terms of a future philosophy or otherwise foresee the future. (Besides, there cannot be one Botha and his successor, de Klerk, are word about press freedom; it takes at apparently having internecine war- least two words.) The first sample sen- fare.
  2. 192 interrogative sentence They were not actually shooting at each into. (“Put the dishes in [or “into”] the other; they simply disagreed on policy. cupboard.”) But idiom dictates the com- This is from a prominent newspaper: panionship of the verb place and in. (“Place the dishes in [not “into”] the The prospect of a Warner defection in cupboard.”) two years could shatter the party Into can also mean against (“The unity . . . and throw Republicans into truck crashed into a utility pole”), to a an internecine war. certain form or condition (“The vase broke into little pieces” / “Matter can No weapons would be discharged in the change into energy”), to an occupation so-called war, only words. (“She is going into real estate”), or To adapt that distinctive and powerful toward (“We must look into the fu- adjective to such unexceptional uses is ture”). like resorting to a pistol to dispatch a cockroach. 2. IN TO and INTO When in, serving as an adverb, comes Interrogative sentence. See (-)EVER; in contact with the preposition to, a Punctuation, 9. writer may erroneously unite them. The resulting “into” can grossly distort the INTO. 1. IN and INTO. 2. IN TO meaning. and INTO. 3. Slang use. Such a mistake could cause alarm. “The ship came in to the pier” simply 1. IN and INTO means that it docked. “The ship came The preposition in indicates position, into the pier” means that it crashed. location, or condition. Among its vari- The mistake could cause just mirth. ous senses, it means inside; within the “A man wanted as an army deserter for area or confines of (the house, the city, fifteen years turned himself into the sher- the deal, etc.). iff’s office last night.” Unless the reporter The preposition into indicates mo- was describing a magical transforma- tion, direction, or change in condition. It tion, the in and the to should have been often means to the interior of (a place); separate. from the outside to the inside of (the place). 3. Slang use “The children are jumping into the “Fred is in sales” indicates that selling pond” clearly indicates their movement is his occupation. “Fred is going into from the banks to the water. “The chil- sales” indicates that he intends to enter dren are jumping in the pond” is less that occupation. The era of “flower chil- clear; they may have already been in the dren” and “Do your own thing” water when they started jumping. brought the use of into in the sense of a “We walked into the house” clearly continuing participation in a vocation or indicates that we entered the house. “We avocation. One would say “I’m into walked in the house” is less clear; we painting,” instead of “I do painting” or may have already been in the house simply “I paint.” when we decided to tour the place. The term persisted, and a daily paper Some contexts in which into is right said a designer of science exhibits was allow in as an option. “They let him into “so into tornadoes” that his contribu- [or “in”] the country.” / “Throw the peel tion to a testimonial dinner was a choco- into [or “in”] the trash can.” late tornado. “Into” was a columnist’s The verb put goes with either in or slangy substitute for absorbed in, con-
  3. inundate, inundated 193 cerned with, enthralled by, interested in, tionary’s usage panel approved of the or taken by. Prepositions are not nor- popular use of the verb. On the liberal mally modified, yet “so” was forced to side, Roy H. Copperud called such use modify “into.” “well established . . . despite carping by some pedants.” INTRA- and INTER- prefixes. See These are excerpts from a book by the Confusing pairs. editors of a news magazine: Intransitive and transitive verbs. What made Gorbachev a truly in- See Verbs, 1. triguing Man of the Year was that . . . so little was known about him. . . . INTRIGUE, INTRIGUING. Did This reassuring rhetoric was in- the writer of this headline (ten years after triguingly . . . similar to what liberal the Watergate scandal) intend to convey Western strategists had accepted as a double meaning? “Why Nixon Is Still conventional wisdom for decades. . . . Intriguing.” But Gorbachev’s choice [of a con- Intriguing can mean plotting intrigue. stituency] was intriguing. . . . Eco- Intrigue as a noun means secret or un- nomic stagnation and political torpor derhanded scheme or scheming. It can [under Brezhnev] seemed to hatch also denote a secret love affair (one thing corruption and intrigue in the highest that Nixon was not accused of). The places. verb intrigue, in its most settled mean- ings, means (intransitively) to engage in Following the contestable use of intrigu- intrigue and (transitively) to plot, to ing twice and intriguingly (adverb), fi- cheat, or to achieve or get through in- nally intrigue is used strictly in the last trigue. The present participle is intrigu- quoted sentence. ing. INUNDATE, INUNDATED. Commonly the verb intrigue (transi- tive) is used as a synonym for enchant, While television cameras focused on a excite, fascinate, interest, make curious, huge fire in southern California, a re- mystify, puzzle, or perplex; intriguing as porter called attention to some houses an adjective meaning enchanting, excit- “just about to be inundated by the ing, fascinating, etc. Such use is not ac- flames.” Not burned, consumed, or de- cepted by all. stroyed, but “inundated.” His choice of H. W. Fowler pooh-poohed it as a verb could hardly have been further Gallicism (it came from the French tran- from the mark. To inundate is to flood, sitive verb for puzzle, intriguer) “confus- to cover with water in the manner of an ing the sense of a good English word.” overflowing river. Drought and water His reviser, Sir Ernest Gowers, wrote shortage had contributed to the fire dis- that a reason for its popularity was that aster. it could convey the meanings of two Inundated can equal deluged, flooded, words at once; he cited puzzle and fasci- or swamped. Used figuratively, any of nate. “But,” he went on, “it is still true those words is drenched with metaphor. that intrigue is often used in place of a When the moderator of a forum said, simpler and better word. . . .” “At this point in time, the American Theodore Bernstein found the verb people are completely inundated with turned into “a fuzzy, all-purpose word” polls,” he overdid it. Scratch “com- in place of various precise words. Just 52 pletely.” (See also “AT THIS POINT IN percent of The American Heritage Dic- TIME.”)
  4. 194 inversions IRONY, IRONIC, IRONICALLY. The pronunciation is IN-nun-date(d) or, less often, in-NUN-date(d). 1. Contrast essential. 2. SARCASM, SATIRE. Inversions. See Backward writing. 1. Contrast essential INVERTED COMMAS. See Punc- Upon reporting that a maritime colli- tuation, 10. sion had cost a company a vessel, a newscaster told the television audience: INVITE and INVITATION. When a boy in a situation comedy said, “I got a Ironically it’s the same company special invite [pronounced IN-vite] that lost a boat in a collision ten years tonight to a dance at Hamilton High,” ago. he was perfectly in character. The word is most informal though. Its use was There was nothing ironic (adjective) questionable when a broadcaster on a about it. The two incidents were parallel. specialized news program boasted of an Contrast is the essence of irony (noun). “exclusive invite” to a TV wedding. Ironically (adverb) would have been an A courteous request for a person to appropriate word if, for example, the attend an event or to participate in an maritime company had been known for activity is an invitation. So is a note used ads promoting safety afloat but then in extending it. To extend an invitation is caused a collision. to invite (someone), pronounced in- Irony can be a noteworthy incon- VITE. gruity of events, a glaring contrast be- tween what one could have reasonably INVOKE. See EVOKE and INVOKE. expected and what actually happens. Irony is also a literary style, a rhetorical figure, or a humorous device. The con- Iran. A factual error mars this passage, trast then is between the apparent mean- from a newspaper: ing of words that are written or spoken and a far different meaning beneath the The [Persian Gulf] crisis has shaken surface. the Mideast regional power balance. Egypt has moved to the forefront, and Syria and Iran have moved toward the 2. SARCASM, SATIRE Arab mainstream. Sarcasm is similar to irony in the con- trast between literal meaning and in- tended meaning, but sarcasm implies Iran is not “Arab.” Its official and pre- overt ridicule or taunting; irony is milder dominant language is not Arabic but and subtler. Related words are sarcastic Farsi, which uses the Arabic alphabet (adjective) and sarcastically (adverb). plus four additional letters. Formerly “This is a fine time to be telling me!” is a Persia, this sizable southwest Asian sarcastic remark. country has its own culture and tradi- Satire (noun) is a literary or dramatic tions. It does share the Muslim religion style using irony to attack or ridicule with the Arab countries, like Egypt and something held to be wrong or foolish. Syria, although Iranians mostly belong Related words are satirical (adjective) to the Shiah sect whereas the Sunni pre- and satirically (adverb). A writer of clas- dominates in most Arab countries. Iran sic satire was Jonathan Swift, best is pronounced either ih-RAN or, more known for Gulliver’s Travels. authentically, ee-RON.
  5. italic(s) 195 “IRREGARDLESS.” See REGARD- words in manuscripts that they want to LESS. be italic. Thus this is a sample becomes this is a sample. IS, AM, ARE (etc.). See BE, AM, IS Among other functions, italics indi- (etc., cross-reference). cate that a word is not playing its usual role, that of contributing to meaning, IS and ARE. See Verbs, 3. but is being considered as a word. For instance, this book discusses me and I. It -ISE ending. See -IZE ending, 2. deals also with and and but. Names of books, dramatic works, IS IS. Many a speaker follows is with works of art, publications, and genera an echo of the word, as though he has and species go in italics: Moby-Dick by forgotten that he just uttered it. Melville; The Glass Menagerie by A double is can be deliberate. “What- Williams; Leonardo’s Mona Lisa; ever is, is right” appears in the works of Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro; Dryden and Pope and is also attributed an article in Time; the lion, Felis leo. (See to the Greek philosopher Democritus. also Punctuation, 10.) Dryden wrote also, “Whatever is, is in Italics serve also to distinguish foreign its causes just.” The poet Ella Wheeler words or phrases that are not also con- Wilcox wrote that “whatever is—is sidered part of English, such as semper best.” This is a translation from Hegel: fidelis and et tu, Brute!; introduce new “Everything that is, is reasonable.” A terms: “Automatic speech recognition more recent example is President Clin- (ASR) is developing . . .”; and enumerate ton’s reply to a question in testimony, “It points, principles, or questions that an depends upon what the meaning of the author wishes to stress. word is is.” Italics call attention to a particular Usually, however, as the following word or phrase. It may be one that quotations from television suggest, the would be emphasized if the sentence echoed word is not the product of were spoken: thought. A member of Congress: “The fact is is that there’s nothing there” (in “When I use a word,” Humpty an investigation of the president). An as- Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tronomer: “The problem is is that we’ve tone, “it means just what I choose it got an enormous amount of work to get to mean—neither more nor less.” done right now.” An appraiser: “The good news is is it’s worth three to five The highlighted word may be one that is thousand dollars.” A writer and TV pan- not usually emphasized, as in this exam- elist: “The fact of the matter is is that he ple from a book on economics: [the president] is in deep trouble.” Each second “is” was superfluous. The discovery that man needs stimu- lation as well as comfort is not new. ISRAELI. See JEW, JEWISH. After all, the ancient Romans clam- ored for bread and circuses. Italic(s). Italic type, or italics, is a form of printing type or lettering, used for em- It may be an unexpected word: “Are the phasis and special purposes. The letters wages of sin wealth?” Or two words slant to the right (and use fewer serifs may be contrasted: “If he will not do it, than roman, the common book type). she will.” Writers and editors underline those Italics are effective when used in mod-
  6. 196 it, anticipatroy eration. A few writers overdo them, itali- “. . . They shouldn’t have the right to cizing passages here and there in efforts decide the future of the lion or risk it’s to gain readers’ attention. extinction.” The word italic (adjective and noun) is so named because it first appeared in . . . Shareholders may now treat a an Italian book (an edition of Virgil portion of the distributions paid by printed in Venice in 1501). The word the Fund as interest income from obli- italics (noun) is often construed as plu- gations of the United States and it’s ral, sometimes as singular. possessions. . . . Styles of italic go with the various ro- man styles. When a word in an italic pas- The example below (from an ad in a sage needs emphasis, it may be printed in trade magazine) shows the opposite er- roman. Another device for emphasis is ror: the omission of a necessary apostro- the heavy form of type known as bold- phe. “Its” should be it’s. face. Italics and boldface are sometimes combined in boldface italics. Ask any talent agent or A&R person. They’ll tell you that, without the right IT, anticipatory. See Expletives. production values, its hard to make great music stand out in a world of “IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING.” mediocrity. See OF COURSE, 3. (Another mistake is the use of a plural IT IS I (HE, SHE) and IT’S ME pronoun, “They,” with a singular an- (HIM, HER). See Pronouns, 10D. tecedent. See OR; Pronouns, 2. What about “mediocrity”?) IT IS I (YOU) WHO. See WHO, 3. See also Punctuation, 1B. IT, ITS, neuter pronoun. See Pro- ITSELF. See Pronouns, 3, 4. nouns, 2B. “IT STANDS TO REASON.” See ITS and IT’S. Its, the possessive, as in REASON, 3. “The cat licked its paws,” has no apos- I WHO. See WHO, 3. trophe. It should not be confused with it’s, the -IZE ending. 1. Excessive use. 2. -ISE. contraction. Like every contraction, this does have an apostrophe. It’s is usually a contraction of it is, as in “It’s a good 1. Excessive use day”; sometimes a contraction of it has, The practice of using the suffix -ize to as in “It’s been a long time.” make verbs goes back to the Middle An apostrophe was erroneously in- Ages. Both nouns and adjectives are serted in each of the four passages that turned into verbs by tacking on the suf- follow (from newspapers and a notice to fix. shareholders). “It’s” should be its. Hundreds of legitimate words have -ize. At some time, most of us empha- “It would be more racism showing size, memorize, recognize, and sympa- it’s ugly head again.” thize. Finance leads many to amortize, equalize, itemize, and minimize. Some We would also like to applaud the people professionally criticize, organize, cafe for it’s non-smoking policy. specialize, and theorize. Miscreants bur-
  7. -ize ending 197 glarize, scandalize, terrorize, and victim- “Prioritize” is no fist-pounding verb. ize. Substances energize, fertilize, neu- Among stronger choices would have tralize, and vaporize. been make our top priority (if that is Nevertheless, the practice has long what he meant), emphasize, and stress. been overdone. H. L. Mencken wrote in A local legislative body argued in sup- The American Language: port of a ballot measure: I reach into my collection at random By allowing less than prevailing wage and draw forth such monstrosities as standards . . . the City can maximize to backwardize, to fordize, to belgium- scarce job training funds. ize, to respectablize, to scenarioize, to moronize, to customize, to featurize, Did “maximize” exceed extend, pro- to expertize, to powerize, to sanitize, long, spread, or stretch in clarity or just to manhattanize and to colonize; I in pomposity? suppose I could dredge up at least a Clarity may not have been uppermost hundred more. in the mind of a business executive on a Colonize is accepted now as a standard news telecast as he tried to justify a gov- word. Customize, featurize, sanitize, and ernment subsidy for his prosperous cor- manhattanize have reached acceptance poration: at least as jargon. Mencken later, in the first supplement to his work, listed forty When they [U.S. officials] want an in- more that had been coined “in recent dustry to succeed, they incentivize it. years.” By then, he had learned that -ize words dated to the Middle Ages, and he A physician sought to tell a huge TV no longer called them “monstrosities.” audience that some health plans were But we can be glad that few of them sur- harming patients’ health; that holding vive. Those on his list that have been down doctor costs, à la merchandising, generally accepted (excluding trade was replacing the practice of ethical names) are glamorize and publicize; two medicine. What he said was: others, finalize and moistureize (now without the first e), have reached the sta- We are being commoditized and our tus of jargon. patients are being commoditized. Many seem attracted to -ize because it appears impressive, official, or technical. Perhaps unaware of the verb meta- But it is often weak and unnecessary, and morphose—to transform (something) or the multiplication of -ize verbs adds be transformed, as by magic or meta- monotony to the language. morphosis—a journalist said a politician “Finalize,” for instance, serves more who changed jobs had “metamorpho- often as a bureaucratic and pretentious sized.” synonym for complete, finish, or end See also FACT- words, 2 (end). than as a necessary verb. “Moisturize” essentially says dampen or keep moist, 2. -ISE although it can imply the use of a com- In Britain the American -ize, the origi- mercial product. nal British spelling, usually is spelled -ise A candidate for district attorney said (after the modern French practice of in an election statement: changing the Greek -izo to -iser). For in- stance, the American realize is spelled re- We must prioritize the prosecution of alise. The Oxford English Dictionary violent, repeat offenders. finds no good reason for -ise, “in opposi-
  8. 198 -ize ending tion to that which is at once etymologi- compromise, demise, despise, devise, en- cal and phonetic.” terprise, excise, exercise, improvise, re- Some verbs (not part of the Greek tra- vise, supervise, surmise, surprise, and dition) always end in ise though possess- televise. Advertise and merchandise are ing the ize sound. Among them are infrequently spelled advertize and mer- advise, apprise, arise, chastise, comprise, chandize.
  9. J JELL-O. As a brand of gelatin dessert, We don’t endorse anti-Semitism of Jell-O is a trademark and should not be any kind, and we’re not happy about used in lower case, the way a manual of some of Jackson’s racial slurs and in- English for newcomers uses it: “Wait- sensitivity toward Jews. ress: You have your choice of pudding, ice cream, or jello.” In the first sample, the objectionable If that particular brand is meant, use word is “race.” (A good substitute capital J, hyphen, and capital O. Other- would have been people.) In the second wise gelatin (or gelatine) is likely to de- sample, the word “racial” should have scribe the jellied dessert, salad, or mold been scrapped. in mind. A cold dish of meat, fish, veg- When there are African Jews, Chinese etables, or fruit in gelatin is an aspic. Jews, and Jews of just about every race, it makes no sense to refer to Judaism in JEW, JEWISH. Jew denotes either a racial terms. Contrary to Hitler’s doc- descendant of the Hebrews or one who trine, there is no Jewish race. adheres to the Judaic religion, whether The point made in the book about the through birth or conversion. The name separateness of Israeli and Jewish is comes from the Hebrew yehudi, origi- valid. It is incorrect to speak of the Is- nally a member of the tribe of Judah. raelis as “the Jews,” the way some ad- Two critiques, in a reference book versaries of Israel have done. Only and an editorial, bear criticism them- about 30 percent of the world’s 14 mil- selves. Each contains an unacceptable lion Jews live in Israel, and about 18 word. percent of the Israelis—that is, the citi- An author objected to careless use of zens of the State of Israel—are non- the terms Jew and Jewish in connection Jews, mostly Moslems. with Israel: Jew is a noun only (e.g., “Jesus was a Jew”). The related adjective is Jewish Although that nation is closely identi- (“a Jewish temple” / “a Jewish fied with the Jewish race and religion, woman”). Using “Jew” in its place is the expressions Israeli and Jewish are derogatory. not interchangeable. Hebrew is the name of a language and an ancient people. It is not “in mod- An “Editorial Board” expressed ern usage interchangeable with Jew,” reservations about a presidential candi- contrary to a dictionary’s statement. date that it was endorsing: See also YIDDISH. jew, jewish 199
  10. 200 jobless JOBLESS. The average newspaper ed- look like mistakes and stop the reader itor is unlikely to put unemployment momentarily. compensation in a headline when he can Because two words often go together, save space with “jobless pay,” even the writer may think they are wedded. though “jobless” misses the mark in that The phrase damn yankee has been so phrase. An unemployed person can be common in the South that some people called jobless; it is not the “pay” that have thought it is a single word. lacks a job. Joblessness is comparable to Printed works can be inconsistent in unemployment, but the press does not their choices of words to unite. This is use the former often; it saves only one from an autobiography: “We were intro- letter. duced to the great military thinkers and “Jobless” has branched out from the their ideas—Mahan on sea power, headlines into the bodies of news stories Douhet on airpower. . . .” and into newscasting. A news agency re- Another author practices ortho- ported: graphic discrimination by writing, in a book of reminiscences, “Blackamericans Blue-chip stocks fell in subdued are different from white Americans.” trading Tuesday as investors stood on Phrases that have been published in the sidelines waiting for Friday’s key fused form include these thirty-five: ad jobless numbers for September. writers, auto maker, best seller, break even, business folk, cab driver, care A TV newscaster announced a “jump in givers, catch phrases, child care, com- jobless claims.” Another reported that mon sense, decision making, dining “the number filing jobless claims room, down payment, drug war, face dropped. . . .” Still another: “California’s down, front lines, full text, fund raising, jobless rate has also dropped slightly.” good will, hard cover, home care, house So far the word has not entered the cleaning, job seeker, market share, news vernacular. A laid-off worker is likely to writers, night watchman, park land, say, “I got my unemployment [not “job- phone book, round trip, trap doors, less”] check today.” word games, word play, work force, working women, work station. Joining of words. Some writers feel The innumerable “-person” and compelled to join pairs of words that are “-people” monstrosities can be added to perfectly comprehensible when left sepa- the list. See PEOPLE as a suffix; PER- rate. The result can be misleading. A SON. newspaper item said an ex-president had Sometimes hyphenated adjectives like thanked “the secret serviceman credited cold-blooded; head-on; hour-long, with saving his life after an assassination month-long, etc.; long-time; short-lived; attempt. . . .” Although an intelligence small-town; and worn-out are divested agent in the armed services could possi- of their hyphens and jammed together. A bly be described as a “secret service- restaurant announces “HOMESTYLE man,” the recipient of the thanks was a COOKING” on its sign and “Home Secret Service man. Style Cooking” on its menus. The adjec- Usually the reader is unlikely to be ac- tive is home-style. A headline, “Barry tually misled by unwieldy fusions, such Goldwater Is Dead at 89; Conservatives’ as “Assemblymember” for Assembly Standardbearer,” omitted the hyphen in member, “autoworkers” for auto work- the noun standard-bearer. (See also ers, or “eightmillion” for eight million. Punctuation, 4D.) More likely such behemoths will just The combining of moderately sized
  11. jurist 201 JUDICIAL and JUDICIOUS. See words to build giant words may be proper in the German language. Any ad- Confusing pairs. vantage of imposing such a system on JURIST. A jurist is one who is well English, other than the saving of a minute amount of space, fails to come to versed in the law. He may be a judge, a mind. lawyer, a legal scholar or writer, or none In many instances the first word is not of the above. The popular press gener- emphasized, so sound is no rationale for ally misunderstands. joining the words. Each of these nine . . . The incident raised questions phrases gives somewhat more emphasis about whether K—— had violated a to the second word; joining the two judge’s rule that says a jurist “should words obscures that fact: best seller, not lend the prestige of his office to common sense, down payment, front advance the private interests of oth- lines, full text, good will, night watch- ers.” man, round trip, and trap doors. In each of the nine hyphenated adjectives, both The rule applied to a judge; it said noth- syllables get emphasis. ing about a “jurist.” Evidently the re- It is true that a long-range trend to- porter, thinking it was a synonym for ward the solidification of phrases and judge, used “jurist” to avoid repeating hyphenated compounds has been ob- “judge.” served. That any need exists to hasten In another newspaper, a columnist ap- the process has not been shown. peared to do the same thing: Consult the entries below for notable examples of wrongly joined phrases. . . . The Senator, himself a former ju- Some of the phrases are supposed to be- rist, wondered out loud if Judge Bork come single words at times; others are was really a true conservative. . . . not. If the senator is a “former” jurist, he must have forgotten what he knew ALL RIGHT about law. ANY Here is a similar example but with a A WHILE and AWHILE little puzzle: who is the “jurist”? BACK(-) prefix and pairs CHECK OUT and CHECK-OUT Neither California nor U.S. judicial EVERY DAY and EVERYDAY rules of misconduct appear to apply EVERY ONE and EVERYONE to a questionable $1 million legal fee HOLD awarded lawyer E—— W—— by a INTO, 2 San Francisco judge before the jurist’s LAY OFF and LAYOFF appointment to the federal bench. LOT NEVER MIND Either man could be a “jurist.” The con- ON, 3 (end) text verifies that the judge was the one. PICK UP and PICKUP There is nothing wrong with “the judge’s ROUND UP and ROUNDUP appointment.” If the writer found the RUN AWAY and RUNAWAY prospect of repeating a word too dread- SET UP and SETUP ful, he could have written “the latter’s appointment.” A reappearance of “the JOKE, JOKINGLY. See jurist’s,” six paragraphs later, could eas- QUIP, ily have been avoided: QUIPPED.
  12. 202 juvenile language . . . The time limit to investigate a The examples above come from gen- matter of alleged impropriety for a sit- eral newspapers. One might think that ting judge is six years prior to the start the staff of a newspaper for the legal of the jurist’s current term. profession would know better than to run anything like “Review Calendar Replace “the jurist’s” with his. (And Forces Jurist to Do Double Duty” (head- make those “judicial rules of miscon- line) and “the assignment has passed to duct” the Code of Judicial Conduct.) several jurists” (text underneath). The Another story indirectly quoted a article was about a judge. So why not judge on the reinterpretation of princi- say judge? ples by “successive generations of ju- Juvenile language. See ALSO, 1; rors.” The writer probably knew the difference between judges and jurors, COOL; MOM, MAMA, MA; NEAT; members of juries, but mixed up his j- STOMACH; WEIRD; WHEN, WHERE words. in definitions.
  13. K KIND OF. 1. Combined with plural. of the amalgam of kind of and plural: 2. Improperly used with A or AN. 3. “This is still common colloquially, Properly used with A or AN. 4. Replac- though considered grammatically incor- ing RATHER or SOMEWHAT. 5. Used rect.” The Random House Dictionary, “vulgarly.” pointing out the objections to that form, offers the historical explanation that 1. Combined with plural kind once was an unchanged plural Kind (noun), meaning class, sort, or noun like sheep and that the s-plural de- variety, is singular. To qualify it with a veloped later. plural word is not generally accepted as The usage panel of The American correct. An example, “These kind of Heritage Dictionary rejected “Those birds live . . .” instead of Birds of this kind of buildings seem old-fashioned” kind live or This kind of bird lives. (90 percent) and “that kind of buildings Kind itself may be made plural, in seem” (75 percent) for formal writing representing more than one class or vari- but approved “What kind of books are ety: Many kinds of fruit grow / All kinds these?” (76 percent). A question begin- of tools are sold. In these examples, fruit ning with what or which is a more ac- is regarded as an abstract category; tools ceptable deviation. are regarded as concrete items. Although the second edition of Web- The grammarian H. W. Fowler for- ster’s Dictionary said kind of was used gave irregular uses of kind of just “in with a plural “incorrectly,” Webster’s hasty talk.” Confusion is common, even Third accepts the disputed forms with- in more careful use. A U.S. president out qualification or mention of any ob- spoke publicly of “those kind of tests,” jections. instead of tests of that kind. What is said about the singularity of To use a word like all, many, some, kind of goes for class of, sort of, and these, or those with kind and a plural type of. See TYPE. noun and verb used to be generally ac- See also THEM and THOSE. ceptable. Wyclif wrote: “. . . Alle kynd of fishis gedrynge” (gathering); Shake- 2. Improperly used with A or AN speare: “These kind of knaves I know” Another source of criticism is the in- and “To some kind of men . . .”; and trusion of a or an in “That kind of a Flatman: “Such kind of Pamphlets work song” or “this kind of an apple,” where wonders with the credulous Multitude.” kind means variety, class, or the like. The Oxford English Dictionary says The indefinite article does not belong kind of 203
  14. 204 kiss of death there, inasmuch as song or apple stands The same is done to the of in sort of, for a category (of which kind is a subdi- producing “sorta” and so on. vision), not just one specimen. (But see KISS OF DEATH. See WHICH. also 3.) These follow the acceptable form: “She likes that kind of plant.” / KNOT. When a mariner speaks of a “This is my kind of meal.” / “It’s a rare kind of stone.” ship’s going, say, forty knots, he is indi- The same principle holds for class of, cating speed, not distance. A knot is one sort of, and type of. “A gnu is a type of nautical mile per hour. antelope.” Television narrators said, over films of ships, “The cruising speed is fifty knots 3. Properly used with A or AN per hour” and “The Starship will do Kind of in another sense may go with twenty knots an hour on the open a. Being a kind of or a sort of critic, poet, ocean.” With knots, “per hour” or “an vagabond, or something else can be the hour” is superfluous. A phrase like “fifty same as being something of a critic etc. It nautical miles per hour” would be ac- often implies that the person possesses ceptable—at least for landlubbers. the characteristics of the specified class A nautical mile, also known as a geo- to a certain extent but not fully. “She’s a graphical, sea, or air mile, is used by kind of butterfly.” / “George is a sort of ships and aircraft. It equals one minute expert.” of a great circle of the earth, about 6,076 The same goes for kind of a (or an) or feet, or about 1.15 statute miles. A sort of a (or an). “My boss is kind of a statute mile, also known as a land mile, tyrant.” / “They say Fred is sort of an is the ordinary mile, about 5,280 feet. animal at home.” KODAK. Kodak is a trademark, origi- Either way, a second indefinite arti- cle—“a kind of a” or “a kind of an”—is nally the name of a popular camera, now redundant. (It does appear in old writ- more often associated with camera films ing: “. . . my master is a kind of a and photocopying machines. knave,” Shakespeare; and “I thought Old dictionaries contain two words myself a kind of a monarch,” Defoe.) derived from the camera’s name: the verb kodak, to take a snapshot, and the 4. Replacing RATHER or SOMEWHAT noun, kodaker, one who takes snap- Kind of is used colloquially (as an ad- shots. H. L. Mencken called them, along verb) to mean rather, somewhat, in a with kodak fiend, “familiar derivatives.” way, or to some extent: “We were kind All are now obsolete. He repeatedly used of surprised by the news.” / “The Kodak and other trade names in lower weather is kind of brisk today” / “I kind case, but they should be capitalized. of miss her.” George Eastman coined the name of Sort of is used similarly. Neither is the camera he invented, registering it in suitable for careful writing. 1888. He said the name was arbitrary. It has not been tied to Kodiak island or the 5. Used “vulgarly” Kodiak bear. The K probably came from The of in kind of is “vulgarly” slurred his mother’s maiden name, Kilbourn. (the Oxford’s label). The result may be KUDOS. This noun originated as spelled “kind o’ ” / “kind a’ ” / “kinda” / “kinder,” or otherwise. Dickens put Greek for glory and fame. It can convey “Theer’s been kiender a blessing fell that meaning or a shallower sense: credit upon us” in a character’s mouth. or acclaim for a particular act or achieve-
  15. kudos 205 ment. Its life as an English word began as The second edition of the Random British university slang, and when used House Dictionary granted the misbegot- casually to signify a transitory compli- ten “kudo” the status of an entry, lead- ment, it retains a sophomoric air. ing a reviewer to ask whether one An editorial said that a competing pa- instance of pathos would now be a per, impressed by the mayor’s housing “patho.” policy, had given him a compliment— The first syllable of kudos is empha- “perhaps the first such unadulterated sized and pronounced CUE or COO; kudo” since he took office. “Kudo” is the second syllable is pronounced doss not a legitimate word. The editorial or dose. writer probably thought of kudos as plu- Let no one confuse that word with ral. It is singular. A movie reviewer on kudu (KOO-doo), an African antelope, television similarly erred when he said, or its plural, kudus (KOO-dooz). “The greatest kudos go to Martin Lan- dau.” It goes to him.
  16. L LAID and LAIN. See LAY and LIE. ally left in the traditional order (Mao Tse-tung), but names of Japanese are LAMA and LLAMA. See Homo- usually reversed (Akira Kurosawa). phones. Most immigrants to the United States adopt its customary order of names. LARCENY. See CRIME, MISDE- LATIN(-)AMERICAN. 1. LATIN MEANOR, and FELONY; Crimes (vari- ous felonies), 3. AMERICA and SPANISH AMERICA. 2. LATINO, HISPANIC, SPANISH, LAST (in a series). See LATTER. MEXICAN, and CHICANO. LAST NAME and SURNAME. In 1. LATIN AMERICA and SPANISH a newspaper article with a Budapest AMERICA dateline, a sentence said: A columnist criticized the U.S. inva- sion of Haiti for, among other reasons, A Hungarian named Laszlo, who its lack of approval by “Spanish- declined to give his last name, earns speaking” countries of the Western 10,000 forints a month in his govern- Hemisphere. “So much for ‘Latin Amer- ment job as a repairman. . . . ican’ support,” he remarked. What do Spanish speakers have to do Laszlo is his last name. What we do not with Haiti? The Haitians speak French. know is his surname, or family name. In Latin America is by no means syn- Hungary a citizen’s surname comes first; onymous with Spanish America. The his given name comes last. If that fact former includes those countries of the surprises some people who know some- Western Hemisphere south of the United thing about Hungary, it is because writ- States where Spanish, Portuguese, or ers in English switch the names around. French is the official language. The latter For instance, the composer known as excludes Brazil, where Portuguese is Béla Bartók was really Bartók Béla. The spoken, and French possessions as well practice is so pervasive, it may be futile as Haiti. Neither term should be applied to try to change it. Just do not call his to the countries of Belize and Guyana, surname his “last name.” where English is the official language, In China and Japan too the surname and Suriname, where Dutch is the offi- comes first, then the given name. In En- cial language. glish writing, names of Chinese are usu- A person from Latin America is a 206 laid and lain
  17. latter 207 Latin American, with no hyphen. Used parable term for the first of the two is the as an adjective, as in Latin-American former. country, the term takes a hyphen. Latter is used correctly as a compara- tive adjective in this way: After two 2. LATINO, HISPANIC, SPANISH, choices have been offered, one might say, MEXICAN, and CHICANO “The latter choice is more practical.” Or, Latin(-)American used to be colloqui- if one has been asked to choose between ally shortened to Latin. This has given two paragraphs: “I prefer the latter para- way to a use of the Spanish word latino, graph.” capitalized. In Spanish it primarily The word is used incorrectly to refer means of the Latin language (adjective) to the last of three or more things. Fur- or a scholar in the Latin language thermore, its use can have other draw- (noun). It is often used in the United backs. States to mean a person here with any An article enumerates six local politi- ethnic tie to Latin America. It is used cal meetings that took place in one night also as an (attributive) adjective, “this and adds: “It was the latter event that country’s Latino population,” an un- drew the most political luminaries.” Spanish form. (Spanish would say la Last, not “latter,” would be grammati- población latina.) cally correct; so would last-mentioned or Another popular term, older and last of those events. But any of the terms somewhat more formal, is Hispanic. As could slow down readers by sending an adjective, it has long meant Spanish, them back to find out what it pertains to. in the sense of pertaining to or originat- Although the writer did not need to re- ing in Spain. In the popular use of His- peat the thirty words used to describe panic, the adjective includes Spanish the particular event, he could have made America and the word serves also as a a capsule reference to it: “The birthday noun, meaning a person with ties to ei- dinner drew the most political luminar- ther place. ies.” A Spanish person is one from Spain The “latter” device, aimed at verbal and nowhere else, although a Spanish- economy, sometimes brings verbosity. speaking person may be from anywhere This passage is from a book on comput- else. It is incorrect to use the adjective ing: “Spanish” in lieu of Mexican, although such use has sometimes been quietly en- If you’re looking for an inexpensive couraged by Americans of Mexican ori- printer, your best bet is an HP gin as a response to discrimination. In DeskJet, which is small, light, and recent decades they have more promi- whisper quiet. The latter attribute nently used Chicano to describe them- may not seem very important un- selves (from an elision and dialectal less, like me, you once had your pronunciation of Mexicano, meaning nerves . . . shattered daily by the jack- Mexican); however, some Mexican- hammer clanking of a dot matrix or Americans object to the term. daisy wheel printer. LATTER. 1. As adjective. 2. As pro- Last instead of “latter attribute” would noun. 3. With number. be correct but still roundabout. If the au- thor had replaced “latter attribute” with 1. As adjective quietness, he would have been correct, The latter refers to the second of two saved a word, and avoided a conspicu- things or persons mentioned. The com- ous circumlocution.
  18. 208 latter This passage is from an article in a fi- If there are three principles, the third is nancial newspaper: not “the latter” but the third, or the last or the last of those or something similar. The quarry gang was the macho Among the items kept there are the crew. They never wore shirts, vied for diary of Nazi propaganda chief the deepest tans, walked with a dis- Joseph Goebels, an X-ray of Adolph tinctive “strut,” and clinched their Hitler’s skull and the first edition of belts unbelievably tight to accentuate Pravda, the newspaper of the Soviet a “Scarlett-O’Hara”-type waistline. Communist Party. (This latter habit the camp physician The latter is so rare that even Soviet believed to be at least partially re- officials don’t have an original; they sponsible for the four cases of appen- had to photocopy the Hoover Institu- dicitis during the year I spent at tion’s edition. Henryville.) Change “latter” to last or last of those Changing “latter” to last would improve or—best of all—newspaper. (Two names the third sentence but not completely fix are misspelled: Goebbels and Adolf. And it. A “habit” is a noun, whereas the pre- “edition” at the end should be copy.) vious sentence enumerated a series of Latter is commonly used—or mis- verbs. Better: “The camp physician be- used—to avoid repeating something. lieved the belt-tightening habit to Many journalists are averse to repeti- be. . . .” tion. But repetition is not necessarily Latter can also mean later, in time or bad. There is nothing wrong with re- sequence. It should not pertain to an ear- peating a word or short phrase to be lier event. There should never be any clear or grammatical. doubt what latter refers to. See FOR- MER. D’Amato owns [?] the Republican, Conservative and Right to Life lines, and the latter got more than 130,000 2. As pronoun votes in the 1978 gubernatorial elec- The latter may be used without a tion, displacing the Liberals as the noun; so may the former. An illustration fourth strongest party in the state. of correct usage (though bad poetry): “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a Replacing the erroneous “latter” with pail of water. The former fell down and last-named or the like would correct the broke his crown, and the latter came error. A better solution is to turn the sen- tumbling after.” tence into two sentences. End the first Latter denotes the second of two with “lines.” Start the second: “The things. It should not be used in the man- Right to Life Party got. . . .” ner of the following passages. The writer of the next sample seems baffled by grammar as she switches In ensuing weeks, Mr. Momper chaotically between the comparative and won from the environmentalists an the superlative in a book on calligraphy: agreement on three basic principles— the presence of the allies, legal ties to It [vermilion] is obtainable in sev- West Germany and the government’s eral shades—in vermilion, scarlet ver- monopoly on the legal use of force. milion, orange vermilion and Chinese The latter was a singularly West vermilion; this latter, being the deepest Berlin issue. shade, is considered the more reliable.
  19. lay off and layoff 209 Change “latter” to last and “more” to MONY; Twins; UNLESS and UNTIL; most. VENUE; Verbs, 1C; WARRANT; WITH PREJUDICE and WITHOUT 3. With number PREJUDICE. Use of the latter implies the existence LAY and LIE. You lay your pen of the former, in the same category. If you speak of the latter choice, you are down. You lie in bed. implicitly distinguishing it from the for- The verb lay is transitive. (That is, it mer choice. Similarly, if you speak of the transmits the action from subject to ob- latter three (days, games, etc.), there ject; and the object is essential for the must be the former three. verb to have full meaning.) This passage, from a news article, The verb lie is intransitive. (It does not contains an illogicality: transmit the action. Just the subject par- ticipates in the action.) . . . He [President Bush] would permit Thus a U.S. president spoke ungram- abortion only in cases in which a con- matically when he declared that “a new tinued pregnancy would threaten the world of freedom lays before us.” It lies life of the mother, or when a preg- before us. A manual said incorrectly that nancy results from rape or incest. But envelopes “should lay flat.” They should he has also said that he opposes the lie flat. A newspaper columnist was use of federal funds in the latter two wrong to write, “I was laying on my cases. back. . . .” She was lying on her back. Lying was needed also in radio and TV “The latter two cases” would be proper reports of a truck “laying there on its if one could speak of “the former two side” and a crime victim “laying in the cases,” but only three categories are street.” mentioned altogether. The writer would There are a few exceptions to the rule have done well to grit his teeth and re- that lay is a transitive verb. A hen can lay peat three words: “in rape or incest and a sailor can lay aft, for example. But cases.” lie is always intransitive. The past tense of lay is laid; the par- LAUDABLE and LAUDATORY. ticiples are laid (never “lain”) and lay- See Confusing pairs. ing. Examples: I laid my pen down yesterday. I have (or had) laid it down Law, courts, legal terms. See AC- often. I am laying it down now. CUSED, ALLEGED (etc.); ATTORNEY Lie becomes lay, lain (never “laid”), and LAWYER; CHIEF JUSTICE; CIR- and lying. Examples: I lay down last CUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE; Confus- evening. I have (or had) lain on the bed ing pairs (judicial, prosecute); CRIME, occasionally. I am lying on it now. MISDEMEANOR, and FELONY; “He lied down,” a radio host said in- Crimes (various felonies); EVIDENCE correctly. He lay down. Lied is the past and PROOF; EXECUTE; Guilt and in- tense of lie (verb) in another sense: to tell nocence; “HIGH COURT”; JURIST; a lie, a falsehood. LIGATION and LITIGATION; Num- LAY OFF and LAYOFF. “. . . Man- bers, 9; PAROLE and PROBATION; Pronouns, 2A; PURSUIT of HAPPI- agement still planned to layoff Teamster NESS; Quotation problems; REGULA- delivery drivers”; so said an article (by TION, STATUTE, and LAW; Reversal two writers quoting “sources” quoting a of meaning; REVERT; RULE, RULING; union representative quoting a manage- SAID; TESTAMENT and TESTI- ment negotiator). It was in error: man-
  20. 210 lead (noun) agement would not “layoff” anyone. Pretty soon people would be toss- The correct verb is lay off, two words. ing their oat bran in the trash and Layoff as a single word is a noun only, chewing on No. 2 pencils. for example: “The layoff of workers will At a time when warnings about lead and start next week.” The verb (transitive) health are common, the first sentence has two words: “The company will lay leads us to thoughts of the metal. Only off workers starting next week” or when we read to the last word of the sec- “Workers will start being laid off next ond sentence do we realize that the week.” writer had a different “lead” in mind. To lay off someone is to suspend or (Among shortcomings is an inconsis- discharge him from employment for an tency in mood. Either change “come . . . impersonal economic reason. claims . . . is” to came, claimed, and was To discharge, dismiss, or fire an em- [subjunctive], or change “would” to will ployee is to stop employing him, usually [indicative]. See Mood; Subjunctive. By for cause, such as performance on the the way, why would people necessarily job. In that sense, fire is an informal pick the No. 2 pencils? I prefer the No. verb, probably originating in a humor- 1.) ous analogy with discharge; both also See also LEAD (verb) and LED. mean to shoot a gun. A layoff used to occur typically during LEAD (verb) and LED. An other- a slow period for an industry or at a wise tightly written novel contains this troubled time for a particular company, sentence: “Pierce Bascomb lead the way and it was often temporary. Now its only up a slight hill and then down another.” reason may be to save money, and it is Bascomb “led the way.” usually permanent. The past tense of the common verb When not describing lingerie, pink lead—pronounced LEED and meaning slip is a colloquial term for a notice of to direct, go first, or be the head of—is layoff, dating from the 1920s. led and only led, pronounced LED. The See also LET GO. same goes for the past participle: She has led the cause for years. He had led the LEAD (noun). While the television army to defeat. screen depicted a group of miners at An article in a legal newspaper quotes work, an announcer remarked that for a a lawyer as telling the Supreme Court century “Idaho has been producing lead that “jurors could be mislead by the for pencils or whatever else lead is used anti-sympathy instruction.” Evidently a for.” He thereby publicly announced his thought of lead, the metal, pronounced ignorance of the difference between a LED, misled the writer. pencil’s graphite, a form of carbon that is There is an uncommon verb lead, pro- colloquially called “lead,” and the real nounced LED and meaning to put lead lead, a metal used in alloys, bullets, pip- in or on; or, in traditional printing, to ing, printing type, and so on. Both are create spaces by placing lead strips be- elemental substances and both are pro- tween lines of type. Its past tense and nounced LED, but the similarity ends past participle is leaded. there. See also Homophones; LEAD (noun). A writer for a metropolitan newspa- per also confused the two: LEAP, LEAPED, LEAPT. A music critic, reviewing a symphonic perfor- What if they come out with a study mance of a Bartók piece, wrote that “the that claims the best way to fight middle Elegy lept into prominence.” Al- cholesterol is to pump more lead in though it may be pronounced LEPT, the your diet?
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Tiếng Anh thương mại TOEFL - IELTS - TOEIC Kỹ năng viết tiếng Anh Ngữ pháp tiếng Anh Tiếng Anh phổ thông Tiếng Anh thông dụng Chứng chỉ A Nhật - Pháp - Hoa - Others Kỹ năng đọc tiếng Anh Tiếng Anh trẻ em Kỹ năng nghe tiếng Anh Giáo dục học