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Principal A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage
A Dictionary of Contemporary American UsageEvans B., Evans C.
A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage КНИГИ ; ГУМАНИТАРНЫЕ НАУКИ Автор:Bergen Evans, Cornelia Evans Название: A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage Издательство: Random HouseГод: 1957 Формат: pdf Размер: 7 Mb Язык: английскийWhen we speak or write we want to be understood and respected. We want to convey our meaning and we want to do it in a way that will command admiration. To accomplish these ends we must know the meanings of words, their specific meanings and their connotations, implications and overtones, and we must know how to combine words effectively into sentences.A dictionary can help us to understand the meaning of a word. But the only way to understand a word fully is to see it in use in as many contexts as possible. This means that anyone who wants to improve his vocabulary must read a great deal and must make sure that he understands what he reads... rapidshare 0 1 2 3 4 5
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ing form254
plural form158
plural verb119
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A DICTIONARYOF CONTEMPORARY by BERGEN EVANS and COR.NELIA EVANS RANDOM HOUSE l NEW YORK Fourteenth Printing @Copyright, 1957, by Bergen Evans and Cornelia Evans All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada by Random House of Canada Limited. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 57-5379 Manufactured in the United States of America PREFACE When we speak or write we want to be understood and respected. We want to convey our meaning and we want to do it in a way that will command admiration. To accomplish these ends we must know the meanings of words, their specific meanings and their connotations, implications and overtones, and we must know how to combine words effectively into sentences. A dictionary can help us to understand the meaning of a word. But the only way to understand a word fully is to see it in use in as many contexts as possible. This means that anyone who wants to improve his vocabulary must read a great deal and must make sure that he understands what he reads. There is no short cut to this kind of knowledge. If a man thinks that noisome and noisy are synonyms, if he uses focus and nexlls interchangeably, if he sees no difference between refute and deny and if he assumes that disinterested means uninterested, he will not say what he means. Indeed, he may even say the exact opposite of what he means. Respectable English is a much simpler matter. It means the kind of English that is used by the most respected people, the sort of English that will make readers or listeners regard you as an educated person. Doubts about what is respectable English and what is not usually involve quest:ions of grammar. There are some grammatical constructions, such as that there dog and he ain't come yet, that are perfectly intelligible but are not standard English. Such expressions are used by people who are not interested in "book learning." They are not used by educated people and hence are regarded as "incorrect" and serve as the mark of a class. There is nothing wrong about using them, but in a country such as ours where for a generation almost everybody has had at least a high school education or its equivalent few people are willing to use expressions that are not generally approved as "correct." A man usually thinks about his work in the language that his co-workers use. Turns of speech that may have been natural to a statistician when he was a boy on a farm simply do not come to his mind when he is talking about statistics. Anybody whose work requires intellectual training-and this includes everybody whose work involves any amount of writing-speaks standard English naturally and inevitably, with possibly a few insignificant variations. But many people who speak well write ungrammatical sentences. There seems to be some demon that numbs their fingers when they take hold of a pen, a specter called "grammar" which they know they never understood in school and which rises to fill them with paralyzing uncertainty whenever they stop to think. The only way to exorcise this demon is to state some of the fundamental facts of language. And one of the most fundamental is that language changes constantly. People living in the United States in the middle of the twentieth century do not speak the English of Chaucer or of Shakespeare. They don't even speak the English of vi PREFACE Woodrow Wilson. The meanings of words The first grammars published in English change and the ways in which words are were not intended to teach English but to used in sentences change. Silly once meant get a child ready for the study of Latin. "holy," fond meant "foolish," beam meant They were simplified Latin grammars with "tree" and tree meant "beam," and so on English illustrations. Of course they were through many thousands of words. The incomprehensible, though they probably pronoun you could once be used with a made Latin easier when the child got to it. singular verb form, as in Was you ever in Later, when Latin was no longer an imBaltimore? Today we must say were you. portant part of education, the schools conThe word news could once be used as a tinued to use books of this kind on the plural, as in These news were suddenly theory that they taught "superior" English, spread throughout the city. Today we must that is, English that resembled Latin. treat it as a singular and say This news was But the rules of Latin grammar require spread. constructions that are absurd and affected Since language changes this much, no in English, totally unsubstantiated by Engone can say how a word "ought" to be lish usage. And they often condemn conused. The best that anyone can do is to structions that the greatest writers of say how it is being used, and this is what English use freely. The common man, even a grammar should tell us. It should give us the common educated man, has had no desire to be "superior" in some mysterious information on what is currently accepted way and these Latin rules have had very as good English, bringing together as many little effect on the way English is actually details as possible under a few general rules used by educated adults. But the rules have or principles, so that it will be easier for us had this effect, that millions of adults beto remember them. lieve that what seems natural to them is The older grammars, by some one of which almost every adult today was beprobably wrong. wildered in his school days, were very full In analyzing the language the old-fashof the spirit of what "ought" to be done ioned textbooks use concepts, or terms, and drew the sanction of their "oughts" that are valid when applied to Latin but from logic rather than from what people are almost meaningless when applied to an actually said. Thus in such a sentence as uninflected language such as modern EngThere is an apple and a pear in the basket lish. The difference between a noun and an most school grammars up until a generaadjective, or between an adjective and an tion ago would have said that one "ought" adverb, for example, is plain in Latin but to use are and not is. And the schoolchilnot in English. No grammar can explain dren (some of whom later became schoolthese differences in English without becoming too involved for an elementary student. teachers) docilely accepted the pronounceInstead of explaining them, therefore, the ment. However the child would have heard authors often write as if no explanation the minister, the doctor, and even the were needed, as if the differences were schoolteacher out of school, say is, and obvious to all but the dullest. And most of since he couldn't bring himself to say that us succumb to this. We get tired of feeling the book was wrong in school or these stupid and decide, for instance, that an eminent people wrong out of school, he adverb ends in -ly, such as really, and an would probably conclude that he didn't adjective doesn't, such as real. This leads us "understand" grammar. Unfortunate as that to feel uneasy at Swing low, sweet chariot, conclusion might have been, it was at least to wonder how road commissioners can be intelligent and preferable to attempting all so illiterate as to urge us to drive slow, and the rest of his life to speak and write in to get all hot and bothered in fifty useless the unreal manner recommended by the ways. The child who leaves school knowing textbook. PREFACE that he doesn't know the ditierence between an adjective and an adverb is unusualIy strong minded and lucky. For the last fifty years, however, certain grammarians have been making a scientific study of English. They have been finding out how English is really used by different groups of people, instead of theorizing about how it might be used or dogmatizing about how it ought to be used. The investigations of these men have shown us which grammatical forms are used by educated people and which are not. They make it possible to define and analyze what is standard speech and what is not. They show us that standard English allows a certain amount of variation. That is, there is often more than one acceptable way of using the same words. The most obvious variations are geographical, Some words are used differently in different parts of the country, but each use is respectable in its own locality. Some variations are peculiar to a trade or profession (such as the medical use of indicate). These are as respectable as the group that uses them but they are likely to be unintelligible to the general public. When they are used solely to mark a difference, to give an esoteric flavor, they constitute a jargon. There are also differences between formal and informal English. Formal English is solemn and precise. It dots all the i's and crosses all the t's. Informal or colloquial English is more sprightly and leaves more to the imagination. Forty years ago it was considered courteous to use formal English in speaking to strangers, implying they were solemn and important people. Today it is considered more flattering to address strangers as if they were one's intimate friends. This is a polite lie, of course; but it is today's good manners. Modern usage encourages informality wherever possible and reserves formality for very few occasions. This dictionary is intended as a reference book on current English in the United States. It is designed for people who speak standard English but are uncertain about some details. lr attempts to list the que-stions that most people ask, or should ask, about what is now good practice and to give the best answers available. It also contains a full discussion of English grammar, a discussion which does not assume that the student can already read and write Latin. If any reader wants to make a systematic study of English grammar he should begin with the entry parts of speech and follow through alI the cross references. Some of these may prove difficult, but no one needs to study it who is not interested. One can use good English without understanding the principles behind it just as one can drive a car without understanding mechanics. The individual word entries do not assume that the reader is interested in grammatical principles. They assume that he wants the answer to a specific question in the least possible time. The information in them has been drawn chiefly from the Oxford English Dictionary, the seven-volume English grammar of Otto Jespersen, and the works of Charles Fries. This has been supplemented by information from A Dictionary of American English, edited by Sir William Craigie and James Hulbert, A Dictionary of Americanisms, by Mitford M. Mathews, The American Language, with its two supplements, by H. L. Mencken, and The American College Dictionary. Further information has been drawn from articles appearing in American Speech over the past twenty years and from the writings of George 0. Curme, John Lesslie Hall, Robert A. Hall, Jr., Sterling A. Leonard, Albert H. Marckwardt, Robert C. Pooley, Thomas Pyles, and others. Some of the statements concerning differences in British and American usage are based on the writings of H. W. Fowler, Eric Partridge, Sir Alan Herbert, Ivor Brown, Sir Ernest Gowers and H. W. Horwih. The authors want to thank George ElIison, Sarah Bekker, Bernice Levin, Irene Le Compte and James K. Robinson for help in assembling and organizing this material. They also want to thank Esther Sheldon for ... VII1 PREFACE many helpful comments, Jess Stein and Leonore C. Hauck for the contributions they made in editing this work, and Joseph M. Bernstein for his thoughtful proofreading. Throughout the book the authors have tried to present the facts about current usage fairly and accurately. They are aware that there is more than one kind of English. As children, living in the north of England, they spoke a dialect that was in many ways nearer to the English of Chaucer than to that of the New York Times. They have, therefore, a personal affection for forms that are older than our current Iiterary forms. As adults they have both had occasion, over many years, to read a great deal of manuscript English, the unedited writings of college students and adults working in various professions. They are therefore familiar with current tendencies in English. They hope that this wide acquaintance with the language has kept them from giving too much weight to their personal preferences. But they have a personal bias, and this should be stated clearly. The authors are prejudiced in favor of literary forms. They prefer the forms used by the great writers of English to forms found only in technical journals. This means that if they list a nonliterary form as acceptable there is conclusive evidence that it is accepted. But they may have listed some forms as questionable that are standard in some areas or professions. The reader must decide these things for himself. To anyone who has a serious interest in the language that he hears and uses, the authors would like to say, in the words of Socrates, "Agree with me if I seem to speak the truth." A DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN USAGE To Aunt Cornelia A a and an are two forms of the same word. The form an is used before a vowel sound, as in an umbrella, an honest man. The form a is used before a consonant sound, as in a European, a one-horse town, a historical novel, a hotel. The form a should be used before an h that is pronounced, as in history and hotel. Formerly these h sounds were not pronounced and an historical novel, an hotel, were as natural as an honorable man, an hour, an heiress. This is no longer true and these archaic an's, familiar from English literature, should not be repeated in modem writing. A, an, and any are all derived from the same source. A (or an) is called the indefinite article. Actually. -_ it is used to indicate a definite but unspecified individual, as in a man in our town, a library book. In this sense the individual may represent the type, or the entire class, as in a cat has nine lives. When we wish to refer indefinitely to a single person or thing we say any, as in any man in our town, any library book. A may also be used to mean one, as in wait a minute and in a day or two. In its first sense, a may be be used before the word one, as in we did not find a one. This is acceptable English whenever there is good reason to stress the idea of oneness. But some people consider the construction improper, or unreasonable, and claim that it is better to say a single one. It is hard to see why it should be wrong to express the idea of unity twice (a, one) and right to do so three times (a, single, one). The word a (or an) stands before other qualifying words, as in a very large sum of money, except words or phrases which indicate an extreme degree of something. These are adverbial phrases and precede the word a, as in so very large a sum of money and too small a sum of money. abandoned; depraved; vicious. An abandoned person-when the word is used with moral implications-is one who has given himself up, without further concern for his reputation or welfare, to immoral courses, one hopelessly sunk in wickedness and the indulgence of his appetites (an abandoned woman, hardened in sin). It usually suggests a passive acceptance of immorality (Is he so abandoned as to feel no shame at such an accusation?). A depraved person is one so dis- torted in character, so vitiated, debased, and corrupt that he seeks out evil (These dens are the haunts of the worst and most depraved men in the city). When applied to character, as it often is, it again suggests a wilful corruption, springing from a distorted or perverted nature (Only a depraved taste could regard these daubs as art). A vicious person is addicted to vice, malignant and aggressive in his wickedness, violent and dangerous (Drunkenness does not make men vicious, but it shows those who are to be so). abbreviations are shortened or contracted forms of words or phrases, used as a symbol of the whole. They are designed for the eye as acronyms are designed for the ear. In written language the abbreviation has always been valuable, for scribes must save time and space whether they write on papyrus, paper or stone. The most famous abbreviation of antiquity, perhaps of all time, was SPQRSenatus Populusque Romanus-the great insigne of Rome. In general, a reader coming across an abbrevation visualizes or sounds the whole word represented by it, as in Dr. Co., mfg., cf., pres. and so on. Many abbreviations, however, have been taken over into speech, probably, as a rule, when the original word or phrase was cumbersome, as in C.O., DP, IQ, S.R.O., R.S.V.P., G.A.R., D.A.R., and the like. This tendency to enunciate the abbreviation, rather than the full word or phrase for which it stands, is increasing. College students talk of math, lit, poly sci and econ courses without any feeling of being breezy or slangy. What was once the province of vulgar speech and the literary domain of such writers as Ring Lardner and S. J. Perelman now freely serves the popular press where the full forms of V.I.P., MC. (often written emcee), G.I., and scores of other abbreviations would now seem very strange. Some names and terms are so unpronounceable that abbreviations are always used in both writing and speaking. Indeed the original forms, so far as the general public is concerned, are completely unknown: DDT for dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane, ACTH for adrenocorticotropic hormone, KLM for the Dutch airline Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maat-schaapij voor Nederland en Kolonien N.V. abdomen Probably the commonest type of abbreviation today, and one that seems to be growing ever more common, consists of the initials of the words of a name or a phrase: PTA, R.F.D., r.p.m., p.o.w. The government and the army have contributed many of these new abbreviations. There is no general rule, but there is a tendency, which in time may establish a rule, to omit periods in the names of government agencies but to include them in other cases. This would at least allow us to distinguish AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) from A.A.A. (American Automobile Association). Another common form of abbreviation is the shortening of words: capt., diam., treas. In many instances the shortened forms have been taken over into the vernacular and occasionally even into standard usage. Ad, especially for a short advertisement (as a want ad), must now be accepted as standard, as also must vet for veterinnry, though it is still colloquial for veteran except in certain combined forms like Amvets. Co-op is now so universally employed that it would be pedantic to insist on cooperative. Some abbreviations are formed by contraction: supt., patd., arty. or by the retention of only the key consonants: blvd., hdqrs., tsp. Latin phrases are frequently abbreviated, and in the same ways that English words and phrases are abbreviated. Some appear only as initials: c., e.g. Q.E.D., by the way, is always capitalized. Some are shortened: id., et al., cet. par., aet. Some are contracted: cf., pxt. VOX pop is an example of a shortened Latin phrase that has crept into common English speech. Ad Zibitrrm ("at pleasure," that is, at the discretion of the performer) was originally primarily applied to music. As an abbreviation-ad lib.-it moved over into the drama, took on broader connotations and is now accepted as a noun, verb, or adjective. Here are some abbreviations which fall outaide the ordinary patterns: G.Z.The initials of a phrase ("government issue") which have taken on a meaning different from the original term but wryly related to it. AlStrictly speaking not an abbreviation, since it is not a shortening of anything but simply a symbol. IOU-A phrase put in terms of initials, although they are not literally the initials of the words they represent. This is one abbreviation which is based on sound rather than on sight. There is a euphemistic use of abbreviationin such expressions as g.d. and s.o.b.-which seeks to make certain phrases not ordinarily used in polite conversation less offensive. To some ears, however, the abbreviation is an added offense, heaping timidity or affected gentility on indecency or profanity. The ultimate in abbreviation-the abbreviation of an abbreviation-is furnished by CSCN/CHSA which is an abbreviation of COMSUBCOMNEl..M/COMHEDSUPPACl? which is an abbreviation of Commander, Subordinate Command, U. S. Naval Forces East- 4 ern Atlantic and Mediterranean, Commander, Headquarters Support Activities. abdomen. See belly. aberration means wandering from the usual way or from the normal course. There are various technical uses of the word in biology, optics, and other sciences, but the most common popular use is in the phrase an aberration of the mind, where it means a departure from a sound mental state. It does not mean mere absentmindedness. It should always be used with a qualifying adjective or prepositional phrase descriptive of the nature of the aberration. abhor. See hate. abide. The past tense is abided or abode. The participle is also abided or abode. Abode is preferred to abided when the word means dwelled, as in he abode in Boston almost all of his life. When the word is used in its broader meaning abided is preferred, as in he abided by his promise. But both forms can be used in both senses. Abide is heavyweight for remain or stay. It is properly used in the great hymn "Abide With Me." It is no lighter when used in the sense of live or dwell. In all of these uses it retains an obsolescent, medieval quality. This very quality, however, gives the note of solemnity that certain occasions deserve. When it means to stand by a person, or one's word, or to await the consequences of some momentous act (Abide the event. Others abide the question:/Thou art free), the very quality which makes it improper for lesser uses makes it valuable. Nations abide by the terms of a treaty. The use of the phrase can't abide to express dislike (I can't abide that mnn!) is commonly disparaged. But it has force and flavor. Its use to describe situations, or more often persons, that are intolerable and not to be endured strikes the proper note of vehemence that certain old English words and words associated with Scripture convey. ability; capacity. Ability is the power to do, capacity is the power to receive. Ability can be acquired; capacity is innate. Ability is improved by exercise; capacity requires no exercise. A pump has an ability to pump a certain amount of fluid. A tank has the capacity to hold a certain amount. A boxer has the ability to hit, the capacity to take punishment. abject apology. When Milton spoke of the fallen angels rolling in the fires of hell thick bestrown, abject and lost, he was using abject in its original sense of cast out or rejected. In the hackneyed phrase an abject apology it is not the apology that is abject but the one who is making the apology. But since there is something contemptible in one who abases himself too much, a feeling perhaps that he is sacrificing his dignity in the hope of escaping a possible punishment, abject in this phrase, as it reflects on the one apologizing, has come to have a connotation of despicable. It is an overworked phrase and should be used sparingly. abject poverty is poverty so severe or so prolonged that the sufferer from it feels cast out from human society. Here, again, there is a feeling that human dignity has been impaired and there is something slightly despicable in the excess of humility exhibited. Dire poverty (from the Latin dirus, terrible) is poverty so extreme that it is terrible to behold. Both phrases have been weakened by repetition and should be used only when they convey the exact meaning that the speaker or writer desires to express. abjure and adjure belong, with quiddities and quillets, to the solemnity of the legal brief and the juridical charge. Abjure, virtually undigested from the Latin abjurure, means to solemnly forswear, to renounce, to repudiate. The prefix ab(as in absent, abdicate, etc.) negates an oath that has been sworn. Conversely, the prefix ad- atlirms the act of swearing (as it affirms ministration in administration and monition in admonition) in adjure, which means to command solemnly, under oath or the threat of a curse. Neither word is to be used lightly, and it is paramount that their similarity of sound should not confuse their completely opposite meanings. ablative case. The ablative is a Latin case used principally to show that a noun or pronoun stands in some qualifying relation to the verb. In modern English the ablative relationships are shown principally by prepositions. Old English did not have an ablative and for this reason the word is not used in English grammars as often as the other Latin case names. ablution; washing. Ablutions are performed in a church; washing is done in a sink or bathroom. Ablution now refers exclusively to the use of water for cleansing in religious rites, the ceremonial bathing of the body or the rinsing of sacred vessels. To describe anyone's washing of his hands and face as performing his ablutions is to be ponderously jocular and slightly sacrilegious. Keats, in the last poem that he wrote, used the word correctly when he spoke of the moving waters at their priestlike task/ Oj pure ablution round earth's human shores. abnormal; subnormal; supernormal. Abnormal, in the strictest sense, denotes any deviation from the normal. An abnormally pretty girl or an abnormally pleasant day would certainly be understood. In general, however, the deviation is towards imperfection. Abnormal driving conditions will not mean exceptional visibility but, rather, fog, ice, irregular pavement or something of that sort. Abnormal behavior may be exceptional, but it is never exemplary. College courses in Abnormul Psychology devote little time to the exceptionally brilliant or the ttnusually happy. Subnormal denotes things below the average (Subnormal intelligence is characteristic of morons. Hibernating animals have subnormal temperatures). A chilly day in Florida or southern California is certain to be described as subnormal. Supernormal is not often used-and just as well, for it is awkward. However, it could be used to describe superior intelligence, superhuman capabilities, and supernatural occurrences. Certain visionaries may be said to have had supernormal powers of sight or hearing. It might be insisted that a fever is a supernormal temperature, but here abnormal, with its suggestion of an undesirable deviation, is used. aboard (on board), to board and boarding were originally sea terms. In America, where the tradition of the sea and respect for its terms (except in the Navy where the insistent retention of nautical terms in land stations often seems absurd to the landlubber) was not as strong as it was in England, the term was transferred to railroad trains. Where our conductor calls "All aboard!" the English stationmaster says, "Take your seats, please!" The airplane has taken over many nautical terms, and being welcomed aboard by the stewardess has a mildly adventurous sound without seeming affected. The wings and the motors have to be tersely designated and port and starboard, inboard and outboard seem natural and sensible. (It is a nice illustration of the development of language that although motor and engine are synonymous in popular usage, an outboard motor and an outboard engine are wholly different things.) abode. An abode was formerly merely a waiting or an abiding (Through his body his sword glodeJ Dead he fell, without nbode). Later it came to mean the place in which the abiding was done. Milton calls Paradise Adam's abode. The body was often called the abode of the spirit. But to apply the word today to an ordinary house is affectation or heavy jocularity. See abide. abominate. This word may be followed by the -ing form of a verb, as in I abominate dancing, but not by an infinitive, as in I abominate to dunce. The construction with the infinitive fs not standard. about. The basic meaning of about is around or circling. It may mean physically around, as in there are spies about and he walked about the garden, or it may mean approximately, as in there are about a hundred people. A compound verb including about is always weaker or vaguer than the original verb, as I know him and Z know about him, 2 had forgotten that and I had forgotten about that. About may be followed by the -ing form of a verb, as in he thought about leaving, or by an infinitive, ti in he was about to leave. When followed by an infinitive, about means on the point of. The compound at about, as in he arrived at about 3 o'clock, is condemned by some grammarians on the grounds that it is redundant. This is not a reasonable claim. At is frequently followed by words showing degree, as in ut almost, at nearly, at exactly, and there is no reason why about should not be used in the same way. About is used after a great many other prepositions, as in for about an hour, in about a week, by about Christmas, and the compound at about is sometimes required, as above in they sold at about $3 n share. It is true that in expressions of time about can be used without a preposition, as in he arrived about 3 o'clock. But there is no reason why anyone should feel compelled to use it in this way. At about 3 o'clock is well established, reputable English. above is used in written English to mean mentioned earlier, as in the above examples. Some grammarians object to the above examples on the grounds that above is an adverb and should not stand immediately before a noun. Such people have no objection to the abovementioned examples or the examples above. And they should not object to the above examples. Above is accepted as an adjective by the best English scholars and writers. It is used in this way by Franklin, Hawthorne, Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Quiller-Couch, H. W. Fowler, Bertrand Russell, Gilbert Murray, and by most of the grammarians who condemn it, when they are off their guard. abrogate; arrogate. To abrogate is to annul summarily, to abolish authoritatively or formally (The power which formed the laws may abrogate them). The word cannot properly be applied to anything but established custom or usage. When Sir Nathaniel in Love's Labour's Lost beseeches Holofernes to abrogate scurrility, the use is probably intended to be humorous. To arrogate is to claim presumptuously as a right some dignity or authority to which one is not entitled (groups which arrogate to themselves the right to use coercion). abscissa. The plural is abscissas or abscissae. absolute. When used as a grammatical term, absolute means grammatically independent. The word is applied to forms of speech that ordinarily are not independent, such as participles, adjectives, transitive verbs, and phrases. The words in small capitals are absolute in: a HORSE! a HORSE! my KINGDOM for a horse and THIS SAID, he formed thee, ADAM!, thee, o MAN! DUST of the ground! Adjectives which name a "complete" quality, such as perfect, and unique, are sometimes called "absolutes." For a discussion of this, see comparison of adjectives and adverbs. For a discussion of absolute phrases, see participles. absolutely and positively are synonyms, containing the same degree of emphasis, interchangeable in any given case, and similarly abused. The meaning of wholly, unconditionally, and completely (He is absolutely determined to go through with it. He is positively obsessed with the idea of death) ought not be degraded into helping to form second-rate superlatives (absolutely swell, positively magnificent), or, by themselves, into becoming inflated substitutes for yes. abstract nouns. Some grammarians distinguish between concrete and abstract nouns, defining concrete nouns as those that refer to physical things, such as house, mud, child, and abstract 6 nouns as those that refer to qualities which physical things may have but which do not exist by themselves, such as redness, beauty, childhood. This distinction raises interesting philosophical questions. How should one classify heat? or the equator? Fortunately, one does not have to answer these questions in order to use the words correctly because this distinction has no bearing on English grammar. An abstract noun is grammatically like any other noun. See mass nouns. But abstract may also mean more general, less specific. In this sense container is more abstract than barrel, and resources more abstract than money. The more abstract a word is, the more objects it refers to and the less it tells us about them. The more specific a word is, the more information it conveys. It is very easy to use words that are too general. In fact, this is the most obvious characteristic of ineffective writing. A good writer fits his words as closely as possible to his meaning. He will use container only if he is talking about several kinds of containers. If he is talking about a barrel, he will call it a barrel. A poor writer who would like to be better should ask himself constantly: Does what I have written cover more ground than I meant to cover? Writing with this question always in mind will do more to develop a respectable style than all the grammar books and vocabulary builders in the world. abuse; inv'ective; obloquy; scurrility; vituperation. These words convey various degrees of bitterness and roughness in verbal attack. Abuse and vituperation are synonymous and mean coarse and insulting language, used, generally, in some private quarrel or attack Vituperation has come to have a slight sense of greater fierceness in the reviling. This may be due. as V. H. Collins suaaests. to the fact that the five syllables "conned the idea of a torrential flow" or it may be due to an echoic suggestion of viper in the sound of the word. Znvective may be vehement and violent and railing, but it may also, differing from abuse, be polished. Indeed, when it is coarse that adjective is usually employed to mark the fact. Some of the most elegant orations ever delivered have been invectives, though from less able speakers we are likely to have more spite than elegance. Obloquy is censure or blame, or even abusive language, but it is public and general. It is condemnation by many people rather than an attack by one person (They held their convictions in spite of obloquy). Abuse causes anger and resentment; obloquy causes shame and disgrace. Scurrility is abuse characterized by coarseness and jocularity. It is railing marked by indecency and couched in buffoonery. The exact meaning of any one of these words is affected, of course, by one's point of view. Emerson probably felt himself abused when Swinburne referred to him as "a gap 7 toothed and hoary ape . . . coryphaus of [a] Bulgarian tribe of auto-coprophagous baboons," but Swinburne insisted he was merely making a scientifically accurate description. What to the speaker may seem polished invective may strike the one spoken d as vituperation and even scurrility. abysmal; abyss; abyssal. Abyss means a bottomless space. It was below the thunders elf the upper deep/ Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea that Tennyson's Kraken slept. But science has now taken soundings and, in consequence, abysmal and abyss are relegated to figu:rative uses (Her air of attentiveness conceal's an abysmal ignorance). Abyss is allowed in Mil- ton's imaginary landscape of Chaos and other old-fashioned literary imaginings or, with abysmal, to describe the geography of the mind (Despair opened an abyss before his mind's eye). Abyssal is a technical term used in de:serip- tions of the ocean floor or of depths below three hundred fathoms. The steep descent from the continental shelf is also called the abyss. Academe. If used seriously, Academe refers to Plato's Academy in ancient Athens. As a term for a place of instruction, Academe is a pomposity, as in Mary McCarthy's satirical :novel of faculty life, Groves of Academe. So used, the word is self-destructive and can survive only in cynical uses. The best policy is to use Academe with historical accuracy or not at all. accede. See allow. accelerate and exhilarate are like two people who are unrelated but look alike and have become good friends. Acceleration means going faster; exhilaration means getting gladder (Much of the exhilaration of driving is due to the acceleration of the car). The confusion between going faster and getting happier is one of the fundamental errors of our time and it is not surprising that it has extended to the words. But exhilaration is always a mental state, connoting a dlegree of excitement. Acceleration describes matter increasing the rapidity of its motion-though it is possible to conceive of a figurative, mental application of the word, such as the accelera- tion of the learning process with practics. accent; accentual; accentuate. Accent is the char- acteristic of a vowel or a syllable, having .to do with the degree or pattern of stress placed on it. When we say that a foreigner speaks with an accent we mean that he knows the words but that his speech is distinguishable because he does not use the same pattern of stresses that native speakers employ. Like so many useful words, however, accent has been engulfed in its figurative extensions. Advertisements, especially of products designed for women, would be lost without the word in their own special application of it. Mascara accents the eyebrows, tight skirts accent the hips, and so on. Accentuate is reserved in England, as Fowler notes, for the figurative sense of accent and access is so used by Americans who find the over-use of accent distasteful. Its use should be re+ stricted, however, to the amenities, the trivia, and the esthetics of ordinary life. The prairies do not accentuate the grandeur of the Rockies, but it is permissible to accentuate the color of the floral centerpiece with the whiteness of the table linen. Accentual is a technical word, reserved for the description of a rhythm or a pattern of stresses (The accentual peculiarities of free verse lie in its apparent irregularities). accept; except. The essential confusion between accept and except is one of sound and where there is a doubt which is meant only the context can determine it. Accept means to receive willingly (I accept your offer). Except means to omit or exclude (Brown was excepted from the list of those to be pardoned). acceptance; acceptation. Acceptance, a noun, means the act of accepting or of being accepted (His acceptance of the gift found acceptance with his superiors). Acceptation has been restricted to questions of interpretation, principally the interpretation of words (The original acceptation of "com- munism" as a political theory differs greatly from its present general acceptation). More and more, however, acceptance tends to take the place of acceptation which is now, by some authorities, classified as an archaism. access; accession. The difference between access and accession is largely the difference between the act as a possibility and its accomplishment. As Princess, Queen Elizabeth had access to the throne. Her accession followed upon her father's death. While the opportunity or possibility of entering as it is expressed in access (See access; excess) remains flexible, accession is limited to the idea of entering into a higher rank or a new status, as in the accession of a territory to statehood or of a senator to the presidency. access; excess. Confusion between access and excess is chiefly due to the similarity of their sound, but there is a band of meaning in which they overlap. Access is a noun meaning an approach, a coming into, or the means by which entry is obtained. Access to a house is by way of the door. Access to a great man requires money or influence. Excess means going out, the direct opposite of access. In the sense of going out of one's mind or beyond one's means, excess has come to mean immoderation (He drinks to excess); superfluity, in the sense of more than enough, overflowing (Children are full of excess energy); the extent to which one thing is more than another (His appetite is in excess of his capacity); it has also come to stand in a pejorative sense as a generic term for any immoral, licentious extravagances (Oscar Wilde's epigram: Nothing succeeds like excess). Access is sometimes used for "a coming into" an emotional storm, a sudden outburst of accessary passion (In an access of rage he stabbed his friend). Here excess might be used, and some English authorities deny the correctness of access in this context. But the Oxford English Dictionary accepts it. Many distinguished English authors have so used it. And it is certainly sanctioned by American usage. accessory and accessory are linguistic lovers, perpetually exchanging vowels. In American usage accessary is recognized only as a noun, but accessory is accepted as both noun and adjective. Accessury is limited, with us, chiefly to the legal significances of the word, though, even there, accessory can be used. In law an accessary or accessory plays a minor part in a crime. An accessory before the fact is one who helped, or at least had knowledge of and did not hinder, the committing of a crime but was not present when the act was done; an accessory ufter the fact knowingly assists or conceals another who has committed a felony. In common usage accessory means something added or attached for convenience or attractiveness and it emphasizes the subordinate nature of the contribution (The accessory details of the building). It is an interesting illustration of the confusion latent in the most common words that this word which is in daily use amongst us has different meanings for men and women. To most American women accessories means the portable or detachable additions to her costume-hat, bag, earrings, scarf, and so on. To most American men accessories means additions to the car-radio, heater, spotlight, and so on. accident. See mishap. accidents will happen. The suggestion, in many forms, that "time and chance happeneth to all" is common to all languages and where, as in Ecclesiastes, it is a sincere comment, the bitter fruit of observation and experience, it can have dignity and force. But accidents will happen. apart from being a clichC, has an exasperating levity to it and a patronizing air of unfeeling consolationesneciallv if the almost inevitable "in the best. regulated families" is tacked on to it. All clichCs are tedious, but those that are used when real feeling is expected-as in consolation-are dangerous in that their cut-anddried nature makes one suspect the sincerity of the emotion expressed. This may be unfair, for many worthy people express sincere feelings in cliches and quotations, pathetic in their inarticulateness and more pathetic in the likelihood of being misunderstood. accommodation; accommodations. With the preposition to, accommodation is the act of adapting or being adapted to (The accommodation of modern furniture to the human figure). The use of the word to designate lodgings or food and lodgings is expressed in American usage by the plural, accommodations, and in English usage by the singular, accommodation. Originally the English used accommodation. Othello demanded for his wife such accommo- 8 dation and besort as levels with her breeding. Later they used accommodations. Defoe, Boswell, and Jane Austen so used it. But they have now reverted to the singular, and the plural in this sense is unknown among them. In America the plural is now universally used. One wires a hotel for accommodations when only a single room is desired. Pullman accommodations may be a roomette, a bedroom, or several sleeping sections thrown together. Hotels have "Accommodations Desks." accompanist has supplanted accompanyist in general preference as one who accompanies in the musical sense. according; accordingly. Accordingly is the form used alone to qualify a verb, as in he wrote accordingly. The form according is required before to, as in he wrote according to orders. According may also be used to qualify a noun, as in the according hearts of men, and with as to introduce a clause, as in according as it is understood or not, but these last constructions are not often heard today. accountable means responsible, liable. But since only a human agent can be called on to account for his actions (animal trials having ceased in the eighteenth century), the word can only be used to describe human liability (The dog was responsible for tearing the coat and its owner was held accountable for the damage). accredit. See credit. accrue. Although accrue has long carried the general sense of to happen or result as a natural growth, to arise in due course, to come or fall as an addition or increment, it is most safely used in a specifically legal context, meaning to become a present and enforceable right or demand (Interest accrues at the rate of two percent per annum). It is ostentatious and inaccurate to use accrue as a synonym for result or happen when there are no legal or financial implications, as in It is unlikely that benefits policy. will accrue from such a belligerent accumulative has been replaced in almost all uses by cumulative, surviving only in the sense generally expressed by acquisitive (Zfis accumulative instinct led him to buy real estate). accusative case. The accusative is a Latin case used principally to mark the object of a verb. In modern English this relationship is shown by position. See object of a verb and objective pronouns. accuse. See charge. accustom. This word may be followed by an infinitive, as in I am not accustomed to lie, or by the -ing form of a verb with the preposition to, as in I am not accustomed to lying. Both forms are standard. acid test. Gold, chemically inactive, resists the action of acids that corrode other metals. The acid test was, therefore, a test calculated to distinguish gold from other substances such a.~ iron or copper pyrites. As a term for a severe test, the acid test has become a clich6. acknowledge. See confess. 9 acquaint. See tell acquaintanceship. The suffix -ship denotes a state, condition, or quality (as in friendship or scholarship), an office or profession (as in professorship), an art or skill (as in the new humorous word gamesmanship), something embodying a quality or state (as in courtship), or one entitled to a specified rank (as in his lordship). Since the word acquaintance means not only one who is known to a certain degree (He is an old acquaintance of mine) but also the state of being acquainted (The cultured man will have some acquaintance with mathematics), the adding of the suffix to form acquaintanceship is totally unnecessary. It means nothing that acquaintunce does not mean and probably came into existence as a false analogy to friendship, fellowship. acquirement and acquisition are both nouns that designate things gained by the expenditure of effort or cash. But an acquirement is something that has been developed in a persona faculty, a skill, a talent. An acquisition, on the other hand, is a material object bought, or obtained by some other means, by a person (Petronius Arbiter's acquirements in taste qualified him to direct Nero's acquisitions of art treasures). Acquirement is acceptable in the singular and the plural (acquirements), although it is more frequently used in the plural, indicating a diversity of things which collectively make up a talent or faculty. acronyms are acrostic words formed from the initial letters of other words, or from initial letters or syllables of the successive parts of a compound term, or from initial letters plus final letters of the final part of a compound term. They serve the same purpose as abbreviations, but are primarily designed for speech and appeal more to the ear than to the eye. They are a form of word play. Some seem to be happy accidents-such as WRENS, from Women's Royal Naval Service. Others seem more self-conscious; they were obviously made up first and the compound term then derived from them. WAVES certainly seem to be chickens that came before the egg. The acronym suggests the sea effectively but it is hard to imagine that the coiners first thought of the tong form, Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service. The name of the Women's Reserve of the United States Coast Guard Reserve, SPAR, is among the most ingenious of acronyms. It derives from the Coast Guard motto and its translation, "Semper ParatusAlways Ready," or perhaps simply from the first letter of the first word of the motto and the 6rst three letters of the second word. In the case of WASP some liberties had to be taken to make the acronym from the phrase Women's Air Forces Service Pilots. Among the most unfortunate of acronyms was CINCUS (pronounced "sink us") for the Commander in Chief of the United Sta:tes act Navy. In the reorganization of the command of the Navy following Pearl Harbor it was dropped from use. The acronym seems largely an outgrowth of World War II, though WRENS was coined in World War I. Out of the second conflict came such salty acronyms as SNAFU and TARFU, usually translated as "Situation Normal-All Fouled Up" and "Things Are Really Fouled Up." There were also technical acronyms such as the British ASDZC for Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee, and the American SONAR for Sound NAvigation Ranging. On both sides of the Atlantic there was RADAR for RAdio Detecting And Ranging. A WOL was an abbreviation in World War I and became an acronym in World War II. That is, in World War I it was pronounced as four letters; in World War II, it was pronounced as a word (B'wol). It is still military slang and not accepted as standard English, however. There seems to be no generally applicable rule as to which abbreviations become acronyms and which do not. Pronounceability of the abbreviation is not the sole deciding factor, else why NATO, for instance, but not OPA? Some of the older abbreviations, such as F.O.B. and G.A.R., are probably too established to be changed. Acronyms represent a new tendency in the language. Certainly unpronounceability or uncertainty regarding pronunciation rules out some abbreviations as acronyms. Thus Pun-Am (for Pan-American Airways) is obvious, but BOAC (for British Overseas Airway Corporation) is not. Commercial enterprises and products that have acronyms for names have an important advertising advantage over their less-easilyremembered competitors. Alcoa and Nabisco are two examples that come immediately to mind. acropolis. The plural is acropolises or acropoles. across; acrost. Across is the only acceptable form. Although acrost is formed on the same pattern as amongst and whilst, both of which are acceptable it has never been literary English. act; action. The distinction between these two words is difficult to define. Often they are completely synonymous (His heroic act was long remembered. His heroic action was long remembered), but there are many places where one would not be substituted for the other (Rapid action is needed if we are to be saved. It was his act and he must accept the consequences). Fowler points out that action alone has the collective sense (We must look to Congress for action in this crisis) and that where there is doubt action tends to displace act. (As he says, we would now be inclined to speak not of the Acts of the Apostles but of their Actions). In the sense where the reference is to the nature of a deed or the characteristic of a deed (An act of thoughtfulness; the act of act 10 a busybody) conversation to point up minor revelations careless person; a careless action). The suggestion it carries of superior knowledge on the part of the speaker and the air of condescension that so often accompanies the revelations make it an irritating word. It can become a nuisance, actually. See also pre- act is invariably used; but where it is simply a deed or where the meaning expressed in the noun phrase is expressed in an adjective, action is preferred (the act of a A deed referred to at the immediate moment of its doing (in the very act of making off with it) or contrasted with words or thought (acts, not words, are what we need) is likely to be referred to as an act, but even here if the sense is collective action will probably be used (speech and action are different things). act; play. Used as a verb in the same sense as ploy (play the fool), act has a serious handicap, that of ambiguity. Its importance as a verb meaning to do, to perform, to execute, and so on, overshadows its theatrical connotations of pretense and dissimulation. The command to act the man means something different, and more, than to play the man. Therefore where pretense is meant, play is preferable. In slang act, as a noun, has come almost entirely to mean pretense (Oh, he's just putting on an act). The extension of this usage no doubt reffects the cynicism of the age but it is dangerous and corrosive, for how shall we speak of acts of kindness, of generosity, of courage, and of love? activate; actuate. To activate is to make active (It was believed that the Sibyl was activated by the Devil). In physics it means to render radioactive. In the United States Army it means to place a military unit in an active status by assigning to it officers, enlisted men, and all necessary equipment for war strength and training for war service. To actuate is to move mechanical things to action (The electro-magnet actuated the armature) or to incite human beings to action by acting upon the will, as motives do (His motives differed from those by which his predecessor had been actuated. The murderer had not, apparently, been actuated by the desire for money, for over a thousand dollars was found in the dead man's wallet). active voice. A verb is said to be in the active voice when it represents its subject as active, that is, as doing, being, or becoming something, as in he believes the story and this is true. A verb is said to be in the passive voice when it represents its subject as acted upon, or passive, as in the story is believed. See passive voice. actress. See poet; poetess. actually; really. Actually is an adverb synonymous with really used in questions to connote disbelief (Did you actually see the rope trick?); in replies to questions in which doubt has been expressed, re-affirming the original assertion (Yes, Z actually saw it!); and in statements which profess to reveal hitherto concealed truths concerning a matter under discussion (Actually, it is no great mystery; it's simply a clever deception). The last example is a worn-out import from England, a verbal swagger stick used in polite (Jones is a bore, but actually he means well). cisely. actuate. See activate. adapt; advpt. The confusion adopt may be avoided if between adapt and one recognizes apt in the second syllable of the first word. Apt means suited to the purpose. Adapt means to make suitable, to adjust to. We say that an object is adapted to its purpose, an animal to its environment. (To adapt an apt proverb: A bassoon is an ill wind that nobody blows good). To adopt, on the other hand, is to choose or to make one's own by selection or assent (American women eagerly adopt the styles which New York dressmakers adapt from French fashions). adapted; suitable. Adapted is not a synonym for suitable. Appropriate or fitting would be better for suitable. Adapted means that something has been changed to fit and, unless the idea of change or adaptation is in the thought, it would be better to use another word. addendum. The plural is addendums or addenda. addicted; devoted. Although both words mean habitual attachment, addicted now means being attached to something which the speaker regards as undesirable (He is addicted to lying). Sometimes it is used for humorous effect of things that the ordinary person would not consider undesirable in order to show that the speaker does (He is addicted to artichokes. He is addicted to good works), Devoted means attachment or habitual action, but to good things (She is devoted to her mother). add(ing) insult to injury. The saying is very old. There are several Latin and Greek passages that reflect on the exacerbation that contumely gives to an injury. But the very things that make it a saying-its obviousness, its rhythm, and the balance of the two in-'s-make it a cliche, something that slips into the mind easily and is used without further consideration of its appropriateness. If this is exactly what is meant, if it is an insult and not a further injury that has been added, and if this way of saying seems the proper way, despite the fact that it has been expressed this way many millions of times. then sav it this wav. But it is wiser to avoid the phrase. addle. An addle (or addled) egg is a rotten egg and an addlebrain or addlehead is not only confused, but sterile and stinking. It is not only muddled but muddy. The term is a contemptuous one and not to be used in place of featherheaded or giddy. Dizzy, by the way, which is now used widely as a slang term for ludicrously stupid (a dizzy blond) originally meant stupid. Slang, 11 which often has a fine feeling for the meaning of words, has brought it full circle. address; speech; lecture. An address is more formal than a speech (the inaugural address). A lecture was originally something which was read. It, too, is formal, though not so formal as an address, and it has acquired the connotation of instruction. This latter meaning has given lecture the further meaning of a tedious reprimancl. adduce is to bring forward but only in the metaphorical sense of to bring forward in argument, to cite as pertinent or conclusive (He adduced Joe Louis as proof that a man could be a champion prizefighter and still a modest man). It is sometimes used erroneously for deduce (as in From that I adduce you ugree with me). adept. This word is preferably followed by in rather than at, as in adept in getting out of work. adequate enough is tautological. Since both words mean the same thing nothing is gained by bringing them together. adherence; adhesion. In general, adherence is figurative, adhesion literal. We speak of a person's adherence to a party or a principle and a th:ing's adhesion to something else. None the less, adhesion to a principle or a party would not be incorrect. adherent. See appositive. adherent adjectives. See position of adjectives. adieu. The plural is adieus or adieux. adjacent; contiguous. Things that are adjacent to each other are near to each other (Austria and Switzerland are adjacent countries). They may touch each other, but it is not necessary. Contiguous means touching, in actual contact. Adjacent houses might have a yard between them; contiguous houses would have a common wall. However, contiguous is sometimes used to mean in close proximity without actually touching and has come to be so used to the extent that this use cannot be considered an err_or. On the whole, though, contiguous suggests that two things are closer than if they were only adjucent. adjectivally is to be preferred to adjectively. adjectives. An adjective is a word that is neither singular nor plural and that is used to qualify a noun, as in true love, green grass, early bird. Most adjectives have three forms, known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative, as in green, greener, greenest. See comparison of adjectives and adverbs. In an inflected language such as Latin (but not in English), adjectives have special endings corresponding to various noun endings and these show which noun in the sentence the adjective is qualifying, or belongs with. An adjective-like word that has not been made to "match" some neighboring noun is not attached to any noun and is therefore not an adjective. Any qualifying word that is not an adjective is an adverb. This is all very simple, and with just a little knowledge of an inflected langusage one can tell an adjective from an adverb without knowing the meaning of the word. adjectives But in English, adjectives look just like adverbs. It is not true that a word is an adverb if it ends in -1~. Kindly, sickly, deadly, are normally adjectives. Early and leisurely are both adjectives and adverbs, and so are hard, fast, slow. Perhaps the distinction between adjectives and adverbs should be abandoned in English. But if we are to maintain it with our present definitions of the words, we can only say that a word of this kind is an adjective if it can be used to qualify a noun, and an adverb if it can be used to qualify any of the other parts of speech or the sentence as a whole. Nouns, and therefore pronouns, can also be used to qualify nouns, as goose in goose feathers. Such words do not have a comparative and superlative form but neither do all adjectives, and it is sometimes hard to say whether a word in a particular sentence is an adjective or a noun or pronoun being used aa an adjective. But this is a question of terminology and does not affect the use of the words. (See nouns as adjectives.) Sometimes an adjective is used "absolutely," that is, without naming the noun which it qualifies, as in the brave deserve the fair, where the nouns men and women are understood. Here the adjective is being used as if it were a noun. This sometimes creates a question as to whether the word is to be treated as a singular or as a-plural. (An adjective may also become a true noun, as in the alert sounded.) See adjectives as nouns. An adjective that is qualifying one noun may also have another noun as its "object." Usually this relationship is shown by the word of, as in fearful of, mindful of. capable of. Sometimes another preposition is used, as in impatient with, comparable to, anxious about. Which preposition is used depends partly on convention and partly on the meaning of the word. (See the individual prepositions.) A few adjectives, such as like and worth, may be followed immediately by an object without the use of a preposition. Adjectives can be made from nouns by adding any of a great number of endings, such as -ish, -like, -ly, -y, -en, -al, -ar, -ory. Adjectives ending in -ish are often derogatory, as childish and womanish, and other forms, such as childlike and womanly, are used when speaking with approval. Only a woman can be mannish. A man would necessarily be manly. The ending -ish may also be added to adjectives to mean "approaching" or "like," as in greenish, oldish, smallish. The -y ending also means "like" and can be used in making adjectives from nouns or from verbs, as in flowery, creepy, slinky. The -en is used most often with names of materials, such as golden, leaden, woolen, oaken. The endings -al, -ar, -ory, are used chiefly for more learned words that suggest a Latin origin, such as autumnal, spectacular, transitory. There is a strong tendency in current English to drop both the -en adjectives 12 and the -al endings and use the noun form itself as a qualifier, as in oak table, wool shirt, autumn leaves, coast line. Phrases and even full clauses may sometimes stand before a noun as if they were simple adjectives, as in the man with the l-turn-the-crank-of-the-universe air. For more commonplace examples of this, see compound words. See also clauses. KINDS OF ADJECTNES The function of an adjective depends to a great extent upon its position in a sentence. Adjectives are classified according to position as (1) adherent (when they stand before the noun they qualify), (2) appositive (when they follow the noun), (3) predicate (when they follow a verb), and (4) factitive or "objective complement" (when they follow the object of a verb with a special sense). Adjectives are said to be either limiting or descriptive, but this too depends upon their position in the sentence. See position of adjectives. Adjectives may be classified in many ways according to meaning, but only a few of these classifications have any bearing on the use of the words. Adjectives that are made from proper nouns are called proper adjectives and are written with a capital letter. (See proper nouns.) The two participles of a verb are usually adjectives, as in falling rock and fallen rock, and are called verbal adjectives. (See participles.) Number words are usually adjectives. These include the cardinal numbers, such as two, twenty, and such related words as dozen, few, many; and the ordinal numbers, such as third, fifth. and such related words as first, last, other. (See number terms.) A great many pronouns may also be used as adjectives. When used to qualify a noun, the words this, that, fhwe, those, are called demonstrative adjectives, and the possessive pronouns, my, his, their, and so on, are called possessive adjectives. The articles a, an, the, are also adjectives. These last three groups together with the indefinite pronominal adjectives, such as some, any, each, every, and the genitive case of nouns, such as father's, are sometimes classed together as definitives, because they make the reference as definite or specific as the facts allow. (See definitive adjectives.) Some of these classifications are reflected in the order that is followed when several adjectives qualify the same noun. ORDER IN A SERIES A noun may be qualified by more than one adjective. Izaak Walton wrote that he would consider the lilies, and also those very many other various little living creatures that are by the goodness of the God of nature. fed In piling up his adjectives in this way, Walton had no choice about the order in which he must use them. Words such as very, which apply to only one word in the series, are adverbs and always stand next to the word they qualify. True adjectives may be joined by and, as in strong and beautiful children, or they may be set off from one another by commas, as in strong, happy, beautiful children. In either case, they are said to be "leveled" and all of them have exactly the same relation to the noun they qualify. Otherwise, in a series of adjectives each word qualifies or limits the meaning of all the words that follow, up to and including the noun. That is, the words which restrict the total meaning most stand first and there is a gradual progression through wider and wider meanings until the noun is reached. This is so much a part of the natural order in an English sentence that it will ordinarily take care of itself. One does not have to know which kinds of adjectives come first and which second in order to use them properly. But the rules are relatively rigid and can be described in detail. With certain exceptions which will be mentioned later, the definitive adjectives must stand first. Two words of this kind never qualify the same noun unless they are leveled. Number terms come next, and frequently more than one of them is used. For the order that must be followed when several words of this class qualify the same noun, see number terms. These are followed by words implying a judgment, such as beautiful, terrible, expensive, true, diflerent. There may be several words of this kind. If there are, they are always leveled and it makes no difference what order they are used in. Finally there are the purely descriptive words. Here some variation is allowed, but as a rule the order is size, shape, other characteristics. The other characteristics are usually listed with the most obvious first. Then comes the noun, which may be additionally qualified by a following phrase or clause. No one is likely to use all the kinds of adjectives there are in the same phrase. But the ones that are used will have to follow this order if the sentence is to lie flat. In the Walton sentence quoted above, the word various is likely to jump to the modem ear. He meant by the word "of different kinds" or "to be classified differently." It is therefore a judgment word and belongs where he placed it. But if we hear it as meaning "several" it belongs in place of "very many." If we hear it as "'varied" or "having different appearances," it is a general descriptive word and should follow little. The orderly progression of adjectives just described may be disturbed for any of three reasons. (1) Certain words, such as dear little children and nice old lady, are used together so constantly that they may come to be felt as a single idea and one may hesitate to break into a compound of this sort. As a result, one might say these curly-headed dear little children or that little nice old lady. (2) The words all, both, and the names of some fractions, may stand before a definitive as if they were being used with the word of, although the of actually is not there, as in all the day, both the boys, half the price. (3) Words used to mean "in a high degree" are being used as adverbs. They 13 cannot qualify a noun directly, but they may qualify a definitive adjective and so have the force of qualifying the noun. When they qualify a definitive adjective they stand before it, as in many a day, what a man, such a storm. When a word of this kind, or the interrogative adverb how, applies to a particular adjective it will bring that adjective forward with it, as in so rich a man, too rainy a day, how sad a case. But with these exceptions, the order of adjectives outlined above is always followed. adjectives as adverbs. Almost any word that can be used to qualify a noun can also be used to qualify some words that are not nouns. There are some words in English, such as slow, high, even, early, that can be used with a noun and also with a verb. These words are clearly adverbs as well as adjectives. But there are other adjective-like words which cannot be used to qualify a verb but can be used to qualify the positive form of adjectives, such as dark, black, and bitter, in a dark blue dress, a blackeyed child, a bitter cold night. There are several things a grammarian might say about this situation. He-might say that-in Ennlish adiectives mav__sualifv_ adjectives. This . represents the facts, but it would require a new definition of an adjective and very few grammarians take such a stand. On the other hand, he might recognize all these words as adverbs, and this is what most grammarians do. But this means that practically all adjectives are also adverbs and the classification ceases to have much value. That is, the fact that a dictionary lists a given word as an adverb tells nothing about whether or not that word can be used to qualify a verb. Some grammarians follow a middle course. They find special explanations for some of these adjective combinations, and those that they can't explain they condemn as an improper use of the word. An adjective before a color word is always acceptable, as in a dark blue dress, a greenish yellow car. Some grammarians say that the color word is here a noun, and therefore properly qualified by an adjective. Others say that the two words, such as dark blue, are actually one compound adjective. This difference of opinion may determine whether or not. a hyphen is used in such terms. In any case, the adjective before a color word is normal English today. An adverb may also be used here and is sometimes preferred when the adjective form is ambiguous. For example, in roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, the words deep and dark may refer to blue or they may refer to ocean. On the other hand, when the sea is described as darkly, deeply, beautifully blue, the adverb forms can only refer to the word blue. But these are problems of poetry and exalted prose. In everyday English, a darkly blue dress would suggest something mysterious and exotic, certainly nothing as prosaic as a dress that is dark blue. A combined noun and adjective, such as warm heart, noble mind, clear sight, empty adjectives head, may be made into an adjective by adding -ed to the noun, as in warm hearted, noble minded, clear sighted, empty headed. These are usually classed as compound adjectives and are usually hyphenated in deference to this fact. Whether they really are compounds or not is debatable. When the two words are treated as one in making a comparative or superlative form, as in a warm-hearteder, the emptyheadedest, we clearly have a compound adjective. Forms of this kind do appear but they are rare. We more often treat the first word as an independent adjective (or adverb) and say u warmer hearted, the emptiest headed. In this case it is impossible to say that the two words are a compound, and a hyphen is never used when the first element has a comparative or superlative form. The number of words that can be used in this way is almost unlimited. We say white haired, blue eyed, quick witted, decent sized, good natured, and so on indefinitely. The past participle of a verb is sometimes merely a descriptive adjective and when it is, it too may be qualified by an adjective-like word, as in native born, foreign made, soff spoken, fresh oiled, new laid eggs, new mown hay. Sometimes the participle keeps its verbal force and in this case a clearly adverbial form is required to qualify it, as in warmly dressed, well behaved, highly priced, deeply rooted. Often the speaker may use whichever form suits him best and say soft spoken or softly spoken, high priced or highly priced. But the adverbial form always gives the following word a verb-like feeling. A beautiful colored object is an object that has beautiful color. But a beautifully colored object is an object that has been colored beautifully. Adjective forms are also used before adjectives as qualifiers, as red in red hot and stark in stark naked. These words are clearly "adverbs of degree" and cannot be explained away. Faced with such combinations, anyone who has been claiming that there is an innate difference between an adjective and an adverb must either recognize that there is something wrong with his system or conclude that the language itself is wrong. Some have decided that it must be the language. Constructions of this kind are common ln the finest literary English, as in and it grew wondrous cold and St. Agnes' Eve-ah, bitter chill it was! Some words that were originally adjectives, such as very and pretty, are used in this way so consistently that no one would think of objecting to them. Others have now disappeared from the language, or at least have a decidedly nineteenth century flavor, as an uncommon fine fellow, devilish handsome, deuced uncomfortable. Some are still in use but are not considered standard, as dreadful sorry, Clementine. But there are a great many more that are in standard use and pass unnoticed. We may still say icy cold and bitter cold though we no longer say it is cruel cold. We may still use the -ing adjectives in this adjectives way, as burning hot, howling drunk. We may still say dead tired and dead certain. Some words of this kind are now in use but are under attack, such as mighty fine, real clever, awful nice, right smart, sure good. Whether they remain standard English or not will depend on who uses them and who doesn't. There is no question of logic, or of grammatical principles, involved. If the respected members of the community use these words, the words are respectable, and if they do not, the words are not. (See the individual words.) adjectives as nouns. Nouns may be made from adjectives, or adjectives may be used as if they were nouns. Both kinds of words can be seen in the sentence by Fielding, we moderns are to the ancients what the poor are to the rich. The words moderns and ancients are made from adjectives but they are true nouns, if only because they have been given the ending s which does not belong to the adjective. A great many nouns are formed from adjectives in this way, such as news, slacks, heroics, economics. In the case. of moderns and ancients the words also have a singular form and the plural form can be used with a numeral, as in any modern is worth a hundred ancients. Words that have both a singular and a plural form are nouns. Words that have been formed from adjectives by adding s are also nouns, even when they do not have the two forms. Neither of these things is true of the words rich and poor. They have the simple form of the adjective. And we cannot speak of an individual one or use the words with a number term unless we supply the missing noun man, as in this poor man and three rich men. Adjectives that appear to be nouns because the noun they qualify is not expressed are said to be "adjectives used absolutely." When the meaning of the word depends upon the context, as in the same, the like, the latter, some grammarians say that the adjective is being used "pronominally." As we have seen, a noun can be qualified by an adjective even when the noun is not expressed. The fact that we can use an adjective before a word, as in the miserable poor, the fortunate rich, does not prove that the word is a noun. The adjectives, miserable and fortunate, may apply to an unexpressed noun such as men. On the other hand, a noun cannot be qualified by an adverb and an adjective can. The fact that adverbs can be used before such words, as in the miserably poor, the extremely rich, shows that they are still felt as adjectives. Sometimes this is the only test of whether or not a word has become a noun. Most of the adjectives that are used as nouns either (1) name a quality, such as the small, the pleasant, the new, and refer to everything that has that quality, or (2) name a group of human beings having a certain characteristic, such as the wise, the powerful, the unborn. Adjectives in the first class, that name a quality, are always treated as singulars 14 although they refer to countless examples of the quality. At one time such words were felt as plurals. Pope said, be not the first by whom the new are tried. But today we say the best is the cheapest in the long run, the unknown is always frightening, the familiar is comfortable. Words of the second class also name a quality. But they refer to a group of human beings who are identified by this characteristic. They do not refer to the quality itself or to the individuals as instances of the quality. Words of this kind are usually treated as plurals, as in the lament, the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity and in there the wicked cease from troubling and there the wear? are at rest. Bums uses the singular form in the rigid righteous is a fool, but this is very rare. The group that an adjective identifies is not necessarily as broad, or as timeless, as the rich, the poor, the wicked, the weary. It may represent an actual, countable, number of people, as it does in the wounded were removed. When a word has this limited meaning it may be used with a numeral in speaking of some members of the group, as in twenty wounded were removed. When the word is unlimited in its application it can only be used in speaking about the entire group. It cannot be used with a numeral or in speaking of some members of the group. We cannot say five wise or five foolish. There are ten adjectives which are also used as nouns to name a nationality group. We speak of the British, the English, the Irish, the Cornish, the Spanish, the Welsh, the Scotch, the Dutch, the French. and the Manx. (In speaking of other nationality groups we use words which are primarily nouns, such as the Poles, the Swedes, the Chinese.) Formerly, the ten adjective-nouns could be qualified by a numeral, as in twenty thousand Cornish bold, but this is no longer true. In present-day English these words always represent the entire nation. We may speak of the Irish or the French but not of six Irish or six French. In order to speak of the individuals we must introduce a true noun, such as man, woman, person. There are a few adjectives in English that represent a single individual, such as the accused, the departed, the beloved. These words do not have plural forms and under some circumstances they may be qualified by adverbs, as in dearly beloved and the lately departed. This makes them adjectives according to the definitions adopted in this dictionary and an exception to the rule that the English adjective is used to indicate groups and not individuals. Under a different system of definitions these words could be classed as singular nouns. But another system would have other problems and other types of words would have to be listed as exceptions to the rules. Nouns may be used before other nouns as qualifiers, as sea in sea wall and horse in 15 horse race. in this case one may say that the noun is being used as an adjective or that it is the first element in a compound. Nouns that have been formed from adjectives, such as criminal and juvenile, and adjectives that are being used as nouns, such as the sick, the insane, the condemned, may also be used in this way without losing their noun meanings, as in criminal law, a juvenile court, a sick room, an insane asylum, condemned cells. This is a standard English construction. Occasionally someone notices that the first element in one of these compounds can be read as an adjective. This is all very well as a source of innocent merriment. But anyone who concludes that the compound is a grammatical mistake and solemnly goes about condemning it and those who use it, is being ridiculous. These words are part of the fabric of the language and anyone who hopes to get rid of them will have to remake the language. The -ing form of a verb is often used in this way. These may be true nouns, as in a dining room, a landing field, or they may be an adjective used as a noun, as in a dying wish. In either case, the construction is normal English and needs no apology. See -ing. adjudicate. See judge. adjure. See abjure. administer. One sense of administer is to give (He administered the medicine which the doctor had prescribed), but the word in this sense is generally restricted to the giving of things which are helpful. It is true that we often hear of a rebuke or even a blow being administered; but unless it is implied that these were salutary corrections (and, of course, most people who bestow rebukes and blows on others think they are salutary), the use, while not incorrect, is not a happy one. administration; ministry. In America the government in power is called the administration. In England it is called the ministry or simply the Government. admission; admittance. Much ink has been expended to prove that admittance refers to physical entrance and admission to an entrance into rights and privileges, but with the exception of the sign No Admittance, admittance is rarely seen or heard. Admission serves in all cases (The thief gained admission through a broken window. Admission to the club is eagerly sought). admit. This word may be followed by the -ing form of a verb, as in he admits having seen us, or by a clause, as in he admits he saw us. It is not followed by an infinitive and constructions such as he admits to have seen us are not standard. admit; admit of. Admit, to allow to enter (Many colleges will admit only those who have done well in the entrance examinations), to allow as valid (He admits the justness of your claim), to acknowledge or confess, and so on. In contemporary usage admit of is rarely heard, though it is quite proper in the sense of adverbial leaving room for (His conduct will not admit of any other construction). See confess. adopt; assume. To adopt is to take to oneself, to make one's own. It is sometimes used as if it meant to feign (He adopted I guise of humility). But this is unfortunate. The word should be assume. To adopt a position or an interpretation would be to take it sincerely as one's own. To assume it is, in this context, merely to pretend that it is one's own. See also adapt. adopted; adoptive. When a child has been taken as one's own by a formal legal act, it is an adopted child. But what are the parents? To say that they are foster parents may not express the exact meaning because foster parents have not necessarily made a legal adoption. In American usage they are commonly called adopted parents, but this is awkward since there is the feeling that they have adopted the child, not the child them. Adoptive (which the British use for the relationship either way) is used by many and seems a happy solution (The adopted child became very fond of her adoptive parents). adorable. See amatory. adore. See reverence. adumbrate, meaning to foreshadow or to pre- figure, is a word too confined to literature to be used in ordinary speech or writing without risking the charge of affectation. advance; advancement. In the sense of promotion advancement is the word (His being made president of the company was a great advancement for him). In the sense of moving forward or upward, the act of advancing, or progress, advance is proper. The advance of civilization is the forward progress of civilization. The advancement of civilization would be an act whereby the advance would be facilitated. advanced (in years). See old. advantage. See possession, vantage. advent; arrival. Advent, possibly because of its religious uses (when capitalized it refers to the coming of Christ into the world), marks a high and solemn attitude of mind towards an arrival. We speak of the arrival of a plane or a bus, but (if we are minded to view it solemnly) of the advent of Spring, or the advent of death, and so on. adventure. See venture. adverbial accusative. Under some circumstances a noun may be used directly as an adverb without first being made part of a prepositional phrase, as years in three years she grew in sun and shower. When such nouns are in the common case, that is, when they are not genitives, the construction is called an adverbial accusative. See nouns as adverbs. adverbial genitive. At one time the genitive form of certain words could be used as an adverb. Most of our adverbs that end in an s (or z) sound, such as nowadays, since, sometimes, upwards, are survivals from this period. The final s in on all fours, at sixes and sevens, and in needs in he needs must, is also a sign of the adverbial genitive. Today there is no feeling adverbs that this is a genitive relationship and an apostrophe is never used in words of this kind. Although the construction is no longer understood, the habit of forming adverbs on the old genitive pattern is not entirely dead. It shows itself in certain final s's and substitute of phrases, such as I work evenings and I work of an evening. (See genitive case.) Some grammarians object to these forms on the grounds that the construction ought to be dead. It is dead in England, where both types of expression are unacceptable and the onIy acceptable form is in the evening. But the old genitive is very much alive in the United States. When it leads to an extra s on a word that is already an adverb, as in somewheres, it is not standard, at least in written material. But the genitive is in good repute and thoroughly acceptable for expressions of repeated time, such as I like to read of a rainy afternoon and Wednesdays 2 work in the garden. See also way and nouns as adverbs. adverbs. A qualifying word that is not qualifying a noun is an adverb. This means that a great many different kinds of words with different functions in a sentence will all be adverbs. Adverbs are sometimes defined as qualifying words that indicate time, place, manner, or degree. When, now, soon, are adverbs of time, and where, here, there, are adverbs of place. Quickly, suddenly, sweetly, and how, are adverbs of manner. 'Degree" is not as clear cut a concept as the others, but exceedingly, excessively, very, are ordinarily adverbs of degree. Frequently a word that is an adverb of degree in a particular sentence has other uses in other sentences. For example, great is an adverb of degree in a great many people were there, but it is an adjective in he is a great man. Any qualifying word that indicates time, place, manner, or degree, is being used as an adverb. But there are some words that are unquestionably adverbs and that do not fit easily into any one of these four groups, such as why, not, only, twice. All adverbs, linguistic scholars believe, were originally nouns, pronouns, or adjectives. They are words that were used adverbially so much of the time that they lost all other uses. The word very is moving in this direction at present. Originally it was an adjective, as it is in this very morning, but it is now used more often as an adverb of degree, as in he is very tired. Eventually, it might lose its adjective meaning entirely. Today we use nouns as adverbs in certain situations. Sunday is an adverb of time in we were there Sunday, and air mail is an adverb of manner in send it air mail. (See nouns as adverbs.) Adjectives are frequently used as adverbs of degree, as red in a red hot poker and bitter in a bitter cold night. (See adjectives as adverbs.) We may also form adverbs from nouns by adding -ways or -wise, as in endwuys and endwise; and from adjectives by adding -ly, as in bitterly, artistically, thoughtfulfy. For- 16 merly, adverbs might be formed from adjectives by adding s, as in backwards. Groups of words may also function as adverbs, as in it came at the right time, we were waiting in the garden, he wus not in the least worried. See clauses. KINDSOF'ADVERBS The ideas which are expressed by means of adverbs can be classified approximately under the words time, place, manner, and degree. But in order to discuss how words of this kind are used, we need a different grouping. They can be handled most conveniently if they are divided into five classes: ( 1) interrogative adverbs, (2) relative adverbs, (3) negative adverbs, (4) adverbs of direction, and (5) descriptive adverbs. 1. The words whezz, where, how, why, are interrogatives when they are used to ask a question, as in when is he coming back? These words are also interrogatives when they introduce an indirect, or a "buried," question, as in he didn't tell me when he would be back. (It should be noticed that these four words can also be used without any implication of a question, as in he told me when he wns here and how he laughed! When that is the case they are not called interrogatives.) 2. Any adverb that introduces a subordinate clause is a relative adverb. This class includes the words when, where, how, and why (whether they are being used as interrogatives or not); the word as; and some time words, such as before, after, since. Relative adverbs serve the purpose of conjunctions. 3. The negative adverbs include the obvious negatives, such as not and never, and also words which are negative in intention, such as hardly and scarcely. These words are negative because they are used to mean "almost not," "not quite," "probably not." For example, little is a negative adverb in the world will little note. 4. Adverbs of direction exist in pairs, such as up and down, in and out, over and under, buck and forth. Words of this kind were originally the second element in a compound verb and are still used in this way a great deal of the time. In pick up the paper, we say that pick up is a compound verb (similar to lift) with a direct object the paper. But these detached elements tend to lose their connection with the verb and to be treated as independent words with an "object" of their own. When this happens the word has become a preposition. In stand by the door, for example, stand is considered the full verb and by a preposition introducing an adverbial phrase of place. When no object follows, as in stand by for half an hour and it stands out like a sore thumb, it is obvious that we have a compound verb. When there is an object, the difference between an adverb and a preposition is not as easy to see. But in cut off an inch the last three words do not form a prepositional phrase. Instead, the word ofl is an adverb qualifying cut, and an inch is the object of 17 the compound verb cur off. This is the proper interpretation whenever it is possible to place the object between the verb and the other word without altering the sense, as in cut an inch off. Zn step off the rug, on the other hand, the word ofi is a preposition and has its own object rug. This is the proper interpretation when we cannot place the object immediately after the verb and say step the rug 08. Compound verbs, such as pick up and cut 08 are natural English. They are simple and forceful and are generally preferred to their Latin equivalents. So give up is often preferred to relinquish; give in to acquiesce: call out to evoke; take up to assume; bring in to introduce. The form fits our speech rhythm so well that we often use these extra syllables when they add nothing to the meaning, as in fill up, eat up, drink down. The independent element in a compound verb which is not affected by changes in tense is an adverb, although it is not used exactly as other adverbs are. 5. Any adverb that does not belong in one of the preceding groups is to be classed as a descriptive adverb. Adverbs of degree, such as too, so, very, pretty, are included in this class. A great many descriptive adverbs are formed from adjectives by adding -ly, as in quickly, slowly, highly, hardly. Some of these adverbs have two forms: with and without the -ly, as in drive slow, drove slowly; come quick, come quickly. Descriptive adverbs may also have three forms known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative. See comparison of adjectives and adverbs. USES OF ADVERBS 1. The principal function of an adverb is to qualify a verb, as in run quickly, speak louder. Since the verb is the essential element in a statement and not a detachable part of it, an adverb in this role normally qualifies the entire statement. For example, in I never saw a purple cow the word never applies to suw a purple cow and not to the single word saw. Adverbs used in this way are called sentence adverbs. They may stand in any of several positions in a sentence, but each position has its special limitations or special emphasis and as a rule there is very little choice about where a particular adverb should be placed. The most important problems in the use of adverbs have to do with placing sentence adverbs. See sentence adverbs. In some situations an adverb may qualify the verb itself rather than the entire statement. Adverbs of direction are not sentence adverbs. They affect the meaning of the verb itself and cannot be used in the various positions that are characteristic of sentence adverbs. In modern English an adverb of direction that stands before the verb is usually written as a solid compound with it, as in undertake, overturn, upset. Occasionally an adverb that is actually the second element, and not the first, is placed before the subject of the verb, as in up he got and down he came. This adverbs word order is so unusual that it is felt as "poetic license." In natural English, an adverb of this kind that is treated as an independent word must follow the verb. Even then, there is very little choice about where it can be placed. The indirect object of a compound verb must always stand between the two parts of the compound, as Mother in send Mother up some tea and her in send her up some. If an indirect object is undesirable in this position for any reason, it must be re placed by a prepositional phrase, as in send some up to Mother. (See indirect object.) A pronoun usually stands between the two elements even when it is a direct object as in send it up. A noun that is the direct object of a compound verb may stand between the two elements or may follow the second, as in send the box up and send up the box. People who claim that "a preposition cannot follow its object" sometimes do not recognize the difference between a preposition and the second element in a compound verb. In their anxiety to be correct, they may misplace these adverbs. In a construction of this kind it is always proper for the adverb to follow the object. And if the object is a pronoun, that is the preferred position for the adverb. Send up it is not literary English! Occasionally an adverb belonging to one of the other groups is used to qualify the verb itself rather than the full statement. In this case, the adverb stands immediately before the element in the verb that it qualifies. This is often one of the positions for a sentence adverb. The fact that the adverb is qualifying only one word is shown in speech by a heavy stress on that one word. For example, if a special stress is given to said in Z never said he was a fool, the implication is I only thought so. In this case never qualifies the isolated word said. But this is an unusual construction. In written English the words will be read without stress and the adverb taken as a sentence adverb unless it is made clear that this is not the proper interpretation. 2. An adverb may qualify an adjective. As a rule, an adverb that qualifies an adjective is an adverb of degree, as in a very red face, a mildly hot day, an astonishingly thin child. Occasionally it may show manner, as in a charmingly naive reply, an attractively stout matron. A predicate adjective or an appositive adjective may sometimes be followed by a qualifying adverb, as in it is lukewarm only, I am sick almost, a piece of rope longer still. But the normal position for any adverb except a sentence adverb is immediately before the word it qualifies. In this role it normally qualities the following word and no others. Adverbs of degree, however, may qualify the word a or an, and so have the effect of qualifying the following noun and any intervening adjectives. For example, in a quite small child, quite is an adverb of degree qualifying small. But in quite a small child it adversary qualifies the article and so has the effect of qualifying the phrase a small child. An adverb of degree combined with an adjective may function as a compound adverb and qualify a or an in exactly the same way, as in so short a time, too low a price, so young and pretty a woman, no more remarkable a man. 3. Adverbs may also qualify adverbs, and in this way one sometimes gets an accumulation of adverbs, as in quite hopelessly entangled, not so very well done. This is very different from an accumulation of adjectives. (See adjectives.) In a series of adjectives each word qualifies the noun, as qualified by all the intervening words. But in a series of adverbs each word qualifies only the word that immediately follows it. The relationship is very simple and the position of each word depends entirely on the meaning. 4. Since adverbs qualify adverbs and some adverbs easily turn into prepositions, it is not surprising that an adverb sometimes qualifies a preposition, as jlcst in just across the street and nearly in nearly fhrough the door. Here the adverb may be interpreted as qualifying the entire prepositional phrase. 5. Certain adverbs may be treated as if they were nouns, principally adverbs of time and place. They may be qualified by adjectives, as in this once, every now and then. They may be the object of a preposition, as in by now, nntil then, from there, or even the object of a verb, as in leave here, reach there. This is so far removed from the functions of an adverb that some grammarians say that any word that can be used in this way is a noun, in addition to being an adverb. adversary. See antagonist. adverse. See contrary. advert; avert. To advert means to refer to in the course of a speech or conversation. To averi means to turn away or aside (The auditor adverted to the deficit and the treasurer averted his eyes). Avert also means to prevent (Many superstitious practices seek to avert evil). advertising. From radio, newspaper, billboard, car card, television, from the backs of taxis, the sides of trucks, from skywriting airplanes -from every inch of space that can be painted over, through every moment of the day and night, we are besought, implored, flattered, cajoled, and threatened by advertising. It would be astonishing if the language of this clamorous din did not in some way have a lasting effect on our speech. In so far as advertising English fulfills one of its two chief functions, letting us know what has been produced, it differs little from any other factual writing. Federal, state, and local laws see to it that there is a reasonable degree of accuracy in describing a product offered for sale. The manufacturer's-or his sales department's-only way around this is to give some common substance or performante an unusual name, so that the public will 18 think that in this mcomprehensible ttung they are obtaining mysterious excellence. And so we have irium and gardol and Xg4 and cationic action which may sell the product but are, fortunately, barred by common sense from entering the language. It is in its fulfilling of its second and major function, urging us to buy, beseeching us to indulge ourselves, to gratify our whims and vanities, that advertising strains the language. For every product must not only insist that it is the best of its kind but that it is even superior to its own self of six months ago. Superlatives have long since been exhausted and intensives relaxed with overuse and the desperate copy writers have fallen back upon comparisons that do not compare: "Blitz contains 32.5% more cleansing action." "Moues guarantee 3.1416% more s&faction." One is not told than what. It is simply assumed that the reader is an idiot or is too worn out to care. The evil effect is actually not very great, for advertising engenders its own anti-toxin, but it must contribute somewhat to the deadening of expression by exaggeration. O