The New Fowler''s Modern English Usage
absolute superlative | abysmal, abyssal 11 shown in your and our and his efforts (not tendency (which he termed abstractitis) yours and ours); either my or your informant in modern writing for abstract nouns to must have lied (not mine); her and his strongbe used in such a way that the meaning contempt (not hers) Rearrangement of the is obscured Participation by the men in the pronouns removes any risk of error: thus control of the industry is non-existent, he his efforts and yours and ours, either your said, should be rewritten as The men have informant or mine must have lied, etc Its no part in the control of the industry He is the only pronoun in the series that gave some other (unattributed) examples normally cannot be used predicatively of official pomposity, e.g Strangeness of or in the double possessive construction: samples has been shown to lead to relative thus its toil is red, but not *this toil is its rejection of products in the comparative abnor *o mate of its CGEL 6.29 n points sence of clues to a frame of reference within out, however, that independent its is which judgement may take place The occasionally found, e.g History has its complaint was not new In The King's lessons andfictionits; She knew the accidentEnglish (1906), the Fowler brothers atwas either her husband's fault or the car's: ittacked 'the far-fetched, the abstract, the turned out to he not his hut its In such periphrastic, the long, and the Rocases strong emphasis is placed on the mance' They cited numerous examples contrasted pronouns of injudiciously chosen diction, including this one from The Times: The signs absolute superlative Like absolute of the times point to the necessity of the comparatives, absolute superlatives, i.e modification of the system of administration superlatives used merely to express a (rewrite as It is becoming clear that the very high degree of the quality or attri- administrative system must be modified) bute, without definite comparison with In the bureaucratic offices of our sociother objects, occur occasionally in in- ety inflated sentences are still being writformal language: she is most peculiar, your ten, but the drive towards the use of letter is most kind ( = extremely kind) everyday English in national and local Forms in -est can also be used in an government documents, in legal writabsolute manner: she is the strangest ing, and elsewhere is gathering mowoman, it is the sweetest hat, he is the hap-mentum Gowers's Plain Words (1948), piest of babies and its successive editions, are vigorous and healthy tracts which have helped to absolve Formerly pronounced either eradicate some of the verbosity, super/aeb'z-/ or /aeb's-/, but the pronunciation fluity, and opaqueness lurking in official with \-z-\ now seems to be dominant, documents and memoranda presumably under the influence of resolve Its normal constructions are of absurd The standard pronunciation is three kinds: (not common) followed by /ab's3:d/, but the less frequent pronuncia phrase or clause led by for; (both com- ation with medial \i\ is used by some mon) followed by a phrase or clause led speakers (e.g by N Chomsky in a lecture by either from or of Examples: (a) One's in Oxford in Nov 1992) conscience may be pretty well absolved for not admiring this man—Miss Mitford, 1817; Weabusage An obsolete 16c and 17c may perhaps absolve Ford for the languageword partially revived by Eric Partridge of the artide-R Burlingame, 1949 {WDEU); in his Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good (b) absolve me from all spot of sin—] Agee, English (1942) 1950; Having thus absolved himselffrom the duty of making the essential discrimina- abysmal, abyssal Of the respective tions—Ê R Leavis, 1952; (c) it absolved him base-nouns, abysm 'bottomless gulf, deep of all responsibility—L A G Strong, 1948;immeasurable space' has retreated into Dollar was absolved 0/personal liability for obsolescence except in reflections of Shakespeare's line in The Tempest (1612), the line's debts-Time, 1950 (WDEU) What seest thou els in the dark-backward and Abisme of Time? Abyss, on the other hand, absorbedly Four syllables See -EDLY is a customary word, whether literal or abstract nouns Gowers (1965), as part figurative, for '[a place, etc., of] immeasof his drive for the use of plain English in urable depth' A person facing defeat in official documents, pointed to a marked an election or humiliation of some other Academe | accent 12 kind, for example, is often said to be joined by Academia (or academia) in the 'staring into the abyss' same sense (Businessmen liked to adopt the The derivatives abysmal and abyssal language of academia—A Sampson, 1971) have moved in opposite directions Residual uses of abysmal applied to gorges, academic The serious uses of this word precipices, deep space, etc., can be found (first recorded in the late 16c.) remain (the abysmal depths of interstellar space— firm, but a little more than a century P W Merrill, 1938; the abysmal depths of ago (first noted 1886) it developed a dethe ocean-T Barbour, 1944 (WDEU)), but preciatory range of meanings as well, the word is mostly used in figurative 'unpractical, merely theoretical, having contexts: (a) = bottomless, fathomless no practical applications', e.g All the dis{Contemplate with despair the abysmal depthscussion, Sirs, is—academic The war has begun of your incapacity—A Burgess, 1987); {b) = already—H G Wells, 1929; The strike vote extremely bad (Guatemala's abysmal hu' was dismissed as largely academic' by man rights record—NY Times, 1984; the abysMerseyside Health Authority—Times, 1990 mal quality of what is produced [in Romania]—NY Rev Eks, 1989) Academy The Academy, the Garden, the Abyssal, once also used figuratively, is Lyceum, the Porch, and the Tub are names now only in restricted use as a technical used for the five chief schools of Greek term in oceanography, 'belonging to one philosophy, their founders, adherents, of the deepest levels of the ocean* (the and doctrines: the Academy, Plato, the ocean basin floor is called the abyssal Platonists, and Platonism; the Garden, floor—A C and A Duxbury, 1984) Epicurus, the Epicureans, and EpicurAcademe In ancient Greece, 'Aica- eanism; the Lyceum, Aristotle, the Aristoôrj^Eia was the proper name of a garden telians, and Aristotelianism; the Ponrh near Athens sacred to the hero Acad- (or the Painted Porch, Gk crcoà rcoiK&n), emus In the 4c BC it was the site of a Zeno, the Stoics, and Stoicism; the Tub, philosophical school established there Diogenes (who lived in extreme poverty, by Plato Shakespeare modified the Greek legend has it, in a tub), the Cynics, and name to the trisyllabic Achademe in Love's Cynicism Labour's Lost and used it to mean 'a place of learning' Milton's line The olive-grove acatalectic Having the necessary numof Academe, Plato's retirement {Paradise Reber of feet or syllables: a technical term gained, w 244) also used the trisyllabic in prosody Happy /field or / mossy / cavern form of the word, but applied it specific- (Keats) and Come, you / pretty /false-eyed / ally to Plato's philosophical school Later wanton (Campion) are trochaic — ( ~) tetrawriters followed Shakespeare's lead, and, meters in which the last foot is acatalecparticularly since the publication of tic Cf CATALECnC Thackeray's Pendennis in 1849 (the least snugly sheltered arbour among the groves of accent The noun is pronounced on Academe), the word Academe (frequently the first syllable and the verb on the but not invariably with an initial capital) second See NOUN AND ADJECTIVE ACCENT; has been modishly used by many writers NOUN AND VERB ACCENT to mean 'the academic community, the world of university scholarship', notably In general use, an accent is 'a parin the phrase the groves of Academe (cf ticular mode of pronunciation, esp one Atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum—associated with a particular region or Horace, Ep 2 45) Mary McCarthy's group (Liverpool accent, German accent, novel The Groves of Academe (1952) helped upper Unesco Others remain written with uniform capitals (ASH, SAIT, SAM, WASP, above) but without full stops Still others were written with uniform lower-case letters virtually from the beginning: laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), radar (radio detection and ranging), and the US word snafu (situation normal—all /ouled up) The limitations of the term being not widely known to the general public, acronym is also often applied to abbreviations that are familiar but are not pronounceable as words Thus EC (European Community), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), and VCR (vidéocassette recorder) Such terms are also called initialisms 18 Action is freely used in the attributive position (action committee, painting, photography, replay, etc.) Art cannot be so used Both words form part of fixed phrases, idioms, or proverbs: (act) my act and deed, Act I (of a play), a variety act (at a circus, etc.); to put on an act, caught in the art, clean up one's act, get one's act together, (action) killed in action, out of action, to take action, actions speak louder than words; (colloq.) where the action is (the centre of activity), a piece (or shane) of the action (implying participation in some activity) action (as verb) In its modern use in the sense 'to take action on (a request, etc.)', the word is best left at present to the tight-lipped language of business managers, e.g Dismissal will be actioned when the balance of probabilities suggests that an employee has committed a criminal act-Daily Tel, 1981 activate, actuate These two verbs were on a collision course in general contexts in the 19c and activate became obsolete (and was so labelled in the OED) for a while Its substantial use in chemistry and physics in the 20c has brought activact, action The distinction between ate back into prominence At the present the two words is not always absolute: we time, activate is the term used when the are judged by our acts or by our actions In context requires 'to render active' (of some of its senses, act (derived in the carbon, molecules, etc.), 'to make radio14c from OF arte) refers directly to L active' (Most 0/the elements situated between actus 'a doing' and in others to L artum boron and calcium have been activated under 'a thing done' In general, action means the influence ofa-rays—K W Lawson, 1938), 'the doing of (something)' and has 'to aerate (sewage) as a means of purtended over the centuries to prevent art ification', or some other technical or from being used in the more abstract scientific sense It is also widely applied senses We can speak only of the action, to much less technical items like burglar not the art, of a machine, when we mean alarms, traffic lights, flight plans, and, the way it acts; and action alone has a less commonly, to behaviour that is motikind of collective sense, as in his action vated by some set of circumstances (Are throughout (i.e his acts or actions as a they activated by concern for public morality! whole) was correct, he took decisive action —Essays & Studies, 1961) Actuate, by con(freq involving a series of separate acts) trast, is much less often encountered in The actions of a person are usually viewed technical contexts, though in practice as occupying some time in doing, in devices, diaphragms, forces, pinions, pisother words are the habitual or ordinary tons, and so on, as shown in 18c and 19c deeds of a person, the sum of which examples in the OED, are still actuated by constitutes his or her conduct Act, by this or that instrument or agent Abcontrast, normally means something stract qualities like anger, greed, jealbrought about at a stroke or something ousy, malice, etc are only grudgingly of short duration As such it is frequently activated and more commonly actuated followed by o/and a noun (an act of God, There is no guarantee that this state of an act of cruelty, folly, madness, mercy, etc.).affairs is permanent Examples of actuate: 19 actuality | adagio His opposition was actuated by a different language, particularly in spoken English and more compelling motive than that of her Further examples: (part of an assertion other relatives—D Cecil, 1948; Peirce was or counter-assertion) We think it's quite all actuated by the analogy with science, not by aright, actually—D Heffron, 1976; (adding vision—] Barzun, 1983; the union campaign slight emphasis) I am not actually in a was actuated by political rather than position to make a decision—H Secombe, industrial considerations—New Statesman,1981; (reinforcing a negative statement) 'I told you, I've got problems at work.' Actu1985 ally, you didn't.'—S Mackay, 1981; (when actuality A century ago actuality stood giving advice) Actually, it might be a good beside actualness as virtual synonyms in idea not to travel from Gatwick in the summer the sense 'the quality or state of being this year—mod Clearly a useful, but an actual' Actuality also meant 'the state of overused word being real, reality', and, in the plural, 'actual existing conditions or circum- actuate See ACTIVATE stances' (his words were directed to the actualities of the case) Actualness has dropped acuity, acuteness Acuity (first recorded by the wayside, whereas actuality has 1543) has long vied with acuteness (1627) retained its older senses while acquiring in lit and fig contexts In practice the a new concrete one, namely 'a film re- former word has retreated somewhat: cord or radio or television broadcast of nowadays it collocates principally with an event as it actually occurs' {actuality hearing, understanding, vision, wit, and film, material, programme) certain diseases Examples: People that I know who like to read poetry with acuity and actually One of a number of adverbs intelligence—A Hecht, 1981; almost drowsy, (definitely, really, surely, etc.) that at presentbut with no loss of mental acuity—I Asimov, tend to be overused as emphasizers The 1982; being able to see 6/12 on a visual acuity traditional use of the word to mean 'in chart—Nursing Times, 1986 For nearly all fact, in reality' is shown in sentences other areas broadly signifying 'sharplike Often it wasn't actually arailwaystationness, perceptiveness', acuteness is the but a special stopping place in the middle of more usual word The two words have nowhere—New Yorker, 1987 Emphasizingnot, however, drifted into separate seuses of the word are not new: the OED mantic bins in the manner of numerous (sense 5) lists examples from Goldsmith, other -tyl-ness pairs (casualty\casualness, inRuskin, and others in which actually is genuityjingenuousness, etc.) added 'to vouch for statements which seem surprising, incredible, or exagger- acumen The Victorian (and therefore ated', e.g I had some dispositions to be a the OED's) pronunciation was /a'kjuiman/, scholar and had actually learned my letters-stressed on the second syllable This still Goldsmith, 1762 In many modern con- seems to be the dominant pronunciation texts, however, the degree of surprise, in AmE, but it has given way to incredibility, or exaggeration being /'aekjuman/, stressed on the first syllable, vouched for is often a little less easy to in BrE discern, e.g (used as a sentence adverb) But I'd like to see those scrap books again, ad, a frequent colloquial shortened actually—Lee Smith, 1983; 'It was a fairlyform of advertisement or advertising (so rough night, actually, sir One way or an- small ad, adman, etc.), first recorded in other.'—A Price, 1987; except that instead 1841 and now in very widespread inof going into the technological future I had formal use to go back in time Actually, I don't really mean that, back in time—J Barnes, 1989; AD (anno Domini, in the year of the Lord) (in a normal adverbial position) 'And we should always be placed (in small capidon't actually have the money, either,' my tals when printed) before the numerals: mother said—A Munro, 1987 In each case AD 900 It is customary, however, to write the writers concerned appropriately 'the third century AD' after the model of used this low-key device as part of the 'the third century BC' See BC natural language of their characters The problem is how to bring about a reduc- adagio (Mus.) slow; as noun, pi adagios tion in the low-key devices that litter the See -O(E)S ... cases the rivalry between AmE in the 1960s and thence into other the -ative and the -ive forms continues forms of English For example, David The more important of these pairs are Lodge used the. .. sources like the British maga- between the two is not uncommon The zines The Face (Kool and The Gang are alright distinction is shown in the following They put on a good show, 1986), the New examples:... take place The occasionally found, e.g History has its complaint was not new In The King's lessons andfictionits; She knew the accidentEnglish (1906), the Fowler brothers atwas either her husband's