a dictionary of modern english ge sep 1987

[...]... not all; e.g sofa is from Arabic; stanza and vista are from Italian; subpoena is not nominative; drama and comma are neuter; data, strata, stamina, and prolegomena are plural; and with all such words -ae is impossible Of the majority, again, some retain the Latin -ae in English either as the only or as an alternative plural ending {formulae or -las, lacunae or -nas), and some have always -as (ideas, areas,... Pronunciation Most of the -ade words have anglicized their ending into -ddarcade, brocade, cascade, cavalcade, esplanade, fusillade, serenade, etc A few retain -ahd as their only pronunciation, e.g aubade, ballade, charade, faỗade, glissade Promenade shows a curious reluctance to follow the lead of esplanade Promenahd is still usual, but as long ago as 1933 the SOED recognized -õd as an alternative Accolade seems... to appeal; available, that may avail; bailable, admitting of bail; chargeable, involving charge ; clubbable, fit for a club; conformable, that conforms; conversable, fit for conversing; demurrable, open to demur; jeepable, capable of being traversed by a jeep; impressionable, open to impressions; indispensable, not admitting of dispensation; knowledgeable, having or capable of knowledge; laughable, ablutions... endorses my accep-TION WORDS tation of them, agrees with my view of abysmal, abyssal The first is the their drift) word for general use (abysmal ignor- accept of In all senses of accept other ance, degradation, bathos) ; abyssal, foraccepting a bill of exmerly used in the same way, has now than that of accept of was formerly change etc been appropriated as a technical term almost as widely used as the simple... relative importance of product ordinary work of a verbal physical characteristics as a basis for accept(find acceptance, be wellnoun for; judgement In the absence of any judge- beg or ask one's acceptance of, received ask mental frame of reference reduction in to accept; cf ask his acceptation of, him ask the number of product physical attri- how he understands; cards of accepbutes apparent to the judge... as a only, and prefers that pronunciation technical term of chemistry and for desperado The more exotic words physics, used especially of promoting such as amontillado, avocado, INCOMthe growth of bacteria in sewage and MUNICADO, and Mikado remain -ahdo of making substances radioactive It only For -ada words see ARMADA and should not be allowed to become a CICADA POPULARIZED TECHNICALITY and dis- place... (a reliable man, perishable articles, dutiable goods, feedable pasture, an unplayable wicket, an actionable offence, payable ore, unwritable paper, and others) exception is often taken The advocatus diaboli who opposes their recognition has the advantage of an instantly plausible case that can be put clearly and concisely: we do not rely a man, nor perish articles, nor play a wicket; therefore we have... long as we are consistent 2 The combinations of a with few and many are a matter of arbitrary but established usage: a few, a great many, a good many, are idiomatic, but a many is now illiterate or facetious and a good few is colloquial; a very few is permissible (in the sense some-thoughnot-at-all-many, whereas very few means not-at-all-many-though-some), but an extremely few is not; see FEW 3 A, an,... scarcer; A cessation of dredging has taken place instead of Dredging has stopped; Was this the realization of an anticipated liability? instead of Did you expect you would have to do this? And so on, with an abstract word always in command as the subject of the sentence Persons and what they do, things and what is done to them, are put in the background, and we can only peer at them through a glass absolute... people' officialese âratio obliqua, recta out of the frying pan Examples of a writer's being faulty in one way because he has tried to avoid being faulty in another over zeal Unnecessary repetition of conjunctions, prepositions, and relatives pairs and snares Some pairs of words liable to be confused paragraph parallel sentence dangers Damaging collisions between the negative and affirmative, inverted and . Jespersen, the 'grammatical historian', held that &apos ;of greater value than this prescriptive grammar is a purely descriptive grammar which, instead of acting as a guide to what should. &apos ;a man of great fastidiousness, (moral and intellectual)', and he is said to have shown the same quality in his clothes and personal appear- ance. Coulton compares him to Socrates talents of one kind or another, it was unlikely to find again 'such a man as everyone sepa- rately shall know (more certainly year by year) to be at once truer and better, gentler and