The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style_5 ppsx

of the phrase “according to Mr. John- son,” it tends to apply only to the “word preferred” phrase. And the clause about photographs is almost a non sequitur.) So the story was revised for a later edition: “Vandalism” was the word preferred by Martin D. Franks, executive director of the committee, to describe last night’s incident, according to Mark Johnson, the campaign committee’s press secretary. . . . What he described as “sensitive files” were still safely under lock and key, he said. The revised story (saying nothing about photographs) is an improvement. (But “What he described as” is unnecessary, inasmuch as “sensitive files” is in quotation marks and the sentence ends with “he said.”) The passages below are from a biography. Nothing but thorough recasting of the sentences could help them. In terms of the prosecutor’s future philosophy, there seemed not to be one word in the controversy about the freedom of the press provided under the First Amendment. In terms of professional memberships, moreover, nothing succeeded like success, as Black himself noted in an in- terview published after his death—“I was trying a lot of cases against cor- porations, jury cases, and I found out that all the corporation lawyers were in the Klan. . . .” Sticking an “in terms of” into a sentence is no replacement for clear thinking. No one can be expected to speak in terms of a future philosophy or otherwise foresee the future. (Besides, there cannot be one word about press freedom; it takes at least two words.) The first sample sentence from the biography could be rewritten this way: The prosecutor’s arguments did not foreshadow his future philosophy. There seemed to be nothing in the controversy about. . . . The latter quotation from the book is unwieldy and obscure, somehow tying professional memberships to the cliché about success and tacking on a quotation with still another idea. A rescue attempt would be futile. INTERNECINE. Internecine (pronounced inter-NIECE-sin, among other ways) is a useful adjective in the sense of mutually destructive. It comes from the Latin internecinus, meaning murderous. A word so derived should be expected to bear the concept of deadliness. Indeed internecine originally meant character- ized by bloodshed or slaughter. It came to mean deadly to both adver- saries in an armed conflict. This is a useful interpretation, for no other single word expresses the idea. Still later, it was given another twist. Evidently assuming that the first six letters came from internal, some began ap- plying internecine to internal conflicts, e.g., “America’s internecine struggle of the 1860s.” Now we often find the element of deadliness, the essence of internecine, slighted or forgotten altogether and the word serving merely as a synonym for internal in connection with verbal, political, or other harmless disagreements within a group. In a TV forum, a newspaper publisher was discussing South Africa’s leadership: Botha and his successor, de Klerk, are apparently having internecine war- fare. internecine 191 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 191 They were not actually shooting at each other; they simply disagreed on policy. This is from a prominent newspaper: The prospect of a Warner defection in two years could shatter the party unity . . . and throw Republicans into an internecine war. No weapons would be discharged in the so-called war, only words. To adapt that distinctive and powerful adjective to such unexceptional uses is like resorting to a pistol to dispatch a cockroach. Interrogative sentence. See (-)EVER; Punctuation, 9. INTO. 1. IN and INTO. 2. IN TO and INTO. 3. Slang use. 1. IN and INTO The preposition in indicates position, location, or condition. Among its various senses, it means inside; within the area or confines of (the house, the city, the deal, etc.). The preposition into indicates mo- tion, direction, or change in condition. It often means to the interior of (a place); from the outside to the inside of (the place). “The children are jumping into the pond” clearly indicates their movement from the banks to the water. “The children are jumping in the pond” is less clear; they may have already been in the water when they started jumping. “We walked into the house” clearly indicates that we entered the house. “We walked in the house” is less clear; we may have already been in the house when we decided to tour the place. Some contexts in which into is right allow in as an option. “They let him into [or “in”] the country.” / “Throw the peel into [or “in”] the trash can.” The verb put goes with either in or into. (“Put the dishes in [or “into”] the cupboard.”) But idiom dictates the com- panionship of the verb place and in. (“Place the dishes in [not “into”] the cupboard.”) Into can also mean against (“The truck crashed into a utility pole”), to a certain form or condition (“The vase broke into little pieces” / “Matter can change into energy”), to an occupation (“She is going into real estate”), or toward (“We must look into the future”). 2. IN TO and INTO When in, serving as an adverb, comes in contact with the preposition to, a writer may erroneously unite them. The resulting “into” can grossly distort the meaning. Such a mistake could cause alarm. “The ship came in to the pier” simply means that it docked. “The ship came into the pier” means that it crashed. The mistake could cause just mirth. “A man wanted as an army deserter for fifteen years turned himself into the sher- iff’s office last night.” Unless the reporter was describing a magical transforma- tion, the in and the to should have been separate. 3. Slang use “Fred is in sales” indicates that selling is his occupation. “Fred is going into sales” indicates that he intends to enter that occupation. The era of “flower children” and “Do your own thing” brought the use of into in the sense of a continuing participation in a vocation or avocation. One would say “I’m into painting,” instead of “I do painting” or simply “I paint.” The term persisted, and a daily paper said a designer of science exhibits was “so into tornadoes” that his contribu- tion to a testimonial dinner was a choco- late tornado. “Into” was a columnist’s slangy substitute for absorbed in, con- 192 interrogative sentence 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 192 cerned with, enthralled by, interested in, or taken by. Prepositions are not nor- mally modified, yet “so” was forced to modify “into.” INTRA- and INTER- prefixes. See Confusing pairs. Intransitive and transitive verbs. See Verbs, 1. INTRIGUE, INTRIGUING. Did the writer of this headline (ten years after the Watergate scandal) intend to convey a double meaning? “Why Nixon Is Still Intriguing.” Intriguing can mean plotting intrigue. Intrigue as a noun means secret or un- derhanded scheme or scheming. It can also denote a secret love affair (one thing that Nixon was not accused of). The verb intrigue, in its most settled meanings, means (intransitively) to engage in intrigue and (transitively) to plot, to cheat, or to achieve or get through intrigue. The present participle is intriguing. Commonly the verb intrigue (transitive) is used as a synonym for enchant, excite, fascinate, interest, make curious, mystify, puzzle, or perplex; intriguing as an adjective meaning enchanting, excit- ing, fascinating, etc. Such use is not accepted by all. H. W. Fowler pooh-poohed it as a Gallicism (it came from the French transitive verb for puzzle, intriguer) “confusing the sense of a good English word.” His reviser, Sir Ernest Gowers, wrote that a reason for its popularity was that it could convey the meanings of two words at once; he cited puzzle and fascinate. “But,” he went on, “it is still true that intrigue is often used in place of a simpler and better word. . . .” Theodore Bernstein found the verb turned into “a fuzzy, all-purpose word” in place of various precise words. Just 52 percent of The American Heritage Dic- tionary’s usage panel approved of the popular use of the verb. On the liberal side, Roy H. Copperud called such use “well established . . . despite carping by some pedants.” These are excerpts from a book by the editors of a news magazine: What made Gorbachev a truly intriguing Man of the Year was that . . . so little was known about him. . . . This reassuring rhetoric was intriguingly . . . similar to what liberal Western strategists had accepted as conventional wisdom for decades. . . . But Gorbachev’s choice [of a con- stituency] was intriguing. . . . Eco- nomic stagnation and political torpor [under Brezhnev] seemed to hatch corruption and intrigue in the highest places. Following the contestable use of intriguing twice and intriguingly (adverb), fi- nally intrigue is used strictly in the last quoted sentence. INUNDATE, INUNDATED. While television cameras focused on a huge fire in southern California, a reporter called attention to some houses “just about to be inundated by the flames.” Not burned, consumed, or de- stroyed, but “inundated.” His choice of verb could hardly have been further from the mark. To inundate is to flood, to cover with water in the manner of an overflowing river. Drought and water shortage had contributed to the fire dis- aster. Inundated can equal deluged, flooded, or swamped. Used figuratively, any of those words is drenched with metaphor. When the moderator of a forum said, “At this point in time, the American people are completely inundated with polls,” he overdid it. Scratch “completely.” (See also “AT THIS POINT IN TIME.”) inundate, inundated 193 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 193 The pronunciation is IN-nun-date(d) or, less often, in-NUN-date(d). Inversions. See Backward writing. INVERTED COMMAS. See Punc- tuation, 10. INVITE and INVITATION. When a boy in a situation comedy said, “I got a special invite [pronounced IN-vite] tonight to a dance at Hamilton High,” he was perfectly in character. The word is most informal though. Its use was questionable when a broadcaster on a specialized news program boasted of an “exclusive invite” to a TV wedding. A courteous request for a person to attend an event or to participate in an activity is an invitation. So is a note used in extending it. To extend an invitation is to invite (someone), pronounced in- VITE. INVOKE. See EVOKE and INVOKE. Iran. A factual error mars this passage, from a newspaper: The [Persian Gulf] crisis has shaken the Mideast regional power balance. Egypt has moved to the forefront, and Syria and Iran have moved toward the Arab mainstream. Iran is not “Arab.” Its official and pre- dominant language is not Arabic but Farsi, which uses the Arabic alphabet plus four additional letters. Formerly Persia, this sizable southwest Asian country has its own culture and tradi- tions. It does share the Muslim religion with the Arab countries, like Egypt and Syria, although Iranians mostly belong to the Shiah sect whereas the Sunni pre- dominates in most Arab countries. Iran is pronounced either ih-RAN or, more authentically, ee-RON. IRONY, IRONIC, IRONICALLY. 1. Contrast essential. 2. SARCASM, SATIRE. 1. Contrast essential Upon reporting that a maritime collision had cost a company a vessel, a newscaster told the television audience: Ironically it’s the same company that lost a boat in a collision ten years ago. There was nothing ironic (adjective) about it. The two incidents were parallel. Contrast is the essence of irony (noun). Ironically (adverb) would have been an appropriate word if, for example, the maritime company had been known for ads promoting safety afloat but then caused a collision. Irony can be a noteworthy incon- gruity of events, a glaring contrast between what one could have reasonably expected and what actually happens. Irony is also a literary style, a rhetorical figure, or a humorous device. The contrast then is between the apparent meaning of words that are written or spoken and a far different meaning beneath the surface. 2. SARCASM, SATIRE Sarcasm is similar to irony in the contrast between literal meaning and in- tended meaning, but sarcasm implies overt ridicule or taunting; irony is milder and subtler. Related words are sarcastic (adjective) and sarcastically (adverb). “This is a fine time to be telling me!” is a sarcastic remark. Satire (noun) is a literary or dramatic style using irony to attack or ridicule something held to be wrong or foolish. Related words are satirical (adjective) and satirically (adverb). A writer of clas- sic satire was Jonathan Swift, best known for Gulliver’s Travels. 194 inversions 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 194 “IRREGARDLESS.” See REGARD- LESS. IS, AM, ARE (etc.). See BE, AM, IS (etc., cross-reference). IS and ARE. See Verbs, 3. -ISE ending. See -IZE ending, 2. IS IS. Many a speaker follows is with an echo of the word, as though he has forgotten that he just uttered it. A double is can be deliberate. “What- ever is, is right” appears in the works of Dryden and Pope and is also attributed to the Greek philosopher Democritus. Dryden wrote also, “Whatever is, is in its causes just.” The poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote that “whatever is—is best.” This is a translation from Hegel: “Everything that is, is reasonable.” A more recent example is President Clin- ton’s reply to a question in testimony, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word is is.” Usually, however, as the following quotations from television suggest, the echoed word is not the product of thought. A member of Congress: “The fact is is that there’s nothing there” (in an investigation of the president). An as- tronomer: “The problem is is that we’ve got an enormous amount of work to get done right now.” An appraiser: “The good news is is it’s worth three to five thousand dollars.” A writer and TV pan- elist: “The fact of the matter is is that he [the president] is in deep trouble.” Each second “is” was superfluous. ISRAELI. See JEW, JEWISH. Italic(s). Italic type, or italics, is a form of printing type or lettering, used for emphasis and special purposes. The letters slant to the right (and use fewer serifs than roman, the common book type). Writers and editors underline those words in manuscripts that they want to be italic. Thus this is a sample becomes this is a sample. Among other functions, italics indi- cate that a word is not playing its usual role, that of contributing to meaning, but is being considered as a word. For instance, this book discusses me and I. It deals also with and and but. Names of books, dramatic works, works of art, publications, and genera and species go in italics: Moby-Dick by Melville; The Glass Menagerie by Williams; Leonardo’s Mona Lisa; Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro; an article in Time; the lion, Felis leo. (See also Punctuation, 10.) Italics serve also to distinguish foreign words or phrases that are not also considered part of English, such as semper fidelis and et tu, Brute!; introduce new terms: “Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is developing . . .”; and enumerate points, principles, or questions that an author wishes to stress. Italics call attention to a particular word or phrase. It may be one that would be emphasized if the sentence were spoken: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” The highlighted word may be one that is not usually emphasized, as in this example from a book on economics: The discovery that man needs stimu- lation as well as comfort is not new. After all, the ancient Romans clam- ored for bread and circuses. It may be an unexpected word: “Are the wages of sin wealth?” Or two words may be contrasted: “If he will not do it, she will.” Italics are effective when used in mod- italic(s) 195 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 195 eration. A few writers overdo them, itali- cizing passages here and there in efforts to gain readers’ attention. The word italic (adjective and noun) is so named because it first appeared in an Italian book (an edition of Virgil printed in Venice in 1501). The word italics (noun) is often construed as plural, sometimes as singular. Styles of italic go with the various roman styles. When a word in an italic passage needs emphasis, it may be printed in roman. Another device for emphasis is the heavy form of type known as boldface. Italics and boldface are sometimes combined in boldface italics. IT, anticipatory. See Expletives. “IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING.” See OF COURSE, 3. IT IS I (HE, SHE) and IT’S ME (HIM, HER). See Pronouns, 10D. IT IS I (YOU) WHO. See WHO, 3. IT, ITS, neuter pronoun. See Pro- nouns, 2B. ITS and IT’S. Its, the possessive, as in “The cat licked its paws,” has no apostrophe. It should not be confused with it’s, the contraction. Like every contraction, this does have an apostrophe. It’s is usually a contraction of it is, as in “It’s a good day”; sometimes a contraction of it has, as in “It’s been a long time.” An apostrophe was erroneously in- serted in each of the four passages that follow (from newspapers and a notice to shareholders). “It’s” should be its. “It would be more racism showing it’s ugly head again.” We would also like to applaud the cafe for it’s non-smoking policy. “. . . They shouldn’t have the right to decide the future of the lion or risk it’s extinction.” . . . Shareholders may now treat a portion of the distributions paid by the Fund as interest income from obli- gations of the United States and it’s possessions. . . . The example below (from an ad in a trade magazine) shows the opposite error: the omission of a necessary apostrophe. “Its” should be it’s. Ask any talent agent or A&R person. They’ll tell you that, without the right production values, its hard to make great music stand out in a world of mediocrity. (Another mistake is the use of a plural pronoun, “They,” with a singular an- tecedent. See OR; Pronouns, 2. What about “mediocrity”?) See also Punctuation, 1B. ITSELF. See Pronouns, 3, 4. “IT STANDS TO REASON.” See REASON, 3. I WHO. See WHO, 3. -IZE ending. 1. Excessive use. 2. -ISE. 1. Excessive use The practice of using the suffix -ize to make verbs goes back to the Middle Ages. Both nouns and adjectives are turned into verbs by tacking on the suffix. Hundreds of legitimate words have -ize. At some time, most of us emphasize, memorize, recognize, and sympa- thize. Finance leads many to amortize, equalize, itemize, and minimize. Some people professionally criticize, organize, specialize, and theorize. Miscreants bur- 196 it, anticipatroy 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 196 glarize, scandalize, terrorize, and victim- ize. Substances energize, fertilize, neu- tralize, and vaporize. Nevertheless, the practice has long been overdone. H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Language: I reach into my collection at random and draw forth such monstrosities as to backwardize, to fordize, to belgium- ize, to respectablize, to scenarioize, to moronize, to customize, to featurize, to expertize, to powerize, to sanitize, to manhattanize and to colonize; I suppose I could dredge up at least a hundred more. Colonize is accepted now as a standard word. Customize, featurize, sanitize, and manhattanize have reached acceptance at least as jargon. Mencken later, in the first supplement to his work, listed forty more that had been coined “in recent years.” By then, he had learned that -ize words dated to the Middle Ages, and he no longer called them “monstrosities.” But we can be glad that few of them sur- vive. Those on his list that have been generally accepted (excluding trade names) are glamorize and publicize; two others, finalize and moistureize (now without the first e), have reached the sta- tus of jargon. Many seem attracted to -ize because it appears impressive, official, or technical. But it is often weak and unnecessary, and the multiplication of -ize verbs adds monotony to the language. “Finalize,” for instance, serves more often as a bureaucratic and pretentious synonym for complete, finish, or end than as a necessary verb. “Moisturize” essentially says dampen or keep moist, although it can imply the use of a com- mercial product. A candidate for district attorney said in an election statement: We must prioritize the prosecution of violent, repeat offenders. “Prioritize” is no fist-pounding verb. Among stronger choices would have been make our top priority (if that is what he meant), emphasize, and stress. A local legislative body argued in sup- port of a ballot measure: By allowing less than prevailing wage standards . . . the City can maximize scarce job training funds. Did “maximize” exceed extend, pro- long, spread, or stretch in clarity or just in pomposity? Clarity may not have been uppermost in the mind of a business executive on a news telecast as he tried to justify a government subsidy for his prosperous corporation: When they [U.S. officials] want an in- dustry to succeed, they incentivize it. A physician sought to tell a huge TV audience that some health plans were harming patients’ health; that holding down doctor costs, à la merchandising, was replacing the practice of ethical medicine. What he said was: We are being commoditized and our patients are being commoditized. Perhaps unaware of the verb meta- morphose—to transform (something) or be transformed, as by magic or meta- morphosis—a journalist said a politician who changed jobs had “metamorpho- sized.” See also FACT- words, 2 (end). 2. -ISE In Britain the American -ize, the origi- nal British spelling, usually is spelled -ise (after the modern French practice of changing the Greek -izo to -iser). For instance, the American realize is spelled re- alise. The Oxford English Dictionary finds no good reason for -ise, “in opposi- -ize ending 197 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 197 tion to that which is at once etymologi- cal and phonetic.” Some verbs (not part of the Greek tra- dition) always end in ise though possess- ing the ize sound. Among them are advise, apprise, arise, chastise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, en- terprise, excise, exercise, improvise, re- vise, supervise, surmise, surprise, and televise. Advertise and merchandise are infrequently spelled advertize and mer- chandize. 198 -ize ending 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 198 JELL-O. As a brand of gelatin dessert, Jell-O is a trademark and should not be used in lower case, the way a manual of English for newcomers uses it: “Wait- ress: You have your choice of pudding, ice cream, or jello.” If that particular brand is meant, use capital J, hyphen, and capital O. Other- wise gelatin (or gelatine) is likely to describe the jellied dessert, salad, or mold in mind. A cold dish of meat, fish, veg- etables, or fruit in gelatin is an aspic. JEW, JEWISH. Jew denotes either a descendant of the Hebrews or one who adheres to the Judaic religion, whether through birth or conversion. The name comes from the Hebrew yehudi, originally a member of the tribe of Judah. Two critiques, in a reference book and an editorial, bear criticism them- selves. Each contains an unacceptable word. An author objected to careless use of the terms Jew and Jewish in connection with Israel: Although that nation is closely identi- fied with the Jewish race and religion, the expressions Israeli and Jewish are not interchangeable. An “Editorial Board” expressed reservations about a presidential candidate that it was endorsing: We don’t endorse anti-Semitism of any kind, and we’re not happy about some of Jackson’s racial slurs and in- sensitivity toward Jews. In the first sample, the objectionable word is “race.” (A good substitute would have been people.) In the second sample, the word “racial” should have been scrapped. When there are African Jews, Chinese Jews, and Jews of just about every race, it makes no sense to refer to Judaism in racial terms. Contrary to Hitler’s doc- trine, there is no Jewish race. The point made in the book about the separateness of Israeli and Jewish is valid. It is incorrect to speak of the Is- raelis as “the Jews,” the way some ad- versaries of Israel have done. Only about 30 percent of the world’s 14 million Jews live in Israel, and about 18 percent of the Israelis—that is, the citi- zens of the State of Israel—are non- Jews, mostly Moslems. Jew is a noun only (e.g., “Jesus was a Jew”). The related adjective is Jewish (“a Jewish temple” / “a Jewish woman”). Using “Jew” in its place is derogatory. Hebrew is the name of a language and an ancient people. It is not “in modern usage interchangeable with Jew,” contrary to a dictionary’s statement. See also YIDDISH. jew, jewish 199 J 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 199 JOBLESS. The average newspaper ed- itor is unlikely to put unemployment compensation in a headline when he can save space with “jobless pay,” even though “jobless” misses the mark in that phrase. An unemployed person can be called jobless; it is not the “pay” that lacks a job. Joblessness is comparable to unemployment, but the press does not use the former often; it saves only one letter. “Jobless” has branched out from the headlines into the bodies of news stories and into newscasting. A news agency reported: Blue-chip stocks fell in subdued trading Tuesday as investors stood on the sidelines waiting for Friday’s key jobless numbers for September. A TV newscaster announced a “jump in jobless claims.” Another reported that “the number filing jobless claims dropped. . . .” Still another: “California’s jobless rate has also dropped slightly.” So far the word has not entered the vernacular. A laid-off worker is likely to say, “I got my unemployment [not “jobless”] check today.” Joining of words. Some writers feel compelled to join pairs of words that are perfectly comprehensible when left separate. The result can be misleading. A newspaper item said an ex-president had thanked “the secret serviceman credited with saving his life after an assassination attempt. . . .” Although an intelligence agent in the armed services could possi- bly be described as a “secret serviceman,” the recipient of the thanks was a Secret Service man. Usually the reader is unlikely to be actually misled by unwieldy fusions, such as “Assemblymember” for Assembly member, “autoworkers” for auto work- ers, or “eightmillion” for eight million. More likely such behemoths will just look like mistakes and stop the reader momentarily. Because two words often go together, the writer may think they are wedded. The phrase damn yankee has been so common in the South that some people have thought it is a single word. Printed works can be inconsistent in their choices of words to unite. This is from an autobiography: “We were intro- duced to the great military thinkers and their ideas—Mahan on sea power, Douhet on airpower. . . .” Another author practices ortho- graphic discrimination by writing, in a book of reminiscences, “Blackamericans are different from white Americans.” Phrases that have been published in fused form include these thirty-five: ad writers, auto maker, best seller, break even, business folk, cab driver, care givers, catch phrases, child care, common sense, decision making, dining room, down payment, drug war, face down, front lines, full text, fund raising, good will, hard cover, home care, house cleaning, job seeker, market share, news writers, night watchman, park land, phone book, round trip, trap doors, word games, word play, work force, working women, work station. The innumerable “-person” and “-people” monstrosities can be added to the list. See PEOPLE as a suffix; PER- SON. Sometimes hyphenated adjectives like cold-blooded; head-on; hour-long, month-long, etc.; long-time; short-lived; small-town; and worn-out are divested of their hyphens and jammed together. A restaurant announces “HOMESTYLE COOKING” on its sign and “Home Style Cooking” on its menus. The adjective is home-style. A headline, “Barry Goldwater Is Dead at 89; Conservatives’ Standardbearer,” omitted the hyphen in the noun standard-bearer. (See also Punctuation, 4D.) The combining of moderately sized 200 jobless 02-F–L_4 10/22/02 10:30 AM Page 200 [...]... principles— the presence of the allies, legal ties to West Germany and the government’s monopoly on the legal use of force The latter was a singularly West Berlin issue If there are three principles, the third is not the latter” but the third, or the last or the last of those or something similar Among the items kept there are the diary of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebels, an X-ray of Adolph Hitler’s... many, some, these, or those with kind and a plural noun and verb used to be generally acceptable Wyclif wrote: “ Alle kynd of fishis gedrynge” (gathering); Shakespeare: “These kind of knaves I know” and “To some kind of men ”; and Flatman: “Such kind of Pamphlets work wonders with the credulous Multitude.” The Oxford English Dictionary says of the amalgam of kind of and plural: “This is still common... latter, being the deepest shade, is considered the more reliable lay off and layoff Change “latter” to last and “more” to most 3 With number Use of the latter implies the existence of the former, in the same category If you speak of the latter choice, you are implicitly distinguishing it from the former choice Similarly, if you speak of the latter three (days, games, etc.), there must be the former three... pick the No 2 pencils? I prefer the No 1.) See also LEAD (verb) and LED LEAD (verb) and LED An otherwise tightly written novel contains this sentence: “Pierce Bascomb lead the way up a slight hill and then down another.” Bascomb “led the way.” The past tense of the common verb lead—pronounced LEED and meaning to direct, go first, or be the head of is led and only led, pronounced LED The same goes for the. .. say they were “let” go when they were ousted from their jobs is euphemistic See also LAY OFF and LAYOFF The main standard meanings of let go are to release from confinement (“Let my people go”), to release one’s hold (“He let go [or “let go of ] the rope”) and to abandon or relinquish (“Ah, take the cash and let the credit go”) LET, LET’S 1 LEAVE and LET 2 “LET’S DON’T.” 3 With pronouns 1 LEAVE and. .. 34 is 42 A statistical term in which the middle point is essential is median It is a figure midway in a set of figures arranged in order of size In the set of three just above, the median is 36 (When the number of items is even, the median is the mean of the two figures in the middle.) Technically, the mean and the median are both averages ME and I See Pronouns, 10 ME and MYSELF See Pronouns, 3, 4 MAYHEM... follow the acceptable form: “She likes that kind of plant.” / “This is my kind of meal.” / “It’s a rare kind of stone.” The same principle holds for class of, sort of, and type of “A gnu is a type of antelope.” 3 Properly used with A or AN Kind of in another sense may go with a Being a kind of or a sort of critic, poet, vagabond, or something else can be the same as being something of a critic etc It often... came from the Old English wifman, from wif, meaning female or woman, and man, meaning human being (the meaning of manu in Sanskrit) The other meaning of man, that of an adult male, developed later The sense of man as human being or humanity is reflected in the Biblical line So God created man in his own image male and female created he them and in a passage by the philosopher David Hume: There is... considered grammatically incorrect.” The Random House Dictionary, pointing out the objections to that form, offers the historical explanation that kind once was an unchanged plural noun like sheep and that the s-plural developed later The usage panel of The American Heritage Dictionary rejected “Those kind of buildings seem old-fashioned” (90 percent) and “that kind of buildings seem” (75 percent) for... call an average It is the sum of a set of figures divided by the number of figures in the set The definitions coincide only for a set MEDAL and MEDDLE See Homophones; Verbs, 2 MEDIA and MEDIUM 1 Mass MEDIA 2 Other MEDIUMS 1 Mass MEDIA Radio is a medium of mass communication Television is another such medium So is the newspaper So is the magazine They are media of mass communication and people in those media . about the singularity of kind of goes for class of, sort of, and type of. See TYPE. See also THEM and THOSE. 2. Improperly used with A or AN Another source of criticism is the in- trusion of a. last or the last of those or something similar. Among the items kept there are the diary of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebels, an X-ray of Adolph Hitler’s skull and the first edition of Pravda, the. hill and then down another.” Bascomb “led the way.” The past tense of the common verb lead—pronounced LEED and meaning to direct, go first, or be the head of is led and only led, pronounced LED. The same

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