tu dien anh mi thong dung

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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- 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 while is grammatically comparable to wait a but when used in this way, as an adverb of extent, custom allows the two words to be written together, as if they were a simple adverb, as in wait awhile But when the same form is used after a preposition, as in wait for awhile, it is generally considered a mark of il!iteracy There is no justification for this distinction, since true adverbs sometimes follow a preposition, as in away from here, but many people feel very strongly about it When it is used as a conjunction, while may mean “at the same time,” as in it ruined while Bill was ut the theater Or it may be used to introduce a contrast Used in this way while may have the force of although, as in while minute, Dave is good in mathematics, he is not good in English; or it may have the force of but, as in Mr Chapman likes classical music while Jim likes modern jazz These three uses of while are all literary English and have been for centuries Sometimes while is used where no contrast and no reference to time is intended, as in Charlie comes from Michigan, Sandy comes from New Jersey, while Bill comes from New York Here it has only the force of and This use of while is about a hundred years old and is usually condemned as “journalese.” whip The past tense is whipped or whipt The participle is also whipped or whipt whip hand As a way of saying that one has a decided advantage over another, so decided that resistance would be useless, to have the whip hand over (formerly of) him, or just to have the whip hand, is a clicht whipped cream Although the form skim milk is preferred to skimmed milk, the form whipped cream is preferred to whip cream This may be because of the sound Or it may be because thirty years ago a study of English usage chose whip cream to represent words of this kind and found that it was “illiterate.” This may have kept students of domestic science from using the word But nothing had been said about skim milk and so there they may have felt at liberty to as they pleased (This same study found that it was perfectly all right to speak of “driving” a car.) whipsaw, literally, is a saw used for cutting curved kerfs, consisting essentially of a narrow blade stretched in a frame Americans use the word figuratively in colloquial contexts to mean to win two bets from a person at one turn or play or, more loosely, to defeat or worst in two ways at once, or, even more loosely, simply to get the better of (They were just hoodwinked and whipsawed by Michigan’s slickers) Whipsaw may be used figuratively as a noun to describe a double defeat, and as an adjective to mean violently opposing (The Santa Vittoria reached Georges Bunks with its whipsaw currents and dangerous shoal waters) whtrl; whorl Though their meanings are related, these words are not interchangeable Whirl is both a verb and a noun; whorl is a noun only As an intransitive verb, whirl means to turn round, spin, or rotate rapidly (In the ballroom the dancers wheeled and whirled); to turn about or aside quickly; to move, travel, or be carried rapidly along on wheels or otherwise (The stagecoach whirled merrily along) A s a transitive verb, whirl means to send, drive, or carry in a circular or curving course (We whirled his hat across the room Whirling a light malacca cane, he strolled along the avenue) As a noun, whirl means the act of whirling, a rapid rotation or gyration, a whirling movement, a quick turn or swing (The eddy and whirl of the whispering flood waters He could see the whirl of the carousel in the distance) In the United States whirl is also used in the slang expression give it a whirl meaning “have a try” (I still think it won’t hurt to give ‘em a whirl and see) This figurative use would seem to be drawn from the roulette wheel To give a girl a whirl means to press attentions upon her, to hurry her from one pleasure to another, until she is, supposedly, giddy with delight Whorl is used only in special connections In botany it means a circular arrangement of like parts, as leaves, flowers, round a point on an axis; a verticil In zoology it describes one of the turns or volutions of a spiral shell In anatomy it describes one of the turns in the cochlea of the ear In general, it may describe anything shaped like a coil whiskers; moustache Whiskers is not so inclusive a term as it once was If used to describe the full beard now, the use is intended to be humorous and is confined to Santa Claus, hoboes, Russians, and other quaint folk It is now used only dialectally to describe the hair growing on the upper lip; the more acceptable alternative is moustache Yet the bristly hairs growing about the mouth of certain animals, such as cats and rats, are always whiskers The slang expression of admiration, It’s the cat’s whiskers!, may simply be an elaboration of “outstanding.” Sometimes whiskers describes the beard generally (Admiral Blake was very fond of combing his whiskers) but usually today the term describes the hair growing on the side of a man’s face, especially when worn long and with the chin clean-shaven When people had more occasion to speak about whiskers than they have today, the hair on a man’s face might be referred to generally as whiskers, or it might be called a pair of whiskers, or it might be treated as a singular, like the word beard, and called a whisker, as in a tall gentleman with a carefully brushed whisker white; whitened; whited That is white which has the color of white, whether it has always had it or has acquired it some way That is whitened which has become or been made white (His hair whitened over night when he used up the lust of his dye) Whited has become fixed in a specialized pejorative sense by its use in Matthew 23~27: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness white as a sheet is a natural comparison But to characterize pallor as as white as a sheet is to use a hackneyed expression white-collar is an American adjective which means belonging or pertaining to workers, professional men, and others who may wear conventional dress at work, especially clerical helpers and lesser executives (D H Lawrence had a strong distaste for white-collar workers, men who lived by head rather than by hand) The white-collar worker draws a salary rather than wages and is, for the most part, not organized into labor unions The equivalent English term is black coat white elephant, as a term for a costly but useless possession, usually one that requires considerable maintenance and cannot be gotten rid of, is now a clich6 The term, once apt and simply worn out by overuse, is drawn, as is well known, from the fact that formerly in Siam immense importance was attached to an albino elephant All that were born were the property of the King of Siam and none of them could be used for work or destroyed without his permission It is said that he would sometimes bestow one of these beasts upon some courtier whom he disliked, the luckless recipient of this royal maleficent munificence being required to keep the creature in idleness at ruinous expense who; whom The word who may be used as an interrogative pronoun or as a relative pronoun In either case it may be singular or plumI INTERROGATIVE There are three interrogative pronouns, which, what, and who The interrogative which asks about something belonging to a limited and known group That is, which you want? means “which, among those we are speaking about.” It may refer to persons or to things and may be used as a pronoun or as an adjective, as in which ones you want? (See which.) What and who refer to an unlimited group That is, what you want? and who you want? put no limits on what the answer may be Who is used only as a pronoun and only in reference to persons What may be used as a pronoun or as an adjective and may refer to animals and inanimate things The adjective what can be used in asking about a person’s function, status, reputation, as in who is Sylvia? what is she? Three hundred years ago it could be used in asking about the person himself, as in and what are you thar live with Lucifer?, but this is no longer customary Today only the word who is used in a question of this kind and what suggests something subhuman or monstrous RELATIVE Who is also used as a relative pronoun That is, it may be used in a subordinate clause that qualifies a noun or pronoun which appears earlier in the sentence and which is represented in the clause by the word who, as in Z know the man who told you that Here who told you that qualifies the word man, which in turn is represented in the clause by who The interrogative who may also be used in a dependent clause, as in I know who told you that, but it is unlike the relative in function and in meaning The interrogative who never represents a preceding word, and always implies a question That is, the sentence just given could be paraphrased as I know the answer to the question: who told you that? The relative does not imply a question and must refer back to another word As a relative pronoun who competes with that and which, and we not have the clearcut distinctions that exist between the interrogative pronouns which, what, and who That has been the standard relative pronoun for about eight hundred years and can be used in speaking of persons, animals, or things Four hundred years ago which became popular as a substitute for the relative that and was used for persons, animals, and things Three hundred years ago who also became popular as a relative It was used in speaking of persons and animals but not of things This left English with more relative pronouns than it has any use for Grammarians first tried to get rid of the relative that and failed More recently they have tried to limit that to one kind of relative clause but they have not succeeded in this either In the meantime, the users of English gradually restricted who until now it is used only in speaking of persons In this specialized area it has driven out the relative which, and this is now used only in speaking of animals or things Who may in time drive out that as a relative referring to persons, but it has not yet done so For the difference between that and which, see that; which That may still be used in speaking of a person, as in the child that has been subject to nagging is in perpetual terror It is required when the antecedent, that is, the word in the principal clause which the relative represents, is an interrogative pronoun, as in who that has seen her can deny and which of us that is over thirty would say We apparently object to doubling these wh- words and saying who who has or which of us who is On the other hand, the word who is required when the antecedent is the proper name of a familiar person, as in Nathaniel Hawthorne who was born in 1804 entered Bowdoin College in 1821 When the person is not familiar and is identified by the following clause, some grammarians claim that the relative that is required, as in the Nathaniel Hawthorne that was born in 1776 was his father But who is also used here and is preferred by many people In current English who is preferred to that when the antecedent is a personal pronoun, aa in he who, we who Formerly it was customary who to use that after a personal pronoun, as in he rhur we rhar This is still acceutable English but it now has a bookish tone In speaking about more than one person the form those who is now preferred to they (or them) who The choice between who and which depends on what seems to have personality and what does not We must use which and not who when we are speaking about a type, function, or role, and not about the actual person, as in if I were his wife, which I thank goodness I am not and he is exactly the man which such a school would turn out Which must also be used in speaking about a group of people considered as a unit, M in the family next door, which is large If we are thinking of the individual members of the group we use a plural verb and the pronoun who, as in the family next door, who stay up till all hours Very young children are often spoken of as if they did not have personality We might say they had one child, which died in infancy but we would certainly use who in they had one child, who went away to college When the relative refers to both a person and a thing, the rule is that we should use that In actual fact we consider only the word that stands closest to the pronoun We may say unything or anyone who wasn’t familiar to him and anyone or anything which had amused him Theoretically a relative pronoun has the same person and number as its antecedent and these determine the form of the verb when the relative is the subject of the subordinate clause But this rule is not strictly observed (For exceptions, see agreement: verbs and one.) INDEFINITE At one time who could be used as the equivalent of a personal pronoun and a relative pronoun combined, such as he who or they who, as in who was the Thune lives yet This is similar to the way in which we now use what, meaning “that which.” The construction is no longer natural English when who refers to one or more specific individuals, as in the quotation just given It may be used when who refers indefinitely to anyone or everyone, as in who steuls my purse steals trash, but even here the form is archaic and whoever is preferred See whoever WHOM If English followed the rules of Latin grammar we would use the form whom whenever the word was the object of a verb or preposition and the form who (or whose) in all other situations But this is not the way these words are used in English The interrogative pronoun who is treated as an invariable form, similar to whui and which The relative pronoun has the two forms who and whom, but whom is used where the Latin rules would call for who more often than it is where they would call for whom Sentences such as whom are you looking for? and whom you mean? are unnatural English and have been for at least five hundred years 556 Eighteenth century grammarians claimed that this form ought to be the one used, but Noah Webster vigorously opposed this theory He wrote: “Whom did you speak to? was never used in speaking, as I can find, and if so, is hardly English at all.” He goes on to say that this whom must be the invention of Latin students who had not given much thought to English, and concludes: “At any rate, whom did you speak to? is a corruption and all the grammars that can be found will not extend the use of the phrase beyond the walls of a college.” The literary tradition was with Webster and against the Latinists and this use of whom never became standard English Today the form who is preferred when the word stands before a verb, as in who did you see? The form whom is required when the word follows a preposition, as in to whom did you speak?, but this is an unnatural interrogative word order The form whom may be used, but is not required, when it follows the verb, as in you saw wkom? A few people habitually observe the eighteenth century rules of grammar, but this is likely to be a disadvantage to them To most of their countrymen, the unnatural whom’s sound priggish or pretentious In the case of the relative pronoun the situation is different and the form whom is required in certain constructions Two of these however are purely literary (1) The indefinite who is now archaic but if used, the Latin rules must be strictly observed, as in whom the gods love die young (2) The form whom is required after than, as in Beelzebub, than whom none higher sat and Dumas the Elder, than whom there never was u kinder heart Theoretically these sentences call for the subjective form who, but this irregular use of whom is so well established in our finest literature that all grammarians accept it as the standard idiom The form whom is also used as the subject of a verb when a parenthetical clause stands between the relative pronoun and the verb, such as they sny in the lines from Shakespeare, Arthur, whom they say is killed tonight, and I really think in the sentence by Keats, I have met with women whom I really think would like to be married to a poem This construction is used frequently in speech, as in we are jeeding children whom we know are hungry Many grammarians claim that it is a mistake and that who is required here But this technically incorrect form represents the principal use of whom in natural English today In sentences such as these either who or whom is acceptable to all except purists The form whom is required after a preposition, as in the man to whom I spoke This construction can be avoided, as in the man I spoke to, but it is used more often, and is more acceptable, in a relative clause than it is in a question When the relative is the object of a verb, that is generally preferred to whom, as 557 in a mnn that respect, or a contact clause containing no relative is used, as in a man I respect Neither that nor a contact clause can be used after a proper name Here whom is preferred to who when the word is the object of the verb; but who is also acceptable, as in Fanny, who I hope you will see soon whoever; whomever Whoever is an indefinite pronoun and may be used as a singular or a plural It can be thought of as a combined personal pronoun and relative pronoun, such as he who or they who, and is used in statements about everyone who fits the description that follows, as whoever comes, whoever likes me It is not an interrogative and should not be used where no description can be given, as in whoever you mean? and I can’t imagine whoever you are thinking of Sentences of this kind are not standard and nothing is saved by writing whoever as two words, as in who ever you mean? However, a question such as who ever heard of that? is entirely different Here ever is an adverb attached to heard, and is above reproach The form whoever is required whenever the word is the subject of a verb, as in whoever told you that is mistaken It is also acceptable as the object of a verb or preposition, as in ask whoever you see and ask whoever you speak to The form whomever is not required but may be used when the word is the object of the verb or of a preposition in the subordinate, descriptive clause It should not be used when the word is the subject of the subordinate verb For example, whoever is required and whomever would be a mistake in he iells whoever comes along and he was angry with whoever opposed him, because the form of the word is determined by the fact that it is the subject of the following verb, comes or opposed, and not by the fact that it is the object of a preceding verb, tells, or a preceding preposition, with Whomever is an extremely literary word and should not be used unless it is used in the literary manner Whoever (and whomever) came into general use a little more than three hundred years ago The King James Bible uses an older form whosoever, which is now archaic A still older form, whosomever, was archaic in 1600 and does not appear in Biblical English, but it is still heard in rural areas in the United States In current English the possessive form of whoever is whoever’s, as in whoever’s dog it is But an older form, whosever, is also used, especially when no noun follows, as in whosever it is Since whosoever is a purely literary word, it has only the old possessive form whosesoever whole See complete whorl See whirl whose is a possessive pronoun When used as tho possessive form of an interrogative pronoun, it refers only to persons, as in whose it is? When used as the possessive form of a relative pronoun, it may refer to things as well as to Wild persons or animals, as in a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayesf dig brass A country whose rainfall is abundant is better English than a country, the rainfall of which is abundant The form who’s is a contraction of who is and should not be used in place of the possessive pronoun whose why This word may be used at the beginnlng of a sentence to show surprise, as in Why! This & a pleasure! It may be used anywhere in a sentence so long as it means “the reason” or “for what reason,” as in I know why he didn’t stay The word reason is often followed by the word why, as in I know the reason why he didn’t stay This use of why is sometimes condemned as redundant or pleonastic, but the phrase the reason why is a standard English idiom, and has been for many centuries Anyone who wants to can always omit words that are not strictly necessary to his meaning, but if this is done consistently the result ia a stiff, unnatural English As a rule, it is better to be natural than to be correct according to theories that other people have never heard of (For the reason is because, see because.) The use of why in the middle of a sentence, as a loose connective with no reference at all to a reason, does not have the same standing Sentences such as when I got there, why she was waiting for me are heard only in careless or uneducated speech wide See broad -wide See soilixes wide awake; wide-awake; wideawake Wide awake means fully awake, alert, keenly conscious and aware In England wideawake and wide-awake may be used as adjectives meaning fully awake, with the eyes wide open (He gave him a wideawake stare); alert, keen, or knowing (only a wide-awake young man can fill the position) As nouns, wideawake and wide-awake were used formerly to describe a soft, low-crowned felt hat In the United States only wide-awake is now used as an adjective, though wideawake (especially in reference to the hat) once was wideness, width See breadth wide open spaces Used seriously in reference to the unsettled sections of the country, particularly the western desert and semi-desert, Ihe wide open spaces is a clichC Used facetiously, it is a bore wife The plural is wives The expression an old wives’ tale contains an old form of the genitive and is equivalent to an old wife’s tale This is not an instance of a plural noun used as the first element in a compound And wife’s here means “woman’s” not necessarily “married wornan’s.” wild horses could not drag it from me As a hyperbolic affirmation of secrecy, the assurance that wild horses couldn’t drag it from me is a clich& The reference is to a form of torture and punishment in which each arm and each leg of the victim was attached to a horse and the horses were driven in different directions until the victim was dismembered wfll; would Will is a present tense form Its past tense is would He will does not have the s ending that we ordinarily expect in a present tense verb This is because will is an ancient past tense form that had come to be felt as a present tense before English became a written language Would is a new past tense that was created for it Today would is sometimes used as the past tense of will, as in he said he would come, but it has also acquired a present tense meaning, as in would yore help me with this? Will has a negative form won’t which is less emphatic than the full form will not This verb has no infinitive, no imperative, no -ing form and no past participle Because the words will and would are grammatically past tense forms, just as the word went is, they cannot follow (that is, they cannot be dependent on) another verb We can no more say might will or used to would than we can say might went or used to went English also has a regular verb to will which has an infinitive, an imperative, an -ing form, and a past participle It has a regular past tense willed and final s in the third person singular of the present tense, as in what God wills This verb is used chiefly in the progressive (or continuing action) forms and is followed by a toinfinitive, as in he is willing to go (When used without a following verb,the infinitive to be can always be supplied, as in he willed it so.) The auxiliary verb will, with its past tense would, cannot be followed by a to-infinitive but requires the simple form of the verb, as in he will go When followed by have and a past participle it expresses completed action, as in he will have gone In present-day English the complementary verb must be actually stated or easily supplied from the context, as in he won’t go and why won’t he? But at one time verbs of motion could be omitted after verbs of willing and this construction is still heard occasionally, as in murder will out The auxiliary verb will originally meant to desire, wish, or choose It is still used in this way, as in will you come in? and who will have coflee? It is also used to express determination When used in this sense it is spoken with a heavy stress, as in he WILL not see us and he WILL meddle in things that don’t concern him But the principal use of the word will today is to indicate futurity That is, it is used without any meaning of its own, simply to indicate that what is being said refers to the future In a verbal phrase of this kind the principal stress falls on the meaningful verb and not on the auxiliary, as in he will not SEE us and he will MEDDLE in everything In the United States will is used as a future auxiliary in all persons and in all types of sentences (See hrtnre tense For the English use of shall and should as future auxili&ies, see shall; will.) Will may also be used to express what is customary or habitual, a timeless state of affairs, as in a nmn will tire of carrying a baby before a nurse maid will and boys will be boys The past tense form would is used in all the ways that the present tense form will is used One of the principal uses of would is to show desire or determination When used in this way it is a past subjunctive (See subjunctive mode.) In this sense it does not refer to the past, but refers indefinitely to the present or the future, as in would you help me? and he would come if he could When used in a conditional clause would always expresses volition or willingness, as in if he would tell me To express a simple condition without the idea of willingness we must use a simple past subjunctive, as in if he told me, or the auxiliary should, as in if he should tell me Would is often used as a past subjunctive form of the simple future auxiliary Here it always refers to the future For example, the verb hope is followed by an indicative form of the verb and we say I hope the snow will melt, but the verb wish requires a past subjunctive form and we therefore say I wish the snow would melt Would is used in place of the future will to indicate uncertainty or unreality It usually has this meaning in the conclusion of a conditional statement, as in what would you think if Z told you Sometimes this would is used apparently in place of a present tense verb, as in Z would think and it would seem Expressions of this kind represent the moat extreme caution The thinking or seeming is first placed in the future and then made conditional or uncertain It is a very modest way of speaking Occasionally would is used in a future tense phrase that has been shifted to the past, as when Z know he will come is changed to Z knew he would come Here would is a past indicative of the future auxiliary will Would is also used to express customary or repeated action It may be used in speaking of the past but in that case the time when the repeated events occurred must be specified, as in every morning he would get up at six If no time is specified would indicates that the action is customary or characteristic of the person spoken about and does not refer to the past, as in what else would he do?, what would you expect him to do?, and that is what most men would Would is used with have in a conclusion following a contrary-to-fact condition, as in Z would have gone if Z had known about it It cannot be used with hove in a conditional clause Zf Z would have known is not standard Would may be used in place of had in the expression had ruther (See rather.) It should not be used in place of had in the expression had better (See better.) Will and would may be contract& to ‘11 and ‘d, as in he’ll be here soon and he’d have come sooner if he couM These contractions are stand- 559 ard spoken English and there is no reason why they should not be used in print win The past tense is won The participle is also won win hands down As a term for winning easily, lo win hands down is hackneyed It is drawn, Partridge says, from a jockey’s letting up on the reins and allowing his hands to fall when victory is certain Wind The past tense is wound The participle is also wound This verb means twine or twist Another verb, meaning blow a horn, has become confused with it At one time the noun wind, meaning a moving current of air, was pronounced with the i as in wine, and there was a regular verb, wind, winded, meaning more or less “make a wind.” One would say he winded his horn But when wind came to be pronounced with the i as in win, the old verb seemed to have no connection with it and people began to say he wound his horn Since horns of this kind not play much part in our lives today, these words are now found chiefly in poetry and it is impossible to say which is the preferred form Since then, a new regular verb wind, winded, with the i as in win, has been formed from the noun wind with its modern pronunciation This may either mean “exhaust the wind of,” as in the climb winded him, or “get the wind of,” as in the hounds winded the fox windshield; windscreen American windshield equals English windscreen wire During the nineteenth century wire used as a verb meaning to telegraph was considered an Americanism and people who used it were said to be “striving to debase the language.” It is now thoroughly respectable (It’s wise to wire) It may be followed by a clause, as in she wired she was coming, or by an infinitive, as in she wired us to come The infinitive construction is also frequently used with the preposition for, as in she wired for us to come This construction is condemned by some grammarians but is in respectable use in the United States wish This verb may be followed by an infinitive, as in I wish to see it It may also be followed by a clause, but the clause verb must have a past tense form, as in I wish he was here When wish expresses a desire that involves only the speaker it can no longer be followed by a direct noun object without the preposition for, as in eagerly I wished the murrow This construction is now obsolete But the form is still acceptable when the wish is for something or someone other than the speaker, as in I wish the plan success and I wish them happiness See also want wishful thinking, although introduced only a generation ago, is already a cliche It lent itself too facilely to a superficial explanation of other people’s opinions wist See wot wit See humor with Originally this word meant “against.” This meaning survives in a few compound verbs witness such as withstand, withhold But the usual meaning of the word today is “accompanying” as in fo go with By extension, it is used to indicate means or attendant circumstances, as in cut it with the scissors and handle it with care When with, meaning “accompanying,” joins something to the singular subject of a verb, the rule is that the verb remains singular, as in the sheriff with his men was at the door In practice, a plural verb is also acceptable here See agreement: verbs With may be joined to a verb to indicate that the action is mutual, as in talk with, agree with But occasionally it retains something of its old meaning of “against,” as in fight with, make way with, dispense with with a vengeance, which meant originally with a curse or malediction thrown in for good measure, has been used as an intensive (even, formerly, of good things) for more than four hundred years It is now worn out with bated breath, that is, with breathing reduced or subdued under the influence of awe or fright, is a cliche Bated, now archaic, except in this phrase, is the participle of the verb to bate, to lower, reduce (Yet Z argue nor/ Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bare a jot/ Of heart or hope), an aphetic form of abate with might and main, usually with cdl one’s might and main, is hackneyed Might is the quality of being able and main is sheer brute force or violence withdraw See retreat without may be used as an adverb with no object, as in we must go without Or it may be used as a preposition with a simple noun or pronoun object, as in without supper, without him The -ing form of a verb is treated as a noun and may be used after without, as in they never met without quarreling But in current English without cannot be used as a conjunction to introduce a full dause Formerly this use of the word was acceptable, as in he may stay him; marry, not without the prince be willing The construction is still heard, as in they never met without they quarreled, but is no longer considered standard without let or hindrance, to mean unhampered, unimpeded, is a cliche It is pompous and is often used as a jocular expression intended to ridicule pomposity but pompous in its jocularity Let originally meant hindrance, impediment, obstruction In 1649 it was possible to speak of one whose talents recompensed his natural let in speech, but the word is now archaic except in the phrase let or hindrance Until quite recently, however, it survived in other combinations, such as let and disturbance of the peace, doing as one pleases without let or inquiry, without let or stay without rhyme or reason, unless used literally, as it might be in reference to some modern poetry, is a cliche withstand The past tense is withstood The participle is also withstood witness as a verb means to bear witness to, to testify to, to give or afford evidence of (The witness fossfls, in fheir own way, also witness to the glory of the Lord The prisoner brought several persons of good credit to witness to her reputation) As a synonym for see (I witnessed un amusing incident yesterday) it is now accept- able in American usage, but it is stilted and see ls to be preferred where it is applicable Witness is to be preferred where one’s presence is formal or where one’s seeing is likely to be the basis of subsequent testimony One sees a new model automobile; one witnesses an accident witness stand; witness box The place occupied by one giving testimony in court is called the witness stand in the United States, the witness box in England These are usually shortened to stand and box respectively The witness takes the stand and enters the box wives See wife woke; woken See wake wolf The plural is wolves wolf in sheep’s clothing As a term for one whose inner evil nature or intention is concealed under an innocent-seeming exterior, a wolf in sheep’s clothing is a clich6 wolves This is the plural of wolf woman The plural is women Compounds that have woman as a qualifying element have the form women in the plural, as in women friends, women writers This is contrary to the usual practice in English, according to which the first element of a compound remains singular even when the whole is made plural, as in lady friends, lady writers When the first element of a compound is the object of the second element, and not a qualifier, only the singular form woman can be used, as in woman haters woman; female; lady; gentlewoman Woman is the general term for the adult female of the human species (Woman’s place is in the home Her voice was ever soft,/ Gentle and low-an excellent thing in woman) It is a word of dignity (though the plural women, for some reason, does not have quite the same dignity) and is always to be preferred when in doubt One of the finest touches in Shakespeare’s delineation of Mistress Quickly’s garrulous vulgarity is her indignation when, in the course of an argument, Falstaff calls her a woman Go to, you are a woman, go! Who, I? No; I defy thee! God’s light, I was never call’d s o i n m i n e o w n h o u s e before!) Female refers especially to sex A woman is (FALSTAFF: HOSTESS: a female human being, and she is a female as a man is a male, but since the word is applicable to all females in all species in which there is a sexual differentiation, from philosophers to cockroaches (The female of the species is more deadly than the male), its application to a woman usually has a contemptuous implication (She’s a scheming female, my boy) Female used to be used as an elegant euphemism for woman or yolmg woman or woman’s or women’s (A charming female, egadl Bolton’s 560 Female Academy for Accomplished Young Ladies Recommended for All Female Complaints), but this usage is obsolescent and no longer even funny when used in mockery of its pretentiousness In England lady has a social connotation Fowler calls it an “undress substitute” for marchioness, countess, viscountess, and baroness It is also a courtesy title for the wife of a knight or baronet or the younger daughters of an earl Such uses are unknown in America where lady carries implications of gentility (She behaved like a lady) but, in the proper democratic way, is used for almost any woman of whom one wishes to speak with some formality (Is the lady of the house in?) Well-meaning souls have carried it further until, in its excesses, it is almost a joke word (“Who was that lady I seen you with?” “That wasn’t no lady; that was my wife.” The scrub lady called Tables for ladies and gents) It is sometimes used as a formal term in direct address (Lady, you dropped your glove I gave you the right change, lady! What are you arguin’ about?) but the proper form (and the more effective term if one wants to be disagreeable) is madam A gentlewoman is a woman of good family or breeding (It has gotten so that you can’t keep half a dozen young gentlewomen at their needlework but you are accused of running a bawdy house!), but the word is now archaic and is used chiefly in hackneyed (a decayed gentlewoman) or facetious phrases In America, except as a literary affectation, it is not used at all See also female womanly See female women See woman won See win wondrous is a bookish word, whether used as an adjective or an adverb As an adjective it means wonderful, marvelous (Some of serpent kind/ Wondrous in length and corpulence When I survey the wondrous cross/ On which the Prince of glory died,/ My richest gain I count but loss,/ And pour contempt on all my pride), though this use is archaic, surviving chiefly in humorous passages (A saloon near a newspaper ofice is always a lovely institution, filling the nights with wondrous sights and sounds) As an adverb it is archaic for wondrously, which is also a bookish term As such, it means in a wonderful or surprising degree, remarkably (There was a man in our town/ And he was wondrous wise./ He jumped into a bramble bush/ And scratched out both his eyes) wont This is a present tense form The verb does not have an infinitive or an imperative The past tense is wonted The participle is wonted or wont There was once a verb won, meaning “stay” or “be used to.” It gradually disappeared from the language leaving only its two participles, wonted and wont, which came to be used as adjectives meaning “usual.” This old construction survives today in such expressions as his 561 wonted energy and he is wont io act with energy, where wonted is used only before a noun and wont only after a form of the verb to be and before an infinitive Out of this limited use of two words, some new verb forms have developed There is a present tense, singular and plural, as in he wonis to act wifh energy and they wont to act with energy, and a past tense form, in those days he wonted to act with energy The verb has no other forms, and these forms are very rare Although they are standard, they are decidedly artificial This verb should not be confused with want, or with won’t, which means “will not.” wood; forest; woods A forest is an extensive wooded area, preserving some of its primitive wildness and usually having game or wild animals in it (This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks, The National Forests are among our most valuable possessions) In England forest is applied to an unenclosed tract, regardless of whether it has trees, used as a game preserve The famous New Forest was not wholly wooded and there are deer forests in the Scottish Highland where there are few or no trees Wood or woods describes a wooded tract smaller than a forest and resembling one, but less wild in character and nearer to civilization Woods, when it means a grove of trees, usually takes a plural verb, as in the woods are full of them and there are woods near the house But it is sometimes treated as a singular, as in there is a woods near the house This is acceptable in the United States but not in Great Britain, where the singular form a wood is required, as in there is a wood near the house In the United States the singular form, a wood, is a purely literary word It suggests a romantic and poetic place utterly unlike any stand of trees in this country The feeling that woods is singular is so strong in the United States that it has produced the adjective woodsy, as in woodsy and wild and lonesome In Great Britain the adjective is always woody, as in a woody glen wood for the trees As a figurative description of someone who is so taken up with details that he cannot see or loses sight of the whole, to say that he can’t see the wood for the trees is to employ a clicht It ha-s been in use as a proverb for over four hundred years and it is more than two hundred years since Swift listed it as a clichC wooded; wooden; woodsy; woody Wooded means covered with or abounding in woods or trees (Heavily wooded banks were an important feature of flood control) Wooden means consisting of or made of wood (The wooden steps of the back porch had been painted battleship gray) Used figuratively, wooden means stiff, ungainly, or awkward (A wooden Indian is wooden in every sense of the word The recruit pave the captain a wooden salute) It may also word mean without spirit or animation (The only re- sponse to his encouragement was a wooden stare), or dull and stupid (These wooden-headed louts don’t seem able IO understand the simplest siatemenis!) There are several American idiomatic expressions containing wooden, such as the dreary, rustic jocularity, don’t lake any wooden nickels Woodsy is an American word meaning of, like, suggestive of, or associated with the woods, sylvan (Ship Island region was as woodsy and tenantless as ever-Mark Twain) Woody has the special meanings of resembling wood (The center of the stalk was a thick, woody substance), or sounding as wood sounds when it is struck (The piano had a dull, woody tone) It shares with wooded the meaning of abounding in woods (Between the hills and the river there was an extensive woody area) but, unlike wooded, it is not qualified by an adverb (a heavily wooded area, a woody area) woof; warp; web; weft All of these words refer to weaving The warp is a set of yarns placed lengthwise in the loom The yarns which travel from selvage to selvage in a loom, interlacing with the warp, are called collectively the woof or weft Sometimes woof is used more loosely in the sense of texture (There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:/ We know her woof, her texture; she is given/ In the dull catalogue of common things-Keats) Something formed as by weaving or interweaving of warp and woof is a web (Penelope’s web was a means of delaying the acceptance of a proposal) woolen; woollen; woolly Woolen (or especially in England, woollen) means made or consisting of wool (The Western Isles of Scotland are famous for their woollen goods) Woolly may also mean consisting of wool or having the property or feeling or appearance of wool, but even in this sense the wool is understood to be attached to its producer or what would seem to be its producer, unlike woolen which refers to a detached material (My father gave me a woolly Shrop- shire lamb on my seventh birthday In the most lucid brains we come upon nests of woolly caterpillars) Keats’s and silent was the flock in woolly fold is an exceptional use Figuratively, woolly suggests blurred, imprecise (This woolly, maggotty metaphysics The third drink made his speech woolly) In the United States the Old West was called, colloquially, wild and woolly because of its rough atmosphere In England woolly is used colloquially as a noun to describe a sweater or other light outergarment of wool; in America it is used, or was when the object existed in the plural, to describe an undergarment of wool (Ten below! Boy, you’d better puf on your woollies) word of mouth By word of mouth is a wordy way of saying “orally” or “verbally” or “he told me so.” It is redundant and stilted, and to be avoided word’s as good as his bond To say, as an assurance that someone can be relied on, that he will 562 WOdS keep his promises and fulfill his obligations, that his word is as good us his bond is to employ a wornout expression Bond here means a written or signed agreement words cannot describe and words fail are hackneyed as hyperbolic phrases of introduction If taken literally, the rest should be silence If not to be taken literally, they should be omitted and the speaker or writer get on as best he can with what words he can command wore See wear work The past tense is worked or wrought The participle is also worked or wroughf When this verb does not have an object, only the form worked may be used for the past tense or the participle, as in he worked all day Wrought may be used when the verb has an object, as in he wrought happiness for many and see what God bath wrought, but even here it has a decidedlv bookish tone Wrought is preferred as an adjective in some expressions,- such as wrought iron, but worked may also be used here Work is sometimes used to mean “become,” and in that cake may be followed by an adjective describing what becomes, as in the hinge worked loose When not used in this sense it may be followed by an adverb describing the working, as in the hinge worked loosely Sea use work (for book) See volume worked to death has been worked to death Let it rest in peace workingman; working-man; working man; workman; workmen Working man is a general and vague term It simply describes any man who works English working-man, American workfngman describe a man of the working class; more specifically, a man, skilled or unskilled, who earns his living at some manual or industrial work (When Jurgis had first come to the where we use the word plant instead Plant is clearly singular and takes a singular verb world See earth world, the flesh, and the Devil The world is the sum of worldly things, as opposed to spiritual matters The flesh is human weakness with its susceptibility to the allure of worldly things And the Devil is the tempter, always playing upon that susceptibility The phrase is from The Book of Common Prayer Used in any context but its original one, it is now a cliche, even when used humorously world of good, world of troth, world of trouble, etc World of is used for “a great deal of” in a number of phrases Most of them are now hackneyed world is mine oyster When Ancient Pistol (in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, scene 2, lines 3-4) said that the world’s mine oyster,/ Which I with sword will open, he coined a metaphor so ludicrous and at the same time so apt that it caught the popular fancy and became a saying and in time a cliche It’s not quite so apt anymore Artificial pearls are now superior to all but the very finest natural pearls and, as Henry observed, a sword is a far more suitable instrument than a typewriter for opening oysters worldly See earthen worn See wear worn-out See outworn worse, worst See bad worship See reverence worth; worthy These words and qualify nouns Worth are both adjectives always follows the word it qualifies and is itself followed by an object The object may be a noun, as in the book is worth ten dollars, or it may be the -ing form of a verb used with a passive meaning, as in lute in the century) Used in the plural, it differs from workingmen in plainly implying some skill the book is worth reading The adjective worthy may stand before a noun, as in a worthy cause It may be followed by an infinitive, as in he is worthy to take his place The compound worthy of may be followed by a noun, as in worthy of his position, or by the -ing form of a verb, as in worthy of taking his place worth one’s weight in gold As a way of saying for working very hard, used commonly in pitying or self-pitying reproaches, to work one’s fingers to the bone is a cliche Applied originally, in the nineteenth century, to seamstresses, it had a hyperbolic meaning that is now pretty well dissipated works In Great Britain factories and industrial shops are sometimes called works, as in the steelworks south of the town, and opinion is divided as to whether the word takes a singular or a plural verb when used in this sense The problem does not arise in the United States that something or someone is extremely valuable, usually spoken of someone who is not only efficient and industrious but exceedingly goodnatured and willing as well, it or he is worth its or his weight in gold is a cliche When spoken of persons, it loses some of its metaphorical value from the fact that quite a few persons (specifically anyone who owns more than $lOO,000 and weighs less than two hundred pounds) are actually “worth,” in the meaning of possessing that much wealth, their own weight in gold wot The past tense is wist The participle is also wist There was once a verb wit meaning know The infinitive survives in zo wit and the -ing form in witting and wiffingly It had a past tense wot Since there is very little difference between once knowing and still knowing, wot came to be felt as a present tense Later a new past tense stockyards he had been as clean as any workfngman could well be) Workman means spe- cifically a man employed or skilled in some form of manual, mechanical or industrial work (A workman’s compensation law was passed (I got me cunning workmen The workmen always had their tools packed and were ready to quit on the stroke of four We have had workmen in the house, papering, painting, plastering, tiling, sanding!) work one’s fingers to the bone As an expression 563 was made for it, wist Exactly the same thing has happened with some other verbs, such as can and ought Like these other verbs, war did not have an s in the third person singular, as is seen in the expression God wot Except in this expression, woi is no longer natural English When it is revived for its archaic effect, a false s often appears, as in he wots not of the danger would wound wove; wrack; See will See wind woven See weave rack Both wrack and rack are correct in the sense of ruin or destruction, especially in the phrase to go to wrack/rack and ruin Except for that phrase, however, wrack, a cognate of wreck, is more general than rack, a variant of wrack Rack, however, may be used in senses exclusively its own It describes, for instance, a framework of bars, wires, or pegs, on which articles are arranged or deposited (There was a clothes rack just inside the door) or a spreading framework set on a wagon (As a boy he rode the hayrack to and from the fields) One of its best known meanings is an instrument formerly used for torturing persons by stretching the body The terror of this particular instrument of torture caught the public imagination and the word, in consequence, appears in many figurative uses (I am on the rack until I hear from him) It is the figurative extension of this word as a verb that is used for a strain in mental effort (I’ve racked my brains for a solution but haven’t thought of a thing!) wrangle; wrangler In England and America wrangle is to argue or dispute, especially in a noisy or angry manner (The radio breakfast program has as its chief characters u married couple who wrangle) However, in the idiom of the western United States, wrangfe also means to herd, to tend horses Wrangler has the general meaning of one who wrangles or disputes and the special western United States meaning of one who wrangles horses Little Joe, the wrangler, hero of a pathetic Western ballad, was neither disputatious nor scholarly; he just took care of the horses At Cambridge University, in England, up until 1909, wrangler was the name given to one of those in the first class of honors in mathematics The man first on the list was called senior wrangler, and the other first classmen were numbered in decreasing order of merit, as second wrangler, third wrangler wrap The past tense is wrapped or wrapt The participle is also wrapped or wrapt In the United States wrapped is generally preferred to wrapt Both forms are used in Great Britain wrapt; rapt Wrapt is a little-used variant spelling of wmpped, the past and past participle of wrap, to wind, fold, or bind about (He carried an extra pair of shoes wrnpt in a newspaper The mother then brought a mantle down and wrapt her in it) Rapt (etymologically akin to rupture) derives from a verb meaning to snatch or hurry away, to transport, ravish It is now confined to ecstatic states of delight or contemplation in wrest which we have been carried outside of ourselves (Looks commercing with the skies/ Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes), or, more loosely, engrossed or absorbed (He found her in rapt contemplation of the necklace) wrath; wrathful; wrathy; wrath W r a t h is the noun meaning strong stern, or fierce anger, deeply resentful indignation, ire (The wrath of God descended upon them); or vengeance or punishment, as the consequence of anger Wrath is also used, though undesirably, as an archaic adjective meaning the same as wroth Wrathful is the attributive adjective meaning full of wrath, very angry, ireful (Such wrathful words destroyed all hope of reconciliation), or characterized by or showing wrath (Heshot him u wruthfulglnnce) Wrathful, by itsverystrength, its emphasis on an excess and impetuosity of anger, is a word to be used carefully It should not be used where angry will Wrathy, originally early nineteenth century and chiefly American, is an informal expression meaning wrathful or angry It is (fortunately) falling into disuse Wroth is a predicate adjective meaning angry, wrathful (Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell) It is largely a literary word today wreck is often used colloquially in America to describe a person who is seriously disorganized in one way or another (The ordeal made a physical and nervous wreck out of him) Wrecker and wrecking also have special meanings in American usage In America a wrecker or a wrecking crew tears down a building; in England it is a housebreaking gang In America a wrecking crew removes wreckage from railroad tracks, in England it is a breakdown gang wrest; wrestle; wresting; wrestling Wrestle and wrestling are related to, and derive from, wresf and wresting, yet their meanings must be distinguished Wrest means to twist or turn, pull, jerk or force by a violent twist (He wrested the gun from him with u sudden motion), or to take away by force (England wrested much of eastern Canada from the French in the fighting that culminated with Montcalm’s defeat at Quebec), or to get by effort (He wrested a bare living from a barren soil) Wresting is the present participial form of wrest, meaning to extract or extort by twisting, pulling, turning Wrestle, as an intransitive verb, means to engage in wrestling, or to contend, as in a struggle for mastery; to grapple As a transitive verb, it means to contend with in wrestling, to force by or as if by wrestling (He wrestled the packing case to the corner of the storage room) In the western United States wrestle also means to throw an animal for the purpose of branding Though one wrestles with physical objects, the word is used figuratively where a struggle a~ fierce as a physical struggle takes place (He wrestled with religious doubts all through the years at the seminary) Wrestling is the act of one who wrestles It commonly describes an exercise or sport, subject to special rules, in 564 wring which two persons struggle hand to hand, each striving to throw or force the other to the ground wring The past tense is wrung The participle is also wrung write The past tense is wrote The participle is written A past tense and participle writ were once literary English, as in we are persuaded that he writ the truth and one whose name was writ in water This form is now archaic or dialectal Write may be followed by a clause, as in she wrote she was coming, or by an infinitive, as in she wrote me to come The form she wrote for me io come is condemned by some grammarians but is in general use in the United States Write is frequently used without a true object, that is, without naming what is written, as in write me soon This construction is standard usage in the United States but is considered illiterate by some British grammarians who claim that the preposition to must be used if the verb does not have a true object, as in write to me soon writer See man of letters writer; the present writer; the author; I Though these expressions are not downright incorrect, they are often superfluous That is, an opinion which is obviously the author’s opinion need not be introduced by the preseni writer believes that or if seems to the writer or the author mainfuins Though such expressions may seem less egocentric, more modest, than I, actually I, if any identifying word is needed, is the word to use It is straightforward and brief and avoids the implication of over-solemnity that sometimes lies in the use of the third person when alluding to oneself written See write wrong; wrongly Only the form wrong can be used to qualify a noun, as in the wrong answer Only the form wrongly can be used immediately before a verb, as in the words were wrongly spelled Either form may be used following a verb, as in the words were spelled wrong and the words were spelled wrongly The form wrong is preferred to wrongly in this position wrong side of the tracks In many American towns the railroad tracks did at one time make a clear social demarcation and whoever first observed this and used it as a symbol of social position coined a good phrase It was meaningful, pungent, penetrating, and evocative But like many good phrases it has been overworked and is now as tedious as the endless sniggering of the Restoration wits at those who had the misfortune to live in the city of London instead of in the West End Furthermore with the proliferation of our cities and the decline of at least the social importance of the railroads the phrase has lost much of its meaning It is now a hackneyed anachronism wrong tack On the wrong tuck, as a term for pursuing a wrong course of inquiry or conduct, is a jaded expression In its original nautical use, the tuck of a ship is her direction in relation to the position of her sails When used of a progression on land, a tuck is one of the movements of a zigzag course In no sense is it merely a synonym for direction wrote See write wrought There is an amusing passage in one of Robert Benchley’s essays in which he tells of his frenzied search for the present form of the verb of which wrought is the past participle He thinks of wrught, wrouft, wraft and a few other strange combinations of letters and gives it up And certainly anyone who tried to guess it from the analogy of other participles of the same sound would come to some queer conclusions On the analogy of caught, it ought to be wrutch; on that of taught, wreath; on bought, it should be wruy; on thought, wrink; on fought, wright: o n fruught, wreight Actually, - a s Mr Benchley no doubt knew it is the narticiule of the verb work See work wrung See wring X X There are very few words in English which begin with the letter X In the great Oxford English Dictionury the entire section under X takes up less space than the single word gel The words that begin with X are almost all scientific terms, consciously borrowed from Greek or made up to meet a special need Two-thirds of them were coined in the nineteenth century Because words beginning with X have been in the language such a short time and are used in such a restricted field, they are completely regular so far as usage goes and present no problems for the grammarian Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas Here X represents the syllable Christ This is not a modern, commercial invention X has been used in this way in English, as in Xtiunity for Christianity, since at least the year 1100, and the form Xmns is found in print as early as 155 X-ray In the United States this word is customarily written with a hyphen, probably because it became popular at a time when hyphens were popular Similar scientific terms are usually written without the hyphen, as in X chromosome 565 Yet Y yclept; y-cleped These are both participles and are the only surviving forms of an old verb clepe meaning call One form is as good as the other and neither of them is good The verb, already archaic, should be allowed to pass into oblivion and is included here only to complete the list of irregular verb forms found in English today ye The word ye is a special form of the pronoun you that is no longer used in natural English (For more about the history of this word, see YOU; ye.1 Many Americans believe that the word the was pronounced ye a few hundred years ago This is based on a misunderstanding Today, the letters th may represent either of two distinct sounds, both of which can be heard in the words this thing At one time the first th sound, which is also heard in the, that, they, and so on, was represented in print by the letter y Governor Bradford of Plymouth sometimes used this form in his writing and sometimes rh For example, in speaking of a renegade Mr Blackwell, he wrote: He declined from ye trueth wth Mr Johnson & ye rest, and went with him when yey parted asunder in yt wofull maner Bradford was not usually so consistent, and he also wrote: full litle did I thinke yt the downfall of ye Bishops and they had done them no wrong, neither did yey fear them But regardless of which symbol he used to represent the sound, he pronounced these words as we Current English, therefore, has a new adjective ye, which is pronounced like the old pronoun ye It is used instead of the in the names of certain shops and restaurants, such as ye olde gifte shoppe, and should probably be called the “decorative the” or the “interesting the.” year in and year out, as a term for continually, or for a very long time, is hackneyed yearn This word may be followed by an infinitive, as in I yearn to hear from you, but not by the -ing form of a verb or by a clause yellow dog In the United States yellow dog is used figuratively to describe a contemptible, worthless or cowardly fellow Yellow-dog contract refers to a contract of employment which provides that the employee promises not to join a labor union under pain of dismissal if he does yellow journalism; yellow press The use of sensational reporting and conspicuous displays as a means of attracting readers to a newspaper or journal is called in the United States yellow journalism (The story she was playing up was a natural for yellow journalism: a messy divorce case involving some of Arizona’s best people) The term is said to have originated in the New York World (1895) with a cartoon in which the central figure, a child, was in a yellow dress The chief purpose of this color printing-then a novelty-was to attract attention The expression was borrowed by the English but slightly adapted to the yellow press yeoman’s service To say of one who or something that has performed a task or fulfilled a function efficiently and usefully that he or it has done yeoman’s service is to employ a cliche yes man is an an American slang expression to describe one who registers unequivocal agreement with his superior, without consideration; a man who never takes an independent stand (A military staff conference is an excellent situation fur the encouragement of yes men In Wakeman’s The Hucksters the hero is defeated when he realizes that he too has become ayesman) yet; already These words are both adverbs of time Yet may also be used as a conjunction German-speaking people sometimes have difficulty distinguishing yef and already Sometimes in desperation they use both words at once, as in he’s a sergeant already yet But the words are not interchangeable and one cannot be used where the other is needed Already shows that an action had occurred or was occurring at a particular time It is used freely with verbs in the perfect or progressive tenses, but in literary English it is not used with a verb in the simple past, present, or future tense unless the verb itself names a continuing action That is, one may say he already knew about it but not he already looked at it A perfect or progressive tense is required, as in he has (or had) already looked at it or he was already looking at it In the United States this rule is frequently disregarded in speaking of something in the past Many educated people would say I already saw that movie, and sentences of this kind are therefore acceptable spoken English in this country But the rule is not disregarded in speaking of something in the future One can say tomorrow he will have seen it already but a sentence such as tomorrow he will see it already is not standard Already should stand as close to the verb as possible We not ordinarily say he will have seen it tomorrow already In a negative statement already must stand before the meaningful element in the verb phrase, as in he hasn’t already seen it It may follow a negative verb in a question, as in hasn’t he seen it already?, or in an if clause, as in if he hasn’t seen it Yiddish already, but not in a statement He hasn’t seen it already is not literary English The word yet is required here Yet, used as an adverb of time, indicates an indefinite period preceding a particular moment It encroaches on the meanings of still and already Like these words, it cannot be used with a simple past, present, or future tense verb unless this is understood in a continuing or progressive sense When used with a progressive tense verb in an affirmative sentence, yet is equivalent to still, as in he is thinking about it yet In this sense yer is a bookish word and still is generally preferred When used with a pro gressive tense verb in a negative sentence, yet is the counterpart of already Unlike already, it may follow the verb in a negative statement, as in he isn’t thinking about it yet, as well as in a question or an if clause When used with a perfect tense verb, yet is always the counterpart of already It can be used in a negative or an affirmative question or if clause, and in a negative statement, such as he hasn’t seen it yet, but in an affirmative statement, such as he has seen it yet, it is meaningless Yet may be used to qualify the comparative form of an adjective or adverb, as in louder yet Here it has the same meaning as still It may also be used as a connective or loose conjunction to introduce a contrast or contradiction When used as a connective it stands immediately before the contrasting word or phrase, as in he is old yet energetic Thissmay be a full sentence, as in yet I believe what he says Yiddish; Hebrew Yiddish is a language used by many Jews, but it is not linguistically related to the Hebrew language Yiddish is actually a group of closely similar High German dialects, with vocabulary admixture from Hebrew and Slavic, written in Hebrew letters, spoken mainly by Jews in countries east of Germany and by Jewish emigrants from these regions, and now the official language of Biro-Bidjan, an autonomous Jewish region in the southeast part of the Soviet Union in Asia Hebrew is the name of a Semitic language, the language of the ancient Hebrews, which although not a vernacular after 100 B.C was retained as the scholarly and liturgical language of the Jews and now is used as the language of Israelis See also Hebrew; Israelite yoke When this word means a pair of draft animals, it has the same form in the singular and the plural, as in a yoke of oxen, five hundred yoke of oxen Yoke cannot be treated as a numeral It cannot be placed immediately before a following noun but must be joined to it by of yonder may be used as an adjective, as in on yonder hill there lives a maiden, or as an adverb, as in but, as I live, yonder comes Moses The word is archaic in either construction Yorick See Alas, poor Yorick! you; ye At one time, normal everyday English had four related words, thou, thee, ye, and you, which corresponded to the four related words I, me, we, and us Today, of the first group, 566 only the one form you is in general use In the thirteenth century the plurals ye and you were used in speaking to a single person, as a mark of respect This is still the practice in many European languages But in England this courtesy was gradually extended to everybody, even one’s own children, and the singular forms thee and thou disappeared entirely (See thee; thou.) We are paying for this excessive politeness today by not having any way to distinguish between a singular and a plural you For a time a plural verb was used in speaking to several people, as in you were there, and a singular verb, in speaking to only one person, as in you was there But this distinction is no longer standard and yore is now always used with a plural verb In Ireland the old ye is sometimes used to indicate a plural, but this is not standard English In the Southern United States you all is an accepted and respectable plural of you But in literary English the mural cannot be shown except -by adding some other word, as in you ladies, you people Of the two plural forms, ye was the subjective pronoun comparable to I and you the objective pronoun comparable to me The difference in use is seen in ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free But by the year 1600, you was generally used for the subject as well as the object of a verb and ye disappeared from natural English If grammar books had not become so popular a hundred years or so later, the same thing might have happened to the other subjective pronouns, I, we, he, and so on, and questions about case, such as when to use I and when to use me, would no longer exist The pronoun you may also be used indefinitely in the sense of “one” or “anyone,” as in at that time you had to have property to vote This is good, literary English But the construction must be handled with care If it is at all possible to apply the word you to oneself, somebody is going to it, and general statements such as when you think how insignificant you are or when you have had too much whiskey are likely to be taken in the wrong way When used as a term of abuse you may appear after the principal word as well as before it, as in you fool you, you traitor you you took the (very) words (right) out of my mouth, as a way of saying that someone has anticipated you in expressing a thought or has said what you were about to say, is a cliche young; youthful Young is the general word for that which is undeveloped, immature, and in the process of growth (The young trees must be protected from the strong west winds Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,/ But to be young was very heaven!) Young may be applied not only to persons but to things and institutions (Young hares are called leverets We’re living in a young country, don’t forget that!) Youthful has connotations suggesting the favorable characteristics of youth, such as vigor, enthusiasm, hopefulness, and freshness and physical grace (How you keep your youthful figure?) Only the young are young, but we all long to be youthful zoom 567 young in heart Usually applied to those among the elderly who are hopeful and good-natured and are interested in the affairs of others in a helpful way, young in heart is hackneyed It’s really not very apt, for the hearts of the young are often tortured and timid and almost always self-concerned your; yours The form your is used to qualify a following noun, as in your uncle, your careful consideration The form yours is used in any other construction, as in an uncle of yours, yours truly Yours is also the form used in a double possessive where it is separated from its following noun by and, as in yours and your uncle’s opinion Today this construction is generally avoided and your opinion and your uncle’s or your own and your dncle’s opinion is used instead Neither word order shows clearly whether we are talking about one thing or two, but the old-fashioned form, yours and your uncle’s, suggests one thing possessed in common more strongly than the forms which use your The word your, like the word you, may be used indefinitely in the sense of anyone’s or the, as in your gravest beast is the ass Your means “pertaining to you.” It must not be confused with you’re, which means “you are.” In current English the word yours is never written with an apostrophe your earliest convenience As a term for “soon” or “when you can” or ‘Ias quickly as possible,” at your earliest convenience is hackneyed youm This word was once acceptable English but it has not been used in the literary language for three hundred years The only acceptable form today is yours yourself; yourselves Originally, the word self could be used as a singular or as a plural and yourself was the reflexive form of the plural pronoun you The form yourselves did not appear until the sixteenth century Since then, the word you has come to represent one person as well as more than one Today we use the form yourself in speaking to one person and the form yourselves in speaking to more than one Yourself and yourselves are sometimes used in place of the personal pronoun you, as in yourself and your friends are invited Thirty years ago this construction was frowned upon But it provides a singular and a plural form for the word you and many people like it for this reason It is in better standing today than it was thirty years ago, and, although it is not literary English, it can no longer be regarded as unacceptable For the regular uses of yourself and yourselves, see reliexive pronouns yous Some grammarians feel that the word yous is an attempt to create a separate plural form for the word you, comparable to the Southerners’ you all Presumably the word you would be used in speaking to one person and the word yous in speaking to more than one This is a distinction which the language needs But in New York City, a single person is often addressed as yous In any case, no matter what the word means, it is not standard today youth When this word means a young person, it is a true singular and has a regular plural in s, as in one youth and two youths The singular form may also be used with the article the as a group name, to mean all the young people in a given area In this sense it takes a plural verb, as in the youth of this city are well behaved But this is not a true plural and the word cannot be used with a numeral or a word implying number In standard English we may speak of twenty youths but not of twenty youth or many youth When used in this sense the word is distinctly literary In normal speech we say young people or the young For this reason, anyone using youth in this way should use it correctly Otherwise he is distinguishing himself by his mistakes When youth means the period in which one is young, it is a mass word and, traditionally, does not have a plural form In literary English we say they knew each other in their youth The plural form is sometimes heard, as in they knew each other in their youths This is not literary English and is offensive to some people But here the word youth is not being used pretentiously In this sense it is part of normal speech And the plural construction is heard too often not to be recognized as standard English Z zany, for a fool, especially a rustic, exuberant fool, is archaic It is all right to use it in historical contexts or where one deliberately seeks a rustic or antique flavor, or for humorous effect, or in any way at all so long as one is aware that it is out of fashion and bookish zeugma See syllepsis zoom To zoom is to drive an airplane suddenly and sharply upward at great speed for a short distance, as in regaining altitude, clearing an obstacle, signaling, and so on It may be used transitively and intransitively (We zoomed unexpectedly edly) It is He zoomed his plane unexpect- incorrect to use it of a downward motion (as in Albert zoomed down the incline in two minutes f?at, seconds ahead of his nearest competitor)