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Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage

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Abbreviations
Abbreviations, other than the standard ones, have been restricted to a handful of frequently occurring items:

AmE

American English

BrE

British English

c

century (19c = 19th century, and so on)

ME

Middle English (from 1150 to 1500)

OE

Old English (up to 1150)

The following bibliographical references are used:

Fowler (1926)

H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926)

Fowlers (1906)

H.W. and F.G. Fowler, The King's English (1906; a second edition was published in 1907 and a third in 1931)

Gowers (1965)

Sir Ernest Gowers, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (second edition, 1965)

OED

Oxford English Dictionary

OED2

Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

Phonetic transcriptions
The letters used to indicate pronunciations are those of the ordinary English alphabet with their normal values. The following special cases should be mentioned:

the indeterminate sound as in garden and porter

ah

as in dark

aw

as in awful and born

dh

as in this

iy

as in jce

oh

as in bone

oo

as in boot

oo-

as in sure

ow

as in cow

uh

as in book

zh

as in measure

Primary stress is indicated by bold type, e.g. the noun project is given as proj-ekt, and the verb as pr-jekt.

A

a, an,

called the indefinite article (or, by some grammarians, determiner). In origin, a and its by-form an are versions of the Old English an meaning ‘one’.
1 Before all normal words or diphthongs an is required (an actor, an eagle, an illness, an Old Master, an uncle). Before a syllable beginning in its written form with a vowel but pronounced with a consonantal sound, a is used (a eulogy, a unit, a use; a one, a once-only). Before all consonants except silent h, a is usual: a book, a history, a home, a household name, a memorial service, a puddle, a young man; but, with silent h, an hour, an honour.
2 In most circumstances a is pronounced with an unstressed indeterminate sound or n, but it is sometimes emphasized as ay or an in slow diction or to emphasize singleness (I said a piece, not several). Practice differs with h-words in which the first syllable is unstressed: a (or an) habitual criminal; a (or an) hotel. There is evidence, especially in written English, for the continued use of an before habitual, historian, historic(al), horrific, and horrendous, but the choice of form remains open. However, an hotel now sounds dated (1930s) and a hotel is more usual.
3 With single letters and groups of letters that are pronounced as individual letters, be guided by the pronunciation: a B road, a TUC leader; but an A road, an FA Cup match, an SAS unit (assuming the abbreviations are not mentally expanded to their full forms, which would alter the choice).
4 A and an normally precede the word or words they determine (a popular person, an ugly building), but it follows the adjectives many, such, and what (many a year, such a family, what an awful nuisance!). It also follows any adjective preceded by as or how (Iris Murdoch is as good a writer as Virginia Woolf / He did not realize how tiresome a person he could be) and often an adjective preceded by so (So bold a move deserved success), although such is now more usual (Such a bold move deserved success). In some circumstances the positioning is optional: either before or after an adjective preceded by too (too strict a regime or a too strict regime) and before or after the adverbs quite and rather (at quite an early hour or at a quite early hour; it's rather a hard puzzle or it's a rather hard puzzle). With few and lot, however, the only possible order is quite a few and quite a lot. A good few is now commonly used.
5 A and an are also used to distinguish a particular person or artistic or literary creation: Do you know a Lucy Smith? / They own a Van Gogh / She plays a Broadwood [piano]; and to denote a standard quantity of something that is normally uncountable: Do you want a beer? / I've been trying a new cheese. Note also the following uses in time measurement: once a fortnight, £20,000 a year, half an hour, 50 miles an hour.
6 The indefinite article has been used with nouns of multitude (a dozen eggs, a million pounds) for centuries. A fairly recent extension of this use is with an adjective (usually the present or past participle of a verb) between article and noun: The police found themselves confronted by an estimated two hundred youths / The dyke was an astonishing 30 feet wide.

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abacus.

The normal plural is abacuses.

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abbreviations.

There are several kinds of abbreviations: shortenings, contractions, initialisms, and acronyms.
1 Shortenings of words, though formerly condemned by literary figures such as Addison and Pope (18c), are now a common convention, with varying degrees of formality (ad = advertisement, bike = bicycle, pub = public house, rhino = rhinoceros, telly = television). Some are the usual forms, with the original forms now regarded as formal or technical (bus = omnibus, fridge = refrigerator, gym = gymnasium, turps = turpentine, zoo = zoological garden).
2 Contractions are a type of shortening in which letters from the middle of the word are omitted (Dr = doctor, St = saint) and are sometimes marked as omitted by use of an apostrophe (can't = cannot, we've = we have).
3 Initialisms are abbreviations consisting of a sequence of the initial letters of words that are pronounced as separate letters: a.m., BBC, DoE, MP, UN. Practice varies as to including full points between the letters; the style recommended here is not to include them when all the initials are capitals and in some other cases. When the form has a plural, this is formed by adding an -s, now normally without an apostrophe (e.g. MPs rather than MP's). Possessives are formed in the usual way (e.g. MP's singular, MPs' plural).
4 Acronyms are initialisms that have gone one stage further and acquired the status of words, being pronounced and treated grammatically as such (Aids, Nato, radar). In some cases the original expansions have become irrelevant, as with laser and radar. (See more fully at ACRONYM.)

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abdomen.

Stress is normally on the first syllable.

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abduction

(18c) is the forcible leading away of a minor (with or without the minor's consent) for marriage or seduction or the breaking of a legal custodial arrangement for the children of divorced parents. Although there is some overlap in meaning with kidnap (late 17c), kidnapping is not restricted to minors and is usually done for the purpose of demanding a ransom from the victim's family or employers. The more recent hijacking (20c, of unknown origin) applies specifically to vehicles, especially aircraft. All three words were applied to the seizure and detention of political hostages in the Middle East in the 1980s. Carjacking is a very recent (1990s) urban development.

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abductor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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abetter

is spelt -er, but -or in legal terminology.

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abide

is now limited to two main meanings, and has lost many others over seven centuries of use along with several redundant inflections, including abode. The principal meaning ‘to bear, tolerate’ is now only used in negative contexts, usually with a modal auxiliary verb
(Those ordinary Aryan Australian girls whose coarse complexions and lumpy features he could not abide—H. Jacobsen , 1986). Its other main meaning in current use is with by, meaning ‘to stand firm by’ (We must abide by our decision). In its other meanings, it tends to be used mostly in the present tense, most famously as an imperative in a hymn
(Abide with me; fast falls the eventide—H.F. Lyte , 19c), or as a participial adjective
(I accept this award with an abiding faith in America— Luther , 1964, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize).

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abjure, adjure.

Abjure means ‘to renounce on oath’
(He had abjured, he thought, all superstitions— Murdoch , 1985) and to abjure one's country (or realm) is to swear to abandon it for ever. By contrast, adjure means ‘to request earnestly’ with or (now) more frequently without an oath (They were all talking at once, adjuring each other to have fresh cups of tea). Neither word is in everyday use, but they are found in literature and can cause confusion when wrongly used.

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-able, -ible.

1 GENERAL. These two suffixes are derived from Latin endings -abilis and -ibilis, either directly or through Old French. Of the two, -able is an active suffix that can be freely added to the stems of transitive verbs, whereas the set of -ible words is a closed one with meanings that are less susceptible to analysis. A few words exist in both forms (e.g. collectable and collectible); others appear to but differ in meaning (e.g. passable, passible). Most words are formed from verbs, but some are formed from nouns (e.g. comfortable, peaceable).

2 MEANING. The primary meaning these suffixes convey is ‘able to be -ed’ or ‘capable of being -ed’, e.g. bearable, curable, manageable. Some meanings, however, are active rather than passive, e.g. agreeable = willing to agree, changeable = apt to change, comfortable = able to give comfort, viable = able to live. Others, such as reliable, are formed somewhat in defiance of syntax (here, on is suppressed). Many words acquire special meanings, e.g. actionable, appreciable, biddable, creditable, disposable, forgettable, incredible, noticeable, passable, remarkable, reprehensible, tolerable, unspeakable.
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3 SPELLING PROBLEMS. Some formations require alteration of the stem, since both suffixes begin with a vowel. The most important are:
a Words in -y (preceded by a consonant) change y to i: dutiable, rectifiable, undeniable. But note employable, enjoyable.
b With some exceptions, words in silent -e lose the e when -able is added: adorable, excusable, lovable, losable, removable, usable. But note the preferred forms giveable, hireable, likeable, nameable, rateable, saleable.
c Words in -ce and -ge normally retain the e: bridgeable, changeable, chargeable, noticeable, peaceable.
d Words of more than two syllables ending in -ate lose this ending when -able is added: alienable (not alienatable), appreciable (has special meaning), calculable, demonstrable, estimable (has special meaning), inestimable (has special meaning), penetrable, tolerable. However, words of two syllables would not be viable without the ending and therefore retain it: creatable, debatable, dictatable, locatable, translatable.
e A final consonant is normally doubled when it is doubled in ordinary inflection: biddable, forgettable, regrettable.
f Words of more than one syllable ending in -fer double the r when the stress is on the final syllable, but do not when the stress is earlier in the word: conferrable, deferrable, offerable, preferable, profferable, sufferable (but in transferable the stress is variable on the first two syllables). Infer makes inferable and inferrable, and refer makes referable and referrable.
The following table shows the principal forms in -able and -ible, and also shows forms that are liable to be confused (e.g. impassable and impassible)

WORDS ENDING IN -ABLE

abominable

copiable

extendable

actionable

creatable

(also extendible,

adaptable

creditable

extensible)

administrable

curable

feeable

admittable

datable

finable

also admissible)

debatable

foreseeable

adorable

declinable

forgettable

advisable

defendable

forgivable

agreeable

(in literal meanings; see also

framable

alienable

defensible)

gettable

amenable

deferable

giveable

amiable

definable

hireable

analysable

delineable

illimitable

appreciable

demonstrable

immovable

arguable

demurrable

immutable

ascribable

deniable

impalpable

assessable

desirable

impassable

atonable

despicable

(= unable to be crossed; see also impassible)

available

developable

impeccable

bearable

dilatable

imperturbable

believable

dispensable

implacable

blameable

disposable

impressionable

bribable

dissolvable

improvable

bridgeable

drivable

indefatigable

calculable

durable

indescribable

capable

dutiable

indispensable

changeable

eatable

indubitable

chargeable

educable (= able to be educated; see also educible)

inflatable

clubbable

endorsable

inimitable

collectable

equable

insufferable

comfortable

equitable

irreconcilable

conceivable

evadable

irreplaceable

conferrable

excisable

justifiable

confinable

excitable

knowledgeable

confusable

excusable

laughable

consolable

expandable (also expansible)

leviable

contractable

expendable

likeable

(of a disease; see also contractible)

expiable

liveable

losable

permeable

serviceable

lovable

persuadable

sizeable

machinable

(also persuasible)

solvable

malleable

pleasurable

statutable

manageable

preferable

storable

manoeuvrable

prescribable

suitable

marriageable

preventable

superannuable

measurable

pronounceable

timeable

mistakable

provable

tolerable

movable

rateable

traceable

readable

tradable

mutable

receivable

transferable

nameable

reconcilable

tuneable

noticeable

rectifiable

unconscionable

objectionable

registrable

undeniable

obtainable

regrettable

unexceptionable

operable

reliable

unget-at-able

palatable

removable

unknowable

payable

reputable

unmistakable

peaceable

retractable

unscalable

penetrable

saleable

unshakeable

perishable

scalable

usable

WORDS ENDING IN -IBLE

accessible

defensible

extendible

adducible

(of an argument etc.; see also defendable)

(also extendable, extensible)

admissible (also admittable)

destructible

feasible

audible

diffusible

flexible

avertible

digestible

gullible

collapsible

dirigible

impassible

comprehensible

discernible

(= unfeeling; see

contemptible

discussible

also impassable)

contractible

dismissible

inaudible

(= able to be

divisible

incorrigible

shrunk; see also

educible (= able to be

incredible

contractable)

educed; see also educable)

indelible

convertible

eligible

indigestible

credible

exhaustible

indivisible

deducible

expansible

infallible

deductible

expressible

inflexible

intangible

negligible

reproducible

invincible

ostensible

resistible

invisible

perceptible

responsible

irascible

perfectible

reversible

irreducible

permissible

risible

irrepressible

persuasible

suggestible

irresponsible

(also persuadable)

suppressible

irresistible

plausible

susceptible

irreversible

reducible

legible

reprehensible

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abled,

meaning ‘able-bodied, not disabled’, is a revival of an obsolete 16c word, and is first recorded in print in the US in the 1980s. It is rapidly spreading, in various combinations, to denote a particular ability:
Deaf dogs should have the same right to compete against their hearing-abled peers—Dog World, 1993. More significantly, in the form differently abled (or otherly abled) it has been adopted as a term of political correctness as a more positive alternative to disabled and handicapped:
They were gentle … kids, who took endless pains to guard against what they referred to as ‘the exploitation of the differently abled’—A. Maupin , 1992.

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ableism,

meaning ‘discrimination in favour of the abled’ (i.e. against the disabled), is one of the newest -ism words, first recorded in the US in the early 1980s. There is a corresponding adjective and noun ableist:
The cover design appears to be rather male-dominated, white, ableist—Rouge, 1990 So far both words seem settled in form, with little sign of variants ablism and ablist, although these may yet come. See -ISM.

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able to.

The construction to be able to (do something), with an active to-infinitive, is a natural part of the language, extending to inanimate as well as animate subjects
(By his proceeding to the beach … the next phase of the attack was able to proceed—New Yorker, 1986). It plays a useful role in compensating for the deficiencies of can in the future and perfect tenses (will be able to / have not been able to), with modal verbs such as might (I might be able to), and with verbs such as become, appear, and seem (They don't seem to be able to do it). When the infinitive is passive, however, it is better to use can or could, and to avoid able to, which sounds too forced
(No evidence that an air rifle was able to be fired—Times (heading of Law Report), 1988).

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abode.

In the meaning ‘a dwelling-place’, abode is falling into disuse except in two fixed expressions: (of) no fixed abode, used of someone without a permanent address, and right of abode, especially as applied to citizens of Hong Kong who sought the right to settle in Britain after 1997. It has not entirely gone from literature in its ordinary use
(The house, standing at the edge of a fairsized tract of woodland and once, perhaps, the abode of gamekeepers— Amis , 1974).

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abolishment, abolition.

Both words date from the 16c and have been used principally with reference to concepts and institutions such as authority, laws, beliefs, feelings, and sins. In the 18c and 19c, abolition took on special meanings relating to the slave trade and capital punishment, which caused abolishment to be restricted to more neutral and ad hoc uses emphasizing the process rather than the result
(The deregulation of financial markets and abolishment of fixed commission rates—Institutional Investor (NEXIS), 1989 /
It's a negation of him, an abolishment of him, like ripping a medal off his chest— Atwood in New Yorker, 1990).

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aborigines.

This Latinate word, specifically applied since the 16c to the inhabitants of a country ab origine (from the beginning) has largely given way to aboriginals in the plural. For the singular, the etymologically indefensible form Aborigine has become firmly established in Australia (early 19c); for the plural, use Aboriginals (with a capital initial letter, in Australian contexts, in both cases). The adjective is always Aboriginal. The abbreviated form Abo, used with varying degrees of affection and hostility, is common in Australia, both as a noun and as an adjective.

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abortive, aborted.

The central meaning of abortive since the time of Shakespeare has been ‘coming to nought, fruitless, useless, unsuccessful’. It can be applied to attempts, efforts, missions, coups, proposals, etc., and to any action that proves to be unsuccessful, even the most trivial
(An abortive attempt to do the Times crossword—A.N. Wilson , 1982). Aborted is not, despite the protestations of the American writer William Safire , a better alternative, since it denotes actual failure whereas abortive can be used of failure that is potential.

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abound

can have as its subject things that are plentiful or (followed by in or with) the place where things are plentiful:
Mulberry trees abound in Oxford [note that in goes with Oxford, not abound!]— Morris , 1978 /
A few years since this country abounded in wild animals—A. Moorehead , 1963 /
The text, written in Yinglish and American, abounds in euphemisms—Observer, 1974. The word is also common intransitively with no complementation:
When the idea of a university of the air was first floated, sceptics abounded.—Listener, 1984.

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about.

1 AS A PREPOSITION. In the meaning ‘roughly, approximately’ (eg. It took about ten minutes, about is the usual BrE word; around is also used, and is much more common in AmE. Round about is more informal, and is largely confined to BrE.

2 MEANING ‘CONCERNING’. In this meaning, about is either a preposition or a conjunction (followed by which, how, etc.): (preposition) The quarrels were about money / (conjunction) There was a great deal of discussion about which versions should be used. Since the 1930s, the phrase to be about (something) has developed a special meaning ‘to be primarily concerned with’ and even ‘to have as its aim’, as in
Love and war were about winning, not fair play—A. Price , 1982. When precision is important, it is better to use a less ambiguous phrase, e.g. Love and war had winning as their purpose, and did not involve fair play.
The phrase what it's all about is a cliché, and should be restricted to less formal contexts:
They like the feeling that they have had to fight other men for possession. That is what it is all about, really.— Brookner , 1984
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3 USED INSTEAD OF OF. About is tending to replace of in uses such as We're more aware about it / The Vietnamese are disdainful about Chinese cooking / The issue about how such things are monitored.
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4 BE ABOUT TO. In affirmative contexts, to be about to denotes intention: I am about to go shopping. A more idiomatic negative use, not about to (do something), should only be used informally:
I'm not about to foist something on the general public just for the sake of releasing something—Record Mirror, 1982. In more formal usage, it is better to use one of several alternatives such as do not intend to (or, more emphatically, have no intention of), am not likely to, etc.
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abridgement

is the better spelling, rather than abridgment.

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abrogate, arrogate.

Abrogate means ‘to repel, annul, or cancel’ and is used with reference to laws, rules, treaties, and other formal agreements
(The Cabinet clung stubbornly to the belief that the mere signing of the agreement itself abrogated imperial preferential tariffs—D. Aitchison , 1969 /
He abrogated at once the Penal Code—W.H. Auden , 1969); arrogate means ‘to lay claim to without justification’
(That sort of writing which has arrogated to itself the epithet ‘creative’—D.J. Enright , 1966 /
The illegal but effective authority which the Assembly of the United Nations seemed now to have arrogated to itself—H. Macmillan , 1971).

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absolutely.

This word has a string of important meanings in the broad area ‘in an absolute position, manner, or degree’, and can be applied to many domains of physical and conceptual activity including language and politics. It has also come to be used as a mere intensive (absolutely awful, absolutely essential, absolutely out of the question). In conversation, absolutely is used ‘absolutely’ (i.e. without a grammatical complement) as a strong affirmative reply:
‘Is he nice?’ I asked … ‘Absolutely,’ she said and glowed—source in British National Corpus, 1978 /
‘Communism was a form of Antichrist.’ ‘Ooh, absolutely, absolutely.’—spoken material in British National Corpus, 1993. With not, it is often used in speech as an emphatic refusal or denial:
Because your mother insisted. ‘Absolutely not.’—B. Neil , 1993.

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absolve.

1 Pronunciation is now normally with -z-, not -s-.

2 The usual construction is with a direct object, or in the passive, followed by of or from:
It absolved him of all responsibility—L.A.G. Strong , 1948 /
Dollar was absolved of personal liability for the line's debts—Time, 1950 /
Absolve me from all spot of sin— Agee , 1950.
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abstract nouns.

The Fowlers (1906) and Gowers (1965) warned against the excessive use of abstract nouns, Gowers coining the term ‘abstractitis’ as a label for his disapproval. The principal area of offence is in official documents and formal writing. The Fowler brothers attacked ‘the farfetched, the abstract, the periphrastic, the long’, and gave the following as an example: The signs of the times point to the necessity of the modification of the system of administration [rewrite as It is becoming clear that the administrative system must be modified]. Gowers gave another example: Participation by the men in the control of the industry is non-existent [rewrite as The men have no part in the control of the industry].

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abuse

has in 20c developed a sinister violent meaning, ‘maltreatment or (especially sexual) assault of a person’, and is now widely familiar in the specific context of child abuse, of which various aspects include physical abuse, ritual abuse, sexual abuse, and even satanic abuse. At the same time its older meaning, ‘misuse or improper use’, has been greatly extended in explicit combinations such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, heroin abuse, solvent abuse, steroid abuse, etc., all associated with harmful or narcotic substances. Few semantic developments have such appalling social implications as these.

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abysmal, abyssal.

The currency of these two words is in inverse proportion to that of the parent words: abysmal, with its figurative meaning ‘very bad’ and a literal meaning relating to gorges, outer space, etc., is common, whereas abyssal is limited to technical usage in oceanography, ‘belonging to one of the deepest levels of the ocean’ (e.g. in the term abyssal floor). By contrast, abyss is still used (usually in figurative use, e.g. They are staring into the abyss), whereas abysm is not. Examples of abysmal:
(figurative) Some doctors have an abysmal lack of knowledge about the range of social services available—British Medical Journal, 1975 /
The day was hot, the organisation … excellent, and the cricket of generally abysmal quality—Wisden Cricket Monthly, 1992 /
(literal) Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea—P. Allardice , 1990.

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academic.

The central meanings of this word (‘of or belonging to an academy or institution for higher learning’) survive, but a little more than a century ago it developed a depreciatory range of meanings ‘merely theoretical, having no practical applications’:
All the discussion, Sirs, is—academic. The war has begun already—H.G. Wells , 1929 /
The strike … was dismissed as ‘largely academic’ by Merseyside Health Authority—Times, 1990.

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accent.

1 The noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb (meaning ‘to lay stress on, to emphasize’ in various senses) on the second.

2 In general use, an accent is ‘individual, local, or national mode of pronunciation’, as in a Scottish accent, a slight accent, etc.:
She had … the accent of a good finishing school— Braine , 1957 /
‘Crème de framboises,’ she read in her governessy accent—S. Hill , 1969 /
She resembled Jackie Kennedy, but—surprisingly—had a strong Scottish accent—J. Bow , 1991. It is also used to mean the position of the stress in a word, and a sign put on a word in writing to mark a feature of its pronunciation:
You must pronounce this all as one word with the accent on the first syllable—C.S. Lewis , 1955. There are other special meanings in art and music. The meaning relating to pronunciation is the earliest one, and has given rise to extended uses, in which accent means ‘a distinctive feature or emphasis’:
After 1926 the accent was to lie on the development of technical education—R. Pethybridge , 1990 /
The early autumn of 1992 produced no less than four major auctions with an accent on matters aeronautical—FlyPast, 1992. This use is common in advertising and marketing:
Accent is on comfort when you step in for a relaxing drink—promotional material in British National Corpus, 1990s.
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3 As a verb, accent means ‘to place an accent on (a word or syllable)’. In figurative meanings, accentuate is invariably used:
I observed a severe grey skirt, the waist accentuated by a leather belt— Golding , 1967 /
Collingwood also has a rather learned look, accentuated by steel spectacles—R. Cobb , 1985.
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accept, except.

There is little danger of confusion in spoken contexts, since all they have in common is their similar pronunciation in running discourse, but their spelling is open to confusion. David Crystal reports in his book Who Cares About English Usage? (1984) that several of 20 English undergraduates asked to choose between Shall we accept / except his invitation to dinner chose except.

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access, accession.

1 AS NOUNS. The two words are hardly at all interchangeable: accession means arrival or admission, whereas access means the opportunity of arriving or of admission. Accordingly, accession to the throne means becoming sovereign, whereas access to the throne means the right or opportunity to petition the sovereign. An access of a physical or emotional feeling such as fever, fury, joy, despair, is a sudden attack of it regardless of the physical or emotional state beforehand; an accession of strength, or an accession to a library, is something added to an existing stock.

2 AS VERBS. Since the 1890s, to accession has meant ‘to enter as a new book in a library’
(The new books have been promptly accessioned—G.M. Jones , 1892). More recently, access has taken on a verbal meaning ‘to gain access to (data held in a computer)’, e.g.
Design engineers can now access the computer directly through terminals in their offices—Scientific American, 1977. A possible metaphorical application of the computing model of human behaviour may be seen in a new meaning in psychology: ‘to experience (deep feelings)’, as in
Deciding all of a sudden that he's got to do some grieving, learn to access his rage—New Republic, 1992. Use of the verb in more generalized contexts, such as The kitchen may be accessed from the dining room, should be avoided (use reach, approach, enter, etc., or rephrase).
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accessary, accessory.

These two words come by different routes from the same Latin source of our word accede. In AmE, accessory is dominant both as a noun and as an adjective, and it has fast become so now in BrE, although accessary is still used occasionally (where before it was used invariably) as a term in law in both varieties. But -ory is preferable in all meanings:
As the one person who knew of their illegalities I felt I was becoming an accessory after the fact—S. Unwin , 1960 /
If he buried the captain, as he says, he's an accessory—R. Macdonald , 1971 /
Accessory ideas associated with the principal idea—M. Cohen , 1977.
As a noun, accessory has become widely used in the 20c to refer to smaller articles of dress (gloves, handbag, etc.) or the extras in a motor vehicle (fog-lights, radio, etc.). Example:
Accessories … may be considered essential to an outfit.— Lurie , 1981.

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accommodate, accommodation.

These are among the most commonly misspelt words in English: there are two cs and two ms. The verb accommodate is followed by to when it means ‘adapt’ and by with when (less usually) it means ‘to equip, supply, oblige’: e.g.
His eyes quickly accommodated to the gloom/
Major Kent was accommodated with a hammock chair—G.A. Birmingham , 1908.

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accompanist

is now the standard form of the word for ‘a person who plays a musical accompaniment’. The by-form accompanyist, used by Dickens , is now occasionally encountered in AmE.

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accomplice, accomplish.

The standard pronunciation of both words is now -kum-, not -kom-.

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according.

1 ACCORDING AS. This is now well established as a subordinating conjunction meaning ‘depending on whether, to the extent to which’, despite Fowler's long warning (1926) against its use: e.g.
Llanaba Castle presents two quite different aspects, according as you approach it from the Bangor or the coast road— Waugh , 1928.

2 ACCORDING TO. This is used as a complex preposition, and means (a) in a manner that is consistent with (something), e.g. Everything went according to plan, (b) as stated by (a person or authority), e.g.
According to our records, the account is in credit / I have acted according to my conscience— Blunt , 1979 / (with an element of uncertainty or disbelief) According to them, we're supposed to stay at home, (c) in a manner or degree that is in proportion to (something), e.g.
Arrange the blocks according to size and colour / My price varied from twenty to fifty pounds according to the neighbourhood and the customer— Greene , 1966.
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account.

The phrase on account of is a slightly formal preposition meaning ‘because of’
(He remained miserable and ashamed, largely on account of his appetite which continued to torment him— Brookner , 1988). Its use (with or without of) as a conjunction is non-standard: e.g.
Take your three days off, Mr. Barlow, only don't expect to be paid for them on account you're thinking up some fancy ideas—E. Waugh , 1948 /
Account of you think you're tough you're going up to State Prison where you'll have to prove it—E. Leonard , 1994 (US).

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accountable

is mostly used in the construction to be accountable to someone for something: e.g.
Labour MPs … would at least have the authority to keep a Labour government accountable to them for what they say and do— Benn , 1979. Its old use as an opposite of unaccountable
(By George—it was a very accountable obstinacy— Eliot , 1876) is now rarely found.

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accumulative

see CUMULATIVE.

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accusative

is a grammatical term denoting a noun or pronoun that is governed by a verb or preposition, e.g. house in Then we saw the house and They stood in front of the house. In English it is only certain pronouns that change their form in the accusative (e.g. him, them, us): see CASES.

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accuse

is now always used in the construction to accuse someone of something: e.g.
He accused the sound technicians of sabotaging the record—M. Puzo , 1969 /
People jumped up and accused her of making common cause with the Nazis—D. May , 1988. Other constructions (e.g
The Romanists accuse the Protestants for their indifference— Southey , 1809) have fallen out of use.

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accused.

The accused, meaning a person who has been accused in law, is an everyday use. The or an accused man, person, banker, etc., in which the individuals are only generically identified, are also routinely acceptable. It is inadvisable, however, to use expressions such as the accused thief or the accused rapist, which specify the type of criminal, since identification with the crime is in question by the very use of the term accused (alleged might be a better word here).

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Achilles' heel, Achilles' tendon.

Use an apostrophe in both expressions for consistency, even though the connection with Achilles is remote in the second.

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acid.

Since the 1960s, when acid was first used to mean the hallucinogenic drug LSD, the word has developed all the connotations of a sub-culture. Those taking drugs came to be called acid heads or acid freaks; and their way of life came to depend on going on acid trips at acid parties to the sound of acid rock or acid jazz. More recently (1988), the (apparently unrelated) term Acid House (or just House) has been applied to a style of music and dancing imported to Britain from Chicago, and associated with widespread use of hallucinogenic drugs. These uses are striking examples of the transformation of the primary sense of a basic term in a technical subject, in this case chemistry.

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acid rain.

Many people are surprised to learn that acid rain, i.e. rain with significantly increased acidity as a result of atmospheric pollution, is first recorded (with slightly different connotations) as early as 1859. Its wide currency in English across the world is recent, and especially since the problem was brought to the attention of the UN in 1972; it appeared first in technical writing and then passed rapidly into everyday use.

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acid test.

When Fowler was preparing the first edition of Modern English Usage, he remarked that acid test was undoubtedly the popularized technical term ‘most in vogue at the moment of writing (1920)’. In scientific use it meant the use of nitric acid to test for gold; in transferred use it had acquired the broad sense ‘a severe or conclusive test’, a use that was popularized by Woodrow Wilson two years before Fowler was writing
(The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will—Times, 1918). For other extensions of technical terms see the table at POPULARIZED TECHNICALITIES.

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acknowledgement.

This spelling is preferred in BrE, although acknowledgment is more usual in AmE.

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acoustic.

1 PRONUNCIATION. Earlier in the 20c two pronunciations were competing with each other: one with -ow- and the other with -oo-. The second has prevailed, despite Fowler's prediction that ‘if the word came into popular use, it would probably be with -ow-’, based on traditional assumptions about the English pronunciation of Greek.

2 The noun acoustics is construed as singular when used to mean ‘the science of sound’ (e.g. Acoustics is a branch of physics), and as plural when used to mean ‘the acoustic properties of a building’ (e.g. The acoustics of the cathedral are magnificent).
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acronym.

1 This term, which was first used in the 1940s, denotes a type of abbreviation made up of a set of initials that are pronounced as a single word, as Nato is (as distinct from BBC). An acronym is generally treated as a word in its own right in other ways, for example in the formation of plurals when appropriate. Examples of familiar acronyms include: Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), and WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Some of these, especially the names of organizations, start off as ordinary abbreviations (often with full stops) and develop into acronyms; others (e.g. ASH) are deliberately contrived so as to lend themselves to pronunciation as words and hence acquire acronym status artificially.

2 Examples of acronyms that form ordinary nouns are laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), radar (radio detection and ranging), and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, strengths: used in business assessments). Some general acronyms are highly forced, notably POSSLQ (person of the opposite sex sharing living quarters, often pronounced poss-lk).
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3 In everyday use, acronym is sometimes applied to abbreviations that are properly initialisms, since they are pronounced as separate letters (e.g. EU = European Union, VCR = video cassette recorder).
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act, action.

1 The distinction between the two words in their general meanings is not always clear: we are judged by our acts or by our actions. In general, however, action has more of the notion of performance, and extends to inanimate things (we can speak only of the action, not of the act, of a machine), whereas act connotes more strongly the fact of something done and also implies responsibility rather more necessarily than action does (hence the Acts of the Apostles, not the Actions, which Fowler (1926) suggested as the logical preference). Action is also used attributively in expressions such as action committee, painting, replay, etc., whereas act is not. The actions of a person are usually viewed as occupying some time, and (in the plural) denote the habitual or ordinary deeds of a person, the sum of which make up his or her conduct. Act, by contrast, normally means something brought about rapidly or over a short period, especially in phrases with of (an act of God, an act of madness).

2 Both words have special meanings which are exclusive to each (an act of a play, an act in a variety show, military action, etc.), and in fixed expressions (to put on an act, caught in the act, to clean up one's act, to take action, where the action is, a piece of the action, etc.).
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3 Action, in its modern use as a transitive verb meaning ‘to take action on (a decision or request, etc.)’ is best left to the evasive language of business managers
(Dismissal will be actioned when the balance of probabilities suggests that an employee has committed a criminal act—Daily Telegraph, 1981).
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activate, actuate.

Activate (17c) originally meant ‘to make active’ (as in activate the lungs). It fell out of use for a time at the end of the 19c, and was marked as obsolete in the first OED. New uses in physics, chemistry, and other branches of science have brought it back into prominence and actuate (also 17c in current meanings), once dominant, is now in decline. Activate is the normal word in mechanical contexts such as burglar alarms, traffic lights, flight plans, and also occasionally in the context of human behaviour, where the choice is perhaps influenced by motivate (e.g. Are they activated by concern for public morality?). Actuate is less common in physical and mechanical contexts, and is generally restricted to less appealing abstract qualities such as anger, greed, jealousy, malice, etc.
(His opposition was actuated by a different and more compelling motive than that of her other relatives— Cecil , 1948 /
Peirce was actuated by the analogy with science, not by a vision—J. Barzun , 1983).

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active.

The active voice of verbs is illustrated by the sentence France beat Brazil in the final, in which the subject of the verb (France) performs the action and the object (Brazil) is affected by the action. The passive equivalent is Brazil were beaten by France in the final, in which the grammatical roles of the two participants in the action are reversed. See PASSIVE.

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actual

is often used redundantly in ways that add nothing to the meaning:
Mr Healey said the press did not print Labour's actual policies. ‘Not a sausage.’—Times, 1981. Examples of legitimate use are:
He gathered there were few actual artists in the room [as distinct from would-be artists]— Bainbridge , 1980 /
The actual total [as distinct from the provisional total] was surely higher—Scientific American, 1980.

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actuality

has driven out actualness, which was recorded by Johnson and was used as a synonym meaning ‘the state of being actual’ up to the end of the 19c. Actualities are ‘actual existing conditions or circumstances’; in addition, actuality has acquired a special concrete meaning, ‘a film record or radio or television broadcast of an event as it actually occurs’
(The films began with ‘actualities’, the record of more or less formal current events—H.G. Wells ).

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actually

is one of a number of words, like definitely, really, surely, etc., which are used freely as emphasizers, either in relation to words or phrases
(Often it wasn't actually a railway station but a special stopping place in the middle of nowhere—New Yorker, 1987) or as sentence adverbs qualifying a complete statement
(I'd like to see those scrap books again, actually— Smith , 1983 /
‘I told you, I've got problems at work.’ ‘Actually, you didn't.’ Such uses are more common in speech, where they help with continuity and sentence balance. It is clearly a useful if somewhat overused word.

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actuate

See ACTIVATE.

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acumen.

The 19c pronunciation as recorded in the OED was with the stress on the second syllable. This is still the dominant pronunciation in AmE, but in BrE stress on the first syllable is now standard.

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ad, advert

are frequent colloquial shortened forms of advertisement, both dating from the middle of the 19c and now widespread in informal use
(If you examine the adverts for personal computers … you'll find that almost nowhere do the ads promise you any kind of concrete benefit—Your Computer, 1984).

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AD

should always be placed—in recognition of what it stands for (anno Domini, in the year of Our Lord)—before the numerals it relates to, i.e. AD 44 (not 44 AD). It is customary for convenience, however, to write ‘the third century AD’ to correspond to ‘the third century BC’. In print, AD is often put in small capitals. Note that the alternative CE (for ‘Common Era’) is often used as a culturally neutral alternative, along with BCE (‘before Common Era’).

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adamant.

Its use an as adjective meaning ‘stubbornly unshakeable or inflexible’ is surprisingly recent (1930s); as a noun meaning a hard rock or mineral it goes back to the time of King Alfred , originally as a vague term often imbued with fabulous associations, and later as a synonym for ‘diamond’. In modern use the noun is ‘only a poetical or rhetorical name for the embodiment of surpassing hardness’, and the adjective is the principal use
(His appointment had met with the adamant opposition of almost all the Fellows— Sharpe , 1974), also giving rise to an adverb adamantly
(When she mentions him at all in her diary, it is in adamantly negative terms—S. Quinn , 1988).

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adapter, adaptor.

In one's own writing it is good to reserve adaptor to the device and adapter to the meaning ‘a person who adapts (something or to something)’, but any hard-and-fast rule-stating will not be matched by the evidence, so be prepared for either form in either meaning.

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addenda

is a plural form meaning ‘a list of additional items’; if there is only one, addendum is the word to use. Addenda should be treated as plural, not (except informally, like agenda) as singular (as in a new edition with an invaluable addenda).

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addle, addled.

The usual word now is addled, and is applied (a) to eggs, and (b) figuratively, to brains (i.e. the mind). Originally, addle was a noun meaning ‘stinking urine or other liquid filth’, although its associations have usually been with eggs and heads, both seen as capable of ‘addling’, hence addle-brain(ed), addle-head(ed), etc.

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addresses.

It is now customary to use as little punctuation as possible in addresses, omitting commas at the ends of lines and before street names, e.g.: Mr J Smith 44 High Street Newtown (A postal code can be put on the same line as the town or below it.)

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-ade.

Nearly all words of two or more syllables ending in -ade are derived from French, although some are originally from other Romance languages. Most of these are now pronounced -ayd, not -ahd: accolade, arcade, balustrade, brigade, brocade, cascade, cavalcade, crusade, lemonade, marmalade, masquerade, palisade, parade, serenade, tirade. A small group vary between the two pronunciations, including: esplanade, fanfaronnade, fusilade, glissade, pomade, promenade, rodomontade; and a few are always pronounced -ahd: aubade, ballade, façade.

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adequate.

1 In its meaning ‘proportionate to the requirements’, sufficient, adequate is most commonly used without a complement (There is an adequate supply of food in the flooded area). When it has one, this is either for or to (Their earnings are adequate for / to their needs). It is also used idiomatically to mean ‘barely sufficient’: The standard rapidly sinks to a level which is, at best, adequate but at worst incompetent.

2 Arguments that adequate is an absolute are as invalid and contrary to usage as similar arguments for unique. Language is rarely as absolute as purists would like, and it is natural to find adequacy graded by adverbs and in terms of comparatives and superlatives (We are seeking a more adequate return on our investments / The work done is fairly adequate / The most adequate description yet released of the horror of the hijacking).
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adherence, adhesion.

Both words were adopted from French in the 17c, and come from the Latin verb which also gives us our verb adhere. Adherence is now mostly used in figurative senses relating to beliefs, loyalties, etc., whereas adhesion has tended more and more to imply physical contact between surfaces, e.g. the grip of wheels on road or rail, the sticking or gluing together of two surfaces, etc. Contrary uses are also found, especially of adhesion in figurative meanings, but these no longer sound natural
(He is in fact more rigid in his adhesion to his old doctrines— Webb , 1952 /
Others … fell under his control through the adhesion to France of their ruler, the Prince-Bishop of Liège— Churchill , 1957).

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ad hoc

(Latin, ‘to this’) has been recorded in English since the 17c, principally as an a quasi-adjective meaning ‘designated for a specific purpose’ as in an ad hoc committee or an ad hoc appointment. It should normally be printed in italic. Although strictly speaking it should not be qualified by reducing or intensifying adverbs such as fairly or very, this is common in less formal English (The arrangement seems extremely ad hoc to them), and in the 20c ad hoc has generated an array of startlingly un-Latinate derivatives such as ad-hoc-ery and ad-hoc-ism (sometimes with medial hyphen, sometimes without).

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adieu

is pronounced dyoo. The plural is preferably adieux (pronounced with final -ooz, not adieus).

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adjacent, adjoining.

An adjacent property is normally one that is nearby without necessarily touching the one being considered in relation to it. Similarly, adjacent angles in a triangle are separated by the length of one side of the triangle, an adjacent room can be across a corridor, and adjacent tables are next to each other, but with a space between. Adjoining invariably denotes contact, and is therefore preferable when this meaning is unambiguously required; as a participle it can also govern a following noun rather like a preposition (e.g.
She and Susan had rooms adjoining, so she had none of the creepy feelings one often gets in a strange house—M. Gervaise , 1983 /
There were a lot of policemen in surrounding streets and in the park adjoining the embassy—Independent, 1989).

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adjective.

1 GENERAL. The term adjective was itself an adjective for a hundred years before it became used as a noun for one of the parts of speech. Joseph Priestley , in The Rudiments of English Grammar (1761), was perhaps the first English grammarian to recognize the adjective as a separate part of speech, although some earlier writers had used the term in this way. An alternative term, first used in the mid-19c, is modifier, which also covers the grey area of attributive nouns and nouns ‘passing into adj.’ (as the OED called them), for example city in city council and table in table lamp. For a more detailed analysis of types of adjective, the reader is referred to a standard grammar such as Greenbaum's Oxford English Grammar (1996), 134–41.
An adjective has three forms, traditionally called a positive (or absolute), e.g. hot, splendid, a comparative, e.g. hotter, more splendid, and a superlative, e.g. hottest, most splendid.

2 ATTRIBUTIVE AND PREDICATIVE. Most adjectives can be used in two positions: either before the noun (attributively, as in a black cat, a gloomy outlook) or after it, normally separated by a verb of state (predicatively, as in the cat is black, the outlook seemed gloomy). A few adjectives, usually denoting status, exceptionally stand immediately after the noun (postpositive, as in the body politic, the president elect).
Some adjectives are normally restricted to predicative position (e.g. afraid, aware), and others are restricted to attributive position, either always (e.g. main as in the main reason / this reason is main) or in certain meanings (e.g. big as in He is a big eater / As an eater he is big, mere as in This is mere repetition / The repetition is mere, and whole as in Have you told the whole truth / The truth I have told is whole). In these examples, predicative status has to be achieved by repetition of the noun or by the use of one (The truth I have told is the whole truth / This reason is the main one).
Other adjectives that have been restricted in the past are now becoming more mobile; for example, aware and ill are increasingly heard (often modified by an adverb) in attributive position, as in a highly aware person and an ill woman.
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3 COMPARISON. Adjectives of one or two syllables normally form their comparative and superlative forms by adding -er and -est, sometimes with modification of the stem (soft, softer, softest; happy, happier, happiest). Adjectives of more than two syllables are normally preceded by more or most instead of inflecting (more frightening; most remarkable). For special effect, however, a polysyllabic adjective will sometimes be inflected
(‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice—L. Carroll , 1865 /
One of the generousest creatures alive— Thackeray , 1847/8 /
The winningest coach in Southwest Conference basketball history—Chicago Tribune, 1990). See also -ER AND -EST FORMS OF ADJECTIVES. Conversely, more and most are sometimes used, for emphasis or special effect, when inflected forms are available: This was never more true than at present / That was the most cruel thing you could have said.
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4 ‘ABSOLUTE’ ADJECTIVES. Some adjectives, because of their meaning and function, are called absolute or non-gradable, and are not normally used in comparative or superlative forms and cannot be qualified by adverbs that intensify or moderate along a notional range such as fairly, largely, more, rather, or very: these are classifying adjectives such as dead, rectangular, scientific, or descriptive adjectives with a meaning that does not permit gradability, such as equal, impossible, supreme, total, unique. There are exceptions to this rule, but these are normally obvious special cases:
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others— Orwell , 1945 /
His profile is … most utterly perfect— Gardam , 1985. Absolute adjectives can be regularly qualified by adverbs that denote an extreme or completeness, such as absolutely, completely, and utterly, since these are consistent with the non-gradable function of the adjectives concerned:
The … ghosts … made the place absolutely impossible—Harper's Magazine, 1884. In this sentence, absolutely impossible is acceptable, and so is completely or utterly impossible, but fairly or rather impossible would not be.
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5 POSITION OF ADJECTIVES. In numerous fixed expressions denoting status, an adjective is placed immediately after the noun it governs: e.g. attorney-general, body politic, court martial, fee simple, heir apparent, notary public, poet laureate, postmaster-general, president elect, situations vacant, vice-chancellor designate, the village proper. In other cases, an adjective can follow a noun for syntactic reasons, i.e. as a matter of sentence structure rather than peculiarity of expression
(The waiter … picked up our dirty glasses in his fingertips, his eyes impassive—Encounter, 1987), or for rhetorical effect
(Before the loving hands of the Almighty cradled him in bliss eternal— Williams , 1992).
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6 HYPHENATION. There is no need to insert a hyphen between a combination of adverb in -ly and adjective qualified by it, even when it stands in attributive position: a highly competitive market / abundant recently published material / lawfully elected prime ministers / fully qualified lawyers. When the adverb does not end in -ly, however, a hyphen is normally required to reinforce its status: a well-known woman / an ill-defined topic.
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7 COMPOUND ADJECTIVES. These have proliferated in the 20c, and are formed from combinations of noun + adjective (accident-prone, acid-free, child-proof, computer-literate, machine-readable, user-friendly, water-insoluble) noun + past participle (computer-aided, custom-built, hand-operated), noun + -ing participle (data-handling, pressure-reducing, stress-relieving). Some formations are based on longer phrases (back-to-basics, in-your-face) and some of the more informal compounds give rise to adverbial derivatives (balls-achingly, mind-blowingly).
A new kind of compound adjective emerging in technical and scientific work is the type landscape ecological principles (= the principles of landscape ecology), in which the second element of the name of the subject (landscape ecology) has been turned into an adjective. Another example is physical geographical studies, where it would be better to say studies in physical geography.
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8 ADJECTIVES USED AS ADVERBS. Some adjectives have corresponding adverbs that are identical, e.g. fast, late, straight, and the type monthly, weekly, etc. So you can say He left in the late afternoon or He left late in the afternoon. Adverbs without -ly and those in -ly often occur in close proximity
(‘I play straight, I choose wisely, Harry,’ he assured me— Carré , 1989). In other cases, adjectives are used as adverbs only informally, often in fixed expressions such as come clean and hold tight. To these may be added real and sure, which in the UK are often taken to be tokens of informal North American speech (That was real nice / I sure liked seeing you).
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9 ADJECTIVES USED AS NOUNS. A typical extension in the use of some descriptive adjectives is with the, forming plural (or occasionally singular) nouns meaning ‘those who are … ’, e.g. the beautiful, the deaf, the poor, the sublime, the unemployed, the unusual.
Other adjectives stand as countable nouns: the ancients, the classics, collectables, explosives, submersibles.
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10 TRANSFERRED EPITHETS. A curiosity of English is the ways in which an adjective can be made to operate obliquely, qualifying a person or thing other than the word it relates to grammatically. This is a further extension of the standard use of adjectives to classify things in relation to their human associations; a female toilet means a toilet for women and a gay bar means a bar frequented by homosexuals:
‘It's not your stupid place,’ she says. ‘It's anyone's place.’— Lively , 1987 [the person addressed, not the place, is stupid] /
I will be sitting quietly at the kitchen table stirring an absentminded cup of coffee—Chicago Tribune, 1989 [the person, not the coffee, is absent-minded]. The traditional name for this phenomenon is transfered epithet or hypallage.
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adjudicator

is spelt -or.

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adjure

see ABJURE.

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adjust.

Three new uses of this verb have entered the language in the 20c:
1 Intransitive, with or without to: to adapt oneself to something
(She seemed to have adjusted to her new status with little difficulty—L. Niven , 1983 /
She needs time to adjust—S. King , 1979).
2 Intransitive, standing for passive: to be capable of being adjusted
(The barrel … can adjust right up to the neck of the lamp—Habitat Catalogue, 1982).
3 Transitive, with for, in the presentation of statistical information
(Lenders vary as to when they adjust your repayments for tax relief—What Mortgage, 1986).

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administer, administrate.

For many centuries, the normal word corresponding to administration and meaning ‘to manage (affairs)’ has been administer
(The Rezzoris were minor Austrian gentry administering the outposts of empire—London Review of Books, 1990). In recent years, however, the longer form administrate (first recorded in the 17c) has increasingly been used as a kind of newly invented back-formation, and is now awkwardly challenging administer in its traditional meanings:
The machinery of such aid is still primed by administrators eager to go out and administrate—Times, 1981 /
The Sports Council has begun a major investigation into discovering new ways to administrate a drug-detecting system—Times, 1988.
Administer is, on the other hand, routinely used to mean ‘to give (medicine) to a patient’
(I was brimming with alcohol—administered to loosen my tongue—A. Price , 1982) and is also being increasingly used in two other meanings:
1 to inflict (punishment, blows, etc.) on someone
(Two others held her feet while the headmaster administered the cane—B. Emecheta , 1974).
2 in medical contexts administer is used instead of minister to (an injured person, etc.):
The fact that Ranjit is still alive today is a tribute to the ambulance attendants who administered to him at the scene—Oxford Times, 1977 /
American doctors, being vastly rich, have better things to do with their leisure time than administer to patients at weekends—Times, 1994.

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admission, admittance.

Like many doublets, these two words have competed with each other for several centuries (admission first recorded in Middle English, admittance in 1589) without ever establishing totally separate roles. In the meaning corresponding to admit = ‘to acknowledge or accept as true’, admission is the word to use, not admittance. Where they get in each other's way is in meanings related to ‘the action of admitting, letting in, to a place’. Admission is the dominant word of the two: it alone has a countable use (There are more admissions in the sciences this year), and it is the only one to have developed attributive uses (admission fee, money, officer, ticket). Admittance hangs on determinedly, especially as the word used on notices on entrances (e.g. No admittance except on official business) but also as an erroneous alternative in meanings where admission is required
(The DTI's lack of admittance of negligence in this affair is a travesty of Justice—Times, 1988).

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admit.

1 Admit of is now only used in the meaning ‘to allow as possible, leave room for’ (always with an abstract object: The circumstances will not admit of delay / It seems to admit of so many interpretations), and even here the construction seems old-fashioned. In its other meanings, admit is transitive (He admitted the injustice of it, not He admitted of the injustice of it), and takes a that-clause as a common construction (He admitted that it was unjust).

2 The phrase admit to, meaning ‘to confess to, to acknowledge’, is a relatively recent addition to the language
(Senior Ministry officials yesterday admitted to a catalogue of errors—Times, 1989).
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adopted, adoptive.

The correct use of each word is as follows: a child is adopted and its parents are adoptive. The distinction has become eroded in recent usage, especially in extended uses with reference to countries, homes, etc.

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adult.

1 It is usually pronounced with stress on the first syllable in BrE and on the second syllable in AmE, but the distribution is uneven among educated speakers throughout the English-speaking world.

2 Since the 1950s, changing social attitudes have caused the word adult to be used euphemistically with the meaning ‘sexually explicit’, applied to certain categories of films, magazines, etc.
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advance.

1 ADVANCE, ADVANCED. The meanings are different, advance being a noun used attributively or as a modifier to mean ‘placed in advance; going before’, as in advance copy, advance guard, advance payment, etc., whereas advanced means ‘far on in development’ as in an advanced degree, an advanced age, an advanced young woman, etc.

2 ADVANCE, ADVANCEMENT. Advance is much the commoner word of the two in the general sense of ‘progress, going before’ (the advance of knowledge / an advance of £100 / the advance of old age / seats booked in advance, etc.). Advancement is far from extinct (1985/6. was another year of great advancement for Glaxo Inc. / The structure of the department allows for speedy advancement) but has a different meaning, ‘raising to a higher position; promotion’ and should not be used in the general sense that advance has. The advance of new ideas means their increasing effect, whereas the advancement of new ideas means encouraging and supporting them.
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adverb.

1 GENERAL. The term adverb covers a wide variety of words, and is the least satisfactory of the conventional word categories applied to English. The principal adverb uses answer the question ‘how?’ or ‘in what manner?’, many of these being formed by the addition of the suffix -ly to adjectives (e.g. carefully, quickly, steadily, well), ‘when?’ or ‘how often?’ (e.g. soon, regularly, yesterday), ‘where?’ (e.g. downstairs, here, outside), and ‘to what extent?’ (e.g. extremely, hardly, somewhat). For a more detailed analysis of types of adverb, and for further terminology, the reader is referred to a standard grammar such as Greenbaum's Oxford English Grammar (1996), 141–52.

2 FORMATION OF ADVERBS. The most common formation is achieved by adding -ly to adjectives, as in regularly, steadily, and quickly. Other adverbs are identical with adjectives (fast, well), and members of a third type are formed by adding other elements such as -ward(s), -ways and -wise to nouns, as in edgeways, homewards, and clockwise (some of these are also adjectives). In the 20c the range of adverbs ending in -wise has increased enormously, with many new ad-hoc (and often criticized) formations, such as anthemwise and hind-foot-wise. Use of these should be confined to occasions when a jocular or other special effect is called for.
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3 POSITION OF ADVERBS.
a Adverbs that qualify single words such as adjectives, nouns, and other adverbs generally precede them as closely as possible (often late / very large / quite a while / too modestly.
b The position of adverbs in phrases and clauses follows fairly clear rules, i.e. between an auxiliary verb and a main verb (e.g. Roosevelt's financial policy was roundly criticized in 1933 / He had inadvertently joined a lonely-hearts club), except for emphasis or when the adverb belongs closely to what follows the main verb (There is little chance that the student will function effectively after he returns to China), between one auxiliary verb and the next when there is more than one (e.g. A car dealer who could certainly have afforded to hire someone), and not between a verb and its object (Gradually the Chinese communists abandoned the Soviet methods / He dutifully observes all its quaint rules / They aim to set each subject briefly into context / Did he hear her correctly?. See also ONLY, SPLIT INFINITIVE.
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4 SENTENCE ADVERBS. Some adverbs (such as clearly, happily, hopefully, thankfully, unhappily) refer to a whole statement, and form a comment associated more closely with the speaker or writer than with what is said. This can be seen by comparing the use of unhappily as an ordinary adverb of manner (She went unhappily to bed) with its use as a sentence adverb (She was, unhappily, too ill to leave the house). In this use, the adverb often stands at the beginning of the sentence: Clearly, we will have to think again.
Use of sentence adverbs is well established in English, and the only one that has given rise to controversy is hopefully, which has developed this role in the mid-20c (see HOPEFULLY).
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5 ADVERBIAL USE OF NOUNS OF TIME. The adverbial use of days of the week (singular and plural) and similar words, familiar in AmE and some other varieties, is not common in current BrE:
From now on gentlemen, Tuesdays and Thursdays you're going to learn to think like white men—V. O'Sullivan , 1985 (New Zealand)/
Tuesday night, the board approved the addition of a new subsection—Chicago Tribune, 1987 /
I was to be offered an option of taking her with me summers— Bellow , 1987 (US).
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6 COMPARISON OF ADVERBS. See -ER AND -EST.
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adversary

is stressed on the first syllable.

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adverse, averse.

These two words both come from the Latin word vertere ‘to turn’, but averse (= turning away) is used of people and means ‘opposed to’, whereas adverse (= turning towards, hostilely) is used of things and means ‘opposing one's interests; unfavourable’ (adverse circumstances, adverse weather conditions) or even ‘harmful’ (the adverse effects of drugs):
Surprisingly, the adverse effects appeared to be worse for younger drivers and worse for men than women—Today 1992 /
This proud, but humiliated, most complicated of politicians was not averse to flattery—M. Almond , 1992.

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advert

see AD.

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advertise

is spelt -ise, not -ize.

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advertisement

is pronounced with the main stress on the second syllable in RP, but often on the third syllable (ad-v-tiyz-mnt) in many regional varieties of English.

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advertising, language of.

In a study of the use of language to influence and persuade people, the American scholar Dwight Bolinger (Language, the Loaded Weapon, 1980) describes several techniques which advertisers share with other persuaders in manipulating language to their own ends. These may be summarized as (1) literalism, in which an assertion is made that is literally true but will normally be understood in special ways that the advertiser intends (e.g. Dentists recommend Colgate suggests that all dentists recommend it whereas only two need be found to justify the statement made), (2) euphemism, in which less favourable aspects are made to sound more appealing (e.g. something that is average may be described as standard and a small quantity of a product may be described as handy version or fun size), and uninteresting concepts are made to sound more interesting (e.g. crafted instead of made, ultra-pure instead of clean or fresh), (3) use of jaunty vocabulary and slogans (e.g. Drinka pinta milka day, Every picture tells a story), and (4) the use of special syntax to associate the customer with a product (e.g. Aren't you glad you use Dial? and Put a tiger in your tank, both of which make an assumption to flatter and reassure the customer). See also EUPHEMISM,SLOGAN.

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advice, advise.

1 Advice is a noun (‘an opinion given about future action’) and advise a verb (‘to give advice to’), in both BrE and AmE:
The hardest thing is knowing where to go to get help, to get the advice and information you need—The Face, 1990 /
It may make sense to take professional advice on the wording of an appropriate letter—M. Edwards , 1991 /
We're advising all our clients to sit tight, at the moment, and neither to buy nor to sell—A. Davidson , 1989 /
‘I would advise against it, sir,’ said George Thomas—P. Junor , 1991.

2 Both words are used in a special sense in commercial and related uses: advice here is countable and is used to mean ‘piece of information’ (usually in the plural) or ‘a document giving information’
(Now we're looking to encourage our customers to send remittance advices electronically—Accountancy, 1993), and advise means ‘to notify, to give information to’
(The student will be advised of the name and address of the tutor—Tutors' Handbook 1990/91).
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advisedly.

1 It should be pronounced as four syllables.

2 The only surviving meaning of four given in the OED is ‘after considerable thought; as a result of deliberation’
(It was advisedly that the terms of reference excluded the public sector.—D. Lawrence , 1988 /
I used the words ‘an abuse of his powers’ advisedly—Weekly Law Reports, 1992).
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adviser, advisor.

The OED makes it plain that both forms occur with equal frequency throughout the English-speaking world, despite impressions that -er is predominantly BrE and -or AmE. Advisor is probably influenced by the existence of advisory; but adviser is preferable:
The Service would never forgive me a mucky divorce, dear—not its legal adviser— Carré , 1989 /
The goose … shuffled off to see if she could find some advisors— Winterson , 1985.

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advocate verb.

1 In a letter written in 1798 Benjamin Franklin asked Noah Webster , the lexicographer of American English, to use his authority to ‘reprobate’ this word, which was then new in the meaning ‘to recommend or plead in favour of’, although the verb had been in use for at least a century and a half with the meaning ‘to act as advocate’.

2 Fowler's view (1926) that ‘unlike recommend, propose, urge, and other verbs, advocate is not idiomatically followed by a that-clause, but only by an ordinary noun or a verbal noun’ has proved to be unsound. All three constructions are found and are acceptable:
(noun) He had been expelled by the National Executive for continuing to advocate a political alliance with Communists— Brown , 1971 /
(verbal noun) I would advocate the keeping of animals at school—A.S. Neill , 1915 / (that-clause) The UN envoy advocated that sanctions be imposed in South Africa.
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-ae, -as,

as plurals of nouns in -a. Most English nouns in -a are from Latin (or Latinized Greek) feminine singular nouns, which have in Latin the plural ending -ae. But some have a different Latin origin: e.g. subpoena is not nominative, comma and drama are neuter forms, and addenda, data, and stamina are plurals, and so with these words plural in -ae is not possible. Other words are not from Latin at all: e.g. sofa is from Arabic and swastika is from Sanskrit.
Of those words that are genuinely able to have plurals in -ae, some more technical ones do so (algae, larvae), whereas those in general use form English plurals in -as (areas, ideas, villas) and those in both technical and general use have both forms depending on the domain of use (antennae or antennas, formulae or formulas, nebulae or nebulas).

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ae-, e-.

There is a tendency to simplify spellings with ae- in BrE to e- in AmE, e.g. esthetic for aesthetic and anemic for anaemic, but both types are used.

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aeon,

meaning ‘a long period of time’, is spelt with initial ae- in BrE and as eon or aeon in AmE. The pronunciation in both spellings is ee-on. See also EPOCH.

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aerie, aery

(nest of a bird of prey) See EYRIE.

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aesthete, aesthetic

are spelt with initial ae- in BrE and pronounced ees-theet and ees-thet-ik. In AmE they are often spelt esthete and esthetic, and are pronounced es-theet and es-thet-ik.

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affect, effect.

1 These two words are often confused. It should be remembered that effect is most common as a noun meaning ‘a result or consequence’
(In England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever— Wilde ), and that affect is most common as a verb meaning ‘to have an effect on’ (Bodily exercise indirectly affects all the organs of the body / These measures chiefly affect [i.e. are directed at] drug-pushers / It will not affect [i.e. have a bearing on] his chances of promotion). As a noun, affect survives only as a technical term in psychology. As a verb, effect means ‘to bring about, cause, have as a result’.

2 Affect also means ‘to assume (a character); to pretend to have or feel or do something, etc.’
(As he reached the pick-up point, he should affect to slow down as if hunting for a car— Carré , 1989). This is a different word although it is ultimately related to the one above.
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affinity.

When affinity implies a mutual relationship or attraction, it is normally followed by between or with
(The affinity between Britain and most of her former colonies/
Beckett … stresses that he wrote the little book on order, not out of any deep affinity with Proust—M. Esslin , 1980). If the feeling is onesided, it is necessary to use other words, such as sympathy, affection, feeling, etc., and these are followed by for. Affinity also has technical meanings, e.g. in metallurgy.

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affix

is a grammatical term for word elements added at the beginnings or ends of words (e.g. anti-, post-, re-, -able, -ness, -tion). It is also used for elements put in the middle of words (infixes) such as Eliza Doolittle's abso-bloominglutely.

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afflict

see INFLICT.

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aftermath.

The original sense in agriculture (a second or later mowing or the crop of grass which springs up after the first mowing) is 16c (along with aftercrop and aftergrass) and the figurative sense is 17c. In its figurative meaning, aftermath usually denotes something unpleasant or unwelcome in itself or something that follows on an unpleasant or unwelcome event (such as war or disease), but these unfavourable connotations are not present in the literal meaning. Examples:
Depression is sometimes an immediate aftermath of completing a piece of work—A. Stoor , 1979 /
In the immediate aftermath of Wolsey's fall from power, his advisers offered him a range of options on how to obtain the annulment—C. Durston , 1991 /
The Gulf War and its aftermath have shown the crucial need for stronger and more effective world institutions capable of upholding international law—Liberal Democrat Publications, 1992).

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afterward, afterwards.

Afterward is restricted to North America
(Afterward, he had a long and satisfying career with the city Welfare Department—New Yorker, 1987 /
Afterward they were enormously and finally sick of each othe— Munro , 1987(Canada), whereas afterwards is the customary form in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and is an optional by-form in North America.

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age.

There are two idiomatic uses that differ between BrE and AmE: (1) BrE has for ages, and AmE has in ages
(I haven't seen her in ages— Mclnerny , 1988), (2) BrE has at the age of … and AmE has at age …
(It all started when he got diphtheria, at age eighteen—New Yorker, 1991).

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aged

is pronounced as one syllable in (e.g.) The house has aged well, and as two syllables in (e.g.) an aged man.

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ageing

is preferable as a spelling to aging, although both are in use.

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agenda.

1 The essential plurality of this word (= things to be done) has been worn to extinction by usage. Its dominant sense now is ‘a list of items of business to be considered at a meeting, etc.’ and it is often used in extended or figurative meanings
(Mrs Walton said she hadn't a spare moment. She had a busy agenda— Bainbridge , 1975 /
There is a feeling that we have got to draw up a new agenda now—Marxism Today, 1986). It has even produced a plural in -as
(Our students' ideas and agendas—Daedalus, 1988). The singular agendum is purely notional, although it is occasionally used, e.g. in the context of academic bodies
(The Estates Bursar was called on to introduce Agenda Item 3. They mean Agendum 3, thought Jake— Amis , 1978).

2 The phrase hidden agenda (first recorded in 1971) has powerful and sometimes sinister connotations
(Sex was the hidden agenda at these discussions— Atwood , 1987 /
The hidden agenda could easily appear to be that ‘our drama is the least important thing in the school’—B. Woolland , 1993).
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aggravate.

The meaning ‘to annoy or exasperate’ has existed in good sources since the early 17c; despite this, Fowler (1926) recommended that it ‘should be left to the uneducated’. The dominance of the current sense has not put paid to the original meaning, 'to increase the gravity of, and the two meanings now stand side by side in a relatively unthreatening manner. Examples:
(older sense) These misfortunes were greatly aggravated by the policies of the English Government— Churchill , 1958 /
(later sense) Do not aggravate them, be quiet, smile nicely— Carey , 1982 /
Jane Fairfax aggravates her in all sorts of ways—T. Tanner , 1986. The later meaning has given rise to a common participial adjective aggravating (like annoying): e.g.
It was aggravating that he had to do so many little jobs himself— Wesley , 1983.

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aggravation.

1 The 20c has seen an increase in the harassment of appointed or elected officials and of other people in positions of authority, e.g. schoolteachers. The words most commonly used in this context is aggravation (first recorded in this meaning in 1939), and its colloquial equivalent is aggro (1969). In more recent use they have come to signify trouble or difficulty in general:
Members of the public are quite able to make their own claims assisted and guided by department officials without having these people coming in and causing aggravation—Times, 1978 /
A certain amount of agricultural aggro is a regular part of the French way of public life—Times, 1984 /
I am acutely conscious that I have been a source of aggravation to Pa recently over my stupid allergy to vegetables—I. Maitland , 1993.

2 Aggravation is still used to mean ‘making more serious or grave’: e.g.
It would have been a very unnecessary aggravation of his difficulties to have two different popes in lands which he intended to unite once more—R.W. Southern , 1990.
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aggression.

Note that it has two gs.

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aggressive.

1 Note that it has two gs.

2 The commercial world of the 20c has added the meanings ‘self-assertive; energetic, enterprising’ to the word when it is applied to the techniques of marketing and salesmanship or to selling goods or services:
We are seeking an aggressive senior level manager with excellent business acumen—advertisement in The Times, 1985.
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aggressor.

Note that it has two gs and is spelt -or not -er.

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agitator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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ago, since.

Ago is followed by that, not since, in constructions of the type It is 10 years ago that [not since] he died. Since is used without ago: e.g. it is 10 years since he died.

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agree

is used intransitively (without an object) with about, on, to, upon, and with, or with a that-clause, and transitively (with an object) to mean ‘to arrange or settle (a thing in which various interests are concerned)’; there are examples of this transitive use in the OED from the 16c. In the 20c, another transitive use, equivalent to ‘agree to; approve’ has become common in BrE. This use is sometimes disapproved of but without any good reason, since the only difference is that one party rather than several is involved in the decision. Examples:
The tax inspector has agreed your allowances / The Russians have agreed a wide list of categories—Bookseller, 1959 /
The European Commission yesterday agreed a supplementary budget for this year which would use up every single European currency unit (ECU) available to the EEC budget—Times, 1983.

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agreement.

1 Grammatical agreement (also called concord) is the correct relation to each other of different parts of a sentence, so that (for example) the form of the verb corresponds to its subject (The house was small, and its walls were painted white), and the gender and number (singular or plural) of a pronoun conforms to that of the person or thing it refers to (He had never been close enough to a girl to consider making her his wife). As English has lost many inflections over centuries of use, agreement is more closely restricted to particular aspects of sentence structure than it is in some other languages (e.g. German).

2 Lengthy sentences in which the verb is separated from its singular subject by intervening words in the plural can cause the speaker or writer to put the verb in the plural, but this is incorrect: The consequence of long periods of inactivity or situations in which patients cannot look after themselves are often quite severe and long-lasting. Here there are three options: change consequence to consequences, change are to is, or (probably best) recast the sentence more simply, e.g. Long periods of inactivity … can often have quite severe and long-lasting consequences.
In shorter sentences, the verb is also often forced out of agreement with its subject when a significant plural noun intervenes (note the mischief played by the word of here as elsewhere):
Copyright of Vivienne's papers are in the keeping of the Haigh-Wood family—Literary Review, 1985 /
The spread of nuclear weapons and technology are likely to make the true picture very different—Daedalus, 1991 /
At least one in two churches are likely to be burgled next year—Times, 1992. Care should be taken to ensure proper agreement in such cases.
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3 Difficulties also occur when the form of the subject is not so obviously singular or plural, for example when it is a phrase (e.g. fish and chips / more than one), when it includes an indefinite such as each, every, any, or none, when it has a parenthetic addition whose grammatical status is unclear (e.g. My brother, together with a whole lot of his friends, …), when it is a single word of doubtful number (e.g. agenda or data), or when it is a collective noun (e.g. the government, a group of people).
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TWO NOUNS JOINED BY AND. These normally form a plural subject and require a plural verb: Speed and accuracy are what is needed / Fish and chips are served in the evening. But when the noun phrase is regarded as a singular unit, it can take a singular verb: Fish and chips is my favourite meal / Romeo and Juliet is showing at the local cinema. This can extend to concepts that are distinct in themselves but are regarded as a single item in a particular sentence: A certain cynicism and resignation comes along with the poverty of Italian comedy. The convention is very old, with evidence dating back to Old and Middle English. Clearly there will be borderline cases, and then it is what sounds natural that matters: The hurt and disbelief of parents' friends and families is/are already quite real / The extent and severity of drug use in the United States has/have been a shock to the medical director.
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. In many cases, these (each, either, every, everybody, neither, none, no one, etc.) govern a singular verb, but sometimes the context calls for a plural, especially when the sense is of collectiveness rather than individuality:
(singular) Neither of these figures illuminates the case against Trident— Steel , 1985 /
None of her features is particularly striking— Lodge , 1962 /
(plural) Neither the government nor the tribunal, surely, want to bear responsibility—Daily Telegraph, 1987 /
None of our fundamental problems have been solved—London Review of Books, 1987. See also EACH, EITHER, EVERY, NEITHER,NONE.
In the case of one of those who, the verb can be either singular or plural depending on whether one or those is regarded as the antecedent of who:
(singular) Perhaps you were one of those fellows who sees tricks everywhere— Carey , 1985 /
I am one of those people who wants others to do what I think they should— Bakewell , 1988 /
(plural) Lily had … been one of those numerous people who are simply famous for being famous [note that numerous plays a part in emphasizing plurality]— Murdoch , 1987 /
That's one of those propositions that become harder to sustain the further they're explored— Amis , 1988.
SUBJECTS WITH PARENTHETIC ADDITION. Nouns joined by other linking words or quasicoordinators (e.g. accompanied by, as well as, not to mention, together with, etc.) are followed by a singular verb if the first noun or noun phrase is singular, because the addition is not regarded as part of the grammatical subject: A very profitable company such as British Telecom, along with many other companies in the UK, is not prepared to pay a reasonable amount / Daddy had on the hairy tweed jacket with leather elbow patches which, together with his pipe, was his trade mark.
WORDS LIKE AGENDA AND DATA. These are plural in form but are usually singular in sense and govern a singular verb: in The agenda is on the table, the reference is to a single item. The process can be discerned more clearly in the older word news, which has long been construed as a singular noun despite its plural form: Is there any news?. See AGENDA, DATA.
COLLECTIVE NOUNS. These are, by contrast, words such as committee, government, group, which are singular in form but often plural in sense. In BrE, the practice is well established of construing such words either with a singular verb (when unity or collectivity is being emphasized) or with a plural verb (when individuality or corporateness is being emphasized). Examples: (singular) Each succeeding generation of gallery visitors finds it easier to recognize Cubist subject-matter / A group of four young men, in denim overalls, was standing close to him / (plural) The jury retired at five minutes past five o'clock to consider their verdict / Let us hope that the Ministry of Defence are on your side this time. It is important to avoid a mixed style, as in The government has decided to postpone their decision.
In AmE it is customary for a singular verb to be used with collective nouns:
The government routinely imposes differential taxes on hotels, bars … and the like—Bulletin of the American Academy, 1987. But collective nouns of the type a + noun + of + plural noun can govern a singular or plural verb:
A fleet of helicopters was flying low—New Yorker, 1986 /
A handful of bathers were bobbing about in the waves— Roth , 1987 /
A rich and detailed picture of a world in which a multitude of elements were intertwined—New York Review of Books 1989.
OTHER PLURAL FORMS TREATED AS SINGULAR. (1) Titles of books, plays, films, etc. (because the words ‘the book etc. known as … ’ are implicit): Great Expectations is an account of development of identity / Star Wars has diverted some six billion dollars from the federal treasury. (2) Names of illnesses (because the words ‘the illness known as … ’ are implicit): Mumps often occurs in adults / Measles is normally a childhood disease.
4 CLASH OF AGREEMENT. Sometimes there is a clash of agreement within a sentence, for example when the speaker or writer wants to express neutrality of gender, where recourse to the plural is an old device:
Everyone was in their shirt-sleeves—F. Tuohy , 1984 /
No one in their senses wants to create instability— Healey , 1985 /
I really resent it when I call somebody who's not home and they don't have an answering machine—Chicago Tribune, 1988 /
Each parent has a duty to do the best for their own child—Independent, 1996.
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5 SUBJECT–COMPLEMENT AGREEMENT. When a subject and a complement of different number are separated by the verb to be (or verbs such as become, seem, etc.), the verb should agree with the number of the subject: (singular) The only traffic is ox-carts and bicycles / The problem is the windows / The view it obscured was pipes, fire escapes, a sooty-walled well / (plural) The socials were a big deal to her / The house and garden were a powerful cauldron of heat and light / The March events in Poland were a natural stage in the evolution of communism. There are some exceptions, depending on the sense in particular cases: More nurses [i.e. the subject of more nurses] is the next item on the agenda.
See also COLLECTIVE NOUN, EITHER, GENDER-NEUTRALITY, MANY, NEITHER, THERE IS.
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-aholic.

This suffix derived from alcoholic, meaning ‘someone addicted to alcohol’ (late 19c), forms words that mean kinds of addiction, and has moved into common use in the last three or four decades, principally in workaholic (1968), and also in words such as sugarholic (1965), golfaholic (1971), newsaholic (1975), and bookaholic (1982), and in more fanciful and ad hoc uses such as footballaholic (1974) and spend-a-holic (1982). It has proved to a useful and productive word element, whose progress in the language is to some extent a reflection of social pre-occupations.

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aid.

The noun dates from 1940 in its meanings ‘material help given by one country to another’ (Christian aid, foreign aid, Marshall aid, etc.), and took on a further use as the second element in the names of occasions organized to raise money for charitable causes (Band Aid, Fashion Aid, School Aid, Live Aid, etc.). The use was triggered by Band Aid, the name of a rock group formed by Bob Geldof in 1984 to raise money for the relief of famine in Ethiopia.

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aid, aide.

An aid is someone who helps (in various ways), whereas an aide denotes either of two more specific functions: (1) short for aide-de-camp, a high-ranking officer in the armed services
(Brigadier Monson summoned his five closest aides for a working lunch—N. Barber , 1984), (2) a person employed as an assistant or ancillary worker, especially in a hospital or as a visitor to the home of an ill or elderly person
(Just before he died a nurse's aide brought his dinner tray into the room—E.L. Doctorow , 1989).

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Aids,

the virus condition, is the most memorable acronym of the 20c; it is made from acquired immune deficiency syndrome. It is now normally spelt as a word, usually with a capital initial, and rarely as AIDS. This spelling preference has been intensified by the occurrence of several combinations such as Aids-related (complex), Aids-free, Aids vaccine, Aids awareness, and pre-Aids.

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aim.

The verb has two principal constructions in its abstract meaning: you can aim at something (analogous with aiming at a target in the physical meaning) or at doing something, or you can aim to do something
(The directive aims at ensuring open passage through the borders—Financial Times, 1984 /
Much imagination has gone into the project, which aims to attract half a million visitors a year—Times, 1983). The construction with to, for long the more common option in AmE, has excellent credentials, and is modelled on the analogy of similar verbs such as intend, mean, plan, etc. In the passive, however, only the at construction is possible
(We should aim to re-cycle half our household waste within 10 years.—Independent, 1989 /
The summit also agreed to aim at completing an ambitious co-operation agreement with the new government—Guardian, 1989 /
The technology in question is aimed at improving the quality of life of the inhabitants—N. Woodall , c.1991).

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ain't.

1 Ain't is one of the most controversial words in current English, arousing passions that one would never have dreamt of from such a seemingly inoffensive word. ‘Do you hear? Don't say “ain't” or “dang” or “son of a buck” … You're not a pair of hicks!’ scolds a mother in a New Yorker short story. In 1942 Eric Partridge could hardly bear to include it (‘I blush to record it’) in Usage and Abusage, and Webster's Third New International Dictionary of 1961 included it solely on grounds of currency, earning widespread condemnation for not castigating it more strongly. Because social disapproval is so strong, no dictionary of current English will admit it to the ranks of standard English. The reasons for this lie in the word's history.

2 Ain't is an undisputed element in Cockney speech, whether in Dickens
(‘You seems to have a good sister.’ ‘She ain't half bad.’—Our Mutual Friend, 1865) or in the outrageous rantings of the television character Alf Garnet. It also features widely in the language of comic strips. The OED notes that 'the contraction is also found as a (somewhat outmoded) upper-class colloquialism. It has also been espoused in intellectual circles as an affectation, which tends to confuse the issue
(I've not the spirit to pack up and go without him. Ain't I a craven— Woolf , 1938 /
Still working the Cape Cod and Florida cycle. And it ain't too bad–Yale Alumni Magazine).
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3 The formation of ain't is irregular, which in part accounts for the stigma attached to it. It is an 18c word, attested earlier in the form an't (e.g. in Fielding). Unlike other contractions, such as isn't, aren't, and haven't, ain't is not a reduced form of any logical ancestor. Note, by the way, that aren't also is exceptional in being used in tag questions for am I not as well as are they not, are you not, and so on (I'm coming too, aren't I?). The logical contraction amn't, is not in use, presumably because it would be too awkward to articulate (and might be shortened to an't or ain't?).
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4 It is unlikely that ain't will be admitted to standard English in the foreseeable future, if ever. For now, it stands at the door, out on the pavement, not yet part of the language household except as an affectation or in catchphrases, at best handled with tweezers and at worst regarded as the clearest single token of illiteracy.
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air verb.

In the meaning ‘to broadcast’, this modern use (first recorded in 1943) is frequent in AmE
(It aired a heartwarming TV commercial on the importance of savings institutions—Wall Street Journal, 1989) but it is not often encountered in BrE
(The obligation to keep records of all programmes aired—Economist, 1981 /
Aired over eight consecutive nights, Roots came up roses for ABC—Time, 1977).

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ait

(pronounced to rhyme with hate), an originally Old English word for an islet on a river (especially the Thames in London), is best spelt ait, rather than the alternative eyot.

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aitch

see H.

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à la

is used in English without regard to gender, despite being feminine in French (the corresponding masculine form au is not used in this way in English). Apart from its use in phrases borrowed whole from French (e.g. à la carte, and cookery terms such as à la meunière, where au can of course also occur, as in au gratin), it is used as a semi-naturalized preposition, grammatically free though often appearing in print in Italics (There were giant landscape photocollages à la David Hockney / The BBC should give serious consideration to an autumn shuffle à la 10 Downing Street).

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albeit

(15c) is not an archaism, despite its sound and its formation on a subjunctive verb (all be it that); the shorter form albe, attested from about the same date, is now obsolete. Use with a that-clause was early suppressed (Chaucer) and is now largely redundant, although it is sometimes found in print. Hence it often behaves more like an adverb than a conjunction. It has an archaic ring and is often used as a quasi-archaism:
It is an unwelcome, albeit necessary, restraint—A. Storr , 1972 /
A great line of poetry, albeit by a mendacious fascist, will outlast … the most sanctified of good deeds—Times Literary Supplement, 1988.

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albino

has the plural form albinos.

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alga

is normally used in its plural form algae, pronounced al-jee.

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alibi

is properly a legal term meaning ‘a plea that when an alleged act took place one was elsewhere’. The earliest use of alibi (18c) corresponded to that of the Latin adverb meaning ‘elsewhere’: those under suspicion had to prove that they were alibi (elsewhere). From this use it rapidly hardened into a noun: an alibi was ‘an instance of being alibi’
(Since you think I murdered him, I had better produce my alibi—S. Brett , 1979). In the 20c it has developed a colloquial weakened meaning ‘an excuse; a plea of innocence’
(I have an alibi because I'm going to have a baby—L.P. Hartley , 1951 /
The power-loom provided both the State and the employers with a cast iron alibi—E.P. Thompson , 1980). This colloquial use is first recorded in American sports writing and then in detective fiction (naturally, or surprisingly, enough). The corresponding sense of ‘a person providing an alibi’ has followed suit
(Tom and Maureen are my alibis—C. Hare , 1949) and there is even a verb, although its inflection is too awkward for widespread use
(She's alibi-ed by Mrs. Fitch—J. Cannan , 1958 /
There's got to be someone to alibi us—L. Duncan , 1978).

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alien.

From the 14c to the 19c inclusive, alien as an adjective meaning ‘of nature or character different from’ was followed by from
(This uncouth style, so alien from genuine English—H. Reed , 1855). About the turn of the century, this construction gave way to one with to, by analogy with words like adverse, repugnant, and opposed, rather than different. The construction with to is now routine
(Thinking, and certainly brooding, were quite alien to his character—J.C. Oates , 1980 /
The implied snobbery of the remark was quite alien to the whole way in which she had been brought up—A.N. Wilson , 1982). The construction with from still occurs from time to time
(A reflection upon how far man has come to feel himself alien from the animal kingdom of which he is a member—A. Storr , 1968).

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all.

1 ALL OR ALL OF. All can be used before singular or plural nouns, and of is not needed except before pronouns standing alone (all human life / all the time / all children / all tickets / all of them / all you people). The construction with of is comparatively recent (first recorded c.1800) and is probably due to association with none of, some of, little of, much of, etc.
(He will have to be all of these things— Brookner , 1986 /
All of the company's profits had been used to salary him—B. Ripley , 1987 /
At each stop, all of us visitors were greeted by a hail of celebratory statistics—New Yorker, 1989). There is also a common idiomatic use with quantities
(It must have been all of fifteen minutes of … dull, homesick silence— Twain , 1883 /
He was all of thirty-three, solitary and unsure of himself—G. Graham , 1944).

2 When all is the subject of the verb to be followed by a plural complement, the linking verb is expressed in the singular:
All I saw was fields— Williams , 1985 /
In some sense, all we have is the scores—incomplete and corrupted as they often are—New Yorker, 1989.
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3 See also ALL RIGHT, ALL THAT, ALL TOGETHER, ALL TOLD, ALREADY; for all but see BUT (7).
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all-around

is an optional AmE variant to all-round (The best allaround American school / A good all-around player).

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allay

has inflections allays, allayed, allaying.

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allegedly

is pronounced as four syllables.

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allegory, fable, parable.

1 All three words denote a narrative or story that symbolizes other persons and events. Allegory flourished in medieval literature and later (Spenser's Faerie Queene, 1590–6; Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 1678–84, in which the journey of the hero Christian stands for the life of the human soul; Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, 1681), and allegorical elements are present in much modern writing, e.g. Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts (1941), which by means of a village pageant presents ‘a communal image of rural England, past and present’.

2 A parable is a special kind of allegory, especially in the New Testament, in which a moral point is made from an everyday story. A fable also makes a moral point, but is couched in terms of fictional characters who are often made to do impossible things (e.g. animals speak).
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allergy

dated from the early 20c in its pathological meaning ‘sensitiveneness to pollen, certain foods, antibiotics, etc.’ It is attested earlier in German (Allergie) and is derived from Greek words allos ‘other, different’ and ergon ‘work’. Its extended meaning, involving antipathy to all sorts of things, dates from the 1940s; an early instance is a famous one in Auden:
Before the Diet of Sugar he was using razor blades And excited soon after with an allergy to maidenheads—For Time Being, 1944. Allergic dates in its original meaning from about the same time as allergy, and its extended use is recorded slightly earlier (1937 in the OED). In recent use, allergies and being allergic have extended to things like change, the number 13, opera on television, negotiating with terrorists, colonels (1942), scissors, and other things ranging from the sinister to the apparently harmless.

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alley

has the plural form alleys.

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allot verb

has inflected forms allots, allotted, allotting, but note allotment (one t).

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allow.

1 This verb matches admit in having a wide range of common uses, transitive and intransitive, with that-clauses, and with an infinitive complement. For several centuries it has alternated in many meanings with the phrasal verb allow of; some of these meanings are now obsolete, but one has survived, presumably to avoid ambiguity with allow = ‘permit, authorize’, although it sounds old-fashioned (e.g.
Jortin is willing to allow of [= accept as valid] other miracles—J.R. Lowell , 1849).

2 In the meanings ‘to acknowledge, concede’, allow followed by a clause has been in continuous use since the 17c (e.g.
I suppose it will be allowed us that marriage is a human society— Milton , 1643 /
‘You know best, Captain,’ Hugh Macroon allowed with grave courtesy— Mackenzie , 1947).
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3 The construction allow as how, meaning ‘to state as an opinion, have to admit that’ is restricted to AmE and dialect uses
(She allowed as how my old friend J.J. was flying on Monday morning—N. Thornburg , 1976 /
He allowed as how she was faithful—T. Morrison , 1981).
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allowedly

is pronounced as four syllables.

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all right

is still the preferred way of writing this common expression. The alternative form alright, though often found in private writing and in popular journalism and magazines, is not fully accepted, despite various arguments in its favour, especially:
(1) the need to distinguish it from the use in which all is a pronoun and not an adverb, as in He finished the crossword and got it all right,
(2) the analogy of altogether, already, etc., which similarly need to be distinguished from two-word forms having other meanings, and
(3) its pronunciation as a single word. None the less, all right should be used for the time being, not alright.

Examples:
(all right) One advantage of the permissive society is that it's all right to live together before marriage—Woman's Own, 1971 /
It's all right for you … You won't have to do the post-mortem with these guys— Deighton , 1974 /
‘Oh, all right’, she said, ‘go and be damned,’— Greene , 1980 /
(alright) They've been bloody inscrutable alright—P. Cave , 1979 /
You'll be alright, love— Achebe , 1987 /
If you've got the ears to know what sounds good you're going to be pretty much alright—Guitarist, 1992.

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all-round

see ALL-AROUND.

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all that,

as in not all that good, is common as a colloquial intensifier
(I looked around the stock. It wasn't all that brilliant, I must admit—J. Leasor , 1969). Gowers (1965) judged that the use was ‘now well on its way to literary status’, and it is indeed now a standard construction, though still having a whiff of the conversational about it.

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all together, altogether.

These are often confused, because their meanings encroach on one another. All together means ‘everyone together’, and the word all is usually removable without damaging the syntax or affecting the meaning: e.g.
One victim and five suspects, all together in a sealed room—A. Morice , 1971. Altogether is adverbial and means ‘entirely; in every way’: e.g.
The idea of counselling in schools is not altogether new—Times, 1970 /
Martinez was not altogether unknown. But the antagonism of people in Chicago is insignificant. He has another ball game in mind altogether— Bellow , 1982 /
Like Ruskin, he can at times write sentences which I would call ‘woozy’; that is to say, too dependent upon some private symbolism of his own to be altogether comprehensible to others.—W.H. Auden , 1970.

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all told.

This phrase, meaning ‘when all are counted to included’, is first recorded in 1850. Originally used in contexts that included numbers (e.g. There are 12 all told), it has now spread to unquantified contexts (e.g. All told, I enjoyed life in the army), although this is best avoided except in casual conversation.

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allude, allusion.

1 To allude to someone or something is to mention them ‘indirectly or covertly’, i.e. without mentioning their name, unlike refer, which means to mention them directly, i.e. by name. So if you refer to Julius Caesar you name him, whereas if you allude to him you identify him without naming him, e.g. ‘the Roman dictator assassinated in 44 BC’. In practice, allude is often used to mean ‘refer’ (e.g.
In his surviving works, Aristotle never mentions Alexander by name nor alludes directly to his stay in Macedonia—R.L. Fox , 1972 /
He had star quality, an element often alluded to in Arlene's circle of show-biz friends— Vidal , 1978).

2 Allusion and reference should follow the same principle, allusion involving indirect mention and reference involving direct mention by name, but again in practice the distinction blurs at the edges
(She came across allusions to her family in the papers— Sackville-West , 1931 /
Midway in the questioning … he'd begun to notice the number of allusions to a particular November weekend— Capote , 1966 /
There were hints and allusions about his troubles to his friends—D. Halberstam , 1979 /
She was … annoyed that he could make her feel so uncomfortable by his veiled allusion to last night—A. Murray , 1993.
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3 Beware of confusion between allusion and illusion, which means ‘a deception or misapprehension about the true state of affairs’.
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ally.

1 This is now normally stressed on the first syllable, both as a noun and as a verb.

2 The verb has four typical constructions:
(1) transitive,
(2) intransitive,
(3) reflexive

(Since Siegfried alone has the strength to win the Valkyrie for Gunther, they must ally themselves with him—A. Huth , 1985), (4) passive
(We hear she's currently allied with a very flakey anarchist guy— Carrè , 1983).
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3 Allied is used as a general adjective meaning ‘relating to or belonging to allies (or Allies, usually particular ones)’
(The man … made his astonishing parachute jump into allied territory—Times 1970 /
The Vice President also wants to know just what allied or U.S. initiatives Europeans would welcome to get the stalemated talks … going once again—Times, 1977).
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almanac

is now spelt —ac except in traditional titles including The Oxford Almanack and Whitaker's Almanack.

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alongside.

Alongside has been used as a preposition with or without of for some two centuries and both constructions are still available, although use with of is now often restricted to constructions with a verbal noun
(The transport Stamboul … was alongside the harbour wall—D.A. Thomas , 1988 /
Alongside of preaching the Gospel … there are other ways in which we have to change the lives of these savages— Hampton , 1974).

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already.

1 As an adverb (I have already paid), already is spelt as one word, and is not to be confused with the two separate words all ready (We are all ready to start now).

2 Already is sometimes used in AmE and other varieties, and informally in BrE too, to mean ‘yet, still’ or even (in its weakened use) ‘now’, as in the following examples:
If I were a man and your ma was fifty–five already I should still be mad for her—R.Y. Stormberg , 1920 (South Africa) /
Give me the watermelon already—D. Greenburg , 1964, /
US I called you up but you weren't there already—J. Platt , 1984 (South Africa). This use is non—standard, and should be avoided except in informal contexts.
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alright

see ALL RIGHT.

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also.

1 Also should be used as an adverb (Besides being an astronomer and mathematician, Grassi was also an architect), and not a conjunction equivalent to and or as well as (Remember your passport and money; also the tickets / He has made a good impression. He writes well and keeps to deadlines. Also, he's an agreeable person).

2 The normal position is with the verb
(It was also held to be the cause of the milder form of the illness known as AIDS-related complex—New York Review of Books, 1986 /
Both wines also come in sweeter demi-sec version—Which?, 1984 /
The equipment needed can be used quite legitimately … But it can also be used to hack into other people's computers—Times, 1985). It is pedantic and against natural usage to insist on positioning also to clarify the part of the sentence it is chiefly referring to, as in My brother also is coming [i.e. as well as my sister], to distinguish from My brother is also coming [i.e. as well as telephoning]. Too is a far more mobile word and serves this purpose much better.
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alternate, alternative.

1 Both words are adjectives and nouns and come from Latin alternus meaning ‘every second’ and have had closely related meanings over several centuries of usage. Now however, there is a clear distinction which needs to be observed. Alternate as an adjective means ‘(of two things) each following and followed by the other’, as in alternate days. Alternative means ‘available or usable instead of another’, as in an alternative solution to the problem. In other words, an alternative thing replaces something else, whereas an alternate thing exists as well as something else. In 20c AmE, alternate, with stress on the first syllable, has usurped the territory of alternative in its ordinary meaning
(An alternate way to make these rellenos is to stuff the meat mixture into whole green chiles—San Diego Union, 1987).

2 Since the late 1960s the adjective has increasingly been used to mean ‘purporting or claiming to represent an acceptable or preferable alternative to that in traditional use’, as in alternative medicine (mainly homoeopathic or holistic), alternative energy (non-nuclear and not using fossil fuels), alternative fuel (and alternative-fuel vehicles, AFVs), alternative birthing (avoiding artificial methods), alternative society (rejecting traditional values), alternative technology (conserving resources), alternative theatre (using nontraditional techniques).
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3 Alternative as a noun means something that is available or usable instead of something else. The traditional view that an alternative must be one of two possibilities, because the source word, Latin alter, means ‘other of two’ is not sustainable, and alternative has been regularly used since the mid—19c with reference to any number of possibilities
(Mr. George Bush, the U.S. Vice-President, last night confirmed Washington's willingness to consider alternatives to its zero option proposals for banning intermediate range nuclear missiles from Europe—Financial Times, 1983 /
The aim of counselling is to open up the personal world of experience in which the person feels ‘stuck’ so that he or she may find alternative ways of coping with the world of events which confronts him or her—Counselling, 1983). The traditional use is still found, and lies at the heart of the word, most often as the alternative
(The alternative of ‘public limited company’ is the abbreviation ‘p.l.c.’—Companies Act, 1980).
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4 Alternate as a noun is much less common. In AmE it is often used with the meaning ‘an alternative’, a reserve (player), a variant
(I was fourth alternate in the Miss Teenage South Carolina pageant— Boyd , 1984 /
The twelve jurors and six alternates in Room 318 of the United States Courthouse—New Yorker, 1986). In BrE this meaning is not found, although it is related to one that was in use in the 18c.
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5 Alternate is also a verb (pronounced -neit in the final syllable), meaning‘(of two or more things) to succeed one another in turns’:
In a democratic system political parties expect to alternate in office—P. Richards , 1988.
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although, though.

Though can always be used instead of although, but the same is not true the other way round.
1 Both words can be used as a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause
(He did well, although he did not win an outright majority—Economist, 1981 /
Though there was a tendency for students to factionalize, there were always students good about diplomacy—Christian Science Monitor, 1982 /
Although the defendant had undoubtedly committed an offence of failing to give full particulars, that was not an arrestable offence—Times, 1984). Where they are interchangeable, however, although generally has a stronger concessive force, and is somewhat more usual in initial position in a sentence.
2 In the following uses, though alone is possible: (1) as an adverb in medial or final position
(It is true though that one misses out on one's husband's early years of struggle—Times, 1985). (2) in inverted constructions (Young though he is, he doesn't look it), (3) in the fixed expressions as though and even though
(Anderson is a borderline New Waver who looks as though she has been out in the rain upside down—Washington Post, 1982 /
He was by no means a dry, boring theoretician even though he wrote extraordinarily advanced books on dance— Fonteyn , 1980).

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alto

has the plural form altos.

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altogether

see ALL TOGETHER.

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aluminium.

The BrE spelling accords well with other element names such as magnesium, potassium, sodium, etc., whereas the AmE spelling aluminium (stressed on the second syllable) is the one adopted by its discoverer, Sir H. Davy , in about 1812.

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alumnus

(stressed on the second syllable) means a former student or pupil, and comes from a Latin word meaning ‘nursling’. It is more common in AmE than in BrE. The plural form is alumni (pronounced -niy) and the female form is alumna (plural alumnae, pronounced -nee). Rival views on the pronunciation of Latin words in English mean that the masculine and feminine pronunciations are sometimes reversed.

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a.m.

As an abbreviation of Latin ante meridiem ‘before noon’, a.m. is pronounced as two letters and written in the form 8.15 a.m. (or am; in AmE 8:15 a.m.). Note that 12.00 a.m. is midnight and 12 p.m. is midday; because of the uncertainty these designations cause, the explicit forms 12.00 midnight or 12.00 midday are often to be preferred. The abbreviation is sometimes used informally as a noun: I arrived here this a.m.

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amateur.

The standard pronunciation is now am--t.

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ambidextrous.

Note the spelling -trous, not -terous.

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ambience,

meaning ‘surroundings, atmosphere’, is derived from French ambiance (a form which is also occasionally used in English). It is firmly established in the language after a century or so of use. Both spellings are in use, although ambiance differs in having a non-naturalized nasal pronunciation of the final syllable. The corresponding adjective ambient has developed a special meaning relating to instrumental electronic ‘New Age’ music:
Ambient music looks to have a future in this country as the official artform of the cyberpunks—Face, 1995.

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ambiguity.

1 Ambiguity in language denotes the possibility of more than one meaning being understood from what is heard or read. Intentional ambiguity can be effective, for example as a literary device or in advertising. Our concern here is with unintentional and misleading ambiguity that occurs in ordinary speech and writing, most often as a result of poor word order. The Fowlers (1906) devoted several pages to ambiguities of this kind, but their (mostly literary) examples now seem contrived and unreal, as do many of the examples given in grammar books.

2 Typical ambiguities in everyday language usually involve the association of a word or phrase with the wrong part of the sentence (The council plans to notify parents whose children are affected by post, where by post should be placed after parents), or the unclear application of a negative (They did not go out to water the plants, which can mean either they did not go out at all, or they did go out but not to water the plants; similarly with the type We did not go to the shops because we were expecting visitors: see BECAUSE (2)).
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3 Ambiguity also arises from words that have more than one meaning or function, as in Visiting friends can be tiresome / the famous line The peasants are revolting / The Minister appealed to her supporters, and from false or unclear reference, as in If the children don't like their toys, get rid of them / We only have two first editions (and no other books?).
In speech, ambiguity is nearly always eliminated by intonation; in writing, attention to these relatively few problem areas will be enough to avoid the ambiguities that matter.
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ambivalent, ambiguous.

The terms ambivalent and ambivalence are first recorded in about 1916 in the context of psychology, and in particular the Jungian notion of ‘the coexistence in one person of contradictory emotions or attitudes towards a person or thing’ (OED). C. S. Lewis distanced himself somewhat from using ambivalent when he said that ‘Death is … what some modern people would call “ambivalent”. It is Satan's great weapon and God's great weapon’. Ambivalent applies to feelings and attitudes, whereas ambiguous refers to more concrete things such as statements and events and their meanings:
(ambivalent) This sad state of affairs may be attributed to feckless parents or to a society which projects its standards and values in such an ambivalent way—H. Pluckrose , 1987 /
Women can be extremely ambivalent about their own ambition and aggression at work—She, 1989 /
Examination of what is entailed and what is expected have produced ambivalent conclusions—State of Prisons, 1991.
Ambivalently is also found, often where ambiguously would be more suitable: e.g.
The people who inhabit Gormenghast, ambivalently described as ‘figures’ and ‘shapes’, are poised between the two meanings—M.H. Short , 1987.

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amen

is pronounced both ah-men and ay-men.

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amend, emend.

1 Amend is the more common word, used of making adjustments to a document or formal proposal (such as a parliamentary act), and also as a special word for ‘to change’ or ‘to alter’ in the context of personal behaviour. Its etymological meaning is ‘free from fault’ (from Latin mendum or menda ‘fault, blemish’), and there is always a notion of correction or improvement in its meaning.

2 Emend and emendation are used mainly to refer to the activity of textual scholars in proposing changes in the reading of texts and manuscripts so as to make them more intelligible or remove errors.
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America.

To English speakers outside North America, the term America means first and foremost the USA, and North America is used to denote a larger geographical area including also Canada and Mexico. The terms American and North American are used correspondingly as adjectives and nouns. Central America refers to the countries in the narrow strip of land to the south of Mexico (including Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama), and South America to the region to the south of the Panama Canal, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, etc.

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American English.

1 GENERAL. Fowler in Modern English Usage (1926) did not include an entry on American English and said little on the subject, although he cast occasional aspersions on so-called ‘undesirable aliens’ (such as belittle). Since then attitudes to American English have hardened, and the prevailing view among some who seek (or claim) to preserve standards in English is often hostile. However, it is linguistically misconceived and historically unjustified to regard the American influence on English as necessarily harmful; both varieties have been enriched by contact with each other and with other varieties, including Australian English and South African English. It should also be remembered that Canadian English (influenced by French) is a valid variety, and the boundaries between the Englishes of Canada and the USA are becoming much harder to draw precisely.
American English differs from British English in several important ways, in matters of vocabulary, spelling and inflection, idiom, grammar, pronunciation, and punctuation. Some of the more significant differences are due to uses that disappeared in BrE but survived in AmE (such as the use of gotten as a past participle of get, and the use of theater and other spellings in -er), and others are due to developments in AmE after it went its own way.

2 VOCABULARY. AmE has long been a copious source of new vocabulary in BrE, and many items are now used with little or no awareness of their origin (e.g. belittle, commuter, OK, to snoop, to fly off the handle). Recently imported Americanisms tend to cause the most disapproval (e.g. the sentence adverb hopefully, verbal forms of nouns such as hospitalize, cultural ‘media’ terms such as gameshow, phrase-based words such as downsizing and ongoing, and slang vocabulary such as cop-out and hacking), and whole areas of vocabulary development such as the political correctness movement (which has given us intellectually challenged, vertically challenged, and other euphemisms in which a ‘positive’ word challenged has replaced a ‘negative’ word handicapped). There are significant loans in the other direction: central heating, gay (meaning homosexual), miniskirt, and kiss of life all British in origin and are now widely used in North America. Some terms are known only on one side of the Atlantic because the institutions they denote are confined to one side, e.g. duplex (in the US) and giro (in the UK). The table shows some of the more important differences of core vocabulary between the two varieties.

BRITISH

AMERICAN

aeroplane

airplane

aluminium

aluminum

aubergine

eggplant

autumn

fall

banknote

bill

biscuit (dry)

cracker

biscuit (sweet)

cookie

bonnet (of car)

hood

braces

suspenders

brooch

pin

bumper (of car)

fender

chemist's

drugstore

chips (food)

French fries

cinema

movie theater

coffin

casket

courgettes

zucchini

crisps

potato chips

curtains

drapes

drawing pin

thumbtack

driving licence

driver's license

dustbin

garbage can

estate agent

realtor

first floor

second floor

flat

apartment

frying pan

skillet

ground floor

first floor

handbag

purse

icing

frosting

kerb

curb

lavatory

washroom

lift

elevator

lorry

truck

main road

highway

motorway

expressway

nappy

diaper

pavement

sidewalk

petrol

gasoline or gas

potato chips

French fries

pram

baby carriage

queue

line

railway

railroad

rise (in salary

raise

roundabout (in road system)

rotary

rowing—boat

rowboat

rubbish (domestic)

trash

shoelace

shoestring

sweets

candy

tap (for water)

faucet

tart

pie

traffic jam

gridlock

tram

streetcar

trolley (at supermarket or airport)

cart

trousers

pants

underground

subway

undertaker

mortician

veranda

porch

vest

undershirt

waistcoat

vest

wallet

billfold

windscreen

windshield

zip

zipper

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3 SPELLING AND INFLECTION. Some spelling differences concern particular words and are not applied systematically (e.g. AmE aluminum, maneuver, pajamas); these need to be verified in a dictionary that records both spellings (such as the Concise Oxford Dictionary). The principal systematic differences in BrE and AmE spelling are:
a Simplification of the digraph vowels -ae and -oe to -e (as in ameba and estrogen; but initial ae-, as in aesthetic, still tends to dominate in AmE as well as BrE). This is beginning to make an impact on British spelling, for example encyclopedia (much deprecated largely on grounds of intellectual snobbery). See also FOETUS.
b Use of -ense instead of -ence as a noun ending (as in defense and pretense; see also LICENCE).
c Use of -er instead of -re as a noun ending in many words (as in center and theater); but note acre, massacre, mediocre, and ogre in both varieties.
d Use of -or instead of -our as a noun ending (as in color and harbor).
e Reduction of -ou to -o- (as in mold).
f Use of -l- instead of -ll in verbal inflection (as in instal, rivaled, traveler) and converse use of -ll- instead of -l- (as in installment, skillful).
g Suppression of a final mute -e in inflection (as in milage and salable), but not after a soft c or g (as in changeable).
h Reduction of final -ogue to -og (as in analog and catalog).
i Exclusive use of -ize instead of -ise in verbs that allow both spellings in BrE, and variant use of -ize in verbs that are only spelt -ise in BrE (as in civilize, privatize, and advertize).
j Use of -z- occasionally instead of -s- (as in analyze and cozy).
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4 IDIOM. There are occasional differences in shared idioms. Examples are: BrE man on the street / AmE man in the street / BrE a new lease of life / AmE a new lease on life / BrE leave well alone / AmE leave well enough alone.
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5 GRAMMAR. Most of the more important grammatical differences concern use of auxiliary and modal verbs (do, have, shall, will, and others such as dare):
a AmE favours the type Did you go? rather than Have you been?, I don't have rather than I haven't got, They just left rather than They've just left, I didn't use (or used) to rather than I used not to, and let's not rather than Don't let's (as in Let's not argue). These preferences are also found to a lesser degree in BrE.
b Some BrE constructions are not available in AmE, e.g. BrE We weren't to know (BrE/AmE We couldn't know or couldn't have known), BrE meant to (= BrE/AmE supposed to) as in The food here is meant to be very good.
c There are differences in the way prepositions are used. For example, AmE has out the window and off of the floor where BrE has out of the window and off the floor.
d AmE has retained gotten, an older form of the past participle of get which has fallen out of use in BrE. It is used in AmE as well as got. See GOTTEN
e AmE differs in the use of shall and should: see SHALL AND WILL, SHOULD AND WOULD.
f For differences in the use of dare and need, see DARE, NEED.
g See also MAY, MIGHT; OUGHT.
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6 PRONUNCIATION. As with spelling, there are particular differences and systematic differences. Examples of the first are schedule (sk- in AmE, sh- in BrE) and tomato (t-may-toh in AmE, t-mah-toh in BrE). It is beyond the scope of this book to explore the pronunciation systems of both varieties in detail, but a few special differences might be mentioned:
a The letter r is pronounced or partly pronounced when it occurs in the middle of a word whether or not it is followed by a vowel, whereas typically it is not in BrE received pronunciation, as in hard and rare.
b The vowel a is pronounced a as in had, not ah as in hard in words such as after, can't, dance, and path.
c Pronunciation of short o as in box is closer to ah as in barks.
d Pronunciation of yoo as in tube is closer to oo as in boob.
e Pronunciation of er in words such as clerk rhymes with murk, not with mark as in BrE.
f Pronunciation of final syllables in -ile (as in fertile and hostile) is -l, not -iyl as in BrE.
g Pronunciation of t following n and followed by an unstressed syllable is much less marked in AmE than in BrE (as in mental and twenty).
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7 PUNCTUATION. American practice differs in the use of quotation marks and associated punctuation (see QUOTATION MARKS) and uses a different style in dates (see DATES). Other points are noted in individual entries on punctuation marks.
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American Indian,

as a term for an aboriginal inhabitant of North America and parts of the Caribbean, is less offensive than Red Indian, but Native American (see NATIVE) is even more acceptable. Indian is an ethnically erroneous name which is due to a mistaken identification of the area by European explorers in the 15c and 16c.

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amid, amidst.

Amid, recorded as a preposition and adverb before the Norman Conquest, developed two by-forms, amides (cf. always) and amidst (cf. against, amongst). Amides has dropped out of use, and amid and amidst have survived only as prepositions. In the 1880s the OED noted that ‘there is a tendency to use amidst more distributively than amid, e.g. of things scattered about, or a thing moving, in the midst of others’. It is difficult to discern this distinction maintained in current use. Both words have an air of formality, especially amidst, which is much less common (496 examples in the 100m-word British National Corpus as opposed to 1,096 of amid). Typical examples:
(amid) I … have often stood by the Frome at Woolbridge, enjoying the mellow manor house amid its water-meadows—Times, 1987 /
‘We shall enjoy strong, sustained growth and prosperity into the 1980s,’ he said amid Conservative cheers—Daily Telegraph, 1989 /
(amidst) He returned here for more tests amidst rumours that he had Parkinson's disease—Washington Post, 1984 /
This woman, sitting with such modest dignity amidst my students and colleagues— Frayn , 1989. In general use, amid and amidst have tended to be replaced by among or in the midst of.

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amoeba

is the customary UK spelling (US ameba). The plural is amoebas (US amebas); amoebae is only used in technical contexts.

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amok, amuck.

The word is normally used in the phrase to run amok/amuck, meaning ‘to run about wildly in a violent rage’, and is an extension of a particular meaning in Malay anthropology
(Edward now wore the manic look of some animal transferred into the wrong environment, as though he might run amok, or bite— Lively , 1990). It also has figurative uses not involving physical action
(With Thatcher running amok through the welfare state, lobby groups are preoccupied defending what was once thought unassailable—New Scientist, 1991 /
It wasn't his fault that her feelings seemed to be running amok—E. Rees , 1992). The spelling amok, which is closer to the original Malay amoq meaning ‘attacking in frenzy’, is more common and preferable.

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among, amongst.

1 Among is now much more common (22,864 in the 100m—word British National corpus as opposed to 4,552 of amongst). It is the oldest form, which gave rise to the by—forms amonges (14c, no longer in use) and among(e)st (16c). There is no demonstrable difference of meaning between the two forms, and the distribution is unclear except that amongst seems to be less common in AmE than in BrE. An older view, which Fowler (1926) followed, that amongst is commoner before a word beginning with a vowel, is not borne out by the evidence. Examples:
(among) The giants war among themselves—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 /
There were a lot of young people among the temporary staff— Fitzgerald , 1980 /
Britain also has the lowest level of welfare expenditure among the countries of the European Community—Times, 1985 /
(amongst) They fight amongst themselves—W. Wharton , 1978 /
He was grateful to the Kabbels … for taking account of her amongst their berserk schemes— Keneally , 1985 /
They stood on the edges of the lamplight amongst the wattles by the creek— Carey , 1988.

2 Among is much more often used than amongst in the expression among other things. This expression is strictly illogical, since among is inclusive and other is exclusive, but it is well established and usually causes no adverse comment. Perhaps it gets by on the coat-tails of the Latin equivalent inter alia, also self-contradictory but which few would venture to challenge.
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3 For choice of among and between, See BETWEEN (2).
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amoral

See IMMORAL.

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amount, number.

Amount is normally used with uncountable nouns (i.e. nouns which have no plural) to mean ‘quantity’ (e.g. a reasonable amount of forgiveness, glue, resistance, straw, etc.), and number with plural nouns (e.g. a certain number of boys, houses, Jobs, etc.). Amount, however, is fast breaking into the territory of number, especially when the following plural noun is regarded as an aggregate or collection. Examples:
Fame had magnified the amount of the forces—1849 in OED /
I have any amount of letters for you— Shaw , 1893 /
I expect you get a fair amount of road accidents on these winding roads— Billington , 1988 /
Billy's had a tremendous amount of problems—T. McGuane , 1989 (US) /
Booksellers have less and less space for the amount of books that are being published—The Author, 1990 /
The amount of bulbs she would find between the stones next spring—A. Huth , 1991. Note that quantity can be used with all types of nouns (a large quantity of parcels / a small quantity of sugar).

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ampersand

is the name of the symbol & used as a short form of ‘and’. It was used extensively by H. W. Fowler , both in print and in writing, and is most common in handwritten work, although the more cursive plus sign + is tending to oust it. It also occurs frequently, often for stylistic purposes, in company names, as in Marks & Spencer. The word itself is a contraction of ‘& per se (= by itself) and’, which was the way that printers once referred to the character; the form of the symbol is perhaps a stylized version of Latin et ‘and’.

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ample.

Fowler (1926) wrote that ample was ‘legitimate only with nouns denoting immaterial or abstract things’ such as opportunity, praise, provision, and time. He did not accept that it could be properly used in attributive position before nouns like butter, coal, oil, and water that denote substances of indefinite quantity, although it was acceptable to place it predicatively with such words, as in The coal is ample. The logic was uncharacteristically opaque, and the argument untenable. Although ample is still most often used with words such as evidence, opportunity, provision, scope, time, warning, etc., there is ample evidence of its use with material substances:
It was also to be a station for the motor-car age, situated on ample land with large carparks—J. Richards , 1988 /
The River Lea forming the eastern boundary of the metropolis provided good communication, ample supplies of water, and motive power for the mills—J. Marriott , 1991 /
For anyone else this might have seemed ample funds for an expedition—I. Tree , 1991.

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amuck

See AMOK.

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an

(indefinite article) See A, AN.

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anaemia, anaemic

are spelt -ae- in BrE and -e- or -ae- in AmE.

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anaesthetic

is spelt -ae- in BrE and -e- in AmE.

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analogous

is pronounced with a hard g. It should not be used as a general synonym of similar, but of comparisons involving analogy, i.e. identifiable characteristics or procedures in common. In practice it is most often used in technical contexts:
The transmission electron microscope is analogous to a conventional light microscope—Scientific American, 1971.

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analogy.

1 In language analogy is the process by which the use of words follows precedents set by other words without going through all the stages that produced those precedents. This is a fundamental aspect of the way languages develop, and applies to all aspects of usage, including word-formation, spelling, inflection, meaning, collocation, and pronunciation. For example, the noun starvation (18c) was formed on the analogy of other words such as vexation (15c); the dialect and AmE past form dove (from dive) was formed on the analogy of strove (from strive); the pronunciation of controversy on the first or second syllable is by analogy with types represented respectively by matrimony and monotony. The formation seascape (and later skyscape and waterscape) was modelled on landscape, workaholic on alcoholic, and sexist (and later ageist and others) on racist; and the use of the phrase annus horribilis (‘dreadful year’) by Queen Elizabeth II with reference to 1992 was a powerful extension of the existing phrase annus mirabills (‘wonderful year’).

2 Sometimes false analogies come into play, leading to uses that either appear erroneous (as sometimes in the speech of children) or prevail despite the falseness of the analogy (as with alright, modelled on altogether). More often, the role of analogy is overlooked by those who criticize aspects of usage (such as the sentence adverb hopefully) in isolation.
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analyse

is spelt -yse in BrE and -yze in AmE.

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analysis

has the plural form analyses (pronounced -seez).

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anathema.

1 The meaning has changed over several centuries of use. Originally a Greek word meaning ‘a thing dedicated’ it then came to mean ‘a thing dedicated to evil; an accursed thing’ and then, in the context of the Christian Church, ‘the act or formula of consigning to damnation’, in which use it is still found with historical reference; the plural is anathemas (e.g.
The pope had ended the Council with two final anathemas which were intimately connected with Anselm's situation—R.W. Southern , 1990).

2 Its use as a quasi-adjective meaning ‘accursed’ and in weakened senses ‘intolerable’, often followed by to, dates from the 18c:
The policy they embraced was however anathema to many Conservatives, who rightly saw in it the beginning of the end of British rule in India— Jenkins , 1988 /
This leads very quickly to the ‘hoping something turns up’ syndrome which is anathema to most managers—J. Harveylones , 1988 /
One proposal by itself was anathema; the two together were poison—A. Goodman , 1993.
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and.

1 The simplest-looking words are often among the most complicated in use, and and is no exception. The normal function of and is to join words, phrases, and sentences: John and Mary are brother and sister / They dealt with the matter quickly and efficiently / an acute and wary sense of the ordinary. In some cases it links parallel words that form a fixed expression that cannot normally be reversed (fish and chips, chips and fish; first and foremost, foremost and first; Romeo and Juliet, Juliet and Romeo).

2 For guidance on grammatical agreement in sentences with subjects containing and (e.g. Fish and chips is / are my favourite meal), see AGREEMENT.
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3 And is often omitted for contextual effects of various kinds, especially between sequences of descriptive adjectives which can be separated by commas or simply by spaces
(The teeming jerrybuilt dun-coloured traffic-ridden deafening city— Lively , 1987).
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4 There is a persistent belief that it is wrong to begin a sentence with And, but the practice will be found in literature from Anglo-Saxon times onwards, especially as an aid to continuity in narrative and dialogue. The OED provides examples from the 9c to the 19c, including one from Shakespeare's King John: Arthur. Must you with hot Irons, burne out both mine eyes? Hubert. Young boy, I must. Arthur. And will you? Hubert. And I will. It is also used for other rhetorical purposes, especially to denote surprise
(O John! and you have seen him! And are you really going?—1884 in OED) and sometimes just to introduce an improvised afterthought
(I'm going to swim. And don't you dare watch—G. Butler , 1983). It is however poor style to separate short statements into separate sentences when no special effect is needed: I opened the door and I looked into the room / I opened the door. And I looked into the room.
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5 And all is a well-established tag added to the end of a statement, as in
Isn't it amazing? He has a Ph.D. and all—J. Shute , 1992. With the nominal meaning ‘also, besides, in addition’, the use has origins in dialect, as can be seen from the material from many regions given in the English Dialect Dictionary (often written in special ways, e.g. ano', an'-all, an' a'). In many of the examples it seems to lack any perceptible lexical meaning and to be just a rhythmical device to eke out a sentence.
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6 And also has special uses, to show progression (faster and faster), cause and effect (do that and I'll send you to bed), duration (they ran and ran), a large number or quantity (miles and miles), and addition (four and four are eight), purpose (where and replaces to: Try and come tomorrow). See also TRY AND.
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7 Another special use, recorded in the OED from the 16c, is to express ‘a difference of quality between things of the same name or class’, as in W. S. Gilbert's lines from the Gondoliers (1889): Well, as to that, of course there are kings and kings. When I say I detest kings I mean I detest bad kings. To this we may add some modern examples:
There are ways to steal and there are ways to steal—New Yorker, 1988 /
There is homelessness and homelessness. The word has become a shibboleth for opposition politicians and the ‘caring’ media … The sort of homelessness which means despair is quite different from the sort that means adventure—Times, 1991.
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and/or

is a formula indicating that the items connected by it can be taken either together or as alternatives. Its principal uses are in legal and other formal documents, but in general use it is often inelegant:
The Press has rather plumped for the scholar as writer, and/or as bibliophile—Cambridge Review, 1959. A more comfortable way of expressing the same idea is to use ‘X or Y or both’, and in some cases ‘or’ by itself will do.

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anemone.

Note that the sequence of consonants is n-m-n, not (as is sometimes heard) n-n-m. The words comes from Greek anemos ‘wind’ and is therefore akin to the English word animated and related words.

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angle noun.

This word had been used since the 1870s in the meaning ‘the aspect from which a matter is considered’
(The old stagers … the men who knew all the angles, who had great experience— Shute , 1944), often with a defining word: the OED gives examples of statistical angles, selling angles, and propaganda angles. Examples:
For US television … competition for the same audience within the same time-slot drives producers and planners to look for the new exploitation angle which will differentiate their product within the market—Screen, 1991 /
He is always on the alert for a new angle, always individual in expression—Art Newspaper, 1992. In more formal English, standpoint is a better word to use.

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angle verb.

1 This is a more specific word for ‘to fish’ and means ‘fish with a hook and line’. In ordinary use fish is the normal word: you would say I am going fishing tomorrow even if angling were technically correct.1992

2 The verb in its meaning ‘seek an objective by devious or calculated means’
(She … did angle for mee, Madding my eagernesse with her restraint— Shakespeare , All's Well v.iii.212) is a figurative use of this word, and has no connection with the word described in the preceding entry, apart from occasional contextual overlaps. It is usually followed by for:
Ralph had begun to angle for an invitation by reminiscing about the joys of the traditional family Christmas—A. Taylor , 1992.
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Anglo-.

People in Scotland and Wales understandably view this combining form (as in Anglo-French, Anglo-Irish, etc.) with some distaste, but it continues to be used as the standard term. The alternative term Brito- has not acquired any general currency, and is restricted to certain special cases, e.g. Brito-Arctic (relating to British territory in the Arctic) and Britocentric and related words.

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annex, annexe.

in BrE the verb is annex and the noun annexe; in AmE the noun is usually also spelt annex.

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anniversaries.

The normal practice is to refer to the 10th, 20th, 30th, etc. anniversary of an event, but special names have come to be associated with the more significant anniversaries. The principal names for wedding anniversaries are silver (25 years), ruby (40), golden (50), and diamond (60, sometimes 75). For public events the following terms are used: centenary or (AmE) centennial (100), sesquicentenary (150 years), bicentenary (200), tercentenary (300), quatercentenary (400: NB not quarter-), quincentenary (500), sex-centenary (600), septcentenary (700), octocentenary (800), millenary (1,000). In AmE, the compounds end in -centennial rather than -centenary. See CENTENARY.

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announcer

is first recorded in 1922 to mean a broadcaster who announces programmes or reads the news. The term has given way to some more specific terms: anchorman (1958), anchorperson (1973), host, newscaster (1930) or newsreader (1925), and presenter (1967).

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annual

See PERENNIAL.

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annul

is spelt with one 1, and has inflected forms annulled, annulling. The corresponding noun is annulment.

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anorak,

a word of Greenland Eskimo origin, has taken on a new meaning from its association with people waiting around in cold weather (in anoraks, supposedly) to watch trains and aeroplanes or do other things the rest of the world can sneer at. Hence an anorak is ‘a boring, studious, or socially inept person with unfashionable and solitary interests’. Its most common application is in the field of computing, as one might expect:
‘Cyberspace’ is no longer the preserve of techno-nerds and anoraks—Guardian, 1994. Derivatives like anorakish and anoraksia are on the way.

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anorexic, anorectic.

Both words, adjectives derived from anorexia meaning ‘obsessive loss of appetite’, are in use. In general use, anorexic is now more common, and is used absolutely as a quasi-noun. Examples:
He became listless, anorexic, and increasingly sleepy, refusing to eat or crawl–Lancet, 1961 /
Contrary to the popular image of the disturbed teenager, the anorexic is not typically a product of a ‘broken home’—S. Macleod , 1989 /
Do they think I'm anorexic, or just plain thin?—J. Dawson , 1990.

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another.

For one another See EACH (3).

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antagonize.

1 -ize is the preferred spelling, although -ise is common.

2 The dominant sense now is ‘to evoke hostility or opposition or enmity in’:
Not wishing to antagonise the Colonel or his Officers, I suggested a compromise—B. Millim , 1991. Its earlier meaning ‘to contend with, oppose’ is not recorded in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995), although its technical meaning ‘(of one force etc.) to counteract or tend to neutralize (another)’ is recorded. When the letter A of the OED was being written, the current meaning was new, and it gave only a single quotation of 1882. The technical meaning is still used, although it is hardly familiar:
Our first object must be to antagonize the poison and at the same time uphold his powers—J.G. Farrell , 1973.
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ante-, anti-.

1 These two prefixes need to be distinguished, if only to ensure correct spelling. The first means ‘before, preceding’ and forms words such as antenatal (‘before birth’) and antechamber (‘a room leading to another’). The second, which is much more common, means' ‘opposite, opposed to, against’, and forms words such as anti-aircraft, anti-American, and anti-hero (‘the opposite of a hero’).

2 The OED points out that the model for all these words is Antichrist and its derivative antichristian, which along with antipope were the only examples in use before 1600. There are no anti- combinations in Shakespeare.
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antenna

has the plural form antennae (relating to the sensory organs of insects) and antennas (relating to radio aerials).

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anterior,

meaning ‘before (in time or place)’, is followed by to, not than
(There is a certain paradoxical logic to thinking of writing as anterior to speech—Paragraph, 1986).

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anticipate.

1 Here lies another of the great usage battlegrounds, where the conflict is all the more fraught for overlapping meanings that confuse the issue. The two primary and undisputed meanings are (1) to be aware of (a thing) in advance and act accordingly (e.g.
Lecky has anticipated what the animal liberationists are now saying—Listener, 1983) and (2) to forestall (a person) and take action before they do (e.g.
I'm sorry–do go on, I did not mean to anticipate you— Carré ).

2 Fowler scornfully rejected a third meaning, to expect or foresee (e.g.
Wing mirrors were selling better than they had ever anticipated— Drabble , 1987 /
They have every right to be there, and we do not anticipate any change in that status—USA Today, 1988 /
One would not expect Cleopatra to have suffered such a fate, nor did she herself anticipate it—A. Fraser , 1988). This meaning is classed as ‘disputed’ in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) and is placed second, although it might now reasonably be placed first on currency grounds, because it is comfortably the dominant sense.
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3 Both expect and anticipate (in this meaning) can be constructed with a that-clause, but only expect can be constructed with to (I expect to arrive tomorrow / I anticipate to arrive tomorrow).
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antisocial

see UNSOCIABLE, UNSOCIAL.

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anxious.

Anxiety, ‘uneasiness or trouble of mind’ (first recorded in a work of c.1525 by Sir Thomas More ) underlies the traditional meaning of anxious, and in the 20c the development of psychiatric concepts such as anxiety neurosis have strengthened the belief that a morbid state of mind is involved in the terms. In the 18c, anxious came to mean ‘full of desire and endeavour’ and was constructed with to; the phrase anxious to please appeared in Robert Blair's poem The Grave (1743), and Lord Nelson declared in 1794 that ‘The General seems as anxious as any of us to expedite the fall of the place’. Examples:
No one seemed very anxious to come up with the spondulicks—Private Eye, 1980 /
She's very anxious that you should like her—A.N. Wilson , 1982 /
We are desperately anxious to see the Advanced Passenger Train succeed—Railway Magazine, 1982 /
There are a number of men only too anxious to buy themselves a knighthood who might be most attracted to a project that catches the public sympathy— Rayner , 1991.

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any.

1 USE WITH SINGULAR OR PLURAL NOUNS. Any can be used with a singular or plural noun, or with an uncountable noun such as homework and happiness, to denote choice from three or more people or things (for choice from two, either is used):
The most basic of data security precautions for any individual or company employing microcomputers is the making of back-ups—Times, 1985 /
This letter is addressed to you and is not being copied to any other party—Daily Telegraph, 1986 /
At any moment a change in voltage can wipe out what one has written—Listener, 1985 /
Any food found in passengers' luggage will be confiscated / Neither government was behind it, nor were there any sponsors, angels, captains of commerce or industry—Los Angeles Times, 1986. When used with a singular countable noun (i.e. one that has a plural, such as book or person) it is always assertive in meaning: I did not want any book (= I wanted a particular book) as distinct from I did not want any books (normally = I wanted none) and I did not want any sugar (normally = I wanted no sugar).

2 AS A PRONOUN. Any functions as a pronoun as well as a determiner:
By dialling 1, 0, a three-digit access code and the area code and number, a caller can use any of eight different long distance companies—New York Times, 1985 /
If you keep ferrets don't let any escape/
It's as good an excuse as any to buy a new car.
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3 WITH COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVES. It is better to use a comparative with any other than a superlative with any: not / the most brutal piece of legislation of any passed by this government but a more brutal piece of legislation than any other passed by this government. An alternative is to use all instead of any: the most brutal piece of legislation of all those passed by this government.
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4 ANY ONE AND ANYONE As one word, anyone means the same as anybody and is interchangeable with it (Anyone could do that / Anybody could do that). As two words, it means ‘any single person or thing’, as in You can have any one you like (any you like would include the possibility of more than one). Examples:
The virtual photon rematerializes into any one of a very large number of possible combinations of new particles—Scientific American, 1978 /
Any one of half a dozen umbrella titles would equally well match the variety of the contents of this military miscellany—Times Literary Supplement, 1977.
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5 OTHER ONE-WORD AND TWO-WORD FORMS. Any more is used chiefly after a negative and is usually written as two words in BrE
(He is not lying there any more— Lively , 1987), although it is found more often as one word in other varieties and occasionally also in BrE
(He wasn't a school-kid anymore—M. du Plessis , 1983 (South Africa) /
You don't feel so blasé anymore going out on your [firefighting] calls—New York Times, 1984 /
Britain is not that sort of country anymore—Sunday Times, 1988).
Anyhow is only written as one word and is a (usually more informal) alternative for anyway
(Anyhow I'm carving out a career there teaching the boss's daughter to read novels— Keneally , 1985 /
Home is not the place for charm anyway—London Review of Books, 1987). Note that any way is spelt as two words to retain their separate meaning, as in Is there any way I can help? and Do it any way you like.
Any place and any time are also often spelt as single words in AmE:
She said she would vote for him anytime—New Yorker, 1987 /
I wouldn't have wanted to know her as a child, but once a man, anytime—M. Doane , 1988 /
Why didn't we ever get to go anyplace?—New Yorker, 1988.
The archaic adverbial form any ways survives in the Book of Common Prayer (All those who are any ways afflicted … in mind, body, or estate) and in the Authorized Version of the Bible (And if the people of the land doe any wayes hide their eyes from the men). Otherwise it is restricted to informal AmE: So who promised this guy anything anyways?
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6 AS AN ADVERB. Any is correctly used as an adverb to emphasize a comparative adjective or adverb (They are not treated like schoolgirls any longer / He can't play any better / She refuses to go any further). In informal AmE, and occasionally in BrE, it can stand alone with the meaning ‘at all’:
We're used to responsibility. Doesn't worry us any— Christie , 1937 /
It's not going to help any with my exams—New Yorker, 1988.
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apart from, aside from.

Apart from has been standard in BrE from the early 17c (e.g.
There are few exciting and visitable relics of [Mesolithic] human life apart from caves—R. Muir , 1983 /
The raven, who apart from anything else was much stronger in the air than the dove— Barnes , 1989); aside from, an equivalent expression used alongside apart from in AmE since the early 19c
(Aside from that, the church leadership had trouble figuring out exactly what to do about him—New Yorker, 1986) is now found from time to time in BrE contexts
(Aside from abolition of exchange controls by the other major economies, the Government insists that Britain's inflation rate be brought more in line with that of her trading partners—Guardian, 1989 /
Aside from the eclipses, January, February and March are key months for professional matters and your personal aspirations—Today, 1992).

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apartheid

is correctly pronounced -tayt in standard English, not -tiyt.

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apex.

The standard plural form is apexes, although apices is sometimes found in more technical contexts.

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apiece,

meaning ‘for each one’, is normally placed immediately after a direct object
(After buying his brothers a pint apiece [he] had to be content with a half for himself— Bragg , 1969 /
The actresses have one beautiful costume apiece—New Yorker, 1987).

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a posteriori,

a Latin term meaning ‘from what comes after’, is pronounced with the initial a as in hate and the final -i as in eye. It is used to characterize reasoning or arguing from known facts to probable causes, as in the proposition ‘The prisoners have weals on their backs, so they must have been whipped’. The opposite concept is A PRIORI.

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apostrophe.

Fowler (1926) gave no information on this punctuation mark at the letter A except a cross-reference to an entry called ‘possessive puzzles’, which sounds rather more entertaining. He concentrated on a number of difficulties arising from use of the apostrophe, and the same tactic is adopted here in a place where the user will be more likely to look. Each problem is headed by a typical example that illustrates it.
In general, it should be borne in mind that the apostrophe denotes either (1) a possessive, or (2) omitted letters.
1 GIRL'S, GIRLS' AS POSSESSIVE. The first is singular (one girl), and the second is plural (two or more girls).
2 WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S AS POSSESSIVE. When the plural ends in a letter other than s, the possessive is formed by adding 's: the children's games, the men's boots, the oxen's hoofs, the women's cars, etc.
3 VIDEO'S FOR RENT. This is the so-called ‘grocers' apostrophe’, an apostrophe misapplied to an ordinary plural, particularly in words ending in -o but also in quite harmless words such as apple's and pear's (e.g. pear's 30p a pound). It is, needless to say, illiterate in ordinary usage.
4 WHO'S AND WHOSE. These are sometimes confused (e.g. Who's turn is it?): see WHO'S.
5 POSSESSIVE OF NAMES ENDING IN -s. Add 's to names that end in s when you would pronounce them with an extra s in speech (e.g. Charles's, Dickens's, Thomas's, The Times's, Zacharias's); but omit 's when the name is normally pronounced without the extra s (e.g. Bridges', Connors', Mars', Herodotus', Xerxes'). With French names ending in (silent) -s or -x, add 's (e.g. Dumas's, le Roux's) and pronounce the modified word with a final -z.
6 HERS, ITS, OURS, ETC. An apostrophe should not be used in pronouns of this type (e.g. a book of hers). Note that its is normally used in attributive position, i.e. before a noun (Give the cat its dinner) and should be distinguished from it's = ‘it is’: see ITS, IT's.
7 MPS, THE 1990s, ETC. The apostrophe is no longer normally used in the plural of abbreviated forms (e.g. Several MPs were standing around), although it is of course used in the possessive (e.g. The BBC's decision to go ahead with the broadcast). It is used in plurals when clarity calls for it, e.g. Dot your i's and cross your t's.
8 I'LL, THEY'VE, YOU'RE, ETC. The apostrophe is used to form these regular contractions with pronouns, and occasionally with nouns (e.g. The joke's on them): see ABBREVIATIONS (2).
9 CELLO, FLU, ETC. The apostrophe is no longer needed in words that are originally contractions but are now treated as words in their own right, e.g. cello, flu, phone, plane. Other words retain them in their spelling, usually in medial rather than initial position, e.g. fo'c'sle, ne'er-do-well, o'er, rock 'n' roll.
10 BARCLAYS BANK, ETC. The apostrophe is rapidly disappearing in company names and other commercial uses, e.g. Barclays Bank, Citizens Advice Bureau. Though occasionally disapproved of, the practice can be justified as an attributive rather than possessive use of the noun (i.e. Barclays Bank is attributive, implying association with Barclays, whereas Barclays' Bank is possessive, implying ownership by people called Barclay).

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appal

is the correct BrE spelling (AmE appall), with inflections appalled, appalling.

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apparatus

is normally pronounced with -rat- as in rate (not as in part). The plural is apparatuses.

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apparent

is normally pronounced with short a (as in bat); pronunciation as in parent, though once dominant, is only occasionally heard.

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appeal.

The transitive use as a legal term is AmE (e.g.
Curtis had announced that it will appeal the verdict—Publisher's Weekly, 1963). The equivalent in BrE is appeal against (e.g. The mother appealed against the court's decision—International Journal of Law & Family).

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appear, appeared.

For the type She appeared to have encouraged him, see PERFECT INFINITIVE.

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appeasement,

meaning ‘the process of satisfying a potential aggressor’, has had unfavourable overtones since its use in the 1930s with reference to Nazi Germany, and now always carries the implication of making shameful or inadvisable concessions. As late as the 1920s, it was used more neutrally, as in Winston Churchill's statement in relation to Turkey, Here again I counsel prudence and appeasement.

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appendix

has the plural form appendices (with reference to parts of books and documents) and appendixes (in surgery and zoology).

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apposition.

1 Apposition is the placing of a noun or noun phrase beside another noun and noun phrase, where it shares the same grammatical function, as in A portrait of Benjamin Disraeli, the famous statesman, in which the famous statesman, is in apposition to Benjamin Disraeli. Words in apposition are called appositives. In this example, the appositive gives additional information, and is called non-restrictive; in other cases, the appositive is an essential part of the expression and is called restrictive, e.g. William the Conqueror, the author Penelope Lively.

2 Note that the appositive element can stand first when it is a descriptive title or identifier preceding a name, e.g. Chancellor Kohl of Germany, civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King. Originating in AmE, this practice is rapidly spreading to BrE, especially in newspapers.
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3 For a more detailed treatment of apposition, see Greenbaum, Oxford English Grammar (1996), 230–33.
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appraisal

has now nearly ousted appraisement in non-technical language, although appraisement was dominant in the 19c. The derivative reappraisal is a 20c formation.

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appraise, apprise.

Like many near-sounding words with some relation of meaning, these are often confused. Appraise means ‘to assess the value of (something or someone)’ (e.g.
When a man is stripped of all worldly insignia, one can appraise him for what he is truly worth— Chaplin , 1964 /
It was an interval at least long enough for him to appraise the situation— Fraser , 1988). Apprise means ‘to inform, to give notice to’ and is normally constructed with a personal object followed by of (e.g.
He was annoyed that I had not bothered to apprise him of the upsetting news sooner—P. Bailey , 1986).

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appreciate.

Its normal meaning ‘to acknowledge with gratitude’, especially in business correspondence (e.g. I appreciate everything that you have done to help us) and to form polite requests (e.g. It would be appreciated if you would reply by return of post) is unexceptionable. More controversial is its use with how or a that clause (e.g. I appreciate that you are disappointed by the outcome). Gowers (1965) discouraged this use, proposing realize instead, which is sometimes the better word although in some contexts the notion of sympathize is also needed.

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apprehend, comprehend.

In the meanings in which they overlap, these two words denote slightly different aspects of understanding. Apprehend means to grasp or perceive a general idea or concept, whereas comprehend means to understand an argument or statement. Both can be followed by a simple object or by a that-clause. Examples
(apprehend) Neither could apprehend the nature of their relationship, and each was flattered by it— White , 1957 /
She drew a breath, long enough to apprehend that he was about to step from one world into another— Murdoch , 1962 /
Their use of the word ‘consciousness’ refers to the system of meaning through which we apprehend the world—S. Bloch , 1984 /
We are slow to apprehend danger; would much rather ignore some threat to our way of life, hoping it will go away—Daily Telegraph, 1992 /
(comprehend) Speak more slowly so that we can comprehend everything you say— Malamud 1966 /
To comprehend language fully, to assemble it correctly and to express it properly is a task that has no equal in human capability—A. Smith , 1984.

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apprise

is spelt -ise not -ize. For its meaning, see APPRAISE.

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a priori,

a Latin term meaning ‘from what is before’, is pronounced with a as in hate and with both is as in eye. It is used to characterize reasoning or arguing from causes to effects, as in the proposition ‘Because they were wearing handcuffs it was obvious that they had been taken into custody’. The opposite concept is A POSTERIORI.

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apropos

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable and the last syllable as in so. In English it is always written, despite its French origin (17c), as one word without accent. Its main uses are as a preposition, with or without a linking of (e.g.
Her voice, as has been mentioned apropos that of Boudicca, was not harsh— Fraser , 1988 /
Apropos of nothing she declared that love must be wonderful—G. Clare , 1981). Although sometimes used with to, under the influence of appropriate, this is not recommended.

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apt, liable, prone.

1 Apt to and liable to, followed by an infinitive, are virtually interchangeable, except that liable carries a greater notion of responsibility for the result, which is generally implied to be undesirable. Examples:
Pick up any ‘documentation’ … and you are apt to be … bombarded by gibberish—New York Times, 1982 /
Your cylinder-lock (what people are apt to call a ‘Yale’)—Oxford Consumer, 1983. In this use, apt to is tending to force out the alternative prone to, although this is still used in relation to habits and continual actions:
The one unquestionable advantage of the multiflora stock is the fact that it is less prone to throw up suckers than any of the others—N. Young , 1971.

2 Liable to and prone to, unlike apt to, can be followed by a simple object, and in this use liable to also has the meaning ‘subject to (a penalty)’:
Many of these children are chesty, prone to colds—Guardian, 1967 /
The affected children themselves are liable to behavioural problems such as temper tantrums—Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1980 /
Anyone convicted of giving away examination papers to candidates will be liable to two years in jail—Daily Telegraph, 1982.
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3 Likely to, followed by an infinitive, is an alternative when referring to a particular or immediate possibility rather than a generalized probability, and can refer to favourable or neutral circumstances as well as unfavourable ones:
A plan to help young home-buyers is likely to be announced within the next week—Times, 1973 /
Teachers who refuse to cover for absent colleagues or attend staff meetings are likely to have pay deducted from now on—Times Educational Supplement, 1985.
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aquarium

has plurals aquariums (general use) or aquaria (technical use).

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Arab, Arabian, Arabic.

1 These three terms refer to different aspects of Arabia and its people: Arab means a member of the Semitic people now inhabiting large parts of the Middle East and North Africa, and is also used as a quasi-adjective before a noun (the Arab people / Arab hopes / Arab philosophy); Arabian is an adjective having geographical reference to Arabia (the Arabian peninsula / an Arabian camel / Arabian fauna); and Arabic is a noun and adjective denoting a language (Do you speak Arabic? / Arabic literature).

2 Arabic is written with a capital initial in the expression Arabic numerals (the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., as distinct from the Roman numerals I, II, III, etc.). It is written with a small initial in gum arabic, a type of gum exuded by African acacia trees.
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3 The expression street Arab, first recorded in 1859, and for about a century commonly applied to a homeless child or other vagrant living on the streets, is now regarded as offensive and is rarely used.
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arbiter, arbitrator.

Arbiter, a more literary word (16c), is now restricted to the meaning ‘a judge or authority’ as in an arbiter of taste. For the meaning ‘a person appointed to settle a dispute’, the slightly older form arbitrator (15c) is now the correct word to use, although the meanings overlap and arbiter is still often found in this meaning. Examples:
(arbiter) She was not so much an arbiter of fashion as she was fashion itself—D. Halberstam , 1979 /
The great nineteenth-century critic and arbiter of taste, John Ruskin—L. Hudson , 1985 /
Reith was the true successor of the Victorian headmaster, rapidly establishing a range of sporting events which the BBC in its capacity as the sole arbiter of airways deemed to be of national significance—R. Holt , 1989 /
Harley then insisted that the tournament director, who is the ultimate arbiter at professional tournaments, be summoned—M. Hamer , 1991 /
(arbitrator) Either party may apply to have the dispute referred to arbitration by the judge or by an outside arbitrator—R.C.A. White , 1985 /
If the award of the arbitrator proves unreliable the court does have the power to set aside such an award—L. Brown , 1987 /
The arbitrator may decide that The Post Office is not legally liable but that there are special circumstances in your favour that mean you were not really at fault—Royal Mail Information Leaflet, 1991.

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arc verb,

meaning ‘to produce a luminous electrical discharge’ is inflected arced, arcing, with the c hard despite being followed by an e and i respectively.

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archaeology

is the BrE spelling; archeology is AmE.

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archaism.

1 Archaisms are words and phrases that have fallen out of general use but are used for special effect, normally in literature. These vary in effect from the gently old-fashioned or jocular (e.g. erstwhile, gentlewoman, goodly, hence, lest, methinks, perchance, quoth) to the unnatural or even unusable (e.g. peradventure, whilom).

2 Archaisms are most commonly found in allusive use in literature, e.g.
If Mimi's cup runneth over, it runneth over with decency rather than with anything more vital— Brookner , 1985 (an Old Testament allusion to Psalms 23:5) /
The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together— Murdoch , 1987 (a New Testament allusion to Romans 8:22). Archaic word forms also occur in titles, as in The Compleat Girl (by Mary McCarthy , 1963, in allusion to Isaak Walton's The Compleat Angler), Whitaker's Almanack (which preserves an older spelling of almanac), and in fixed expressions such as olde worlde and many new formations modelled on a-changing, e.g. a-basking, a-brewing, a-wasting.
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3 See also the separate entries for ALBEIT, NAY, UNBEKNOWN.
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ardour

is spelt -our in BrE and as ardor in AmE.

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are, is

see AGREEMENT.

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aren't I

see BE (4).

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argot

is a term for the jargon of a special group or class of people. See JARGON.

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arguably

is first recorded only in 1890, and did not appear in the original OED; now it seems indispensable. It is used as an ordinary adverb and as a sentence adverb (qualifying a whole statement). Examples:
Arguably, this is another kind of corruption, but it was in general a very long-range bribery, and it was invariably offered in the guise of friendship—R.M. Sunter , 1986 Fibich was arguably worse off even than Hartmann, for he knew no one— Brookner , 1988 /
Meet the man with the surname everyone knows, Giorgio Armani, who arguably adorns more bodies worldwide than any other living designer—Clothes Show, 1991.

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arise.

Note that arise and rise are intransitive verbs (i.e. they cannot take an object and cannot be used in the passive), whereas arouse and rouse are generally transitive. Its meaning ‘to get out of bed’ has now given way to rise, except in literary use, and its principal current meaning in ordinary speech and writing is ‘to come into existence or be noticed’; usually with reference to abstract concepts such as questions, difficulties, doubts, thoughts, results, etc. See also AROUSE.

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armadillo

has the plural form armadillos.

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armour

is spelt -our in BrE and as armor in AmE.

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aroma.

1 Aroma now denotes any pleasant smell, as befits a word that originally meant ‘spice’ (13c to 18c), and has given rise to aromatherapy, ‘massage or other treatment using extracts and essential oils’, which likewise befits the special meaning of aroma ‘the distinctive fragrance exhaled by a spice, plant, etc.’.

2 The plural is aromas.
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around, round.

1 In general, BrE prefers round and AmE prefers around, both as an adverb and as a preposition, except in certain more or less fixed expressions or restricted collocations. In BrE it is usual to say all the year round, Winter comes round, The wheels go round, Send the book round, Show me round, whereas in all these cases AmE would normally use around.

2 Around is obligatory in fixed expressions such as fool around, mess around, sit around, etc, all around (as in All around there are signs of decay), and to have been around. In some of these, about is also possible, but not round.
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3 BrE still tends to prefer about as a preposition meaning ‘approximately’, although around is also used (e.g. There are about / around 100 in all / Come about / around 4 o'clock), whereas AmE generally prefers around. See ABOUT.
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4 However, the distribution of around and round is subject to considerable variation in practice, as the following examples show: (around as preposition)
Jesse … moped around the house all day— Smith , 1983 (US) /
The area around Waterloo—R. Elms , 1988 (UK) /
They stood grouped around their luggage—M. Bracewell , 1989 (UK) /
(round as preposition) It stood just round the corner from his father's house— Brooks , ante 1961 /
A map rolled up round a broom handle— Winterson , 1985 (UK) /
He looked round the table as if daring anyone to smile— Lodge , 1988 (UK) /
(around as adverb) Stay around till she gets back—New Yorker, 1989 /
Hartmann's sunny … attitude was marvellous to have around— Brookner , 1988 (UK) /
The devices have been around a while—USA Today, 1988 /
I went around to the front door—New Yorker, 1989 /
(round as adverb) In the end she talked me round— Bawden , 1987 (UK) /
The news had gotten round pretty fast—New Yorker, 1998.
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arouse.

The relation of arouse to rouse is much like that of arise to rise, i.e. rouse is almost always preferred in the literal sense with a person or animal as object. Arouse is chiefly used to mean ‘to call into being’ with reference to feelings and emotions. Generally, if you rouse someone you wake them or stir them into activity; if you arouse them, you excite them or make them angry or suspicious:
The word ‘theory’ has always aroused suspicion amongst the English, who see themselves as practical people and sound empiricists—B. Bergonzi , 1990 /
About five o'clock we were roused by the distant thudding of an engine—S. Stewart , 1991.

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arrogate

see ABROGATE.

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artefact,

‘a product of human art or workmanship’, is the more common spelling in BrE; in AmE artifact, corresponding to pronunciation rather than etymology (Latin arte factum, ‘made by [human] art’), is dominant.

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artiste,

rhyming with feast and meaning ‘a professional performer, especially a singer or dancer’, is a separate borrowing from French and not a feminine form of artist, which has the distinct meaning of someone who works in one of the fine arts. Artiste, which carries no notion of artistry, is now regarded as at best an affectation and at worst an insult; usually a word such as performer would do just as well. Examples:
Peruvian singers, Cuban ballerinas and Swiss circus artistes are among 80 troupes and cultural delegations—Daily Telegraph, 1992 /
Distinguished people make a practice of visiting the opera, and pull rank so as to meet the artistes, especially attractive females—R. Butters , 1991.

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as.

1 PROBLEMS WITH AS … AS … In this common construction, the first as is an adverb, and the second is either a preposition or a conjunction.
a When no verb follows, e.g. as good as we / as good as us, there is no problem with nouns after as because nouns do not inflect, but some pronouns do. The two patterns are as … as I/we/he/she/they and as … as me/us/him/her/them. (It and you are of course invariable.) In normal conversational English the second pattern is more usual, and the first is only used in more formal contexts or in an effort to avoid censure from purists. It should be added that both patterns are grammatically sound, since as can function as a preposition (as it does in as good as us) and as a conjunction (as it does in as good as we / as good as we are). In these cases, the first as is classified as an adverb (as good as …)
b Note that choice of case can determine meaning when there might be ambiguity, as in I don't like George as much as them [= I don't like George as much as I like them] / I don't like George as much as they [= I don't like George as much as they like him]. This facility is not available with nouns (e.g. I don't like George as much as Henry), and ambiguity must then be clarified either by intonation (in speech) or by rephrasing (in writing, e.g. I don't like George as much as I like Henry, or better, I prefer Henry to George).
c Note also that in negative constructions the first (adverbial) as can be replaced by so: not so good as us. With so, it is unusual to use the I/we/he/she/they option.

2 AS = ‘IN THE CAPACITY OF’. In this use, as is a preposition, and it is used to show the role or function of a person or thing: I hear you are employed as a teacher / It is as a cellist that she is best known. Care must be taken to avoid false links with the as clause, as in the following examples, which at best show poor style and at worst are downright ambiguous:
As a medical student his call-up was deferred— Fitzgerald , 1986 /
As a 32-year-old law enforcement professional, you know that I do not like being forced to release prisoners from jail—Chicago Tribune, 1988 [Who then is the professional?].
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3 OMISSION OF AS. The preposition as is usually omitted after certain verbs which designate or classify people or things in certain ways, including appoint, certify, choose, consider, count, deem, elect, nominate, proclaim, pronounce, rate, reckon. With other verbs, the as must be included; these are: accept, acknowledge, characterize, class, define, describe, intend, regard, see, take, treat, use. Note that consider and regard, although having much the same meaning, differ in the matter of as: We regard you as a model pupil / We consider you a model pupil.
The adverb as is sometimes casually omitted in spoken English in comparisons: She used to come regular as clockwork / It was soft as butter / They were good as gold. This is not good practice in more formal or written English.
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4 AS = ‘BECAUSE’. Fowler (1926) rejected the use of as = ‘because’ when it followed the main clause, as in I gave it up, as he only laughed at my arguments; but he permitted it when the as clause came first, as in As he only laughed at my arguments, I gave it up. This objection now sounds as dated as the examples chosen, and the position of the clause is determined not by spurious principles of syntax but by the degree of emphasis needed for each part of the sentence.
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5 AS, RELATIVE PRONOUN. Its use as a relative pronoun is now largely confined to the constructions same as or such as: We can expect the same number to turn up as came last year / Such repairs as have been made to the house are most acceptable. These constructions are less common in everyday spoken English. Other constructions with as as a relative pronoun occur only in non-standard or regional English, both in BrE and AmE:
It's only baronets as cares about farthings— Thackeray , 1847/8 /
This is him as had a nasty cut over the eye— Dickens , 1865 /
I don't know as I expected to take part in this debate—Harper's Magazine, 1888 /
There's plenty as would like this nice little flat, Mr. E— Burgess , 1963.
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6 AS AND WHEN. This now common phrase meaning ‘whensoever’ is surprisingly recent, not being recorded in the OED before 1945. It is also used elliptically in informal (especially spoken) language to mean ‘when possible, in due course’. Examples:
He would … snatch pub meals as and when he could—P. McCutchan , 1975 /
All bream … will devour a small fish as and when the opportunity arises and they have the inclination to do so—G. Marsden , 1987 /
(elliptical) They confirmed the existing main roads as future traffic arteries to be widened ‘as and when’—Listener, 1965 /
She can redo them and we just microwave them as and when—spoken material in British National Corpus, 1992.
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7 AS FROM, AS OF. The formula as from is used in contracts and aggreements to indicate the date from which certain items or clauses are to take effect. This use is reasonable when the date is retrospective: The rate of payment is increased as from the 1st September last. For present and future dates the as is superfluous: Your redundancy takes effect from today [not as from today].
Phrases of the type as of now, as of today, etc., first recorded in the work of Mark Twain in 1900, are now well established in standard English in the UK and elsewhere. Examples:
I'm resigning from the committee as of now—D. Karp , 1957 /
As of today, I do not believe Tebbit has enough votes to win—J. Critchley , 1990.
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8 AS IF, AS THOUGH.
a These two conjunctions are virtually interchangeable, except that as if is somewhat more natural in exclamations (As if I would!).
b When the conjunction introduces a possibility or likelihood (often after a verb like appear, look, seem, or sound) the normal tense is used:
He speaks as though even the rules which we freely invent are somehow suggested to us in virtue of their being right—M. Warnock , 1965 /
When the left wing of the Labour Party looks as if it is going to lose, it is described as bananas—Times, 1980 /
It is as if he has given up on America and in so doing he has given up on grappling with the complexity of his position and allegiances—Times Literary Supplement, 1986.
c When the conjunction introduces a comparison based on a hypothetical or impossible proposition, either the past tense or the subjunctive is used, which coincide in form except that the third person singular subjunctive of to be is were, not was. It is impossible to draw a meaningful distinction in current usage between these two alternatives, which only exist in this case, except that the subjunctive were theoretically denotes a stronger element of hypothesis or supposition than does the past tense was:
Most of them had been out of touch with him for many years, but he spoke to them as if it was only yesterday— Lodge , 1980 /
As if India were not already finding batting hard enough, the crowd started … performing what is apparently called the ‘human wave’—Times, 1986 /
His body felt as though he were trembling, but he was not—B. Moore , 1987 /
He devoured all, exhausted, as though his life was in danger—A.S. Byatt , 1987. An elliptical construction, with the verb to be omitted, is also possible:
The tanpura player … strummed the strings as if in a mesmerised state— Desai , 1980.
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9 AS PER. This preposition, meaning ‘in accordance with’, is more or less restricted to business correspondence and to such publications as DIY manuals (e.g. as per specification). In general use it occurs most frequently in the colloquialism as per usual and humorous variants of it:
So I took her up a cup of tea … as per usual on her headache days— Mansfield , 1923 /
I'll stay in a pub … As per usual—J. Bingham , 1970 /
Some old jolly camp-fire life went on as per usual— Barnes , 1989 /
She knew better, didn't she. As per always—P. Bailey , 1986.
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10 AS SUCH. As such, meaning ‘in this capacity’ or ‘accordingly’, is an established and valid expression, but it tends to be over-used in contexts where it adds little meaning:
(useful) Euro-MPs are not against the Euro-quango as such—English Today, 1985 /
(redundant) Today, computers do little computing as such outside of specific areas. They are more concerned with manipulative tasks such as word processing—New Scientist, 1987. In many cases, an expression such as in principle would serve better: instead of There is no objection to the sale of houses as such, write There is no objection in principle to the sale of houses.
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11 AS TO, AS FOR. These are called complex prepositions, and they have a useful role to play when a simple preposition like of or about is not available or has another meaning. (1) As to means ‘concerning’ or ‘with regard to’: It is correct as to colour and shape / The rates of postage vary both as to distance and weight.
When a simple preposition is available, as it often is after a noun, it is better to use it:
‘Vladimir telephoned the Circus at lunch-time today, sir,’ Mostyn began, leaving some unclarity as to [use about or regarding] which ‘sir’ he was addressing— Carré , 1980 /
The setting and languages leave no doubt as to [use about or concerning] its Africanness—English World-wide, 1980 /
Western newspapers have been full of speculation as to whether China was playing a ‘Soviet card’ against the United States—Christian Science Monitor, 1982
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12 For such as, see SUCH.
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as bad or worse than … / as good or better than …

are examples of mixed constructions in which an element, in this case the second as (as bad as, as good as) has been omitted. It is common, especially in spoken English, but it is incorrect and should be avoided. The sentence
We're sure they can judge a novel just as well if not better than us (London Review of Books, 1987) should be corrected to just as well as, if not better than, us (note also the punctuation).

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ascendancy, ascendant.

1 The preferred spellings are -ancy, -ant, although ascendency and ascendent are still sometimes found in print.

2 Have ascendancy over and be in the ascendant are the normal phrases, and refer to a position of power achieved, not of power being gained. Ascendant here means ‘supreme’ or ‘dominant’, not ‘ascending’.
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Asian, Asiatic.

1 Both words are pronounced with -s- as in measure or as -sh-. In AmE the first is far more common.

2 In the second half of the 20c Asian (a slightly older word) has replaced Asiatic, as noun and adjective, when the reference is ethnic, because Asiatic is thought to have depreciatory overtones. In BrE Asian is also used with reference to people from Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent, or their descendants, living in Britain.
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aside, a side.

Written as one word, aside is an adverb meaning ‘to or on one side’, as in to put aside, to take aside, etc., or a noun meaning words in a play spoken to the audience out of hearing of the other characters. In the meaning ‘on each side’ it must be written as two words, as in They are playing five a side and a five-a-side team.

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aside from

see APART FROM.

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as per

See AS (9).

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assassinate, assassination.

1 The traditional meaning of assassinate is ‘to kill an important person for political reasons’ has been extended in recent times to include any person regarded by his or her killers as a political or sectarian target, for example in Northern Ireland or the Middle East. The corresponding noun assassination has followed this tendency. Examples:
Palestinian guerrillas sought for a second time in three months to assassinate King Hussein— Kissinger , 1979 /
A boy who, during the vicious war in Liberia, has seen first his mother and then his father, his two elder brothers and his two elder sisters, savagely assassinated in front of his eyes by the guerrilla troops—spoken material in British National Corpus, 1993 /
Assassinations of individual foreigners later escalated into massive bombings—Bulletin of the American Academy, 1994.

2 In the 20c an older figurative meaning of assassinate, meaning ‘to destroy (someone's reputation)’ has also been revived:
Helping the Prime Minister in his political battle to assassinate Mr. George Brown—Guardian, 1962. The noun is especially common in the expression character assassination:
So that was Minter's true objective: character assassination of a popular politician—the modern journalist's stock-in-trade.—R. Goddard , 1990.
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asset.

Fowler (1926) called this a ‘false form’, meaning that the true form was assets, derived from a late Anglo-French word which came in turn from Latin ad satis meaning ‘to sufficiency’, while asset was the lazy writer's alternative when unwilling to choose between words such as possession, gain, advantage, resource, and other synonyms. Assets was originally construed as singular but after about 1800 was construed as plural, giving rise to the singular form asset, which is now standard in a range of physical and nonphysical meanings:
The Mini's greatest asset is probably its road-holding—Times, 1975 /
Mays Cottage was a period piece, completely unrestored, which in these days seemed to be an asset— Drabble , 1975 /
His greatest asset was his enthusiasm—Today, 1992. It is also the basis of combinations such as asset card and asset-stripping.

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assignment, assignation.

An assignment is an allocation, and in law a legal transfer of a right or property, or the document that effects the transfer. It is also a task or piece of work allotted to a person, in this meaning originating in AmE. The dominant meaning of assignation, which is pronounced with a hard g, is now ‘an appointment to meet, especially between lovers’. Its original meaning of ‘apportionment’ is not often used now.

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assimilation

is the process by which the formation of words is influenced by existing words, and the spelling and pronunciation of word-elements are affected by the elements that follow or come before. The word cockroach, from Spanish cucaracha, achieved its modern spelling by being assimilated in the 18c to the English words cock and roach. In spelling, in-is assimilated to il-in words such as illumination and to im-in words such as impossible. In phonetics, an initial s can be assimilated to sh-when preceded by a word ending in sh or ch, as for example in lunch score.

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assist

has the same meaning as help, and shares the same grammatical constructions. In many contexts the two words are interchangeable, but help is usually preferable, assist being, in Fowler's term (1926), a ‘genteelism’ to be avoided. However, assist has connotations of formality that are sometimes needed, as in
A young man who assisted him with the management of the farm— Capote , 1966: who helped him would have seemed too casual.

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assume, presume.

1 Both words can mean ‘suppose’ and are often interchangeable in this meaning. Fowler (1926) maintained that there is a stronger element of postulation or hypothesis in assume and of a belief held on the basis of external evidence in presume, but in practice the uses are not always that distinct. Both words can be followed by a that-clause (or one with that omitted), by an object followed by a to—infinitive, or by a simple object:
(assume) Throughout the book … the authors assume the validity of neo-classical economics as taught in the United States—Times Literary Supplement, 1974 /
When you're young you assume everybody old knows what they're doing— Amis , 1987 /
This is assumed to refer to some sort of demonstration similar to April's Peking riot—Daily Telegraph, 1976 /
(presume) I often hear the ungrammatical term ‘one pence’. / presume this is because the occurrence of a single penny is becoming a thing of the past—Daily Telegraph, 1974 /
The Able Criminal … may be presumed … to be emotionally stable and ‘well-adjusted’— Ambler , 1977.

2 Assume and presume also coincide in a range of meaning that may be summarized as ‘to take on oneself’, although you generally assume roles and identities but presume attitudes and bearings. The intransitive use with a to infinitive is available only with presume. Examples:
He was writing ‘Gerontion’, a dramatic monologue in which he assumes the persona of the ‘little old man’— Ackroyd , 1984 /
He looked surprised—almost annoyed—as if a servant had presumed too great a familiarity—P.P. Read , 1981 /
It is a reckless ambassador who would presume to preempt his chiefs— Kissinger , 1979.
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assuming

is used to mean ‘on the assumption that’, and being participial is open to the often tiresome objection that the subject of the sentence has to be capable of assuming things, whereas of course the conceptual subject of the phrase is the people involved: Assuming that the museum is open on Monday, the car will pick us up at 10 a.m. There is no doubt at all about the meaning here.

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assure, assurance.

These are terms used principally in the context of life insurance, although even here the verb is no longer common. You insure your life and take out life assurance (or insurance). Both words are rapidly becoming redundant except in conservative business circles.

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assure, ensure, insure.

These three words overlap in meaning, and all have to do with aspects of certainty or security. Assure means ‘to make (a person) sure, to convince’, and can be followed by of or a that-clause (I assure you of my love / I assured him that he had not been overlooked. It also has special uses in to rest assured (‘to be comfortably certain’) and as an adjective assured, meaning ‘self-confident’. Ensure means to ‘make certain, guarantee’, and is followed either by a simple object or (more commonly) by a that-clause (These measures will ensure success / Security checks at airports will ensure that no firearms are carried by passengers). Insure is restricted to the meaning ‘protect by insurance’ (Are you insured? / We had better insure the new paintings).

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assuredly

is pronounced as four syllables.

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asterisk ().

This has many special uses, the most common of which is as a marker in a text to draw attention to a footnote, or in a handwritten document to signal an addition. It is also used, especially in older writing, to stand for letters omitted from coarse slang words, e.g. ct, fk. In linguistic usage, it denotes (1) a postulated (unrecorded) form of a word, and (2) an incorrect or deprecated usage, e.g. They promised us to go.

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asthma

is pronounced ass-m in BrE, and az-m in AmE. The -th- is not normally pronounced in either variety.

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astronaut

is first recorded, with hypothetical reference, in 1929. It is now the standard term for a person trained to travel in a spacecraft. A Russian space traveller, however, is called a cosmonaut.

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as well as.

1 This is used both as a conjunction, in which case a following pronoun agrees with a preceding noun or pronoun
(It was obvious that he had been consulted as well as I— Greene , 1965), or, more commonly, as a preposition (in which case the last example would read … as well as me). It may also be followed by a verbal noun, especially when it is put at the beginning of a sentence:
As well as being highly collectable … they make surprisingly roomy containers for all sorts of items—Daily Telegraph, 1980. Here usage has overtaken Fowler's preference (in many cases) for a form of the verb that matches the verb used earlier in the sentence (e.g. His death leaves a gap as well as creates a by-election). This construction is only possible with transitive verbs; though favoured by some, it no longer sounds natural.

2 A verb following a subject that includes as well as should agree with the noun or pronoun that precedes as well as:
He believes that tutor as well as pupil benefits from the arrangement—Oxford Today, 1990. This is because the addition (here, the phrase as well as pupil) is regarded as a parenthesis and not as part of the main sentence (as it would be if as well as were replaced by and). See also AGREEMENT (3).
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asylum.

1 The word is no longer used, except with historical reference, of a psychiatric hospital, which is now typically called clinic, psychiatric unit, or simply hospital or by its name. The principal use of asylum now is to denote the status (in full, political asylum) sought by political refugees.

2 The plural asylums is only used in the older meaning.
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at

1 AT ABOUT. The OED illustrates this use (e.g. at about seven o'clock in the evening) with examples from 1843 onward, and occasional objections must now be set aside.

2 AT ALL. In Standard BrE, this prepositional phrase meaning ‘in every way, in any way’ is restricted to negative constructions, questions, and conditional statements: I did not speak at all / Did you speak at all? / If you spoke at all. Its earlier use meaning ‘of all, altogether’ survives in Ireland and in some BrE and AmE dialects (e.g.
John Cusack is the finest dancer at all—P.W. Joyce , 1910).
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3 AT OR IN. It is more usual to use in when permanent location or continued habitation is involved, and is required when the place is a country or region rather than a place such as a town or city: Timbuktu is in Mali / He lives in Helsinki / The festival takes place in Salzburg in August / She grew up in Switzerland. At is more usual with reference to more transitory association, and is much more common with specific places: The plane landed at Nadi in Fiji / There is a railway station at Leuchars. A further distinction is demonstrated by the sentences They are at St Andrews [= a member of the University] and They are in St Andrews [living in or visiting St Andrews].
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4 WHERE IT'S AT. This colloquial expression, meaning ‘the fashionable scene or area of activity’, swept into AmE in the 1960s and is now common in BrE and other varieties. It should be avoided in more formal English.
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ate

is normally pronounced to rhyme with bet, although pronunciation to rhyme with bait is also common.

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attitude.

One might say that this is now a word with attitude, in its 20c meaning ‘aggressive or uncooperative behaviour’, which represents a special application of one kind of characteristic attitude (in the established meaning ‘a person's settled opinion or behaviour’):
If I'm out there for months with everybody yelling at me, I'm going to cop an attitude—New York Times, 1985. The word is still moving on, and now has a positive connotation, ‘assertiveness, style, panache’:
In this job, you've gotta have attitude, hang loose, ready for anything—Police Review, 1990. It should only be used in this way informally; more formally the word needs explicit clarification: for the first meaning use uncooperative attitude or even simply poor (or bad) attitude, and for the second meaning strong (or positive) attitude.

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attributive.

1 In grammar, attributive denotes a word, normally an adjective or noun, that is put before another word, normally a noun, to qualify or describe it in some way (eg. brown in brown shoes and table in table lamp). See further at ADJECTIVE (2).

2 English allows several nouns to be placed in succession, as in a museum conservation department, and this practice is especially common in newspaper headlines, which aim at concision:
sex cinema blaze man pleads guilty—Independent, 1995 and
expenses row councillor forced out—Evening News (Edinburgh), 1995.
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audit verb.

British readers of American books and newspapers might be puzzled by the use of audit to mean ‘to attend (a class) informally’ without working for a particular qualification:
She audited his undergraduate lectures; she waylaid him in the department office— Lurie , 1974.

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auger, augur.

Auger is an Old English word for a tool for boring holes. Augur, from the Latin word for soothsayer, is used occasionally to mean a prophet, but is more usual as a verb in the expressions augur well and augur ill, meaning ‘to portend, to suggest a specific outcome’. Examples:
Everything augured badly—they weren't meant to be together—E.J. Howard , 1965 /
The novel augured well for a successful career in fiction-writing—J. Pope .

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aught

is an Old English word that survives only in the fixed expressions for aught I know and for aught I care, and as such is restricted to literary or archaic use.

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augur

see AUGER.

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aural, oral.

Aural means ‘to do with the ear’ (from Latin auris ear) and oral means ‘to do with the mouth’ (from Latin os, oris mouth). An oral examination is one done by speaking rather than by writing; an aural examination is a medical examination of the ear. Both words are pronounced the same way, with the first syllable as in or, adding to the confusion. See also VERBAL.

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Australian English.

1 Most of the distinctive features of Australian English concern pronunciation, vocabulary, and idiom; there are few differences in the written or literary language.

2 PRONUNCIATION. The sound of Australian English is characterized principally by its vowels, which differ from those of BrE in several ways: the vowels of fleece, face, price, goose, goat, mouth all begin with rather open, slack sounds not unlike those used in Cockney speech; the vowels of dress, strut, start, dance, nurse have a much closer and tighter sound than in BrE. In unstressed syllables, Australian -es and -ed (as in boxes and studded) have a sound like e in garden, so that boxes sounds much the same as boxers, whereas BrE has the sound of i as in pin; Australian final -y and -ie- (as in study and studied) has a longer sound more like beat than bit. Australian English is closer to AmE in its lighter pronunciation of t and l when occurring between vowels (as in butter and hollow).
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3 VOCABULARY AND IDIOM. The main differences arise from the local landscape, natural history, and way of life, and can be seen in geographical names (e.g. bush, creek, paddock, scrub; conversely BrE brook, dale, field, forest are rare in Australian), in names of plants and animals, some of Aboriginal origin and borrowed further in BrE (e.g. budgerigar, wallaby). Word formations peculiar to Australian English include a productive colloquial suffix -o in word such as commo = communist and smoko = tea-break. Relatively few items of general vocabulary, whether neutral or informal in register, have come into BrE (e.g. barrack, crook = ‘ill, unwell’, dinkum, ropeable = ‘angry’, walkabout), and still fewer idioms (the best known probably being she'll be right = ‘all will be well’).
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authentic, genuine.

1 Fowler (1926) tried to establish a distinction in meaning between these two words, reserving authentic for the truthfulness of (for example) a book's contents or a picture's subject and genuine for the status of its alleged creator. In the sentence The Holbein Henry VIII is both authentic and genuine, the implication is that the portrait really is of Henry VIII (and therefore authentic) and is really by Holbein (and therefore genuine). This distinction is difficult to maintain in practice, and items such as documents, antique furniture, signatures, and many others are regularly described as authentic or genuine without any identifiable distinction in meaning.

2 An especially important domain in which authentic has been used in recent years is that of ‘early’ music (i.e. before about 1700), where authentic instruments are those made and played according to the principles of the period in which the music was written; and so a violin (for example) can be an authentic Baroque one, although it may be of modern manufacture and therefore not genuine or original.
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author.

1 noun. An author is a male or a female writer; authoress is now not only largely extinct, but regarded as depreciatory or even offensive.

2 verb. The verb is 16c, some two centuries later than the noun, and has been used both transitively and intransitively, although predominantly in the passive:
Whenever the students thought they were evaluating the work of a man, they assessed it as far more impressive than when they thought it was authored by a woman—M. Ross , 1989. In the 20c this use of author has been greatly extended in AmE and BrE with reference to areas of activity outside the arts, such as sport and the cinema. Co-author, meaning to share authorship, is now common.
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3 Authoring is a recent addition to the language of computing, and means ‘the process of creating multimedia documents for electronic publishing’:
In order to profit from the possibilities of hypertext, teachers have to be provided with powerful authoring environments which allow them to create complex hypertexts.—Literary and Linguistic Computing, 1992.
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authoritarian, authoritative.

These two words should be carefully distinguished as their implications are quite different. Authoritarian is generally used of people or their actions and has the unfavourable meaning ‘favouring or encouraging strict obedience to authority’ (with overtones of excess); authoritative is generally used of things that people say or write, and has the favourable meaning ‘recognized as true or dependable’. Examples:
(authoritarian) In industry we have had continuing trench warfare deriving from low pay, and authoritarian and remote management.—Times, 1973 /
(authoritative) The most authoritative and comprehensive reference book published on the world's rare, endangered and threatened birds.—Birds, 1979.

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automaton

has the plural form automata when understood collectively and automatons when understood individually. See LATIN PLURALS.

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automobile.

This word, together with car, is the standard term in AmE, but in BrE it is used little apart from in the name Automobile Association. In BrE limousine has connotations of ostentation, whereas in AmE it is a normal word for a large chauffeur-driven car or small bus such as regularly carry people to and from airports.

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autumn

see FALL.

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auxiliary verbs.

An auxiliary verb is one that is used with another verb to form a particular tense or mood, for example be in We were pleased, have in They have gone, and do in Do you mind? Sometimes more than one auxiliary verb is used to form a tense, as in We will be going and You have been warned. Some verbs, such as can, may, and would, are called modal (or modal auxiliary) verbs, and others (notably dare and need), though less obviously auxiliary in function, are called semimodal verbs because they behave in similar ways (for example, you can say dare not and need not, which is characteristic of auxiliary verbs). See also BE; CAN; DO; HAVE; MAY, MIGHT; MODAL VERB; OUGHT; SHALL AND WILL.

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avail.

1 The noun is used frequently in the somewhat literary phrases of no avail and to little / no avail, meaning ‘having little or no use or effective result’, and poses no problems.

2 There are also straightforward verb uses that are also slightly formal or literary in flavour, as in Words avail very little with him and His good works availed him nothing, and the reflexive use avail oneself of as in to avail oneself of opportunities. The reflexive construction is also found in the passive, especially in AmE:
Individual contracts may not be availed of to defeat or delay the procedure—Legal Times, 1982(US). In BrE this use should be avoided in favour of words such as use, exploit, employ, and utilize.
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avant-garde

is a 15c word originally meaning ‘the front part of an army’ (now expressed by vanguard). It has been revived in the 20c to mean ‘pioneers or innovators’, especially in the arts; its main uses are in the expression the avant-garde, in attributive uses such as the avant-garde cinema and avant-garde design, and with a qualifying word such as the Berlin avant-garde. It retains a French pronunciation with a nasalized second syllable in avant.

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avenge, revenge.

The principal differences to bear in mind are (1) that you avenge a person (including yourself) or an act but revenge only an act or yourself (usually on someone), and (2) that avenge is only a verb but revenge is a noun as well (in fact more commonly so). Differences in meaning, though proposed from time to time, are too subtle to have any practical use as guidance. Examples:
(avenge) The ferocity and guile with which Absalom had avenged the rape of his sister—D. Jacobson , 1970 /
That brave god will leap down from his steed when he has to avenge his father's death—K. Crossley-Holland , 1980 /
Through characterization the novelist has the means to avenge himself on his enemies—P.D. James , 1993 /
(revenge) It wasn't just that I could never revenge myself upon him—S. Mason , 1990 /
If I were to revenge myself upon you … that would be an act of despair— Murdoch , 1993.

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averse.

1 AVERSE, AVERSION. Both words are followed by to, despite arguments (notably by Dr Johnson , challenged at some length in the OED) that from should be used. Examples:
Nor was he averse to being reminded of Calcutta— Desai , 1988 /
Vic wasn't averse to keeping Everthorpe guessing whether he and Robyn Penrose were having an affair— Lodge , 1988 /
He had a lifelong aversion to British officialdom— Carré , 1989 /
Dr Mainwaring's prescription had not cured her aversion from the prospect of becoming hopelessly senile in the company of people who knew her— Amis , 1974

2 AVERSE, ADVERSE. See ADVERSE.
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avid,

meaning ‘eager or greedy’, is used either attributively (before a noun, commonly an agent noun such as collector or reader) or predicatively followed by for (or, now rarely, of):
Since getting the equipment two years ago, I've become an avid collector of compact discs—CD Review, 1992 /
He was avid for news of how it was all going, and regretting that he couldn't be part of it—J. Spottiswoode , 1991.

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avoid, avert, evade.

Avoid and evade overlap in meaning, but evade has a stronger sense of guile or trickery in escaping from an obligation (such as paying income tax). Avert means ‘to turn aside’ (which is its literal meaning in averting one's gaze, etc.), and so ‘to take action to prevent (something unwelcome, such as danger)’. Examples:
Measles vaccine should be avoided by children who are receiving steroids—D.J. Rapp , 1970 /
These rules could be evaded, but their evasion was preferable to a reign of snoopery and an encouragement of informers—A. Paton , 1981 /
In striving to avert a danger he thinks he sees lying ahead he may take the very measures which are necessary to bring it about—P.H. Kocher , 1972. There is a corresponding difference in meaning between the nouns avoidance and evasion.

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avouch, avow, vouch.

Avouch, meaning ‘to assure, guarantee, acknowledge’ and overlapping with avow, can be found in the Bible (AV), Spenser , Marlowe , Milton , Byron , and Thackeray , but despite these fine credentials is no longer in general use. Avow is still in use and means ‘to declare (a belief, one's faith, an intention, etc.)’. Vouch is restricted to the phrase to vouch for (somebody or something), as in / can vouch for him and / can vouch for his honesty.

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await, wait.

Await is a transitive verb meaning ‘to wait for’, and cannot be used without an object: We will await the outcome is equivalent to We will wait for the outcome (but has a stronger element of suspenseful expectation); We will await and see is ungrammatical. Wait is generally intransitive (and transitivized by for), but has a limited number of collocates in transitive use, as in Wait your turn and Don't wait tea.

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awake, awaken, wake, waken.

1 FORMS. Although the history of these words, and in particular of the various forms of past tense and past participle, is highly complex (see the OED entry), in current use awake and wake can be paired as strong verbs having a change of vowel, and awaken and waken can be paired as weak verbs. For the first pair, the past forms are awoke and woke, and the participial forms are awoken and woken. The second pair are regular, with past and participial forms awakened and wakened.

2 MEANINGS. All four verbs can be used transitively or intransitively, but wake, awaken, and waken are more formal or literary in effect. Wake is the only one to be followed optionally by up. Examples will clarify all these points: (awake) I awoke from a deep sleep / She awoke to the sound of driving rain / She awoke her sleeping child / The accident awoke old fears / (awaken) They awakened at dawn / There was enough noise to awaken the dead / There is a need to awaken motorists to the dangers of speeding in foggy conditions / The episode awakened her interest in impressionist painting / (wake) When do you usually wake in the morning? / I usually wake up at seven / Will you wake me up when it's time to go? / We woke up early this morning / I woke her up when it became light / I was woken by the wind in night / (waken) They wakened at dawn / We were wakened by the storm / When she fell asleep nothing would waken her.
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aware.

1 Aware is generally predicative in use, i.e. it stands after a noun or as a complement after a verb such as be, become, grow, seem, etc. It can be followed by of or a that-clause:
I had to be aware of … the balance between committed pro-marketeers and committed anti-marketeers— Wilson , 1976 /
The young people are well aware that they are being ripped off by these parasites— Frendz , 1971.

2 In the 20c, uses of aware either alone or attributively (before a noun) have become more common in the generalized meanings ‘well-informed’ and ‘alert to circumstances’ which do not refer to particular items of knowledge:
Revolutionarily aware people can't be fooled by these kinds of people— Frendz , 1971 /
The painfully aware state that seems to have succeeded her earlier calm— Brookner , 1985 /
The people concerned are caring, concerned and aware—and you haven't the faintest idea what they're talking about.—Times, 1986. Use with a qualifying adverb, as in environmentally aware, is also well attested, both attributively and predicatively.
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3 The noun awareness has developed a corresponding generalized meaning:
Lord Scarman recognises that the awareness campaign needs forcefully to target the government—City Limits, 1986.
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awesome

has followed the route of awful, and other words like fantastic, dreadful, tremendous, etc., in acquiring, especially in AmE, a favourable meaning ‘very good or impressive’, and this meaning is spreading into BrE alongside its traditional meaning ‘inspiring awe’. Examples:
The roadside drinkers stare open-mouthed at the sight of the awesome Ford GT_40—Today, 1992 /
If the English performances in Paris and Edinburgh had been executed by New Zealand they would be proclaimed as awesome and unstoppable—Rugby World and Post, 1992.

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awful.

1 There are two main stages in the development of this word from its primary meaning (which goes back to the time of King Alfred ) of ‘inspiring awe’. First, from about 1800 it came to mean ‘very bad’ (as in awful weather, an awful time); then gradually it was reduced further in force to take on the role of a catch-all intensifier deriving its sense from the context (as in an awful lot of money). It has also served as an adverb meaning the same as awfully, i.e. little more than ‘very’ (it's awful cold), but this use is non-standard.

2 The corresponding adverb awfully has followed the same route, and now means little more than ‘very’ (as in awfully kind of you). All these uses are best restricted to spoken or casual written English and should be avoided in more formal contexts.
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awhile, a while.

Both expressions have the same origin in the word while, but it should be noted that awhile is strictly adverbial whereas a while is a noun phrase (very often preceded by for):
When he reached the street-sign he stopped awhile and stood beneath it— Dexter , 1983 /
I'm going away for a while—B. Neil , 1993. Confusion is aggravated by the fact that a while, although a noun phrase, can also have a semi-adverbial function: We had to wait a long while [= for a long while].

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axe

is the standard spelling in BrE and other varieties apart from AmE, which favours ax. In BrE the verb has inflected forms axes, axed, axing.

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axis

has the plural form axes, pronounced ak-seez.

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aye.

1 The OED notes that the word meaning ‘yes’ appears suddenly about 1575 and is common about 1600, but its origin is unknown. Its principal uses now are in some northern British varieties (especially Scottish), as a parliamentary term (The ayes have it), and in nautical language (Aye aye, sir) It is pronounced as in eye.

2 The word meaning ‘ever’, as in for aye, is a different word first recorded about 1200. It is pronounced as in hay.
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3 Both words are also spelt ay.
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azure

is a horrid word to pronounce and is best avoided altogether, but if needs must then a first (stressed) syllable as in bat and a second as in pure is the best option.

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B

babe, baby.

Babe is now either a literary word, being regularly used in the Bible (Authorized Version, but baby in the New English Bible), or a colloquial and affectionate form of address to a young woman (originally AmE but increasingly found in BrE:
He looked me up and down. ‘Who you, babe?’—A. Billson , 1993). In a recent development, babe also means (with third-person reference) a sexually attractive woman:
The smartly dressed hooker swept in surrounded by a bevy of near naked film babes.—Daily Mirror, 1995. Baby is also used as a term of affection (e.g. my poor baby) and has a special use implying feebleness or lack of courage (He's a real baby when it comes to having injections). In this meaning baby has many recent and colourful synonyms such as chicken, funk, and (most recently) wimp.

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bacillus

is pronounced with a soft c. The plural is bacilli, with the final -i pronounced like eye.

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back.

A use that is chiefly AmE but familiar in the UK and likely to become BrE eventually is back of, meaning ‘behind, in the back of’
(His computer … locates a spare space back of the plane—Keyboard Player, 1986). But in back and in back of are unlikely to make the transition, being markedly AmE and un-British
(‘What luck,’ she muses, sliding back in [the car]. ‘Get in back, Herman.’—B. Ripley , 1987 /
Should I or should I not go out to the swimming pool in back of my sister's condominium?—A. Beattie , 1980).

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back-formation.

1 A back-formation is a word (often a verb) formed from a longer word (often a noun) which appears to be a derivative of the newer word; for example, burgle (19c) is a back-formation from burglar (which is six centuries older) and sculpt (19c) from sculptor (17c). Some words are revived as back-formations, such as conject (which occurs in Chaucer and Shakespeare); See also ADMINISTER, ADMINISTRATE.

2 Many established back-formations cause little comment; examples are diagnose (from diagnosis), donate (from donation), laze (from lazy), legislate (from legislation), and televise (from television), whereas others are regarded as tasteless or inappropriate; the chief targets are enthuse (from enthusiasm) and liaise (from liaison), which should be avoided by those anxious to impress, even though the alternatives are usually phrases such as be enthusiastic and form a liaison (although interact will often do).
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backlog.

The current figurative meaning ‘arrears of uncompleted work’ is a fairly recent Americanism (1930s) which rapidly passed into British use. The original physical meaning ‘a log placed at the back of a fire’ is 17c; in between is an earlier meaning ‘a reserve supply’, which extended in use to abstract things (for example, goodwill) and gave rise to the current meaning. In this meaning it is often used with a preceding noun, e.g. capacity backlog, orders backlog:
They find a backlog of work building up, in which important but less urgent planning and discussing never get to the top of the pile—G. Claxton , 1989 /
Jordan temporarily closes its border with Iraq to ease the refugee backlog— Keesings , 1990 /
Extra staff brought in to clear the backlog should be kept on until a thorough review is made—J. King , 1993.

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backslang

is a type of slang in which words are pronounced backwards and take on a special (often derogatory) meaning, such as yob for ‘boy’.

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back to basics

is a 1990s political slogan invoking a return to fundamental principles of honesty and decency, which is likely to recur from time to time. When used adjectivally, it should be hyphened (a back-to-basics campaign).

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backward, backwards.

1 For the adverb, both forms are in use, although backward is some what more common in AmE and backwards in BrE:
Talk ran backward from the events of the morning—A. Munro , 1987 (Canada) /
I walked backward to look at her in the sun—E.L. Doctorow , 1989 (US) /
Not knowing where he was, and trying to work his way backwards—R. Cobb , 1985(UK). In the fixed expressions bend (or lean) over backwards, backwards and forwards, and to know backwards, backward is only found occasionally outside AmE:
He'll bend over backwards to please a client—M. Bail , 1975 (Australia) /
An eclectic collector …, he knows the showrooms backwards.—Financial Times, 1983 /
The door kept swinging backwards and forwards— Brookner , 1984 /
From the study above them … came the sound of footsteps moving backwards and forwards across the floor—R. Border , 1991 /
They move backward and forward between denial and anger and depression, unable to break out of the circle of despair—G. Carmichael , 1991.

2 For the adjective, the correct form in standard English is backward:
He watched her walking away without a backward glance.—R. Sutcliff , 1954 /
Getting involved with the blind in any way seemed like a backward step— Mehta , 1987. In addition to the directional meanings, backward has the meaning ‘mentally retarded, slow to learn’, although this is now disfavoured by many as being depreciatory.
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bacterium

is a singular noun and its plural is bacteria. Erroneous uses of bacteria as a singular noun are regrettably common in newspapers:
A common gut bacteria may be a major cause of rheumatoid arthritis—Independent, 1991.

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bad, badly.

1 After the verb feel, bad is an adjective complement (meaning either ‘guilty, ashamed’ or ‘unwell’) rather than an adverb:
To be absolutely honest, what I feel really bad about is that I don't feel worse— Frayn , 1965. After to be and most other verbs, badly is required: He is behaving badly / They badly wanted to see the game / My brother was badly wounded in Tunisia / The Smiths are not badly off. In these cases, bad is used only informally or in dialect:
I only came cause she's so bad off—L. Hellman , 1934.

2 In a slang (principally youth slang) use originating in US Black English, bad means the very opposite of its traditional meaning, i.e. ‘excellent, very good’, and in this meaning even has special degrees of comparison badder, baddest:
She said that part of the problem was that they often wanted to distinguish themselves by being badder than their rivals. Badder? Surely the comparative of bad is worse? But then worse has connotations of being less good at doing something.—Spectator, 1993. This is a good example of how one of the most basic words can be twisted and pulled in all directions, rather as wicked and mean have been in the past.
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bade,

the past tense of bid, is pronounced bad.

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bafflegab,

a term for abstruse technical terminology, was coined by Milton A. Smith , assistant general counsel for the American Chamber of Commerce, who defined it as ‘multiloquence characterized by a consummate interfusion of circumlocution … and other familiar manifestations of abstruse expatiation commonly utilised for promulgations implementing procrustean determinations by governmental bodies.’

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baggage.

1 Baggage and luggage overlap in use, although baggage generally connotes something heavier and bulkier and less easily transportable by hand. Some collocations are more or less fixed, e.g. excess baggage, baggage claim, baggage handler; and a few British railway stations still have left-luggage offices (rarely, though occasionally, left-baggage). In the US a person who looks after the baggage of passengers on a train or at a hotel is called a baggageman. At air terminals hand baggage and hand luggage seem to be freely used in both BrE and AmE.

2 In figurative uses, baggage is always used:
It's the emotional baggage I'm hauling around that's causing all the trouble—She, 1989 /
She was not an intellectual; her philosophical baggage was comparatively light.—K.O. Morgan , 1990 /
They dispatched their excess female baggage at the Strand Gate where the Sheriff was closing in on them, and then headed across the quicksands to Rye—R. Long , 1990.
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bail, bale.

1 The spelling bail (ultimately from Old French bailler ‘to take charge of’) is always used with reference to securing the release of a person with a guarantee of his or her reappearance in court on an appointed day. Figuratively, too, a person or organization may be bailed out, or released, from a debt or other difficulty.

2 In the meaning ‘to scoop water out of a boat’, or ‘to make an emergency parachute jump from an aircraft’ the spelling bale (out) is now usual, as if the action were that of letting a bale (i.e. bundle, as in bale of hay) through a trapdoor, even though the word is of different origin from the noun bale (from Old French baille, ‘bucket’).
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balance.

1 The noun is about four centuries older than the verb, and has derived several figurative uses from its primary meaning of ‘an apparatus for weighing’, as for example in accounting (where the notion of balancing the books is everpresent) and in more abstract uses such as the fragile balance between peace and war. Two centuries ago, the word branched out from the accounting sense in the US and came to mean ‘something (other than money) left over’ (I'll bring the balance of our things / The balance of the penalty still has to be paid). This use is not good style in unquantified contexts when a simpler word such as rest is available.

2 The word occurs figuratively in a number of fixed or semifixed expressions such as balance of nature, balance of power, balance of probabilities, in the balance, on balance, to redress the balance, to strike a balance. These are all established and acceptable uses.
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baleful, baneful.

These two rather literary words overlap in meaning, giving rise to confusion. Baleful (from bale, ‘misery’) means ‘having an evil influence’ or ‘menacing’, and is used in particular of people's presence or appearance, whereas baneful (from bane, poison) developed from its earlier meaning ‘poisonous’ to ‘causing harm or ruin’. Examples:
(baleful) The baleful presence of his father in the house was like a constant reproach—R. Hayman , 1981 /
Foghorns boom in still longer and lower choruses of baleful warning— Banks , 1986 /
(baneful) The baneful memory of that night haunted her, sometimes tormented her— Murdoch , 1987. Baleful is the more likely to be needed in spoken English, especially with reference to looks and glances.

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bale out

See BAIL.

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balk

See BAULK.

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ball game, ballpark.

1 Ball game, an American name for baseball, has formed the core of several colloquial idioms in which it means ‘a state of affairs’, as in a whole new ball game. Because of its wide scope of alternative reference, it seems to fit naturally into BrE and to be understood perfectly well in other countries where baseball is hardly known:
It was a different ball-game in those days and you bloody well know it—W.J. Burley , 1991.

2 Ballpark, though even more remote culturally, has also entered BrE in the idiom in the right ballpark, meaning ‘approximately correct’. Colourful though it is in casual conversation, it is certainly to be avoided in more formal contexts.
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balm

is pronounced bahm, and is most commonly used in its figurative meaning ‘a healing or soothing influence or consolation’ (e.g. a balm to the senses). Originally it meant a fragrant medicinal liquid exuded from certain trees.

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balmy, barmy.

These two words come from two roots, although the lines of descent have become intertwined: balmy (meaning ‘deliciously fragrant’) comes from balm (See that entry above) and barmy (as now used colloquially, meaning ‘stupid’) comes from barm, meaning ‘froth’. However, barmy is an altered form of balmy, which also had the colloquial meaning in the 19c and early 20c. Consequently they may be regarded as spelling variants; but current usage favours the distinction given above.

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baluster, banister.

The OED describes banister as a corruption of the slightly earlier word baluster; both are 17c. A baluster, though once having the meaning that banisters (plural) now has, means a single curved or ornamental post supporting a balustrade round a gallery or terrace. A banister is a single post supporting a handrail at the side of a staircase, and is generally used, in the singular or more usually in the plural banisters, to mean the entire structure including the rail.

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ban

is a common journalistic word, ideally short for headlines, for ‘prohibit’ or ‘make illegal’; as such, and because of its staccato effect in speech, it permeates everyday language. In earlier periods it meant ‘to summon’ and ‘to curse’. In modern times, the slogan ban the bomb (i.e. the nuclear bomb) gave it a special currency in the 1960s. Other things that have been banned or been under threat of banning include trade unions (Solidarity in Poland until 1984, workers at the UK'S GCHQ in Cheltenham), English football teams playing in European competitions (for several years from 1985), the publication of certain books and articles (e.g. Spycatcher in the UK in 1987), and the selling of various products such as unpasteurized milk in the EU and beef on the bone in the UK (1998).

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banal,

pronounced b-nahl and meaning ‘trite, feeble, commonplace’, is a loanword that has survived, despite the fulmination of Fowler in 1926 (‘imported from France by a class of writers whose jaded taste relishes novel or imposing jargon’), because no other word in English enjoys the same touch of venom:
Books are filled with pictures rather than text, and with trivial content and banal style, to make them ‘easier to read’.—New Scientist, 1991. The alternatives listed Fowler , including commonplace and trite, simply won't do, and nowadays we relish Gallicisms rather more than he did. For other words of this type, See LOANWORD.

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baneful

See BALEFUL.

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banister

See BALUSTER.

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banjo.

The recommended plural is banjos, although banjoes is also found.

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Bantu

(plural the same or Bantus), referring to a large group of Negroid peoples of Central and northern Africa, is now offensive both as a noun and an adjective, because of its irredeemable associations with the apartheid era in South Africa.

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bar, barring.

1 Bar, used as a slightly formal preposition meaning ‘except’, has been in use since the 18c. In current use it is often followed by a number (or none):
My sister-in-law for whom I probably care more than I care for anyone in the world bar one other— Lively , 1983 /
The best detection expert I know, bar none— Rendell , 1983. It is also used in the idiom all over bar the shouting, when an outcome is all but assured; and in giving the odds in racing (e.g. 33-1 bar the rest).

2 Barring, which is attested much earlier (15c), is also still used in the general meanings, and collocates regularly with words expressing misfortune or reversal:
Barring accidents, we should win another Grand Slam—Rugby World and Post, 1991 /
The young working-class man in industrial employment could expect his income to reach its peak in early manhood and stay constant thereafter, barring disasters such as unemployment.—J. Weeks , 1992.
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barbarian, barbaric, barbarous.

1 These words had their origins in people's ideas about foreign languages. The Greek word barbaros, ‘barbarian’, which is the ultimate source of all these words, meant someone who spoke words sounding like ba ba. To the Greeks, the barbarians were foreigners, and principally the Persians, but the word carried no depreciatory overtones in itself. Over the centuries the non-Hellenic, non-Roman, or non-Christian peoples became regarded as enemies who violated and plundered the civilized world, and this gave rise to the unfavourable connotations of the term barbarian and associated words. By an understandable process of sense-development, in the 16c to 17c the word came to be applied to any person or group regarded as uncivilized or uncultivated, and in current use has many extended meanings, although a major area of use is still historical:
Enlightenment man has undoubtedly been a man of power, but he has also been a barbarian—A. Walker , 1988 /
Many survived the depredation of the barbarian incursion of the late third century from which Britain was spared—G. Webster , 1991 /
She would not have minded if he had hired the Albert Hall to denounce her as a barbarian and certainly cared nothing for his kitchen sulks and drawing-room sarcasm—A.T. Ellis , 1993.

2 Since the 15c, barbaric has been applied to foreign customs, language, and culture that are regarded as backward or uncivilized:
The noble savage … turns out to be a barbaric creature with a club and a scalping knife—H.J. Laski , 1920 /
In this country we can kill people on the roads and walk free, and rape women and get away with around four years in prison—yet we have the cheek to call the Saudis barbaric—Today, 1992 /
Some of the subsidiary practices [in fox-hunting] such as the ‘blooding’ of children are little short of barbaric—Independent, 1998. Another (17c) use of the word, to describe exotic objects brought from abroad, has been confined to literary contexts such as Lawrence of Arabia's description of Arab costume as splendid and barbaric. In modern use, it is applied to brutal or wicked physical treatment of people, and is somewhat stronger and more specific than barbarous, which has a more general reference and is softened by its use in aesthetic as well as physical contexts:
Formulating his phrases carefully in the barbarous French prose these people used—D. Bagley , 1966 /
No doubt they are also the victims of a gross and barbarous fallacy— Powell , 1991.
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barbarism, barbarity.

Barbarism has the widest scope of reference, being applied to matters of taste a well as human behaviour, and it has a special meaning in relation to language (See BARBARISMS). Barbarity (and occasionally barbarousness, although this is not normally needed) always refer to savage cruelty or extremely uncivilized behaviour. Examples:
It has taken a woman to remind us all that there are people out there who are determined that Northern Ireland will not be dragged down to the level of barbarity displayed by the terrorists—Ulster Newsletter, 1991 /
He took up a new job in Berlin on the very day in 1930 when the Reichstag election heralded unprecedented barbarism in Europe—New Scientist, 1991 /
I do not believe urban barbarism is about to engulf us—East Anglian Daily Times, 1993.

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barbarisms

are words that are judged to be ill-formed for various reasons, usually because they are derived from a mixture of Latin and Greek roots (e.g. television) or a mixture of Latin/Greek and English roots (e.g. breathalyser). The objection is pedantic and irrational and is largely disregarded in the blizzard of present-day word-creation. See also LOST CAUSES.

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barbecue

is a noun and a verb (and has inflected forms barbecues, barbecued, barbecuing). It is sometimes written in facetious respellings such as Bar-B-Q (and hence barbeque), which are not standard.

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barely,

like hardly (See HARD (2)) and SCARCELY, should normally be followed by when, not than, if a clause follows:
Chance had barely begun to sip his drink when dinner was announced—J. Kosinski , 1983.

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barman, barmaid

are the BrE names for a man and woman respectively who serve drinks at a bar. The AmE equivalents are barkeeper (or barkeep) and bartender, although the gender distinction is less clear-cut.

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barmy

See BALMY.

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baronage, barony.

The baronage is the body of barons collectively, and a baronage is a listing of them. Barony is the rank or domain of a baron.

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baroque

is a term applied to certain forms of European art, architecture, and music of the late Renaissance and 18c. It is normally spelt with a small initial, as is rococo, which refers to a slightly later period of art and music (e.g. Watteau and Mozart rather than Rubens and Handel), although the two terms tend to overlap in some uses.

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barring

See BAR.

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basal

See BASIC.

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basalt

is pronounced bas-awlt.

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base, basis.

The two words overlap in meaning, but broadly base is physical (the base of a column, a poison with an arsenic base), while basis is figurative with a primary meaning ‘that on which something depends’, as in a basis for action, the basis of an argument, or doing things on a friendly basis. Expressions such as on a regular basis and on a daily basis are sometimes frowned on when simpler adverbs (regularly, daily) are available, but the longer forms often make the point more effectively and are well established. Base is occasionally found in figurative meanings too, especially in semi-fixed collocations such as customer (or client) base and base of support. In language, it has the special meaning of a philological root (The word cairn is derived from a Celtic base).

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based.

1 BASED ON. To base one thing on another is to use the second as the basis for the first, and it is frequently used in the passive, as in arguments based on statistics. Avoid using based on as an unattached conjunction, especially in initial position as in Based on statistics, we argue that ….

2 -BASED. In the 20c, the participle based is commonly used in combination with a noun, meaning ‘based on … ’, as in land-based, rule-based, science-based, technology-based, etc.
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basic, basal.

Both are 19c words. Basic is the normal word in general contexts, and has usurped the role of other words such as essential and fundamental. Basal is used only in technical contexts and has a physical meaning more clearly connected with base: e.g. a basal ganglion is one situated at the base of the cerebrum.

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basically

has developed in the 20c from a specific meaning ‘essentially, fundamentally’, to a more or less meaningless sentence-filler comparable to actually and really:
Basically, I feel great, except for fatigue—M. Ali , 1987 /
Basically I see myself as a frank individual— Bellow , 1988 /
Basically, decay is just a process—K. Russell , 1988. This should be avoided in written English that aims to be precise and succinct.

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basis

See BASE. The plural form is bases.

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bath, bathe

(verbs). In BrE to bath is to have a bath (i.e. wash oneself immersed in a domestic bath), and to bathe is to go into the sea or a river to swim. In AmE, bathe is used much more commonly in the washing sense. In both varieties, take a bath is a common alternative.

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bathroom

in BrE means a place for washing and taking a bath, and may or may not include a lavatory; in AmE it is first and foremost a lavatory:
The man … grew up … in a town where he was unable to use the same bathroom as white residents—Chicago Tribune, 1987.

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baulk, balk.

1 PRONUNCIATION. It should be pronounced bawlk (with l).

2 SPELLING. The usual BrE spelling is baulk, although balk is more common in AmE. The primary use is as a verb meaning (1) followed by at: ‘to hesitate, refuse to go on’, as in
For one thing, the government may baulk at giving the financial guarantee—New Scientist, 1991, (2) followed by of: ‘to thwart’, as in
I gave her the number and hung up feeling baulked of my escape—L.R. Banks , 1987 /
Fenella had the feeling that they were simply mustering their strength again; they had been baulked of their prey and they had retired—B. Wood , 1993. There are a few technical noun meanings, including a line in billiards and snooker and a length of sawn timber; the same spelling rules apply.
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BC

should be placed after the numerals to which it relates, as in 55 BC. When a range of dates is given, the second date should be put in full, as in 55–53 BC (since 55–3 BC has another meaning). In printing style, BC is normally put in small capitals. The culturally neutral BCE (‘before Common Era’) is also used.

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be.

1 LINKING SINGULAR AND PLURAL. Very often the subject of the verb be is singular and the complement plural, or vice versa, and in these cases the verb should agree with the subject:
Gustave is other animals as well— Barnes , 1984 /
These huge biographies are usually a mistake nowadays—N. Stone , 1985. But when the subject is a collective noun, the verb may be in the plural, following the usual pattern with such nouns:
Its prey are other small animals— Attenborough , 1987. When the subject is the relative pronoun what, the verb is singular:
What I'm really interested in … is the objects in this house—New Yorker, 1986.

2 SUBJUNCTIVE FORMS. The verb be has two residual subjunctive forms, be and were. Their use is rapidly disappearing, but there are one or two uses still left:
a in an inverted construction replacing if or whether:
We would much prefer to support specific projects, be they in management schools or in university laboratories—Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1986 /
Were this done, we would retain a separate Barwith skill—Times, 1986.
b after if in hypothetical conditions:
If the truth be told, I never wanted to fly away with the skygods—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 /
If I were obliged to rough out a blueprint of the Church of the future, I would start with the need for good popular theology— Priestland , 1982. However, the past indicative form was is often used instead of were, especially in conversational style:
I'd get out if I was you— Gee , 1983.
c in dependent clauses after verbs of advising and instructing such as demand, insist, suggest, etc:
The Admiralty insisted that the case be clarified—P. Wright , 1987 /
In order to broaden the ‘target audience’ of your newsletter … I might suggest that such material be written at a lower level of readability.—Underground Grammarian, 1982; also after nouns and phrases of equivalent meaning:
It is important in today's vote that the principle itself be accepted—Times, 1985.
d in certain fixed expressions such as be that as it may, far be it from me, the powers that be, etc.
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3 THE CASE OF THE COMPLEMENT AFTER BE. The monks of Rheims, as quoted by the grammarian Dean Alford in 1864, cried out when they saw the anathematised jackdaw: ‘That's him!’ and not ‘That's he!’. In both speech and writing, the type it's me/him/her/us/them is now virtually universal, except when a relative pronoun follows, as in
It was he who would be waiting on the towpath—P.D. James , 1986. See further at CASES (2).
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4 REDUCED FORMS. Am, is, and were are reduced to 'm, 's, and 're respectively after pronouns and nouns (I'm over here / She's just coming / We're late, are we?), except when the noun ends in a sibilant sound ( The church's just up the road). Aren't, used for am not in the question form aren't I as well as are you / they not, is irregular; ain't is irregular and widely deplored (see AIN'T).
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5 ELLIPSIS OF BE. Be is often omitted, especially in informal contexts, in cases such as They are sorry for what they did and anxious to make amends / We're leaving now and catching the 9.00 train. When be is used as an auxiliary verb and as a linking verb in the same sentence, it must be repeated because its role is different: The bill was overtaken by the 1964 election and its postponement was welcome.
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beat

is largely defunct as a participial form, except in the phrase dead-beat. Otherwise it is confined to (especially AmE) dialect and non-standard uses:
You hear on television nowadays about little children getting beat up or treated nasty—New Yorker, 1988.

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beauteous

is a literary and chiefly poetical word for beautiful, used memorably by Wordsworth (it is a beauteous evening, calm and free) and madly by Ophelia in Hamlet: Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?.

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because.

1 BECAUSE, AS, SINCE, FOR. Because is a conjunction that normally introduces a dependent clause and answers the question ‘why?’ (or, sometimes, ‘how?’). It can relate directly to the statement made, as in / came because I wanted to see you, which answers the (real or notional) question ‘Why did you come?’, or (like for) it can relate to the status of the proposition, as in / know he committed suicide, because his wife told me, which effectively answers the question ‘How do you know he committed suicide?’ and not the question ‘Why did he commit suicide?’; in this sentence, the comma has an important structural function.
Because can also stand first in the sentence, as in Because we missed the train, we had to wait a long time. It is also in order to use because after an introductory it is, it's, that's, this, is, etc.:
It is because these Christian values are apparently being cast off by the present leadership of the Conservative Party … that many Christians are turning to the Alliance.—Church Times, 1985.
As and since are often used at the beginning of a sentence, and (unlike because) tend to emphasize the main statement rather than the reason. For can only follow the main statement, and is a coordinating conjunction, whereas because is a subordinating conjunction.

2 AFTER NEGATIVES. Using because after a negative statement (e.g. I do not play cards because I enjoy good company, i.e. one containing a word such as not or never or including a word in un- etc.) can technically cause ambiguity because it is not clear whether the reason given is an invalid one for a positive statement (i.e. I do play cards, but not because …), or a valid one for a negative statement (i.e. I do not play cards, and the reason is …). However, the context will often make the meaning clear:
Very many people … do not attend church because they are bored by ritualistic services—Lancashire Life, 1977 /
Her twin was told she was unlikely to have children because of her husband's low sperm count.—Daily Telegraph, 1979. When necessary, a comma will usually remove any ambiguity:
The graphic equalizer is not for every hi-fi customer, because it does require some skill, time and patience in usage—Gramophone, 1976.
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3 THE REASON IS … BECAUSE ….
The reason for this was because I was the only one who could sign it, because the account was in my name— Elton , 1991. This construction is often rejected on grounds of style in favour of the reason is … that …, since because is logically redundant after reason. But redundancy is a regular component of idiom, and given that both constructions are common it is becoming harder to insist on the point. In the following example, it would weaken the statement considerably to replace because with that:
The minipill was developed for one reason alone: because it was believed to provide safe contraception—New Scientist, 1970. However, because of should be avoided in this kind of construction: The reason we have no light is because of a broken fuse should read The reason we have no light is that the fuse is broken.
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4 BECAUSE OF. With the reservation given in the last paragraph, because of is a legitimate use in many positions in a sentence:
Because of the deterioration of the sugar in the blood it was decided, after consultation, to carry out an exchange blood transfusion—Glasgow Herald, 1970 /
He'd have to watch his step … not to make a hash of things, because of over-anxiety—J. Wainwright , 1976.
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5 AT THE HEAD OF A DEPENDENT CLAUSE GOVERNING A MAIN CLAUSE, as in
Because we don't explicitly ask these questions doesn't mean they aren't answered—New Yorker, 1986. This kind of construction, though common in speech, is awkward in written English because the main clause is uncomfortably delayed, and the sentence should be recast, e.g. These questions are still answered even though we don't explicitly ask them.
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been and– (been and gone and–)

appears in popular speech in Dickens (Pickwick Papers, 1836), and is still common in casual and jocular contexts, although it now sounds somewhat dated
(And what's more, he's been and gone and got it printed—P. Bailey , 1986).

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begin

See COMMENCE.

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begrudge, grudge.

These two words overlap in meaning, but not completely. To begrudge someone something (such as success) is to envy them for having it, whereas to grudge something is to resent the giving (by yourself or someone else) of something that you think you have a right to. Examples best clarify the distinction, although the meanings overlap in practice:
Few people begrudge the aid we send to the starving or merely under-developed regions of the earth—Guardian, 1984 /
I imagine you won't grudge me a glass of brandy first— Fitzgerald , 1988.

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beg the question

means, strictly speaking, to question an unproved assumption that is used as the basis for an argument. For example, to say that ‘capital punishment is necessary because without it murders would increase’ begs the question because an increase in murders is postulated rather than proved. In general use, beg the question has come to mean (1) ‘bring a question to mind’ (e.g.
John Major's vision of Europe … begs the question: ‘why did the prime minister all but sacrifice his office ratifying the Maastricht Treaty … ?’—Economist, 1993 and (2) ‘avoid a straightforward answer’ (e.g.
He simply begged the question by saying that the decisions he disapproved invented new rights—New York Review of Books, 1987). These weakened meanings should be avoided in precise English; available alternatives are, for (1) raise (or suggest or invite) the question, and for (2) evade (or avoid) the question.

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behalf

is now used in BrE only in the phrase on behalf of (AmE in behalf of), which means (1) ‘in the interests of’, and (2) ‘as a representative of’
(He used to make payments and pick up money on behalf of Mafia mobsters—Times, 1982). It should not be used to mean ‘on the part of’, as in
The detail may be trivial but it betrays an astounding lack of appreciation on behalf of the author—Times, 1994.

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being as

should only be used in casual conversation:
Being as how you can't be married, you'd better have him christened—G.V. Higgins , 1979.

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belittle

is, to the surprise of many, an Americanism, disapproved of Fowler (1926) as an ‘undesirable alien’, at least in its meaning ‘decry, depreciate’. This objection is a lost cause (See LOST CAUSES); the verb is now standard in BrE and has produced a quasiadjective, belittling. The physical meaning ‘to dwarf by contrast’, which Fowler accepted, is no longer used.

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belly

is a standard word for the front part of the human body below the breast, despite marked fluctuations in acceptability over many centuries of use; alternatives are abdomen (more technical and formal), stomach (more specific) and tummy (more colloquial, especially in children's use). There are many transferred uses, e.g. the underside of an animal, the underside of an aeroplane, the front part of a cello, etc.

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below, beneath, under.

These three words appear to be synonymous, but many contexts call for one in preference to another. Beneath is somewhat more literary in use. Under in its physical sense is rather more literal than the other two:under the bridge means directly underneath it, whereas beneath the bridge suggests a wider area, and below the bridge can also mean downstream from it. It is customary to say below par, below the belt, to go below (in a ship), the information below, the temperature is below 20 degrees; conversely a man under 40, under one's breath, incomes under £10,000, under the sun, under the circumstances, under one's thumb, under sentence of death, and beneath contempt, be beneath one.

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benchmark.

This is a busy word with an interesting history and some recent developments. In its original physical meaning it referred to a wedge-shaped incision made by surveyors in a vertical surface so that a bracket could be inserted to form a bench or support for surveying equipment at a fixed and reproducible height. By the 1880s it had developed a figurative meaning, ‘a point of reference, a standard’; more recently, the rapid growth in the use of personal computers has led to the development of benchmark software designed to perform comparative tests on different models. This meaning has also spawned a verb: to benchmark a system is to apply a benchmark test to it:
We haven't had a chance to completely benchmark the new low-cost Mac models—MacWorld, 1993.

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benefit

has inflected forms benefited, benefiting, with one t not two.

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benign

is principally used in medicine to mean ‘not life-threatening’; its opposite is malignant. The word benignant, meaning ‘kindly’ or ‘beneficial’, has largely fallen out of use.

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bereaved, bereft.

The verb bereave, meaning ‘to deprive (someone)’, is normally used in the passive. When the meaning refers in general ways to possessions, feelings, etc., the past participle is bereft:
Without her, he felt bereft as a child at a boarding school—A.N. Wilson , 1982. Strictly, there should be a sense of being deprived; bereft of should not be used as a synonym for lacking or without (as in bereft of manners). In the context of death the form is bereaved
(If it is your own mother who is bereaved, the fact that you are grieving too will probably help you both a good deal—E. Deeping , 1979), and this is frequently used adjectivally
(It needs to be remembered that bereaved people stay at home—J. Pardoe , 1991 /
The bereaved have always wished to ‘remember’ their dead, in the literal sense of reconstituting form and feature—R. Cecil , 1991).

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berk

is a BrE slang term for a fool. It is not usually regarded as strongly offensive, despite its association, via rhyming slang Berkshire Hunt (pronounced as in AmE), with cunt.

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berserk,

meaning ‘wild, frenzied’, is now mostly confined to the expression to go berserk. It is in origin a Norse word for a warrior who fought with wild fury. Berserk may be pronounced either b-zerk or b-serk, although the first is now more common.

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beside, besides.

Beside is only used as a preposition meaning ‘next to’
(He heard Lee come up beside him—A. Hassall , 1989), whereas besides is both an adverb meaning ‘also, moreover’
(Besides, it was not the first disappointment—S. Studd , 1981) and a preposition meaning ‘as well as’
(Besides newsstands and supermarket checkouts, books are pumped out through mail-order clubs—Economist, 1993). Beside also occurs in fixed expressions, e.g. to be beside oneself, beside the point, but it should not be used in a general way, as in Beside their homework, they have letters to write, when besides is needed.

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besiege

like siege, is spelt -ie-.

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bet

has past and past participle forms bet and betted; both are correct although bet is preferable, and is more common in BrE and (even more) in AmE. But betted is also found
(I'd have betted you wouldn't be much good at taking somebody out— Amis , 1988). When a sum of money is specified, only bet is possible (He bet me £50 he would win).

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bête noire

is always written with the final e. The plural is bêtes noires, with both s's silent.

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better.

1 HAD BETTER. This common idiom is used in the form We had better go home or We'd better go home; the negative form is We'd better not go home and the interrogative Hadn't we better go home?. Informally (but not in more formal contexts), the word had is sometimes omitted: We better go home; and in some cases the preceding pronoun too:
When you're feeling censorious, better ask yourself which you'd choose—P.D. James , 1986.

2 BETTER, BETTOR. In the meaning ‘one who bets’, bettor is more common in AmE, and better in BrE. Bettor has the advantage of being distinct from the comparative of good, although their distinct uses keep them out of each other's way.
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between.

1 GENERAL. Between is an adverb (houses with spaces between) and a preposition (houses with spaces between them). We are concerned here with between as a preposition.

2 BETWEEN AND AMONG. Many people, and usage guides, cling to the idea (probably influenced by the use of between in relation to physical distance between points), that between is used when two people or things are involved and among must be invoked when more than two are involved. But this line is supported neither by the explanations of the OED nor by usage, which constantly refer to two or more parties:
Does he sigh between the chimes of the clock?—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 /
Things that had happened a long time since—between Isaac and myself— Williams , 1985 /
The death of his sister had changed things between Marcus, Ruth and jacqueline—A.S. Byatt , 1985 /
Museums have become an uneasy cross between theatre and boutique—New Yorker, 1987.
There are, however, cases where among is the better word to use, normally when the underlying notion is of collectivity rather than separation:
There were a lot of very young people among the temporary staff— Fitzgerald , 1980 /
The UN … does have machinery designed to … keep the peace among nations—Christian Science Monitor, 1987. Conversely, between and not among is used when there only two people or things (as in the first 1985 example in the preceding paragraph), and when the people or things (of whatever number) are specified (as in the second 1985 example). Before reflexive pronouns (ourselves, themselves, etc) among and between are used interchangeably.
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3 BETWEEN … AND …. Between should be followed by and, not other words such as or, as in the following examples:
[This] leaves Britain with the choice between being ruined by runaway inflation or by a series of disastrous strikes—Daily Telegraph, 1970
My feet got so sensitive I could sense the difference between tarvia, gravel, or concrete immediately—Islander (Victoria, BC), 1972. Similarly, it is important to say between 1914 and 1918, or from 1914 to 1918 (also expressed as 1914–18), not between 1914–18. See also FROM.
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4 BETWEEN EACH, BETWEEN EVERY. Constructions such as 22 yards between each telegraph pole and pause between every mouthful are often deplored on the grounds that logical grammar calls for the addition of and the next to each group of words. Informally, however, this construction is typical and unexceptionable, although it is best avoided in more formal contexts. Examples:
The 30-minute headway between each bus reduced to a 50-minute headway—Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 1970. The construction between every two is ambiguous as to ‘between two’ and ‘between two pairs’, and is best avoided.
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5 BETWEEN YOU AND I, though found in Shakespeare (but so is between you and him, not he), is an example of hypercorrection, influenced perhaps by the purist insistence on sentences of the type ‘Who's going?’ ‘Anne and I.’ (in which Anne and me is also possible). Since between governs both pronouns, the correct construction is between you and me, between you and us, etc.:
Tiny bit boring, between you and me— Mortimer , 1962.
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6 REPEATED BETWEEN. In long sentences, there is always a temptation to insert a second between as a reminder of what the statement is about: You need to decide between voting for a party which, against all advice, introduced the poll tax, a form of tax first used in the 14th century, and one that dislikes the rates system but has no alternative to offer. Putting a second between before one that dislikes is tempting because of the length of the sentence but it would be ungrammatical, and the sentence would be better recast.
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beware

is of Old English origin, and except for a period from about 1600 to the late 19c has lacked inflected forms, being used chiefly in the imperative (Beware of the dog!) or after a modal auxiliary such as do and must (Do beware of the dog / We must beware of impostors). Use with a direct object is found in Shakespeare (Since I am a dog, beware my phangs—The Merchant of Venice III. iii.7 / Beware the Ides of March—Julius Caesar I.ii.20) and other poetic writing, but is not a feature of ordinary speech or writing, except allusively.

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bi-.

This prefix causes much confusion in words such as biweekly, bimonthly, etc., because it is used to mean (for example) ‘twice a week’ as well as ‘every two weeks’. Rules do not help because they are not universally followed; it is best to avoid the problem by using terms such as twice a week and twice-weekly on the one hand, and every two weeks and fortnightly on the other.

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biannual

(19c) normally means ‘twice a year’, as distinct from biennial (17c), which means ‘every two years’ or ‘lasting two years’. Since usage is not consistent on this point, it is sometimes better to use alternatives such as half-yearly or twice-yearly instead of biannual and two-yearly, for biennial.

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bias.

The verb has inflected forms biased, biasing, although -ss- is also found. The plural of the noun is biases.

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Bible.

Use a capital initial when it refers to the scriptures collectively (Read your Bible), but a small initial when it refers to a copy of the book (three bibles) or is allusive (Wisden is the cricketer's bible).

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bicentenary,

a noun meaning ‘two-hundredth anniversary’ and also a corresponding adjective, is pronounced -teen- more usually than -ten-. It is the usual term in BrE, whereas bicentennial is more usual in AmE and elsewhere.

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biceps

is spelt the same in the plural.

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bid

has past tenses bade (in general meanings : We bade them farewell) and bid (in card games and the auction room: We bid successfully for the portrait). The corresponding past participle forms are bidden and bid.

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biennial

See BIANNUAL.

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billion

in BrE has since the 1950s come increasingly to mean ‘a thousand million’ as it always has in AmE, rather than its old BrE meaning of ‘a million million’. In more idiomatic uses (as in I've told you a billion times) there is no precise meaning. When preceded by a numeral, the plural is billion (unchanged: three billion people), but billions is used when it is followed by of (billions of people).

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bimonthly

See BI-.

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bin,

short for waste-bin, has given rise in BrE to a transitive verb to bin, meaning ‘to throw away’ or (figuratively) ‘to reject’:
Who remembers the kind of middle-class good behaviour, thrift and modesty that have been binned along with Bromo, the Church Times and meals for one?—Independent on Sunday, 1990. The inflections are binned, binning.

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bivouac verb.

has inflected forms bivouacked, bivouacking.

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biweekly

See BI-.

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black.

In the 1920s this word began to replace Negro, Negress, and, more particularly, Nigger, as a term for a person of African descent. In Britain, black can mean people of South Asian as well as African origin (although it is preferable to use specific terms such as Indian, Malay, Pakistani, etc.); in AmE the term African-American is also used. For a time it was thought appropriate to spell black with a capital initial as a racial term, but the normal preference now is for a small initial.

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black, blacken verbs.

Black is used when the meaning is to deliberately make something black, as in blacking one's face, one's shoes, a person's eye, etc., in the meaning to declare something ‘black’ (i.e. to boycott it), and in the phrasal verb to black out. Blacken is more often used to imply an unintentional or fortuitous process (the ceiling blackened with smoke); unlike black, it can be used intransitively (The sky blackened), and is more common as a participial adjective:
Then you notice the blackened buildings, boarded up houses and the painted slogans in the housing estates—Woman's Own, 1977. Blacken also has a special figurative use,‘to besmirch or tarnish’, with reference to people's character, reputation, etc

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Black English

is the form of English spoken by many blacks, especially as an urban dialect of the United States. The name (apart from a chance occurrence recorded in 1734), and the recognition of Black English as a distinctive and describable form of AmE, date from the time of the civil-rights movement in the 1960s. IT has many distinct grammatical features (e.g. uninflected plurals and double negatives) and items of vocabulary, which are not imperfections but are characteristic of a creolized form of English.

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blame verb.

1 Two constructions are now standard: to blame someone for something and to blame something on someone. Gowers (1965) described the second as a needless variant, but such strictures are futile in the face of incontrovertible evidence of usage.

2 The derivative in -able retains the final e: blameable.
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blanch, blench

. Blanch means first and foremost ‘to make (something) white’ (especially vegetables by dipping them in boiling water) and (intransitively) ‘to become pale’ (from fear, shock, embarrassment, etc.); a by-form blench is also used in this sense. Confusingly, there is another (Old English) word blench, which overlaps slightly with blanch/blench in its meaning ‘to quail, flinch’, as in
Strong men blenched and broke into a sweat of embarrassment when made to dance ‘Ring-a-ring o’ roses' in public outside Guildhall—Times, 1974.

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blatant, flagrant.

Blatant, a word invented by Spenser, now means ‘glaringly conspicuous’, and overlaps in meaning with flagrant but has rather less of flagrant's implications of offensiveness: It was a blatant lie means that the lie was obvious; It was a flagrant lie means that (when discovered) it was outrageous. The adverbial form blatantly (unlike flagrantly) has developed a weakened meaning, especially in youth slang, as a stock form of intensifier like absolutely and extremely.

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blessed, blest.

As an attributive adjective (i.e. used before a noun), blessed is pronounced as two syllables: The Blessed Sacrament) / every blessed night. When used as the past tense and past participle of the verb to bless, it is pronounced blest (one syllable): The bishop (had) blessed his wife and children before he died / I'm blessed if I know. The spelling blest is now mostly confined to use in poetry and hymns.

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bloc

is a 20c loanword from French, meaning ‘a combination of parties, governments, groups, etc. sharing a common purpose’. The phrase bloc vote is now being increasingly used instead of the traditional block vote. See also EN BLOC.

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blond, blonde.

These two forms retain a trace of the grammatical gender they have in French, since blonde is normally used (as a noun and an adjective) of a woman. With blond, however, the distinction is less clear-cut: a blond, or a blond person, can be a woman or a man, and blond hair can belong to either sex. Examples (BrE unless otherwise specified):
Crews of tall, blond men who hardly ever spoke—T. Findley , 1984 (Canadian) /
His blond eye-lashes gave him a bemused look— Fitzgerald , 1988 /
Her blonde plaits reaching half-way down her bony back— Dexter , 1989 /
The little girls whispered to each other, their blond heads shining in the rather dark room—New Yorker, 1990 (US) /
Lugging that doll of hers, a thing with blonde shiny hair—A. Duff , 1990 (NZ).

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bloody.

1 Bloody developed its meaning in BrE as ‘a vague epithet expressing anger, resentment, etc.’ in the 18c, and rapidly became a mere intensive, especially in negative contexts (not a bloody one). The OED called it ‘foul language’, and as recently as 1995 the Concise Oxford Dictionary called it ‘coarse slang’; but now, at the end of a millennium, it seems comparatively tame, and other words have taken on its former mantle of offensiveness:
You want to use your bloody loaf, Stubbs, or we'll never win this war the way you're carrying on— Aldiss , 1971.

2 As an adverb bloody has been used as an intensive since the later 17c in combinations such as bloody drunk, bloody angry, and bloody ill. G. B. Shaw was entitled to expect a sharp reaction from the audience when in 1914 he caused Eliza Doolittle to exclaim ‘Walk! Not bloody likely.’ As with the adjective, however, this use has weakened considerably in effect, especially in the period after the second World War, and television characters regularly use expressions such as serves you bloody right and you bloody well do it or else. Even so, the word belongs in the realm of strong language and can still cause disapproval or offence if used too freely.
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3 These uses are recorded in American dictionaries, but are not properly part of AmE. It is a pleasing myth that Australians use them more freely and vigorously than in other parts of the English-speaking world, and the colourful entry in the Australian National Dictionary (1988) appears to support it, with examples of use steeped in the language of pioneering adversity and ‘ranging in force from mildly irritating to execrable’:
You must think yourself a damned clever bushman, talking about tracking a bloody dingo over bloody ground where a bloody regiment of newly-shod horses would scarcely leave a bloody track—M.J. O'Reilly , 1944.
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bloom, blossom.

Cherry trees are said to be in blossom, roses in bloom. The difference corresponds largely to that between trees whose blossom is a sign of fruit to come and plants whose flowers are a culmination in themselves. In figurative uses the distinction is maintained; people and things blossom (or are in blossom) when they are full of promise and bloom (or are in bloom) when they are in their prime (as in the bloom of perfect manhood).

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blow verb.

The regular past and past participle are blew and blown. An older form,blowed, survives in the fixed expression I'll be blowed, as in Well I'm [or I'll be] blowed and I'm blowed if I will.

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bluish

is preferred, not blueish.

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boat.

A boat is a ‘small vessel propelled on water’ by various means, and includes vessels used for fishing, for cargo, or to carry passengers. A ship is a large seagoing vessel, especially when part of a navy. A submarine, however, despite its designation HMS, is referred to as a boat rather than a ship (if the choice has to be made between these two).

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boatswain

is now generally pronounced boh-sn regardless of whether it is spelt this way or as bosun.

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bogey, bogie, bogy.

The latest editions of the Oxford dictionaries prefer bogey for the golfing term and the mischievous spirit, and bogie for the railway term. Bogy is classed as a variant of bogey in the second meaning.

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bog-standard

is one of those highly informal but likeable expressions that seem older than the dictionaries would suggest. It does not appear in the OED, but finds a place in the Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1997) and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1999). It is a graphic word of obscure origin (altered from box-standard?) meaning ‘basic, standard’, as in
The rest of the furniture is bog standard café tables and chairs—Time Out, 1995.

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boggle, boggling verb.

Boggle, originally used of frightened horses, is used with and without an object: the mind can boggle at something and something can boggle the mind (or the imagination etc.). The expression mindboggling, first recorded in Punch in 1964, pre-dates the regular transitive use, and has been joined since the 1970s by the more colloquial reduced form boggling:
Serious damage can mean even more boggling bills—Which?, 1990.

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bona fide, bona fides.

1 Bona fide is an adjectival and (now rarely) adverbial phrase meaning ‘in good faith’ and hence ‘genuine(ly)’ (a bona fide tourist); bona fides is a noun phrase meaning ‘good faith’ and hence ‘honest intention’. Bona fides is singular in Latin, and is correctly treated as singular in English, despite its plural-looking form: His bona fides has been questioned not (notwithstanding euphony) His bona fides have been questioned.

2 The pronunciation is boh-n fiy-deez.
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bonne bouche

in English means ‘a dainty mouthful or morsel’, referring to the food rather than (as in French) its taste. Fowler (1926) conceded that it was ‘definitely established’ and even tolerated the difference in meaning; but it is still regarded as non-naturalized and should be printed in italics.

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bored

is normally construed with by or with:
How bored she was with that face!—D. Devine , 1970 /
He got bored with working in the scout hut—L. Henderson , 1976 /
Very many people … do not attend church because they are bored by ritualistic services—Lancashire Life, 1977. Use with of, sometimes heard conversationally, is non-standard:
I was conscious of all the problems … of getting bored of something the minute you get it—N. Fairburn , 1992 (Scottish).

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born, borne.

It is sometimes forgotten that born, relating to birth, is a past participle of the verb to bear, and that I was born on a Friday means ‘My mother bore me on a Friday’. Born is also used in figurative expressions such as an indifference born of long familiarity. In all other meanings, the past participle of bear is borne (I have borne with this too long / He was borne along by the wind), and this form is used with reference to birth when the construction is active, or when it is passive followed by by (the mother): She has borne no children / Of all the children borne by her only one survived.

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Borstal

is a former name for British institutions for reforming young offenders. It is still found in print in allusive use, but the correct terms to use now are detention centre and youth custody centre.

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botanic, botanical.

Both forms have been in use since the 17c. Botanical is more common in general use, although botanic occurs in traditional names such as the Botanic Garden in Oxford and the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

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both.

1 GENERAL. Both, when modifying a single item, refers to two things or persons (both houses / both women); when, as both … and …, it couples two items, each of these may be singular (both the woman and the man) or plural (both the women and the men), although care must be taken to avoid misunderstanding if the first item is plural, as in the example just given.

2 POSITION. Both is a mobile word and can be linked to particular pairs of sentence elements: They work both by day and by night / He both loves and hates his brother / The work is both rewarding and enjoyable / I hope to be both a writer and a musician. When there are more than two items involved, the word both should be omitted: / want to be a writer, a musician, and a painter.
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3 AS PRONOUN. Both can also function as a pronoun, optionally followed by of: I will try to see both / I will try to see both of the condidates / I will try to see both of you; when used with a personal pronoun both must follow it: I will try to see you both / You both look worried.
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4 AWKWARD CONSTRUCTIONS. Because both is so flexible in use, its intended meaning can be unclear in some uses:
a we both won a prize can mean either (1) ‘we both won one prize between us’, or (2) ‘we won a prize each’. It is better to use each or to rephrase with a word such as Joint, as appropriate: We each won a prize / We won a joint prize.
b You will see a tree at both ends of the road is not so much ambiguous as counter-intuitive, since the tree can only be in one place. Rephrase as you will see a tree [or trees] at each end of the road.
c Books are useful both for pleasure as well as for learning is a sequence to be avoided: both should always be paired with and: Books are useful both for pleasure and for learning. Note also the repetition of for: see the next item.
d Her speech was both detrimental to understanding and to peace needs to be rephrased so that the two elements governed by both match each other: Her speech was detrimental to both understanding and peace or Her speech was detrimental both to understanding and to peace; compare Her speech was both detrimental to understanding and damaging to peace. This applies especially to use of the definite or indefinite article: Both the man and woman should be corrected to Both the man and the woman.
e He was acting on both our behalfs is better expressed as He was acting on behalf of us both.
f We find them both equally responsible is a common construction in speech, but both is strictly redundant, and should be omitted in more formal writing: We find them equally responsible.
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bottleneck,

meaning a holdup or constriction in traffic, dates from the late 19c, and is now used more widely of obstructions in processes of various kinds. Care should be taken to avoid unsuitable elaboration of the image, as in curing or ironing out a bottleneck, and strictly speaking a bottleneck cannot be big or extensive or even major.

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bottom line

is a term in accounting for the line in a profit-and-loss account that shows the final figure. It has developed a figurative meaning ‘the decisive factor or objective’, which should only be used informally:
The bottom line is that we all love music and want to play it—New Musical Express, 1992. When the term is used in financial contexts it can be unclear whether the meaning is literal or not:
The bottom line could eventually mean demands for higher council tax bills—television broadcast, 1993. In such cases it is better to use alternatives such as consequence, crux, issue, upshot.

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bounden

survives only in the somewhat dated and affected phrase bounded duty.

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bowsprit

is pronounced with bow- as in low.

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brackets.

The term is used generally of the punctuation marks (), [], {}, <>, although the first set is properly called parentheses, the second square brackets, the third curly brackets or hooked brackets, and the fourth angle brackets. The mark resembling a curly bracket, used to link items on more than one line, is called a brace.

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brand-new

is the correct spelling, not bran-new. The term originally meant ‘fresh like a brand [= burning torch] from a furnace’.

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bravery, bravado, bravura.

Bravery is a general word for ‘being brave’ or ‘brave actions’ (as a virtue), whereas bravado means ‘ostentatious courage or boldness’, often concealing fear or reluctance:
It was a gesture of bravado rather than a serious business proposition— Branson , 1989. Bravura is a florid or showy style of playing in music, and does not have a general meaning.

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breach, breech.

The spelling of these two words is often confused. Breach is a noun and verbmeaning ‘a break’ or ‘to break’ (as in a breach of contract, to breach the enemy's defences), whereas breech means ‘the back or lower part of something’, and is applied principally to part of a rifle, the buttocks (now only in breech birth, when a baby is born bottom first), and (in the plural breeches, pronounced brich-iz), to a type of trousers.

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breakdown

can mean, in addition to its meaning in relation to machines, human health, and aspects of human behaviour, ‘an analysis of statistics or information’:
The breakdown of expenses … is relatively detailed in some cases but not in others—J. Green-wood , 1989. Care should be taken to avoid possible confusion when the word might be under stood in more than one way:
Management should first examine the data produced to ascertain whether any variance from the breakdown is due to site conditions or mismanagement—A. Upson , 1987.

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breakthrough,

originally a military word and formerly a vogue word in its figurative use, is now commonplace. It is spelt as one word, is commonly qualified (especially in journalism) by words such as new and major, and is regularly followed by in, as in a breakthrough in cancer research.

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breech

see BREACH.

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brier, briar.

Both spellings are used of two distinct words, meaning respectively a prickly bush and a type of wood (or a pipe made from it). The preferred spelling for both words is brier.

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bring, take.

The essential difference between these two words corresponds to that between come and go, and is intuitive to a native speaker: bring implies movement towards, and take movement away from, the person speaking: Take your bike and bring me a newspaper. When the standpoint of the speaker is unstable, there is a choice: Shall I bring the camera? is spoken in terms of the destination and Shall I take the camera? in terms of the starting point. In other varieties of English, and in some dialects, the pattern differs.

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Brit

is a colloquial term (early 20c) for a British person, especially when abroad. It varies in offensiveness from the (more usually) affectionate (Lots of Brits around this year) to the hostile (Brits out!).

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Britain, Great Britain, the British Isles, England, etc.

1 Use of these terms causes confusion. Great Britain refers to the largest island in the group, which is divided between England, Scotland, and Wales. Politically, it means these three countries (since the Act of Union of 1707), and excludes Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Britain is an informal term with no official status; it often means the same as Great Britain but can also include Northern Island.

2 The British Isles is a geographical term for the group of islands including Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also the smaller islands around them, such as the Isle of Man and the Scottish islands. The United Kingdom is a political term, in full the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and includes these countries but not usually the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
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3 England strictly refers to a single political division of Great Britain, but it is commonly substituted for (Great) Britain, especially in AmE. This causes some offence in Scotland and Wales, and should be avoided in BrE. The same is true of the corresponding ethnic designation English used instead of British.
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4 There is, surprisingly, no convenient general term for a citizen of the United Kingdom: Briton is normally confined to historical (or jocular) reference, and Britisher is AmE.
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Briticism

is the term for a language feature that is peculiar to BrE, not Britishism.

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Brito-

see ANGLO-.

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Britpop

is a colourful and useful informal term for the British pop music scene, but should be used with care as its scope of reference has become more specific in the 1990s.

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broadcast verb,

by analogy with cast, is unchanged in its past form and past participle: The programme will be broadcast on Saturdays.

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brocoli

is spelt with two cs and, despite its plural origin in Italian, is treated as a singular mass noun in English: The broccoli is in the green dish.

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brochure, pamphlet.

The two words used to be more or less synonymous, but have gone separate ways: a brochure is a glossy leaflet used in advertising, whereas a pamphlet is a small unbound printed booklet, normally meant to be informative rather than promotional. Brochure is stressed on the first syllable in BrE and on the second in AmE.

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broker,

as a Stock Exchange term, was replaced in the UK in 1986 by broker-dealer (which reflects increased responsibilities), although broker will still be found in informal use.

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brother-in-law

means (1) one's wife's or husband's brother, (2) one's sister's husband, (3) one's sister-in-law's husband. The plural is brothers-in-law.

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browse.

Grazing animals, rather than people browsing in books, provide the grammatical analogy for the new transitive meaning in computing, ‘to read or survey (data files)’:
The handy viewer lets the user browse the disc reading documents, viewing images, and unzipping program files—CD-ROM World, 1994.

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brunette,

is the standard form in BrE, and is invariably used of a woman. In AmE brunet is occasionally found, with the same restriction in use.

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buffalo

has the plural form buffaloes.

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buffet,

meaning refreshments, is pronounced buh-fay or (especially in buffet car) buf-ay. In AmE the stress is on the second syllable, pronounced the same way.

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bugger

is more acceptable as a swear-word than it used to be, at least in BrE. Uses such as bugger me, bugger-all, and I'll be buggered (if), are all commonly heard on radio and television, although they remain highly informal and should not normally be used outside the domain of casual conversation. The word remains somewhat more offensive in AmE.

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bulk,

as a noun preceded by the and denoting magnitude or size, is correctly used with of and a singular noun, as in the bulk of the book / the bulk of his land / the bulk of the clergy. It should not be used in this way with ordinary plural nouns:
The great bulk of Guyanese Indians are Hindus or Moslems—Guardian, 1972, although collective plurals are more acceptable:
In 1940 the bulk of the people were subliterate or illiterate—R.A. Crampsey , 1973.

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bunch

as a collective noun in abstract senses (a bunch of people / a bunch of questions) varies widely in its degree of informality from simple metaphor (A bunch of weary runners crossed the line at last) to near-slang, often affected by the word it collocates with (The government is behaving like a bunch of bandits).

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bur, burr.

Bur is recommended for ‘a clinging seed-vessel or catkin’ and burr for ‘a rough edge’ and associated meanings.

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bureau

has the plural form bureaux (pronounced -z) in BrE, although bureaus is more common in AmE.

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burgle, burglarize.

Burgle is a BrE back-formation from burglar; burglarize, although the regular word in AmE, is treated with the same disapproval on this side of the Atlantic as burgle once was.

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burnt, burned.

These two forms for the past tense and past participle of burn are largely interchangeable, but burned is more common as the active past (She burned her hand on the kettle / She has burned her hand); in the passive, burnt is more adjectival (emphasizing the result), and burned more verbal (emphasizing the action): The cottage was burnt down last week / The cottage was burned down by vandals.

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bus

is now spelt without an apostrophe. As a noun it has the plural form buses, and as a verb it has inflected forms buses, bused, busing.

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business, busyness.

Business means ‘one's affairs or concern’ and associated meanings. For a noun meaning ‘the state of being busy’, use busyness.

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but.

1 GENERAL But is a preposition and conjunction, and is used contrastively: (preposition) Everyone seems to know but me / (conjunction) Everyone seems to know but I don't. In more modern usage, as the OED and Fowler (1926) have both recognized, the roles of but as a conjunction and preposition have become inextricably confused, and this fact gives rise to some vexed problems of usage. These are described in the following paragraphs, each headed by a typical example of the problem.

2 Everyone but she [or her?] can see the answer. Fowler explored this problem in some depth, and concluded that but in this meaning is more a conjunction than a preposition, and therefore the case of a following pronoun is variable. When the phrase introduced by but is associated with the subject of the sentence, the pronoun should be treated as subjective (i.e. No one saw him but I) and when the phrase is associated with the object, the pronoun should be treated as objective (i.e. I saw no one but him). When the association is not as clear-cut as this, the case of the pronoun is determined by the position of the but-phrase in the sentence: when the but-phrase is in the subject area, the pronoun should be treated as subjective (i.e. Everyone but she can see the answer) and when the but-phrase is in the object area it should be treated as objective (i.e. Everyone can see the answer but her). Usage is unstable when the verb is intransitive: Everyone knows but her is somewhat more natural than Everyone knows but she).
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3 I disagree. But what do you think? The widespread public belief that but should not begin a sentence seems to be unshakeable. But it has no foundation in grammar or idiom, and examples are frequent in good literature:
All animals have sense. But a dog is an animal.— Locke , 1690 /
But this rough magic I here abjure— Shakespeare , Tempest, 1610 /
Of course they loved her, the two remaining ones, they hugged her, they had mingled their tears. But they could not converse with her— Murdoch , 1993. The initial position of but, as with and, is a matter not of grammar but of style.
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4 Who knows but that the whole course of history might [or might not?] have been different? When this construction is used with a negative or (especially) in a question, there is always a temptation to make the second part of the sentence negative. It is usually better to rephrase: Who knows: the whole course of history might have been different?
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5 But your answer, moreover, is unacceptable. A further contrasting word, such as however, nonetheless, moreover, etc., should not be used in a clause introduced by but. If the second word is needed (i.e. if moreover is the right word to use), omit but: Your answer, moreover, is unacceptable. Note, however, that but still is a standard idiom, especially informally: It's late but still you did want me to stay.
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6 He is not upset but he is relieved. The repetition of he is, when this is the same person as at the first mention, is normally redundant: He is not upset but relieved. However, it is often added in conversation, with rhetorical emphasis on the second is.
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7 IDIOMS. But is used in a number of fixed idioms:
a ALL BUT.
By the end of the war this attitude had all but disappeared—P. Wright , 1987.
b CANNOT (HELP) BUT. The insertion of help is not attested before the late 19c but is now common:
The frailty of man without thee cannot but fall—Book of Common Prayer, 1549 /
She could not help but plague the lad—H. Caine , 1894 /
She could not help but follow him into the big department store—B. Rubens , 1987.
c BUT WHAT.
It's no telling but what I might have gone on to school like my own children have— Smith , 1983 (US). This use is now old-fashioned, and limited to informal and non-standard uses.
d RHETORICAL USE.
Ah, but who built it, that we tiny creatures can walk in its arcades?— Drabble , 1987. This use is not normally found in everyday English.
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buzz word

see JARGON, VOGUE WORDS.

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by prep.

By has so many functions that care should be taken to avoid ambiguity of the kind typified by the sentence, more hilarious than truly ambiguous, He was knocked down by the town hall. It is better to use another preposition such as close to or in front of Fowler warned against the use of too many bys (in different senses) in one sentence, as in (not his example): Send stories by reporters by fax by the end of Friday. Such sequences are more likely to occur in more hurried forms of spoken English.

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by, by-, bye.

These three forms have different functions. By is a preposition or adverb (Come by / By the river); by- is a prefix meaning ‘secondary, subordinate’ (forming words such as byroad and bylaw, now often spelt as one word; in some cases, a variant spelling bye- is also found (e.g. byelaw), but this is best avoided); and bye is a noun meaning ‘something additional or left aside’ (e.g. in cricket and golf). The idiom by the by (in which the second by is a variant of bye) means ‘by the way, incidentally’.

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Byzantine

is spelt with a capital initial when the reference is historical or cultural (the Byzantine Empire) and with a small initial when the meaning is ‘intricate, complicated’ (byzantine intrigues). There are several pronunciations in use; those recommended are biz-n-tiyn and biz-an-tiyn.

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C

cable

has until recently been a mainly countable noun (a cable / this cable) meaning a length of thick rope or wire, or a telegram. With the arrival of cable television, its use as an uncountable noun (AmE, now also BrE) has been reinforced:
I'm watching a movie on cable—L. Block , 1982.

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cacao

is a seed pod (or its tree) from which cocoa and chocolate are made, and should not be confused with the word cocoa itself. Cocao comes from a Nahuatl (Native Central American) word.

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cachet

is pronounced kash-ay and means
(1) a distinguishing mark or seal,
(2) prestige,
(3) a capsule of medicine.

Fowler wrote that it ‘should be expelled’ from the language, and it therefore joins the band of his LOST CAUSES.

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cachou

is a lozenge for sweetening the breath, and should be distinguished from the nut (and tree) cashew, especially as they are both pronounced kash-oo.

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cactus.

In general use the plural is cactuses, in botany it is often (but not always) cacti.

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caddie, caddy.

Caddie (originally Scottish) is a golf-attendant; caddy is a container for tea.

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cadre

means (1) a group of servicemen (pronounced kah-d), (2) a group of political activists (often pronounced kay-d).

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Caesarian, Caesarean.

The first spelling is now more usual, and the initial c is sometimes written small.

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caesura,

meaning ‘a cut or division’, is a term in prosody, both Classical and Old English, and refers to the division of a metrical foot between two words. In Old English (e.g. Beowulf) it is marked in print by an extra space between the words. In later English verse it is chiefly noticeable in long metres such as that of Tennyson's Locksley Hall: Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, // and the battle-flags were furl'd.

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café

is occasionally spelt without an accent but should be spelt with one. It should be pronounced kaf-ay, not (except as a joke) kaff or kayf.

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cagey

is more recent than people realize (first recorded 1909) and is an Americanism. This is a better spelling than cagy, which is also found.

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calculate.

1 The meaning ‘to suppose or reckon’, without any reference to working something out, is regional American in origin (19c, eg. I calculate it's pretty difficult to git edication down at Charleston) and is not standard in any variety of English. None the less it does occur:
Many executives … calculate that their best interests lie in not conforming to factory regulations—S. Box , 1992. See also RECKON.

2 The corresponding adjective is calculable.
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calendar,

meaning a list of days and months, is spelt this way. Calender (with -er) is a press for paper or cloth, and COLANDER is a strainer.

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calends,

the first month of the ancient Roman calendar, is spelt with a c- not a k-.

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calf.

Both words (the animal and the part of the leg) have the plural form calves.

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calibre

is pronounced kal-i-b. The American spelling is caliber.

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caliph

is pronounced kay-lif and is spelt with a c-. Other spellings have fallen out of use.

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callus

means ‘a hard thick area of skin or tissue’, and should be distinguished from callous, which is related to it but now much more often means ‘unfeeling, insensitive’.

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calorie,

originally a unit of heat (from Latin calor, ‘heat’), in the 20c has stepped out of the physics laboratory into general use as a measure of the energy value of food. The general public have adopted what physicists call the large calorie (i.e. the amount needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1°C).

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cambric,

meaning a fine white linen, is pronounced kam-brik, or sometimes kaym-brik.

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camellia

is spelt with two l's, despite its pronunciation k-mee-li-.

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cameo

has a plural cameos. In its meaning ‘a small character part in a play or film’, it is used mainly attributively, as in cameo part, cameo role, etc.:
Rather than play these zonking great parts … I will try to find some dazzling little cameo roles—Times, 1976.

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campanile,

a bell-tower, is Italian, and is pronounced kamp-nee-li.

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can noun.

Can is the word generally used in BrE for the container when the contents are liquid (a can of beer / a can of soup). When the contents are solid, tin is more usual (a tin of beans / a tin of peaches) but can is used for this too in AmE.

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can verb.

The verb can is classed among the MODAL VERBS, and has a wide range of uses, expressing (1) possibility, (2) ability, (3) permission (where it overlaps with may). Examples:
(1) POSSIBILITY Anyone can make a mistake / Manned spacecraft can now link up with other spacecraft in outer space / He can be very trying.
(2) ABILITY His four-year-old son can already ride a bicycle / Murray could read more than forty languages.
(3) PERMISSION No one can play the organ without the consent of the vicar / Can I speak to your supervisor, please? In more formal or polite contexts, may is preferable and more usual, e.g. May I have another sandwich, please?. However, in the past tense, could has replaced might, e.g. At that time only rectors could [= were entitled to] receive tithes. In some cases, can is not interchangeable with may, e.g. I'll drop in tomorrow, if I can.

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canard

means ‘an unfounded rumour or story’ and is pronounced either kan-ahd or kan-ahd.

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candelabrum,

because of its Latin origin, has the plural form candelabra, but candelabra has taken on a new life as the more common singular form for the word meaning ‘a large branched candlestick or lamp-holder’, and has its own plural candelabras:
four silver candelabras— Scott , Ivanhoe.

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cannon.

1 This word for a large gun is now confined, apart from its historical reference, to a shellfiring gun in aircraft (a use first recorded in 1919). Historically the word is used both as an ordinary noun (with plural cannons), and as a collective (as in Tennyson's Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, etc.).

2 Cannon should be carefully distinguished in spelling from canon, meaning (1) ‘a rule’ and (2) ‘a member of a cathedral chapter’; confusion can be unfortunate.
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cannot

is usually written as one word, although can not occurs from time to time in letters, examination scripts, etc. The contraction can't is fairly recent (around 1800) and does not occur (for example) in Shakespeare. Can't is often articulated even when cannot is written.

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canoe verb.

has inflected forms canoes, canoed, canoeing.

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canon

see CANNON.

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cant

now usually means ‘insincere pious or moral talk’:
shameful surrender to the prevalent cant and humbug of the age—Daily Telegraph, 1992. Its older (18c–19c) and often derogatory meaning, ‘the secret language or jargon used by certain classes or professions’, is confined to historical novels and scholarly discussion of language.

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can't

see CANNOT.

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canto,

a division of a long poem, has the plural form cantos (recommended) or cantoes.

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canvas, canvass.

1 Canvas with one s means ‘coarse cloth’. The plural is canvases and as a verb (‘to cover or line with canvas’) it has inflected forms canvasses, canvassed, canvassing.

2 Canvass with two s's is a verb meaning ‘to solicit votes’ and a noun meaning ‘the soliciting of votes’. Its inflections retain the double s (canvasses, canvassed, etc.).
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capercaillie

is a Scottish Gaelic word for a wood-grouse. This is now the normal spelling (formerly also capercailzie, the z representing y in older Scots orthography), and the pronunciation is cap--kay-li.

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capita, caput

see PER CAPITA.

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capital, capitol.

Capital, the most important town or city of a country or region, is to be distinguished from Capitol, which is (1) the hill in Rome where the geese saved the day, and (2) the American legislative building in Washington DC (and other similar buildings in the USA).

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capitalist

is now normally stressed on the first syllable, although you still occasionally hear it stressed on the second.

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capitals.

Capital letters are used to signal special uses of words, either (1) to mark a significant point in written or printed matter (especially the beginning of a sentence), or (2) to distinguish names that identify particular people or things from those that describe any number of them. Practice varies when people and things do not always fit neatly into one or other of these two categories. This article deals with the elementary uses first, and then with the less straightforward ones.
1 BASIC USES. Capital letters are used almost invariably (1) to begin a new sentence (or a quotation within a sentence), (2) as the first letters of proper names and personal names (New York / John Smith), (3) in certain special cases by convention, e.g. the personal pronoun I. These elementary rules cause little difficulty, but beyond them practice and usage become unstable, and different publishing houses have varying sets of rules about them.
2 OTHER USES. Prefixes and titles forming part of names referring to one person: the Duke of Wellington, Sir Bob Geldof, Her Majesty the Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, His Excellency the American Ambassador. When the reference is general, i.e. to many such people, a capital is not used: every king of England from William I to Richard II (where king is a common noun like monarch or sovereign). Titles of office-holders when these refer to a particular holder: I have an appointment with the Mayor / He was appointed Bishop of Durham; but not when the reference is general or descriptive: He wanted to be a dean / When I become king. Recognized and official place-names: Northern Ireland (but northern England, which is simply descriptive), Western Australia, South Africa, New England, the Straits of Gibraltar, Plymouth Sound, London Road (when it is an address; but Take the London road, i.e. the road to London, which is descriptive). Names of events and periods of time: the Bronze Age (and, e.g., Bronze-Age Crete), the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the First World War (but the 1914–18 war is generally regarded as descriptive). Archaeological and geological eras are now generally often written with a small initial: chalcolithic, palaeolithic. Names of institutions, when these are regarded as identifying rather than describing: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Marxism, the (Roman) Catholic Church, the House of Lords. The word State has a capital initial when it is meant to refer to the institution as a whole, so as to distinguish it from the ordinary use of the word; similarly Church is an institution (disestablishment of the Church) whereas church is a building or local body (go to church / the church down the road). Abbreviations and initialisms are usually spelt with capitals, whether they refer to institutions or are more generic (BBC, MPs); but acronyms, which are pronounced like words and tend to behave like words, often become wholly or partly lower-case (Nato, radar, Aids). Names of ships and vehicles: The Cutty Sark, HMS Dreadnought, / the US bomber Enola Gay. Note also a Boeing, a Renault / a Spitfire, which are trademarks: see next section. Proprietary names (trademarks): Anadin, Cow & Gate, Kleenex, Persil. A capital initial should strictly also be used when the reference is generic (e.g. can you lend me a Biro), but in practice this is more common in the regulated world of published print than in general writing. Words derived from proper names: Christian (noun and adjective), Macchiavellian, Shakespearian. But a small initial is used when the reference is remote or conventional, or merely allusive: arabic letters, french windows, mackintosh, wellington boot; and when the sense is an attribute or quality suggested by the proper name: chauvinistic, herculean, titanic. Verbs follow the same rule: bowdlerize, galvanize, pasteurize. The guide in this area is the extent to which the name on which the word is based is present in the meaning used, as it clearly is with Shakespearian but not with titanic (which is undoubtedly used by many who are unaware of the mythological Titans). Medial capitals. The uses we have discussed so far all concern the first letters of words. Use of capitals within words is confined exclusively to commercial usage, and has no other purpose or effect than to highlight or distinguish the name: CinemaScope, InterLink.

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capping,

as in rate-capping, is a modern UK political term of some potency, increased with the replacement of local rates by the notorious community charge (poll-tax) in 1989–90, and no less so with its further replacement by the council tax in 1993. A more welcome development is its use with reference to fixed mortgage rates. As a result of all these changes, capping is now often used as a word in its own right:
How can capping lead to accountability?— Hansard , 1992.

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caption.

Fowler called this ‘rare in British use, and might well be rarer’. Despite this disapproval (see LOST CAUSES), it is now a common word on both sides of the Atlantic, meaning
(1) a title below an illustration and
(2) a heading to a newspaper article or book chapter. Despite this meaning, it comes from Latin capio ‘to take’, and has no direct connection with Latin caput, ‘head’.

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carafe

was once the normal Scottish term for a crystal jug for serving water. Fowler classed the Victorian English use (a waterbottle with a tumbler placed over it) as a genteelism, but its 20c meaning, an open-necked container for serving wine, is unexceptionable.

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carat, caret.

Carat (AmE karat) is a measure of the purity of gold; caret is a mark () for showing an insertion in printing or writing.

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caravanserai

is pronounced with stress on -van- and the final syllable rhyming with eye. It means an inn for travelling merchants or pilgrims in the Middle East (first noted by the geographer Hakluyt in 1599), and is of Persian origin. Several other spellings are now thankfully extinct.

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carburettor.

This is the standard spelling in BrE, as distinct from AmE carburetor (with one t).

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carcass,

the dead body of an animal, is the preferred form (rather than carcase) and has the plural form carcasses.

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care.

The modern colloquial expression I couldn't care less dates from the 1940s (OED: the first example is of a book title). More recent is the AmE expression I could care less, which has more or less the same meaning. The stress pattern is different: normally on couldn't in the first and on the pronoun I in the second, which suggests an awareness of the switch and in some measure accounts for the synonymy of two apparently opposite constructions.

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careen

is originally a nautical word (recorded by the geographer Hakluyt in 1600) referring to the tilting or turning over of a ship, either at sea or in dock for repairs. In AmE careen has developed the meaning ‘hurtle or rush headlong’:
A lot of Russians careening along the road on liberated bicycles—H. Roosenburg , 1957 /
The van careened across the road, almost running into the ditch—B. Moore , 1987. In this use it has been influenced by the similar-sounding but unrelated word career, which is the standard word for this meaning in BrE.

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caret

see CARAT.

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cargo

has the plural form cargoes.

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Caribbean

is spelt with one r and two b's. In BrE the main stress is on the third syllable; in AmE and in the Caribbean itself, it falls either on the second or the third syllable.

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caries

is pronounced kair-eez (two syllables).

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carillon,

meaning a set of bells, has various pronunciations in the OED and its derivative dictionaries. The dominant one is probably k-ril-yn, although kar-il-yn is also given. A French pronunciation, more common in the 19c, is now hardly heard.

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caring,

in its meaning ‘compassionate’ as in caring society and the caring professions, has come to acquire strong political overtones since the Thatcher years of spending cuts in the social services, and it is now difficult to regard or use it neutrally. The Sunday Telegraph reported in 1985 that ‘the word caring in the context of the Tory Party meant that Mrs Thatcher intended to lower her voice another octave’.

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carousal, carousel.

1 Carousal is pronounced k-rou-zl and means a good time with drinking.

2 Carousel is pronounced ka-r-sel, and means (1) a tournament, (2) a merry-go-round, and (3) a moving (and usually circular) conveyor-belt system for delivering passengers' luggage at airports.
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carrel

is a private cubicle for study in a library (20c) and is a revival of a much earlier use denoting a small enclosure or study in a monastery in medieval England, a meaning which died out with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16c.

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cartel

in its modern use referring to a price-fixing business arrangement is pronounced kah-tel, influenced by the German word Kartell. In its earlier use referring to the exchange of prisoners, its stress was on the first syllable.

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Carver, carver.

These are two words meaning types of chair. A Carver (with capital C) is in AmE a chair with arms, a rush seat, and a back having horizontal and vertical spindles. It is named after J. Carver , the 17c governor of Plymouth Colony. A carver (small c) is in BrE the principal chair of a set of dining chairs, intended for the person who carves.

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case.

1 There are two distinct nouns:
a The one meaning ‘an example of an occurrence’: In this case they are wrong. From this use there have developed several idiomatic phrases (in case, in any case, in some cases, in the case of) as well as several more concrete meanings, notably in law (the case for the prosecution) and medicine (seven cases of cholera). There is also the grammatical meaning, which seems to have little to do with the others but is connected etymologically. The word dates from the 13c in English and is derived ultimately from Latin casus, ‘falling’, hence ‘occurrence’.
b The one meaning ‘receptacle or container etc.’: Put the cases in the car. The origin of this word is Latin capsa (with the same meaning), and it also dates from the 13c in English. Although this word has given rise to several technical meanings, e.g. in masonry and printing, it has been far less productive of idioms.

2 Most people use these words without difficulty and probably without any awareness that there are two separate words. Usually they do not get in each other's way, but beware of using a phrase with case, especially in the case of, when it is not needed: In every case except that of France the increase has been more rapid than in the case of the U.K. [where In every country except France the increase has been more rapid than in the U.K. is preferable]. Fowler gave many examples as evidence of what he called ‘flabby writing’, but such a strong reaction is less justified today when the idiom seems dated and in decline.
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3 The idiom in case is also a conjunction: Take your umbrella in case it rains. In AmE, it can also mean ‘if’ (i.e. it is a shortening of the phrase in the case that): In case it rains I can't go [= If it rains I can't go]. Coming at the beginning of a sentence, this use can cause initial confusion to speakers of BrE.
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cases.

1 Cases are the functions of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in sentences, as reflected in their endings or some other aspect of their form. The chief cases we are concerned with are:
SUBJECTIVE (or nominative): the function of subject of a verb or sentence (e.g. house in The house was on fire).
OBJECTIVE (or accusative): the function of object, after a transitive verb or preposition (e.g. book in Give me the book and Look in the book).
Of less concern in English are GENITIVE (or possessive): the function of possession or ownership (e.g. Jane's and my in Jane's umbrella is in my car).
DATIVE: the function of reference or relation (e.g. me in Give me the book).
Most English speakers now think of cases chiefly in connection with other, more inflected, languages such as Latin and German. In English, case-endings and case-forms, which were once a feature of nouns (stan, stanes, stane meaning ‘stone’), have become restricted over many centuries to plurals and possessives of nouns (books, children, boy's, girls', etc.) and to the pronouns (me, whom, ours, etc.). One consequence of this disappearance of cases is that English speakers may have partially lost an instinctive power to recognize case distinctions. Another way of looking at it is that the reduction process is continuing.

2 The concept of case helps to clarify certain problems of English usage:
a What happens after the verb be. Since the subject and the complement of be are historically in the same case (i.e. be does not take an object), it is I and it is he (or she) are grammatically sounder than it is me and it is him (or her). However, usage is changing and it is becoming more and more difficult to sustain It is / (and still worse, It is only we) in speech without risking affectation.
In writing, greater care is often needed. Many writers tend to prefer the subjective forms, especially when the pronoun is followed by a relative clause beginning with who or that:
If I were he, I should keep an eye on that young man—C.P. Snow , 1979 /
This time it was I who took the initiative—R. Cobb , 1985 /
That might very well be he at this moment, causing the doorbell to chime— Amis , 1988. But notice the difference in reported, especially informal, speech:
Too much of a bloody infidel, that's me— Keneally , 1980 /
‘So … ’ says Jasper. ‘That's him, the old fraud’— Lively , 1987 /
Can this be me? Driving a car?—New Yorker, 1988.
VERDICT: In less formal English the objective (It is me) is acceptable and often preferable (Can this be I? offends euphony and even common sense). In more formal English the subjective is preferable except where this produces awkwardness.
b WHAT HAPPENS AFTER AS AND THAN. A problem arises because these function partly as prepositions and partly as conjunctions, and their roles are not clear-cut. In broad terms when as or than are felt to be prepositions the objective case is used (as lucky as me), and when they are felt to be conjunctions the subjective case is used (as lucky as I, with am understood). Examples:
He was as apprehensive as I about our meeting—J. Frame , 1985 /
I hope you have a more cheerful Christmas than we— Waugh , 1955 /
He was eight years older than I— Hailsham , 1990 /
He seems to be as lonely as me, and to mind it more— Lodge , 1991 /
I wanted you to be wiser than me, better than me—P. Hillmore , 1987.
VERDICT: There is a marked tendency towards using the objective case in more recent writing, with the subjective sounding more formal and often decidedly oldfashioned (as in the Waugh and Hailsham examples). See also AS (1), THAN (1).
c WHAT HAPPENS AFTER BUT. The objective form is preferable, though in practice both types occur:
(subjective) No one understands it, no one but I—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 /
(objective) ‘Who knows about this?’ ‘Nobody but me and a couple of guys here on the platform know for sure.’—M. Machlin , 1976. See also BUT (2).
d WHAT HAPPENS AFTER NOT. Since this is more common in speech, the objective case is common: ‘Who did this thing?’ ‘Not me.’ In writing, the subjective occurs more frequently:
It must be he who is made of india-rubber, not I— Carter , 1984. (This is an extended example of the use after be discussed in 2a above.)
e WHO AND WHOM. This is one of the most contentious pronoun issues of our age. Whom seems to be on the decline; but it is incorrectly used as much as who (hyper-correction again): Do you know whom it was that came last night? (where whom is the complement of be and not the object of know). The issue is more fully discussed in the article WHO AND WHOM.
f CASE-SWITCHING. Change of case in pronouns within the same sentence is a common feature of English, and often goes unnoticed. Examples:
Me, I don't trust cats— Keillor , 1989 /
Me thinking I'd probably got some filthy fever in spite of the jabs— Barnes , 1989 /
We sat down on either side of the radiogram, she with her tea, me with a pad and pencil— Winterson , 1985 /
It's not you who should be asking for pardon, but me who should be down on my knees—M. Dobbs , 1989.
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cashew

see CACHOU.

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casino

has the plural form casinos.

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casket.

In America and some other English-speaking countries outside Britain, casket is used as an alternative for coffin. The exchangeability of the two words is illustrated by newspaper reports of the funeral of the Philippine ex-president, Ferdinand Marcos , in October 1989: (caption) Imelda Marcos kisses the casket containing the body of her late husband;
(text) Mr. Marcos' coffin … was borne by 10 pallbearers—Chicago Tribune. In BrE, a casket is a container for funerary ashes.

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cast verb.

This Old Norse word has competed for centuries with Anglo-Saxon throw, and its credentials include an array of 83 meanings in the OED. In current usage, however, it often sounds archaic or rhetorical, influenced by the New Testament
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone— John 8:7, and is largely restricted to a range of familiar phrases and idioms, such as cast an eye over, cast lots, and cast aside. In ordinary contexts, throw is the more natural word.

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cast noun, caste.

1 Cast is derived from the verb and has a number of special meanings, including the actors of a play or film, an object made in metal, and its use as in a person of a moral cast, plus a host of curious technical meanings (e.g. in hawking).

2 Caste, referring to class divisions in India, is now the established spelling, although cast is much more common before 1800. It is derived from Spanish and Portuguese casta, ‘race, lineage’, and is related to chaste.
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caster, castor.

The two forms represent several words and overlap in usage: caster is the only spelling for a few technical meanings; castor (a different word) is the only spelling for the oil; and both are used for the sugar (which is named after the type of pot it was put in) and for the small swivelling wheel on the feet of furniture. Although you are never wrong if you use castor for the principal meanings, caster is recommended for the sugar, and castor for the small wheel.

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casualty.

The main current meaning is now ‘a person killed or injured in a war or accident’. The historically earlier meaning of the mishap itself is less common, although the two are sometimes hard to distinguish, e.g. There were many casualties in this war.

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catachresis

means ‘against usage’ and is a grammatical term referring to the improper use of words. Typical examples in everyday language are the use of infer to mean imply (but see INFER, IMPLY) and the use of refute to mean repudiate. Examples of literary (and therefore acceptable) catachresis include Dylan Thomas's phrase once below a time.

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catacomb.

Now pronounced kat--koom; but kat--kohm is heard in AmE.

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catch verb.

Catch you later, now also shortened to catch you, stands alongside see you (later) as a phrase of farewell:
‘Yeah, catch you, mate,’ said Stephen, and slid out the door—F. Kidman , 1988.

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catchphrase

is a term (mid-19c) for a phrase that catches on quickly and that is often used without direct allusion to its first occurrence (when this is known). Examples are: Not tonight, Josephine (associated with Napoleon but more likely a Victorian music hall invention), for my next trick (from magicians' patter), and more recently nice one, Cyril (from a 1972 TV advertisement) and have a nice day (1970s, originally AmE, exact origin disputed). Many more examples are given in Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Catch Phrases (1977). More recent catchphrases include economical with the truth (1986, used by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Richard Armstrong ), get a life (early 1990s), level playing field (1980s, originally AmE), and move the goalposts (1980s). See also CLICHÉS.

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catch-22,

from the title of a novel by Joseph Heller (1961), is used mainly in the phrase a catch-22 situation, which strictly does not mean any dilemma or difficulty but one ‘from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions’.

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category.

Fowler (1926) insisted tersely that category ‘should be used by no one who is not prepared to state (1) that he does not mean class, and (2) that he knows the difference between the two’. It seems that the word may belong in the category of Fowler's lost causes, since it is doubtful if the distinction is maintained in general (as opposed to philosophical) usage. Examples:
She placed them in two categories: the honest imbeciles and the intelligent imbeciles— Manning , 1960 /
Certain men at Vauxhall's were … placed in a special category to preserve their higher rate of pay—Spare Rib, 1977 /
Generally speaking there are two categories of small boy … the studious, eyes-down-in-a-book type and the outdoor scuffed shoes clothes-in-a-mess variety—Morecambe Guardian, 1978.

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cater verb.

There are two typical constructions, with for (which is more usual), and with to (perhaps influenced by pander, and more common in AmE). There is no real distinction in meaning between the two, except that use of to with a personal object seems less natural, at least in BrE:
The following suggested items can be obtained from shops which cater for local Chinese communities—China Now, 1978 /
Gingerbread caters for all categories of single parents—Times, 1980 /
He feels cheated because society does not cater to his irrational wishes— Bettelheim , 1960 /
Unlike other corporate hospitals, ours is just a diagnostic centre which caters to everybody—Business India, 1986.

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catholic

is a word of Greek origin meaning ‘universal’ and ‘of universal human interest’, and retains this meaning in English when spelt with a small initial (as in science is truly catholic). When spelt with a capital initial it refers to the Roman Catholic Church, although historically its range of reference is wider than this, embracing all Churches claiming to be descended from the ancient Christian Church. Although the meaning is clear in (for example) Catholics and Protestants, use Roman Catholic when there is any room for uncertainty.

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cavalcade

is derived from Latin caballus ‘horse’, and was brought into English via French with meanings associated with marches or processions on horseback. The association with horses was rapidly discarded, and in the 17c any procession came to be called a cavalcade. Noel Coward used the word as the title of a play in 1931, and claimed to have revived it in the process. The final element -cade forms the (irregular) basis of the word motorcade, used for a procession in motor vehicles and first recorded in AmE in 1913.

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caveat

is pronounced kav-i-at, and means ‘a warning or reservation’:
Any discussion of legal action must be preceded by a caveat on costs—M. Binney , 1991 /
Bearing in mind some caveats below, it is possible to predict the relative difficulty of a writing task—National Curriculum, 1989. In more formal and technical writing, caveats are entered, issued, put in, etc.:
Catherine Destivelle issued a similar caveat from the floor about the situation in the Alps—Climber and Hill Walker, 1991.

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cease.

This 14c loanword from French is slowly yielding to stop (as cast has to throw) except in a few set phrases (notably cease-fire and without cease) and where ‘we substitute it for stop when we want our language to be dignified’ (Fowler , 1926). Fowler thought that cease ought to be allowed to go into honourable retirement, but it appears to have plenty of active life left for special uses. It is also capable of being followed by a to-infinitive, often producing a better effect, whereas stop to do something has its own special meaning (‘pause to’ or ‘make a special effort to’). We could not, for example, substitute stop for cease in the following sentence without virtually reversing the sense:
Turner in a long and awesomely prolific career never ceased to observe and comment on nature—Daily Telegraph, 1973.

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ceiling

has been used by government departments and administrators since the 1930s to mean ‘an upper limit’ (as in a ceiling on prices), and is sometimes contrasted with floor, which is a lower limit. As with target, care needs to taken not to couch it in contexts that are incongruous: a ceiling can be reached, for example, or raised or lowered or adjusted, or can be high or low or unrealistic, but it cannot (without absurd effect) be extended or exceeded or increased. It is also unwise to associate it with words that are also associated with it in its literal use, such as suspend.

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cello

is the normal word for violoncello, and it is spelt without an initial apostrophe. The plural is cellos. If the full form has to be used, note the (Italian) spelling violon-.

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Celsius

is a particular scale of temperature based on a hundred degrees from freezing to boiling, and is named (like Fahrenheit) after an 18c scientist. Note that centigrade is a generic term for any such scale, and has been displaced by the more exact Celsius in weather reports and general usage.

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Celt, Celtic

are pronounced with initial k-, except for the name of the Glasgow football club, which is pronounced s-.

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censer, censor, censure.

1 A censer (from an Anglo-French root related to incense) is a vessel for burning incense; a censor (from a Latin word meaning ‘to assess’) is an official who decides on the suitability of films, plays, etc. for public performance.

2 As a verb, censor ‘to act as censor of’, should be distinguished from censure ‘to criticize harshly’.
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centenary

is pronounced sen-teen--ri. It is the usual term in BrE (as both noun and adjective) to denote a hundredth anniversary. In AmE and elsewhere, centennial is more usual. For forms based on centenary denoting longer periods (bicentenary, sesquicentenary, etc.) see ANNIVERSARIES.

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centigrade

see CELSIUS.

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centre around, centre round,

influenced by verbs of motion such as gather and move, is now a common construction for the meaning ‘to have (something) as a centre; to be mainly concerned with’, criticism on the grounds of illogicality notwithstanding. Examples:
That strange figure around whom this account properly centres—W. Sansom , 1950 /
There is the added enticement of a plot centred around a real historical event—Listener, 1983. To be completely safe, use centre on, base on, or revolve (a)round.

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centrifugal, centripetal

are stressed on the third and second syllables respectively. Their meanings are complementary: centrifugal relates to movement away from a centre and centripetal to movement towards a centre. Centrifugal occurs more often, and this may account for the change in stress, which was formerly also (somewhat awkwardly) on the second syllable.

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century.

1 The end of a millennium makes everyone aware of the difficulty of reckoning when a century (let alone a millennium) truly begins and ends. In arithmetical terms, the 21st century should be reckoned as beginning on 1January2001, since 2000 is strictly the last year of the 20th century (and 2nd millennium). But who is going to wait until the end of the year 2000 before celebrating the millennium? In popular usage, a new century begins on 1 Jan. of the year ending in -00, and this is unlikely to change however loudly purists may protest.

2 Nonetheless, in formal reckoning each century (the 5th, the 16th, etc.) contains one year beginning with the number that names it, and this is the last (or, in the case of BC dates, the first), and 99 years beginning with a number that is lower by one, so that 763, 1111, 1300, and 1990, belong to the 8th, 12th, 13th, and 20th centuries respectively.
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ceremonial, ceremonious.

Ceremonial, meaning ‘with or concerning ritual or ceremony’, is a neutral descriptive adjective (as in ceremonial occasions / ceremonial dress / for ceremonial reasons). Ceremonious, meaning ‘having or showing a fondness for ceremony’, is a more evaluative and judgemental word. The difference can be seen by contrasting ceremonial entry with ceremonious entry: the first is an entry marked by normal ceremony, whereas the second is an affectedly elaborate or grand entry. Examples:
Lord Mackan has had a busy programme of special ceremonial events on top of his normal Household chores—Sunday Express, 1981 /
On the far side of the hearth the headman was sitting with his legs crossed, his back very straight, ceremoniously smoking a hookah—M. Connell , 1991. Ceremonial is also used as a noun, meaning ‘proper formalities’:
He had had to fight for everything he had done, fight the people who wanted to wrap him up safely and wheel him out for a bit of ribbon-cutting and ceremonial—P. Junor , 1991.

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certainty, certitude.

Leaving aside special meanings in philosophy, both words imply the absence of doubt about the truth of something, but certitude is a more subjective feeling whereas certainty is, strictly speaking, verifiable. In practice, however, certitude is falling out of use, and certainty is taking over its functions. Examples:
(certainty) He was filled with certainty, a deep, sure, clean conviction that engulfed him like a flood—R.P. Warren , 1939 /
He never had the absolute certainty that one day he'd get the boat—R. Ingalis , 1987 /
(certitude) An obsession with statistics as the sole ground of certitude in a changing world—Encounter, 1964 /
We craved certitude and order, and Oxford gave us both— Mehta , 1993.

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cervical

means ‘relating to the neck’ (as in cervical vertebrae) or ‘relating to the cervix (or neck of the womb)’. The term has emerged from the domain of laboratories with the advent of nationwide cervical screening and cervical smears. Its pronunciation in general use, serv-i-kl, is being influenced by the preference in medical circles for s-viy-kl.

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chagrin.

The dominant standard pronunciation of the noun in BrE is shag-rin, and in AmE sh-grin. The adjective derived from it is spelt chagrined, pronounced the same way with the addition of a final -d.

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chairman, chairwoman, chairperson, chair.

The term chairman, which combines connotations of power with grammatical gender bias, is a keyword in feminist sensitivities about language. Chairwoman dates from the 17c, but (as the OED notes) it was hardly a recognized name until the 19c, and even then it did not solve the problem of how to refer neutrally to a chairman/ chairwoman when the gender was unknown or irrelevant. Two gender-neutral alternatives have emerged in the 20c: chairperson and chair, both first attested in the 1970s, although chair was already in use to mean ‘the authority invested in a chairman’:
I was recently challenged for using ‘chairman’ to describe my position. My accuser went on to assert that I was being insensitive to the work of the Equal Opportunities Commission by not using ‘chairwoman’, ‘chairperson’, or ‘chair’.— Scully , Times, 1988. Chair seems to be more popular than chairperson, partly because it seems less contrived and partly because it is more malleable in meaning, whereas chairperson requires the impossibly cumbersome derivative chairpersonship. Chairperson tends still to be used as an alternative for chairwoman rather than for chairman or chairwoman. See also -PERSON.

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challenged

has established itself in the 1980s and 1990s as a combining element forming politically correct alternatives to potentially sensitive or offensive descriptions of people, as in cerebrally challenged (= stupid), intellectually challenged (= backward), physically challenged (= disabled), and vertically challenged (= shorter than average). Most of these, however, are not used outside the more extreme realms of the PC movement, especially when alternatives are available that are less depleted of semantic relevance (e.g. children with special needs for and backward for educationally subnormal and backward).

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chamois

is pronounced sham-wah, with plural spelt the same and pronounced sham-wahz. When it means chamois leather, it is normally pronounced sham-i and sham-iz.

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champagne

should strictly speaking be used only of a sparkling white wine from the Champagne area of France, although it is loosely used of other similar wines.

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changeable

is spelt with an e in the middle to preserve the soft sound of the g.

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chap,

meaning ‘man, boy’, is a 16c shortening of chapman meaning ‘pedlar’. It originally meant ‘a buyer, customer’, and only acquired its present-day colloquial meaning in the 19c.

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chaperone,

meaning ‘someone who accompanies a young unmarried woman’, is the recommended spelling, not chaperon. It is pronounced shap--rohn.

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char

is short for charlady and charwoman, and as a verb has inflected forms charred, charring. Other terms such as cleaner (in offices) and daily help (in private houses) are now more usual, and char has a decidedly period flavour about it.

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character.

Fowler (1926) argued that character should not be used (1) as an alternative to forming abstract nouns in -ness, -ity, etc., e.g.
Every housing site has its own unique character—Country Life, 1972 [instead of uniqueness], and (2) in the construction of a … character (with an adjective before character), e.g.
Of completely different character was the imported … Moorish furniture which first made Liberty's reputation—E. Joy , 1972 [instead of Completely different was …]. These economies should be kept in mind in more formal written contexts, although character is well established in more general usage as an alternative for quality or nature.

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charge noun.

In charge of has two constructions: A can be in charge of B, and B can be in the charge of A (with an inserted the now usual) or in A's charge (in which case the is implicit). In all cases, A is given authority over B. Examples:
She didn't think it unreasonable to put Sebastian in Rex's charge on the journey— Waugh , 1945 /
Until they are 12 months old, the hound puppies are in the charge of the walkers who keep them at their homes—Leicester Mercury, 1984 /
I was recently … put in charge of six other copywriters, two of them men—New York Times, 1980. However, the construction in charge of will be found with the meaning ‘in the charge of’ (as distinguished above) in writing of the earlier part of the 20c, and in these cases only the context can prevent ambiguity:
The young prince was doing lessons at Ludlow in charge of the Queen's brother, Lord Rivers— Tey , 1951.

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charisma.

1 This is originally a Greek word meaning ‘gift of grace’. It acquired its current meaning ‘a gift or power of leadership or authority’ when the sociologist Max Weber used it in this way (in German) in 1922. It has been used widely in association with major political figures, including J. F. Kennedy , Mikhail Gorbachev , and Nelson Mandela , and is now used as a synonym for ‘influence’ or ‘authority’ or even ‘attraction’ or ‘charm’ in various contexts, impersonal as well as personal:
Spacecraft sent there in recent years have dispelled legends and added reams of sound, ordered data, yet the charisma of Mars remains—San Francisco Examiner, 1976 /
She presents well, has charm, charisma and vitality, but comes across as severely intellectual—Business 1991 /
Despite promo pics that make them look like 12-year-olds, their ‘charisma’ is more David Cassidy style—New Musical Express, 1976.

2 The adjective charismatic, in addition to its religious meanings (as in the charismatic movement), has developed in line with charisma, and there is also an adverb charismatically:
He had a charismatic quality about him that had long made him one of Europe's most eligible bachelors—A. MacNeill , 1989 /
She blossomed from a precocious teenager … into a charismatically attractive woman with towering talent.—S. Stone , 1989.
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charlatan,

meaning ‘a person falsely claiming special knowledge’, is pronounced shah-l-tn.

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chastise

is spelt -ise, not -ize.

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château

should be spelt with a circumflex on the a, although many newspapers print it without because they lack this character in their font sets. The plural is châteaux, pronounced with a final -z.

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chauvinism

is still used in its original meaning, associated with the eponymous Napoleonic veteran Nicolas Chauvin, of ‘exaggerated or aggressive patriotism’. In English (though not in French) it has developed a range of extended uses signifying other kinds of excessive loyalty or prejudice, including economic chauvinism, white chauvinism, female chauvinism, and, most famously, male chauvinism (first recorded in 1970). Male chauvinism and male chauvinist are so well established now that they are often used in the simple forms chauvinism and chauvinist usually without any danger of ambiguity because the context is all.

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cheap, cheaply adverbs.

Cheap has one meaning, ‘at a low price’, and regularly follows the verb as closely as possible:
Picture-books seem to end up by being sold off cheap as remaindered volumes—Country Life, 1981. Cheaply has this meaning and also means ‘in low esteem’:
The small Renault is underpowered and rather cheaply built—M. Harris , 1980. A regular idiom is to come cheap (or occasionally cheaply):
A gondolier doesn't come cheap—but punting down the canals is the very best way to explore—Best, 1991 /
The brothers enjoyed the hedonistic pleasures of the big city's pleasures that did not come cheaply—R. Long , 1990.

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check, cheque

are the AmE and BrE spellings respectively for an order written on a bank account. In AmE, check is also the word for BrE bill (in a restaurant).

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checkers

is the AmE name for the game in BrE called draughts.

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cheerful, cheery.

For the ordinary meanings ‘full of cheer, cheering, gladdening’, cheerful is the usual word, and can be applied to a person or a person's appearance or disposition, as well as to utterances and activities (e.g. a cheerful conversation / cheerful cries / a cheerful time) and occasionally places (a cheerful room). It also occurs in the informal fixed expression cheap and cheerful, meaning ‘simple but practical’, and is used more generally with the notion of tolerant good humour (e.g a cheerful acceptance of the inevitable). Cheery, which Dr Johnson called ‘a ludicrous word’, is more colloquial, is suggestive of high spirits, and is used to describe a person, mood, voice, etc.

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cheers,

long established as a salutation used before drinking, has developed a meaning in BrE noted by the Times columnist Philip Howard :
By a remarkable transition from the pub to the sober world at large outside cheers has become the colloquial synonym in British English for ‘thanks’—Times, 1978. In a sense halfway between these two, cheers also means ‘goodbye’.

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cheque

is the standard BrE spelling for the word in its banking sense. See also CHECK, CHEQUE.

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chequered

is the standard BrE spelling for the word in its literal meaning ‘having a pattern of alternately coloured squares’ and in its figurative meaning ‘uneven, of varied fortune’, as in a chequered career.

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cherub

has a plural cherubim, pronounced cher--bim when referring to angelic beings, and cherubs when referring to adorable children. The adjective cherubic is pronounced chi-roo-bik.

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chide,

meaning ‘scold’, in current usage has a past tense and past participle chided, although these forms have been unstable (with chid, chode, and chidden also recorded) over the word's thousand years of history.

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childish, childlike.

Both words tend now to be used to describe the behaviour of adolescents and adults rather than children. Childish has developed a generally depreciatory meaning ‘having the immature characteristics of a child’, whereas childlike has the favourable meaning ‘having the good qualities associated with a child’. Examples:
His childlike curiosity about life was held in check by childish timidity—M. Holroyd , 1974 /
John observing his daughter, saw her now as more grown-up, less childish— Murdoch , 1976 /
She habitually wore an expression of childlike wonder—R. West , 1977.

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chimera,

a word for a mythological being and with figurative meanings, is the recommended spelling, not chimaera. It is pronounced kiy-mee-r.

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Chinese, Chinaman.

Chinese is the standard word, both as a noun (with plural the same) and an adjective, for people and things relating to China. Chinaman, the form recommended Fowler (1926), has developed unfavourable overtones and is no longer in ordinary use.

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chiropodist,

meaning ‘someone qualified to treat the feet’, was regarded by the OED as a factitious (i.e. artificial) formation, since the significance of the element chir- (not certainly from the Greek word for ‘hand’) was unclear. Time has healed the etymological wounds and the term is now in ordinary use, as is the corresponding noun chiropody.

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chock-full

is now the dominant form, having triumphed over variants such as choke-full and chuck-full. These spelling difficulties have been aggravated by uncertainty as to the origin of the element chock, which also occurs in chock-a-block (with the same meaning).

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chop, cutlet.

A chop (17c) is a slice of meat (usually pork or lamb) cut from the loin, usually including a rib. A cutlet (early 18c) is a neck-chop of mutton or lamb, or a small piece of boneless veal for frying. A nut cutlet is a portion of meat substitute, often made from nuts and shaped like a cutlet, for vegetarian use.

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chorale

is derived from German Choral(gesang) and means a stately hymn tune. In AmE it also means a choir or choral society. The final e was added to reinforce the pronunciation with stress on the second syllable (k-rahl); compare locale and morale.

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chord, cord.

1 Although we are dealing here with three English words, their histories are very much intertwined, and their ultimate origin is in the Latin word chorda which has several meanings. To begin with, there are two distinct words spelt chord:
(1) in music, a group of notes sounded together to form the basis of harmony (this is a shortening of accord respelt with an initial ch-), and
(2) a technical word in mathematics and engineering, meaning a straight line joining the ends of an arc, the wings of an aeroplane, etc. (this is a 16c refashioning of cord after the initial ch of the Latin source). The idiom to strike a chord relates, somewhat surprisingly, to the second of these meanings.

2 The word cord = string, rope, etc., and in spinal cord, umbilical cord, vocal cord, etc., is descended, via Middle English and Old French corde, from Latin chorda in its meaning ‘a string of a musical instrument’. The anatomical sense is sometimes spelt chord, but this spelling is not recommended.
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Christian name.

In a multicultural society such as Britain and the USA have become, this term should be avoided in favour of the culturally neutral first name or forename. In AmE given name is also used.

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chronic

is used of a disease that is long-lasting (as opposed to acute), and has the same implication of continuing severity when used of other circumstances. An acute problem is intense but brief, whereas a chronic problem is severe and likely to persist:
Richard Wallace … bought no furniture, not wishing, perhaps, to add to the already acute problems of storage space—D. Mallett , 1979 /
Traffic congestion has become so chronic in Britain's cities that vehicles travel at an average speed of just 8 mph—Back Street Heroes, 1988. The word is also used colloquially as a term of mild disapproval, especially in the phrase something chronic.

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chrysalis

has a plural chrysalises in general use or chrysalides (four syllables with stress on the second) in technical usage.

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chuffed

has the general colloquial meaning ‘pleased, delighted’:
You were pleased at the time. Chuffed in fact.— Scott , 1977. In some local uses in the UK the word also means the exact opposite, ‘displeased, disgruntled’:
Don't let on they're after you, see, or she'll be dead chuffed, see?—C. Dale , 1964. The explanation seems to be that the two meanings reflect different uses of the dialect word chuff, which means ‘proud, conceited’ in some parts of the country and ‘illtempered, surly’ in others.

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chute

is the standard spelling in the meanings (1) a sloping channel or slide, and (2) a parachute.

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cicada

is pronounced si-kah-d, although si-kay-d is also heard.

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cigarette

is normally stressed on the third syllable in BrE and on the first syllable in AmE. Even in BrE, however, the stress can fall on the first syllable when the rhythm of the sentence seems to prefer this (as in Cigarettes are dear).

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cinema

has prevailed over kinema, which was still an option when Fowler wrote (1926); he also defended the shortening against the claims of the full form cinematograph. Today, in BrE one goes to the cinema to see a film; in AmE one goes to the movies or to a theater to see a movie. In Australia and New Zealand, one goes to the pictures or a picture theatre to see a film. However, movie is spreading fast into BrE and other varieties, and will undoubtedly take over in the end
(In many ways this movie heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making—Radio Times, 1998). Motion pictures, or the motion-picture industry, is used of the business world of film-making in all varieties of English.

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cipher

is the recommended spelling, not cypher.

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circumcise

is spelt -ise, not -ize.

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circumstance.

The debate about the merits of in the circumstances and under the circumstances has continued for most of the 20c. The pedantic view is that since circumstances are, etymologically speaking, around (circum) us, we must be in them and not under them; but Fowler rightly rejected this argument as puerile and observed that under the circumstances ‘is neither illogical nor of recent invention (1665 in OED)’. The OED further noted that ‘mere situation is expressed by in the circumstances, action affected is performed under the circumstances’, a subtle distinction that is useful as a general guide:
Never, under any circumstances, solder connections to the tags with them already on the cartridge—Hi-Fi Sound, 1971 /
As a writer, and collector of unusual information, I would be interested to hear from people who have seen the ‘little people’ or any strange, apparently non-human beings, under any circumstances whatever—Stornoway Gazette, 1973 /
In very special circumstances, you might be pressured into parenthood—Proceedings of the Classical Association, 1977 /
As from today, M[inimum] L[ending] R[ate] will cease to be posted except in very unusual circumstances—Daily Telegraph, 1981. Choice is also affected by the presence of an adjective or other qualifier for circumstances: in present circumstances, in straitened circumstances, under these circumstances, under no circumstances, etc., are all idiomatic constructions.

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city

is applied in many Englishspeaking countries to any large town, and the official use of the term varies from country to country. In Britain it is properly used of a town that is declared to be a city by royal charter and has a cathedral. As a result cities vary greatly in size and population: Edinburgh (population 400,000), Oxford (population 100,000) and Wells (population 8,000) are all cities, as is the City of London, which is the business centre of the capital although no more than one square mile in area and having a resident population of less than 6,000.

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clad

see CLOTHE.

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claim verb.

There are several areas of difficulty with this word. The first concerns claim + that, and the second claim + to. The third concerns the expression to claim responsibility.
1 CLAIM + THAT. In this construction, claim should not be used as a mere synonym for allege, assert, declare, maintain, say, etc., but should contain an element of argued contention:
He claimed that adding VAT to domestic fuel and power would help create a greener and cleaner world by stimulating the use of more energy efficiency measures—Environment Digest, 1990 /
The Sun claims that the Stonebridge council estate in north London ‘is Britain's tinderbox where Los Angeles-style riots could explode at any time’—New Statesman, 1992.
2 CLAIM + TO. Fowler objected to the use of this construction when the subject of claim is not the same as the subject of the infinitive; so I claim to be honest is acceptable but I claim this to be honest is not. Passive constructions such as
Their oyster farm is claimed to be the only one of its kind in Europe—Times, 1975 would also be rejected on the same principle. The weight of current usage, however, has all but overturned this rule, and it is principally on grounds of style that alternative constructions using assert, contend, maintain, etc., might be preferred.
3 CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR. In news reports, it is often said that a particular group claimed responsibility for (an attack, bombing, etc.). The objection is that the use of claim implies something laudable or desirable, whereas a terrorist attack is neither. To avoid these sensitivities, it is advisable to use an alternative expression such as admit responsibility or declare that (they were responsible).

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classic, classical.

1 Classical is the customary word when reference is to the arts and literature of ancient Greece and Rome (a classical scholar / classical Greek / architecture of classical proportions), and also to serious or conventional music, i.e. that of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. (although it applies more strictly to the 18th century, after the Baroque period and before the onset of Romanticism). Classical has come to be widely used in marketing circles to denote anything of traditional design:
Classical desk lamp with swivelling green metal reflector cowl on a brass stem—Habitat Catalogue, 1982

2 Classic means ‘of acknowledged excellence’ (the classic textbook on the subject) or ‘remarkably typical’ (a classic case of cerebral palsy). In general use, it has come to mean little more than ‘significant, noteworthy’:
Most home workers are women … a classic case of powerless employees—Guardian, 1973 /
The Nixon-Gandhi conversation thus turned into a classic dialogue of the deaf— Kissinger , 1979. The Classic races in Britain are the five main flat races, namely the Two Thousand and the One Thousand Guineas, the Derby, the Oaks, and the St Leger.
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clauses.

1 A clause is a group of words normally containing a verb and its subject. A main clause makes sense by itself and can constitute an entire sentence, e.g. The train arrived at 6 o'clock. Alternatively, a sentence can be made up of more than one main clause linked by a conjunction, e.g. The train arrived at 6 o'clock and the passengers got out. A subordinate clause is one that qualifies a main clause, e.g. The train arrived at 6 o'clock when it was already dark or The train arrived at 6 o'clock in order to let the passengers out. A clause can have the status of another part of speech; for example it can be an adverb (as in the sentence just given), an adjective (The train which left London this morning arrived at 6 o'clock), or a noun The train arrived at what we thought was 6 o'clock. A relative clause is one beginning with who, which, or that that gives extra information, as in the second example above. Relative clauses can be restrictive (or defining), as in the same example (‘Which train? The one from London’) or non-restrictive, as in The train, which left London this morning, arrived at 6 o'clock (in which the fact of leaving London is incidental information and not essential to the meaning).

2 There are various ways of analysing clauses and sentences. The most important abbreviations used are S (subject), V (verb), O (object), C (complement), and A (adverbial), as in My son [S] considers [V] the price [O] quite reasonable [C] in the circumstances [A]. For a fuller description, and more complex examples of notations, see Greenbaum, Oxford English Grammar, 311–55.
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clean, cleanly.

Clean has been an adverb meaning ‘completely, outright’ since Old English and is still used as one, as in The bullet went clean through his shoulderblade. Cleanly is an adverb of manner, and is often used figuratively:
His ability, when he is wrong-footed, to extricate himself cleanly from the resulting mess—Observer, 1978. Note also the adjective cleanly (pronounced klen-li), which means ‘habitually clean’:
The athlete's dancing vector, the spirit's need, And muscle's cleanly diction—A. Hecht , 1977. This meaning will probably be more familiar in its derivative form cleanliness, which is proverbially next to godliness.

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clear, clearly.

The grammatical situation is similar to that in the preceding entry, with clear available as an adverb in two principal meanings, (1) ‘completely’ (They got clear away), (2) ‘in a clear manner, with clear effect’ (They spoke out loud and clear). In this last use, it should be pointed out that clear, like loud, is used as a semi-adjective; but it is usually reckoned to be an adverb, as it is in a number of fixed expressions such as keep clear, stand clear, stay clear, and steer clear. Clearly is an adverb of manner, and can sometimes be used instead of clear in meaning (2): They spoke out loudly and clearly / The author writes clearly and concisely. It is also used figuratively, often as a sentence adverb:
It clearly has the advantage of keeping all the lines from getting crossed and establishing the priorities of policy—Times, 1973 /
Clearly a more sensible definition of randomness is required—Scientific American, 1975.

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cleave.

There are two words, both from Old English, with this spelling. One is a mostly literary word for ‘cut’, and has inflected forms (past) cleaved, clove, or cleft, and (past participle) cleaved or cloven. The adjective is cloven in cloven-footed and cloven hoof, and cleft in cleft palate and in a cleft stick. It is chiefly in these fixed expressions that the word is generally known. The other word means ‘to stick, adhere’, and inflects more regularly (past) cleaved, (past participle) cleaved. It occurs chiefly in the Authorized Version of the Bible (where a past form clave is also found): The Nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaued to the roofe of their mouth—Job 29:10.

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cleft

see CLEAVE.

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clench, clinch.

Clinch is a 16c variant spelling of clench, and has since been regarded as a separate word. We clench our teeth, fingers, and fists; and we clinch an argument, bargain, or deal. Lovers clinch when they embrace closely, and so do boxers and wrestlers when they embrace too closely. A remark or statement that decides an argument is (informally) a clincher. Usually nails are clinched (not clenched) to make a clinkerbuilt (or clincher-built) boat.

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clever

see LOST CAUSES.

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clew

see CLUE.

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clichés.

1 A cliché is a phrase that has become meaningless with overuse; for example, it is now meaningless to wish someone a nice day because a once sincere intention has become an empty cliché. The French word cliché means a stereotype printing block, which produced the same page over and over again.

2 Fowler's entry in this topic (1926) was less than six lines long, and quoted only two examples: a minus quantity (as in Clothing among them was a minus quantity) and the order of the day (as in Engine troubles were the order of the day). Since then, the list of fixed expressions that are commonly regarded as clichés has grown, and everyone has their own favourites from those they condemn in the usage of other people. Anthony Burgess mocked clichés in Inside Mr Enderby (1963): He was, however, on the whole, taking all things into consideration, by and large, not to put too fine a point on it, reasonably self-sufficient. The list can be extended with the following, among others: at the end of the day, at this moment in time, conspicuous by one's absence, explore every avenue, in this day and age, keep a low profile, leave no stone unturned, on the back burner, over the moon, put your money where your mouth is, sick as a parrot, situation (as in crisis situation), level playingfield, not my cup of tea, take on board, until such time as, you name it.
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3 Despite a vigorous defence by Nicholas Bagnall (A Defence of Clichés, 1985), they are normally condemned or ridiculed on grounds of style. Christopher Ricks wisely observed (1980) that ‘the only way to speak of a cliché is with a cliché’.
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client

has extended its range of use dramatically in recent years. It means, essentially, ‘someone who buys the services of a professional person’, such as a lawyer or accountant; and a prostitute traditionally has clients. Someone who buys something from a shop is a customer, doctors have patients, and hotels and restaurants have patrons (but takeaways are regarded as shops and have customers). In the more competitive world of privatized public transport, passengers are often referred to as customers or sometimes clients; this usage is entirely contrived. There is some shift of usage in the social services, in the interests of neutral description: a social worker, for example, will now claim to have clients rather than the more judgemental cases or patients.

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climactic, climatic, climacteric.

Climactic means ‘forming a climax’
(For the climactic battle sequence … Lucas gathered all the old war movies he could find and spliced together their aerial-combat footage—Time, 1977); climatic means ‘relating to climate’
(The Tamworth [pig] … can adapt itself to a wide range of climatic conditions—Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1977); and climacteric is a noun meaning ‘the period of life when fertility and sexual activity are in decline’.

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climate

developed its figurative meaning ‘the prevailing trend of opinion or public feeling’ as early as the 17c, despite its modern ring. Examples:
The whole climate of thought will be different— Orwell , 1949 /
We must … take account of the intellectual climate of the time— Crystal , 1971 /
The social security structure of individual countries depends heavily on their political climate—Accountant, 1972.

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cling,

after a period of instability, has now rejected the past form clang, and has settled for clung as both the past tense and past participle.

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clone

is derived from Greek kln ‘twig, slip’, and came into use at the beginning of the 20c as a technical term in botany and biology. In addition to its now generally familiar original use, it has developed figurative meanings relating to close resemblances of various kinds between people and things:
Isn's he rather too much of a Benn clone?—Observer, 1983 /
Amstrad [is] leading the cut price clones attacking IBM personal computers on price—Marketing, 1986.

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close, shut verbs.

Close has a greater implication of formality and politeness than does shut, which often sounds merely peremptory. Close the door suggests an invitation, whereas Shut the door is a more sraightforward command. Closed is also used in a number of fixed expressions: a closed book, a closed shop, behind closed doors, a closed society.

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close, closely.

The adjective close merge; into an adverb in uses such as come close, lie close, run close, stick close, etc., especially in figurative uses:
No other car comes close for combining brilliant responsiveness with precise control—advertisement in Scientific American, 1973 /
Opera and large gatherings ran each other close for first place among her dislikes—J. Aiken , 1977. The adverb closely dates from the 16c and is used as an adverb of manner or degree, often in nonphysical contexts:
Any programme of cuts … would have to be closely vetted—Times, 1975 /
The only language closely related to Sinhalese is Maldivian—Language, 1972.

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clothe

has two past and participial forms: clothed (the normal word) and clad. Clothed is suitable for most contexts (except when the less formal word dressed is called for), whereas clad is reserved for special uses:
(1) as a literary word, and
(2) with a qualifying word as in ill-clad, insufficiently clad, etc., and in figurative uses such as ice-clad, ivy-clad, etc. These uses also have a strong literary flavour.

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clue

is the normal spelling in the group of meanings to do with signs or evidence. Clew, which is a variant of the same word, is now principally used as a nautical term meaning ‘the lower or after corner of a sail’.

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co-.

is a prefix of Latin origin, and is used to form words that include the meaning ‘together, in common’. Spelling practice varies with regard to use of a hyphen: some words (especially when the second element begins with a vowel) include it, whereas others are written as one word. The diaeresis (ö) that formerly punctuated words as in coöperate, is now largely disused. Recommended spellings are follows:

coagulate

coextensive

co-opt

coalition

cohabit

coordinate

co-author (noun and verb)

cohere

copartner

coincide

co-pilot

coaxial

coition

co-respondent (in divorce case)

co-determination

co-latitude

co-driver

co-occur

co-signatory (to an agreement etc.)

co-education

co-occurrence

coefficient

co-op

co-star

co-equal

cooperate

co-worker

coeval

cooperation

uncooperative

coexist

cooperative

uncoordinated

coexistent

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coastal

see LOST CAUSES.

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coccyx,

meaning a bone at the base of the spine, is pronounced kok-siks. The plural is coccyxes or (more rarely) coccyges (kok-si-jeez).

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cocoa

see CACAO.

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coffin

see CASKET.

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cogent.

To be cogent, an argument has to persuade or convince; to be coherent (see next entry) it only has to make sense.

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coherent, cohesive.

Both words come form a Latin root related to our word cohere, but their meanings are different. Coherent means ‘logical and consistent’ and is applied to speakers and their arguments. See also COGENT. Cohesive means ‘tending to stick together’ and is generally used either physically (as with liquid mixtures, for example) or in abstract contexts:
Tephra … serves as an insulating material, and constitutes an important component of cement—National Geographic, 1972 /
The demand for socially cohesive categories of Nature and Reason—T. Eagleton , 1976.

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cohort.

A cohort (cohors) of the Roman army was an infantry unit equivalent to one-tenth of a legion, and typically consisted of about 500 soldiers. In the plural it has often been used as a literary word for ‘army’, as in Byron's reference to Sennacherib (1815): And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. As well as a technical meaning in demography, the word has in the 20c developed a meaning (originally AmE) ‘an assistant, colleague, accomplice’, probably influenced by the coincidence of the first element with the prefix co-:
Mr Stratton consented … to partake together with his cohort of a sandwich and a glass of milk—A. Cross , 1967 /
The impending trial of Bobby Seale, chairman of the Black Panther movement, and his eight cohorts in New Haven—Sunday Times, 1970 /
Brock and Emma had one wall, Bob, Johnny and their cohorts the other wall and centre aisle— Carré , 1979. The incongruity of this use is masked by its frequent appearance in the plural, and the singular even appears to be a kind of backformation. Language becomes vulnerable when the specific historical significance of words is so easily forgotten.

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coinages

are words and meanings used for the first time. Words created for the physical sciences (such as gas and radar) are often publicly coined (for example, in a journal), so that the moment and sources of their creation are recorded; but this is rarely the case with more general vocabulary unless this too is invented for a special purpose (as with charisma and robot) and still less so with slang and colloquial English, even when these are phrase-based. Coinages tend to be based on analogy (e.g. software from hardware), on compounding (e.g. lunatic fringe, smart card), on blending words (e.g. motel from motor and hotel, edutainment from education and entertainment), on use of prefixes and suffixes (e.g. reflagging, privatization), and on phrases, real or notional (e.g. gobsmacked). See also NEW WORDS.

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colander,

meaning ‘a kitchen strainer’, is spelt this way, although cullender will be found in older writing. See also CALENDAR.

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Cold War,

for the years of suppressed hostility between the USSR and the West after 1945, is spelt with capital initials. The concept disappeared with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe from about 1989, but it is still referred to historically.

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coleslaw

is spelt cole-, not cold-. This element is from Dutch kool ‘cabbage’.

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colic

has a derivative adjective colicky (with k to harden the sound).

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coliseum, colosseum.

Both are variants of the same word, derived from the ancient name (colosseum) of the Flavian amphitheatre in Rome, which in turn was named after a large statue (or colossus) of Nero which stood nearby. The form Coliseum is used of theatres and music halls and, especially in America, of theatres and large buildings used for sport or exhibitions.

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collaborate, collaborator.

The primary meaning of the verb, ‘to work in conjunction with someone else’, can still be used despite the sinister overtones it acquired when used of cooperation with the enemy during the second World War. This is true also of the agent noun collaborator:
Prof R G Mason and his collaborators at Imperial College used a new electromagnetic distance-measuring instrument—Physics Bulletin, 1970.

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collapsible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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collectable, collectible.

Fowler (1926) said that the first is better, and this is still true. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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collective noun.

1 A collective noun is one that is singular in form and denotes a number of individuals, for example audience, choir, committee, flock, multitude. Apart from the names of individual animals, birds, etc. (deer, grouse, sheep, trout) and names for groups of them (a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese, etc.), and names of institutions, firms, and teams (BBC, Marks & Spencer, Tottenham Hotspur, etc.), there are some 200 collective nouns in common use in English.

2 The principal question of usage with collective nouns is whether they should be treated as singular or plural. In BrE, the practice is well established of construing them either with a singular verb to emphasize unity or with a plural verb to emphasize individuality. The point is more fully discussed at AGREEMENT (3). It is particularly important to maintain consistency within a statement, avoiding, for example, a singular verb with a plural pronoun following, as in When the jury retires to consider their verdict.
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3 When a collective noun is followed by of + plural noun or pronoun (as in a number of people), there is a general preference for a plural construction:
A large number of conductors want to hear the great artists—Dædalus, 1986 /
A handful of their members have been agents of Moscow—London Review of Books, 1987; but again a singular is used when collectivity rather than individuality is the main point:
A decade ago there was only a handful of bioethicists in the country—British Medical Journal, 1978.
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4 Names of institutions and political entities, e.g. the United States, the United Nations, the Vatican, the Commons, Congress, are always treated as singular whether the form of the name is singular or plural (e.g.
The United States has demanded a more open Japan—Dædalus, 1987 /
The CEGB finds it 25 per cent cheaper to buy in French electricity—Daily Telegraph, 1987).
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5 Names of animals, birds, and fish that are the same in the singular and plural are treated as singular or plural (or as a singular mass noun) accordingly: Five bison were grazing in a shaded part of the valley / Trout will for some time still be a premium fish, selling at about £1 each.
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6 For collective nouns of the type a pride of lions etc., see proper terms.
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college

has many long-established meanings:
(1) a body of officials, membership of which is a privilege or honour, e.g. College of Cardinals, College of Arms, College of Physicians, etc.,
(2) an establishment for further education, normally part of a university as at Oxford, Cambridge, London, and elsewhere. In wider educational circles, college has been traditionally used in the names of some of the ancient public schools (notably Eton and Winchester). In more recent times, its has come to be applied to a broad group of educational and professional institutions: business colleges, teacher-training colleges, sixth-form colleges, secretarial colleges, military and naval colleges, colleges of agriculture, etc. One consequence of this is that general phrases such as being at college now need further elaboration.

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collide, collision.

There is no basis for the assertion sometimes made that these two words should be restricted to circumstances involving an impact between two moving objects. A vehicle can be said to collide with a tree, a bollard, or any other fixed object as well as with another vehicle, whether moving or not. In factual reporting, however, hit is often a more straightforward choice:
[They] died when their car hit a tree between Penzance and Land's End yesterday—Times, 1990.

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collocation

is a term in descriptive linguistics for the customary association of words with other words. A bystander is usually said to be innocent, consequences are often far-reaching, and politicians are cautiously optimistic. Other aspects of collocation include the function words needed to complete the sense of other words (e.g agree + with or to) and the typical order of words, as in fish and chips and spick and span, neither of which can normally be reversed.

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colloquial

is a term used in dictionaries and books on language to describe the less formal vocabulary and grammar of everyday speech. In some dictionaries, informal is used instead (as being less judgemental), although the implications for usage are the same. Slang denotes a greater degree of informality, and typically involves a stronger element of metaphor or imagery. See SLANG.

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collude, collusion.

Both words involve a notion of fraud or dishonesty. It is correct to speak of dealers colluding, or acting in collusion, in insider dealing on the stock exchange; but it would not be correct to refer to authors colluding to write a book (the correct word would be collaborating).

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colon.

1 The colon is the punctuation mark that is least used and least well understood in ordinary writing (as distinct from printing). The principal difference between it and the semicolon lies in the relation of what precedes and follows each in the sentence. A semicolon links two balanced or complementary statements, whereas a colon leads from the first statement to the second, typically from general or introductory statement to example, from cause to effect, or from premiss to conclusion.

2 The respective roles of semicolon and colon are shown by the following example punctuated in two ways: It was a beautiful day; we played cricket on the green. / It was a beautiful day: we played cricket on the green. In the first version, the two statements about the weather and playing cricket are equally balanced and might alternatively be separated by and or written as two distinct sentences separated by a full stop. In the second version, the colon makes the second statement much more explicitly a consequence of the first.
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3 A colon is also used to introduce a list: The following will be needed: a pen, pencil, rubber, and ruler. Note that the colon should not be followed by a dash, although this practice is more common in older printing.
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4 In AmE, a colon follows the initial greeting in a letter (Dear Ms Jones:), where in BrE a comma is customary. A colon also separates hours and minutes in notation of time in AmE (10:30 a.m.).
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colossal.

In its physical sense ‘of immense size’, colossal dates from the early 18c, and was not listed by Dr. Johnson (1755). The first use in its figurative meaning ‘remarkable, splendid’ is attributed to Mark Twain :
I do not suppose that any other statesman ever had such a colossal sense of humour, combined with the ability to totally conceal it—American Claimant, 1892. This use, which verges on the colloquial, should be used sparingly:
Spending has been held back in part because of a colossal blooper by the House Ways and Means Committee—Time, 1972.

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colosseum

see COLISEUM.

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colour.

In BrE the customary spellings of words related to colour are colourable (= specious, counterfeit), colourant (= colouring substance), colourful, colourist (= a painter in colour), and colourless, but coloration (= a colour scheme), colorific (= producing colour), colorimeter (= a measuring instrument), and decolorize (= remove the colour from). In AmE all have -or-, not -our-.

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coloured,

written with a capital C, in South Africa denotes a person of mixed descent, and in the plural denotes a racial group as officially defined under the former apartheid laws. Its use by white people in Britain and elsewhere meaning ‘non-white’ is now rare.

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columnist,

meaning a writer of a newspaper column, is pronounced with the n expressed.

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combat

is normally pronounced with stress on the first syllable as both noun and verb. The same applies to the derivatives combatant and combative. The verbal inflections are combated, combating.

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combining forms.

This term, which may well have been used first by the OED editors, denotes a word form that is only used in combination with other elements. The normal linking vowel is -o (e.g. Anglo-, electro-) or -i (alti-, horti-). Combining forms can also occur at the ends of words (e.g. -imeter, -ology).

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come

is one of several verbs (others include go and try) which can be followed by and instead of to (Come and see). It can also be followed by a participle in -ing (Will you come swimming tomorrow?). Occasionally, and usually for rhetorical effect, it is followed by an infinitive without to:
We can sell this house, you can come live with us— Smith , 1983 (US) /
Come let us say a prayer together— Gardam , 1985 (UK).

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come-at-able,

meaning ‘accessible’, is recorded from the 17c, but is less common than GET-AT-ABLE. Also found are comeat-ability and uncome-at-able.

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comedian.

In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1601), Olivia asks the disguised Viola, come to woo her on behalf of Orsino with a lover's speech ready to deliver, ‘Are you a comedian?’, meaning ‘Are you a comic actor?’. At a slightly earlier date (1581), the word is recorded in the meaning ‘writer of comic plays’; together these constitute the earliest records of the word. Its current meaning, applied both to men and women, is ‘a humorous entertainer on stage, television, etc.’ A feminine form, comédienne, is recorded from about 1860, but is not much favoured now except with historical reference. In the meaning ‘writer of comedies’, comedian is mostly used of the ancient writers Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence, to distinguish them from the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

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comic, comical.

These two words overlap in meaning, but comic is the more common of the two and is the only one with the purely descriptive meaning ‘relating to or in the nature of comedy’, as in comic actor and comic opera. Comical is a more evaluative word, meaning ‘funny, causing laughter’, as in comical appearance and a comical situation; comic can also have this meaning but is often taken to imply intention rather than effect. The following examples demonstrate the different perspectives of these words in this meaning:
Both brothers laughed out loud at the deliberately comic delivery of his English phrases as they shook hands—A. Grey , 1983 /
In reality, the relationship was a strained and sometimes comical mismatch, a 50-year-long saga of crossed purposes—Daily Telegraph, 1992 /
He wiped his head, looking almost comical in his shorts and sandals—N. Barber , 1992 /
Olson suggested that the truly comic element in the tale is an ironic one—J. Hines , 1993.

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comity,

pronounced kom-i-ti, means ‘considerate behaviour towards others’:
Those participating in conversational encounters have to have a care for the preservation of good relations by promoting the other's positive self-image, by avoiding offence, encouraging comity, and so on—H.G. Widdowson , 1990. It has a special meaning in international law, occurring often in the semi-fixed expression comity of nations (or peoples, etc.), of ‘the mutual recognition by nations of the laws and customs of others’:
The court accepted the need to pay healthy respect to the principles of comity—D. McClean , 1992 /
It is important when considering applications under the Convention that it should be borne in mind that these are matters which affect the comity of nations—Weekly Law Reports, 1992. It should not be used in the weaker meaning ‘a group of nations that are well disposed to one another’, although this is often found in print, e.g.
There were voices which spoke for Russia in the comity of civilised people other than those of ministers and Tsars— Ustinov , 1983.

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comma.

There is much variation in the use of the comma in print and in everyday writing. Essentially, its role is to give detail to the structure of sentences, especially longer ones, and to make their meaning clear by marking off words that either do or do not belong together. It usually represents the natural breaks and pauses that occur in speech. The principal uses are as follows:
1 To separate adjectives coming before a noun: a cold, damp, badly heated room / a ruthless, manipulative person. The comma can be replaced by and between a pair of adjectives to make a stronger effect: a ruthless and manipulative person. The comma is omitted when the last adjective has a closer relation to the noun: a distinguished foreign politician / a dear little baby.
2 To separate the main clauses of a compound sentence when they are not sufficiently close in meaning or content to form a continuous unpunctuated sentence, and are not distinct enough to warrant a semicolon. A conjunction such as and, but, yet, etc., is normally used: The road runs close to the coast, and the railway line follows it closely. It is incorrect to join the clauses of a compound sentence without a conjunction (the so-called ‘comma splice’): I like swimming very much, I go to the pool every day. (In this sentence, the comma should either be replaced by a semicolon, or retained and followed by and.) It is also incorrect to separate a subject from its verb with a comma: Those with the lowest incomes and no other means, should get the most support. (Remove the comma.)
3 A comma also separates complementary parts of a sentence, and can introduce direct speech: Parliament is not dissolved, only prorogued / The question is, can this be done? / He then asked, ‘Do you want to come?’.
4 An important function of the comma is to prevent ambiguity or (momentary) misunderstanding: In the valley below, the houses look very small (The valley is not below the houses) / Mr Douglas Hogg said that he had shot, himself, as a small boy (Mr Hogg shot things other than himself).
5 Commas are used in pairs to separate elements in a sentence that are not part of the main statement: There is no sense, as far as I can see, in this suggestion / It appears, however, that we were wrong / There were, to be sure, at least four pubs in the village. They are also used to separate a relative clause from its antecedent when the clause is not a restrictive or identifying one (see CLAUSES): The book, which was on the table, was a gift. (Without the comma, the relative clause would serve to identify the book in question rather than give extra information about it: The book which / that was on the table was a gift). A single comma usually follows adverbs (such as already, however, moreover) in initial position in a sentence: Already, the sun was shining / Moreover you were late home from school.
6 Commas are used to separate items in a list or sequence. Usage varies as to the inclusion of a comma before and in the last item; the style recommended here is to include it (the so-called ‘Oxford comma’): We ordered tea, scones, and cake. Other practice is to include it only to avoid ambiguity: We ordered tea, bread and butter, and cake.
7 Omit the comma between nouns in apposition (e.g. my friend judge Leonard / her daughter Mary), but retain it when the noun is a parenthesis (e.g. His father, Humphrey V. Roe, was not so fortunate)
8 Commas are used in numbers of four or more figures, to separate each group of three consecutive figures starting from the right (e.g. 14,236,681). Omit the comma when giving house numbers in addresses (44 High Street), and in dates (27 July 2001).

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commando

has the plural form commandos.

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commence, begin, start.

1 Commence is a more formal Latinate word for begin or start. Fowler's advice (1926) was to use begin and its derivatives except when these seem incongruous (which is in fact rare); occasions when commence is more appropriate include official announcements, statements of historical importance, and suchlike. It is therefore a sound rule to use begin in all ordinary contexts unless start is customary (e.g. The engine started at once / They usually start work at 9.30 / The game started on time), and to reserve commence for more formal occasions, such as the law (to commence an action), warfare (Hostilities commenced on 4 August), and the domain of ceremonial (The procession will commence at 2 p.m.)

2 Constructions available to commence are more limited than to begin; in particular begin can more readily be followed by a to-infinitive, whereas a verbal noun is now more natural after commence: They began to eat or They began eating but They commenced eating. However, commence + to will be found in older writing. Definitely to be avoided is a mixed style of to + verbal noun:
Then he commenced to coming by our place—M. Golden , 1989.
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commentate

is an unsurprising back-formation from the noun commentator. It is first recorded as a rare word from the late 18c in the general sense ‘to comment’, and was revived in its current use in sports broadcasting in the 1950s.

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commercialese

is the special language of business correspondence. Sir Ernest Gowers , in his 1965 revision of Fowler's Modern English Usage, regarded commercialese as ‘an artificial jargon’, and quoted in his support a committee report on the teaching of English from as early as 1921. Gowers would be pleased to know that most of the more arcane terminology, such as ult. (= ultimo, last month), prox. (= proximo, next month), and duly to hand (= received) has since largely disappeared, although one or two phrases still linger in the correspondence of more conservative business people.

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commercial traveller,

first recorded in 1807, has now given way to sales representative (informally sales rep) as a term for an agent who sells a company's goods or services in an area.

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commiserate

was a transitive verb for about three centuries:
She did not exult in her rival's fall, but, on the contrary, commiserated her—H. Ainsworth , 1871; but under the influence of condole with and sympathize with, it is now construed with with (despite the disapproval of Fowler , modified somewhat by Gowers ):
We commiserated with one another on our various hurts—K. Hulme , 1984.

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commissionaire,

meaning a uniformed door-attendant, is spelt with two ms and one n.

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committee

can take a singular or plural construction, depending on the sense. If the emphasis is on collectivity or unity, it is treated as singular; if the emphasis is on the individuality of its members, it is treated as plural. Examples:
The committee proposes an Official Information Act to cover leakage of information—Times, 1972 /
The local party's General Management Committee will vote for their choice next Monday evening—Wandsworth Borough News, 1977 /
An international committee on viral names has been looking into the problem—Capital Gay, 1986. The status of singular or plural is unclear when the verb is in the past or constructed with an auxiliary verb such as will or may, and plural number is often clarified by resorting to an expression such as the members of the committee:
Key members of the … Committee concluded that only the existence of a ‘mole’ or ‘sleeper’ … could explain the many leaks and failures of the 1950s and 1960s—Observer, 1981. See AGREEMENT (3).

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common

see MUTUAL.

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communal

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable.

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commune

is stressed on the first syllable as a noun, and on the second as a verb.

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compact

is stressed on the second syllable as a verb and predicative adjective. As a noun (meaning ‘an agreement’ or ‘a case for face-powder’) and as an attributive adjective, the stress is normally on the first syllable, except that it is variable in compact disc.

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comparable

is pronounced with main stress on the first syllable. Its uses with to and with correspond to the meanings given at COMPARE, with a marked preference in current usage for to:
This heroin is comparable in quality to that being sniffed by U.S. troops in Vietnam—R. Parkes , 1973.

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comparatively,

like relatively, has been used since at least the early 19c as an intensifying (or ‘downtoning’) adverb, even where actual comparison is not involved:
He had had comparatively little to do with women—P. Newton , 1972 /
It was a comparatively shabby office … Euram Marketing gave a distinct impression of watching the pennies—G. Markstein , 1981. These uses are justified on the ground that there is usually implicit comparison of some kind, even if it is as vague as ‘compared with others’. Fowler (1926) restricted his comment to the use of a comparatively few (with indefinite article), but Gowers (1965) extended the disapproval to the type Casualties were comparatively few, arguing that no comparison, not even an implicit one, is made. This distinction, however, is impossible to sustain, since few behaves like an ordinary descriptive adjective in being gradeable: if one allows very few the objection to comparatively few falls.

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comparatives

see ADJECTIVE (3), -ER AND -EST FORMS.

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compare with, compare to.

1 In general usage, these two constructions tend to be used interchangeably; AmE generally prefers to when there is a choice, whereas in BrE the choice is more evenly divided. A broad distinction in principle should be kept in mind, namely that compare to is used to liken two things whereas compare with is used to weigh or balance one thing against another. When Shakespeare in his famous line asks Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?, he is likening, even though in the end he shows his beloved to be more lovely than a summer's day.

2 This broad distinction can be seen in the following modern examples, although the use of to in the 1976 example violates it:
American Opinion … compared the familiar peace symbol to an antiChristian ‘broken cross’—Time, 1970 /
(likening) He did not individually compare other women with her, but because she was the first, she was equal in his memory to the sum of all the others—J. Berger , 1972 /
(balancing) Compared to war-reporting of the Spanish war … Journey to a War is superficial and uninformative—S. Hynes , 1976 /
(balancing) Salim's flight to London can be compared … to the Romeward journey in Virgil—London Review of Books, 1979 /
(likening) The company produced a creditable performance, particularly when compared with the results of many of its competitors—Daily Telegraph, 1992 (balancing).
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3 When a subordinate clause or phrase is introduced by the participial form compared, the preposition is either to or with, although here usage is moving in favour of to:
The church looked dimly mysterious compared with the glare of the passage—P.D. James , 1986 /
Compared to Ward's witch-hunters, Profumo is an almost blameless character in the story—London Review of Books, 1987 /
This was a modest sum compared to what other people spent— Wolfe , 1987.
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4 In BrE, though not in AmE, with is obligatory when compare is used intransitively, because the balancing rather than the likening notion predominates:
His achievements do not compare with those of A. J. Ayer—Sunday Times, 1988 (UK) /
Ham and bamboo shoots do not compare to those made at Ying's—New York Times, 1977 /
This compares with an average life expectancy in 1975 of 69.1 years for males and 75.2 years for females—C. Ungerson , 1991. See also COMPARABLE, COMPARISON (2).
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comparison.

1 For comparison of adjectives, see ADJECTIVE (3).

2 Comparison as the noun equivalent of compare is normally followed by with, not to, and this applies also to the expression by or in comparison:
By comparison with some of the 20 million tons a year North Sea finds it is a drop in the ocean—Daily Telegraph, 1974 /
It doesn't bear comparison with the contact you can get with a live theatre audience—S. Brett , 1977.
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compass points.

Use capital initials for north, south, east, and west when these are part of recognized names, e.g. North London / South America / the East End. The same applies to northern, southern, etc., when these have specific geographical reference, as in Western Australia and Northern mythology. In general reference, use small initials: an easterly wind / southern parts of the country. See CAPITALS (2) C.

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compendium

has plurals compendiums (preferred) and compendia.

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competence, competency.

1 Fowler (1926) remarked that ‘neither has any sense in which the other cannot be used’, and noted that the first form is gaining ground. This assertion remains generally valid, and in the meantime competence has won out in the currency battle over competency.

2 Competence was given a special meaning in language learning by Noam Chomsky in 1962: competence for him means what a speaker of a language knows implicitly, as distinct from performance, which is what the same person actually uses in language production.
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complacent, complaisant

have the same pronunciation apart from -s- in the first and -z- in the second. Both are derived from the Latin word complacere ‘to please’. Complacent means ‘calmly confident’ and normally has unfavourable connotations, i.e. ‘too easily satisfied; smugly self-confident’:
A quarter of a century later, the conventional wisdom of British mandarins looks complacent, self-serving, ill-informed, and outmoded—Independent, 1989. Complaisant means ‘politely deferential’ or ‘too willing to please’:
He went north to join his apparently complaisant wife for Christmas and Liza went to Cornwall—P. Street , 1990. It is no longer much used in ordinary speech and writing (obliging and acquiescent are more common alternatives).

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complement

is a term in grammar for a word or phrase added to a verb to complete the predicate of a sentence. (In the examples that follow, the complement is in bold type.) The most common form of complement is the type that follows a verb of state such as be, look, seem, etc.: I am his brother / She looked lovely / You seem to be unhappy / They remained out of reach. A complement can also relate to the object of a sentence rather than its subject (He called his mother a fool), and the term is sometimes extended to include words and phrases that complete the sense of other words, e.g. adjectives (fond of chocolate) and prepositions (over the moon).

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complement, compliment, complementary, complimentary.

1 Complement and compliment each function as noun and verb; in pronunciation they are largely indistinguishable except that in the verbal function compliment has a fuller -i- sound in its second syllable and both words have a more distinct -ment sound in the third syllable. Both words are derived from Latin complere ‘to fill up’; complement means ‘something that completes’ and should be distinguished from supplement which means ‘something that adds to’. A compliment is ‘a spoken or written expression of praise’.

2 The derivative adjectives have corresponding meanings. Complimentary means ‘expressing a compliment’ and has the additional meaning ‘given free of charge’ (e.g. complimentary tickets). Complementary means ‘completing’ or ‘forming a complement’
(Each of these regions is characterized by a broad range of complementary products—M. Hudson , 1977), and has a number of special uses, e.g. in the expression complementary medicine, recorded from the 1980s.
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complex

is a term in psychology (‘a group of repressed feelings or thoughts which cause abnormal behaviour or mental states’), usually with some qualifying word, e.g. inferiority complex, Oedipus complex, that has permeated everyday language in non-technical meanings. Examples:
Both of them had a complex about economy and living within a budget— McCarthy , 1954 /
The roadmen went and got into a muddle with their flags … One of them … apparently gets a power complex every time anyone puts a red flag into his hand—C. Aird , 1973.

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complexion

is spelt -xion, not -ction.

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complex prepositions.

Complex (or compound) prepositions consist of two or more words together having the function of a preposition, e.g. according to, apart from, in accordance with, with regard to. Fowler (1926) objected to their overuse in journalism, ‘stuffing up the newspaper columns with a compost of nouny abstractions’. He had a point, but they cause little trouble today and should only be avoided, as a matter of clear style, when something more simple is available: e.g. about or concerning will often do in place of with regard to. Others, such as away from and out of, are straightforward and necessary, since away and out (unlike in) do not function as prepositions by themselves.

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compliment, complimentary

see COMPLEMENT.

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compose

see COMPRISE.

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composite

is now pronounced kom-p-zit, not -ziyt.

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compound

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second as a verb. To compound a felony in law is to condone it in exchange for some consideration, and does not mean ‘to make (it) worse’. Note also that compound meaning ‘a large enclosure’ is an entirely distinct word derived via Portuguese and Dutch from Malay kampong.

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compound prepositions

see COMPLEX PREPOSITIONS.

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comprehend

see APPREHEND.

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comprise.

1 Comprise is often confused with compose, consist, and constitute. All four words are used to describe how parts make up a whole, but they start from different ends of the equation. Comprise has the whole as its subject and its parts as the object, e.g. The top floor comprises three bedrooms and a bathroom. Consist of takes the same perspective, and one could equally say The top floor consists of three bedrooms and a bathroom, although it is more usual to use consist of with reference to ideas and concepts rather than physical things. It would be incorrect to reverse the construction with comprise in the form Three bedrooms and a bathroom comprise the top floor. The correct words to use here are compose, constitute, or (more informally) make up. See also INCLUDE.

2 It is even less correct to confuse comprise with consist and adopt a hybrid construction comprise of or be comprised of. Examples of correct uses:
The main installation at Dartford comprises three IBM central processors supporting some 350 terminals located throughout the UK—Computers in Personnel, 1982 /
Love comprises among other things a desire for the well-being and spiritual freedom of the one who is loved— Spark , 1984 /
A good society is a means to a good life for those who compose it— Russell , 1993. Examples of incorrect uses:
Internally, the chloroplast is comprised of a system of flattened membrane sacs—Nature, 1970 /
Seven boys comprised the choir— Keillor , 1985 /
The Saxe-Coburg inheritance is comprised of the ducal palace and three castles—Daily Telegraph, 1991 /
Rivers in this area are mainly comprised of domestic and industrial effluent, and many have been fishless in living memory—K. Hawkins , 1993.
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computerese.

1 The language of computer terminology has become familiar to the English-speaking world in the last twenty years or so as the technological revolution has impinged on the lives of most people both at work and in their homes. Since much of the development in this field has been led by the USA (IBM, Microsoft, etc.), English has become the electronic lingua franca much as it has been the international medium of communication in air travel and other domains. Most recently, the rapid expansion in use of the Internet (or World Wide Web) has produced a vocabulary of its own, both at technical level and in everyday slang. Much of the technical jargon is based on initialisms of three or more letters, such as http (= hypertext transfer protocol), isp (= internet service provider), and www (= World Wide Web, used in website addresses).

2 Other terminology is based on or adapted from words that belong to the basic core of English: one buys hardware and installs software on it, and occasionally freeware; one's desk becomes a workstation; many computer programs are manipulated by using a mouse to make choices from a menu; computer symbols are icons; and a location on the Internet is a site, which is accessed by means of a home page, and the data is explored by browsing or surfing (usually with a browser). One communicates by e-mail (= electronic mail) as distinct from snail mail (= the ordinary postal service), sends aggressive messages by flaming (a revival of an old meaning) and breaks into other people's systems by hacking. Medical analogy is invoked to alert users to the dangers of computer bugs and viruses, some of which may be macro-borne (= communicated by copying an infected macro program). What is most interesting from the point of view of language is how little of this vocabulary has developed extended meanings in other contexts, leaving the world of computer jargon a closed environment, borrowing words from everyday language and signally failing to return them.
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concave

means ‘having an outline or surface like the interior of a circle or sphere’, whereas convex means ‘having an outline or surface like the exterior of a circle or sphere’.

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concensus

is incorrect; the correct spelling is CONSENSUS.

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concern noun.

In the meaning ‘anxiety, worry’, concern is normally followed by about, at, or over, or by a that-clause:
Concern has been expressed at the manner in which the whole operation has been put together and actioned—Rescue News, 1985 /
‘Big-band’ Mozart; smooth, rich, warm, mellow and played with love and fastidious concern over the tiniest detail—CD Review, 1992 /
He … expressed concern that someone had somehow managed to circumvent the safeguards—New York Times, 1986. When purpose is involved, a to-infinitive is usual
(The … concern to analyse ‘real’ data in ‘real’ situations is revealing in this respect—Language & Communication, 1984), and when the meaning is ‘personal interest or involvement’, it is more often followed by for:
(It is only a shame that this outcome will have been brought about by market forces and legislation rather than by any innate concern for dog welfare—She, 1989).

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concerned.

The idiomatic expression as far as … is/are concerned is well established and normally unexceptionable, but Gowers (1965) indicated where economy of style suggested alternatives; for example, The punishment does not seem to have any effect so far as the prisoners are concerned would be better expressed as The punishment does not seem to have any effect on the prisoners. Such economies are worth bearing in mind.

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concessive.

A concessive clause or phrase is one that is typically introduced by a conjunction such as although, but, or though, or by a preposition such as despite or in spite of, and expresses a sense that is contrary to what is expected in the rest of the statement:
Two letters in Portuguese were sent me to translate, although I knew no Portuguese— Greene , 1980 /
He … did well, although he did not win an outright majority—Economist, 1981 /
His poems … though self-absorbed … are not self-admiring—J. Carey , 1981 /
Gomba clinched the deal … despite a last-minute attempt by a trade union consortium … to make a counter-bid—Financial Times, 1983.

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concord

see AGREEMENT.

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concur,

meaning ‘to express agreement’, has inflected forms concurred, concurring. It is normally used absolutely, or followed by with (a person, idea, etc.) and/ or in (a matter), or followed by a that-clause:
If the doctor desires to treat the patient, he is often in a strong position to persuade such a relative to concur—I. Kennedy , 1988 /
A later internal annual review of Birmingham's Partnership concurred with some of these findings—P. Lawless , 1989 /
Modern biblical scholars concur that the letter ascribed to Jude is of too late a date to have been written by any contemporary of Jesus—R. Leigh , 1992 /
I hope you will feel able to concur in my view that this is not an issue which can be postponed—Responses in Crime (Windlesham), 1992.

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condemn

has a silent final -n, but this is pronounced in its derivatives condemnable, condemnation, and condemnatory.

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condole

see CONSOLE.

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conduct

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

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confederacy, confederation

see FEDERATION.

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confer

has inflected forms conferred, conferring. In the meaning ‘consult’ it is normally followed by with (a person) and/or about or over (a matter). The derivative adjective is spelt conferrable.

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confidant, confidante,

stressed on the first syllable or (in the case of confidante) on the first or last syllable, mean ‘a close friend in whom one confides’, and refer respectively to a male or female and a female. They are alterations of an earlier form confident (stressed on the first syllable), and were probably attempts to imitate the French pronunciation of the final syllable -ent, -ente.

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confine

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second as a verb.

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conflict

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second as a verb.

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confusable words.

1 Words are most often confused because they are alike in form (or spelling) and in some aspect of meaning, as with fortunate and fortuitous, or prevaricate and procrastinate. Some sets are confused simply in spelling, although the meanings and even the parts of speech differ (e.g. the verb forbear and the noun forebear). In some cases, the confusion is in one direction only: infer is used controversially to mean imply but the same is not true the other way round. In some cases, the overlap is so marked that distinction in actual usage is virtually impossible, as with sensual and sensuous. Some word sets have a long history of interaction and meaning overlap (e.g. admission and admittance), whereas in other cases a later word encroaches on an earlier word that, despite being originally distinct, is close to it in form and meaning (e.g. biennial on biannual; childlike on childish). Some sets consist of words that originally had the same meaning but diverged with time (e.g. continual and continuous; ensure and insure), whereas others consist of words whose relation in meaning has been unstable (e.g. disinterested and uninterested).

2 Confusability is a matter of language production and language understanding, since in some cases the writer/speaker will be unsure of which word to use, causing ambiguity or doubt from the outset, and in others the uncertainty will begin with the reader/ hearer, either because of ignorance or because the context allows more than one interpretation. The following table shows sets of words that are commonly confused or used in place of each other, with date of entry of each word (in the part of speech, though not necessarily in the precise meaning, at issue) into English (or ME in the case of Middle English, i.e. before about 1470; and OE in the case of Old English, i.e. before 1150) and a brief summary of the primary meaning. The selection is representative but by no means exhaustive, and other sets will be found in this book.
For further information on the words given, see the individual entries.

WORD

DATE

MEANING

WORD 2

DATE

MEANING

adherence

Me

(to belief etc.)

adhesion

15c

sticking

admission

Me

(general meanings)

admittance

16c

right to be admitted

adverse

Me

unfavourable

averse

16c

opposed

affect

Me

cause change in

effect

16c

bring about

allusion

16c

indirect reference

illusion

ME

deceptive appearance

alternate

16c

one after another

alternative

16c

available instead

altogether

OE

entirely

all together

ME

everyone together

ambiguous

16c

(statements etc.)

ambivalent

20c

(feelings etc.)

amend

ME

change

emend

ME

alter (text etc.)

appraise

ME

assess value of

apprise

17c

inform

avoid

ME

keep away from

evade

15c

avoid by guile

baleful

OE

menacing

baneful

16c

causing harm

baluster

17c

(in balustrade)

banister

17c

(in staircase)

biannual

19c

twice a year

biennial

17c

every two years

censor

16c

act as censor of

censure

16c

criticize harshly

childish

OE

(immature qualities)

childlike

16c

(good qualities)

coherent

16c

logical and clear

cohesive

18c

sticking

complacent

17c

too confident

complaisant

17c

too willing to please

condole

16c

express sympathy

colsole

17c

give comfort to

continual

ME

repeated

continuous

17c

going on without a break

council

OE

administrative body

counsel

ME

advice etc.

credible

ME

believable

credulous

16c

too ready to believe

decided

18c

unquestionable

decisive

17c

conclusive

decry

17c

belittle

descry

ME

catch sight of

definite

16c

clear and distinct

definitive

ME

decisive, authoritative

deprecate

17c

disapprove of

depreciate

ME

lower in value

discomfit

ME

disconcert

discomfort

ME

make uneasy

discreet

ME

circumspect

discrete

ME

distinct

disinterested

17c

impartial

uninterested

17c

not interested

draft

16c

preliminary sketch etc.

draught

ME

air current etc.

elusive

18c

difficult to find

illusory

16c

deceptive in appearance etc.

enormity

ME

(act of) wickedness

enormousness

17c

large size

ensure

ME

make sure

insure

ME

take out insurance on

euphemism

16c

milder term

euphuism

16c

affected style of writing

evince

16c

make evident

evoke

17c

draw forth (feelings)

exceptionable

17c

open to objection

exceptional

19c

unusually good

flaunt

16c

display ostentatiously

flout

16c

disregard (rules etc.)

forbear (verb)

OE

desist from

forebear (noun)

15c

ancestor

forego

OE

go before

forgo

OE

go without

forever

18c

continually

for ever

ME

eternally

gourmand

ME

glutton

gourmet

19c

food connoisseur

homogeneous

17c

of the same kind, uniform

homogenous

19c

of common descent

illegal

17c

against the law

illicit

16c

not allowed

imply

ME

strongly suggest

infer

15c

deduce, conclude

impracticable

17c

not able to be done

impractical

19c

not practical

inapt

17c

not suitable

inept

16c

clumsy, unskilful

incredible

ME

not believable

incredulous

16c

unwilling to believe

ingenious

ME

well thought out

ingenuous

16c

innocent, honest

interment

ME

burial

internment

19c

being interned

its

16c

(possessive pronoun)

it's

17c

= it is

luxuriant

16c

lush

luxurious

ME

comfortable and rich

masterful

ME

domineering

masterly

16c

highly skilful

militate

16c

have force (against)

mitigate

ME

make less severe

observance

ME

keeping a law or custom etc.

observation

ME

perception, remark

occupant

16c

person in a vehicle etc.

occupier

ME

person living in a property

official

ME

having authorized status etc.

officious

15c

aggressive in performing duty

perquisite

ME

extra privilege etc.

prerequisite

17c

something needed in advance

perspicacious

17c

having insight, perceptive

perspicuous

15c

clearly expressed

pitiable

ME

deserving pity

pitiful

ME

causing pity, contemptible

precipitate

17c

headlong

precipitous

17c

abruptly steep

prevaricate

16c

act evasively

procrastinate

16c

defer action

purposely

15c

intentionally

purposefully

19c

resolutely

refute

16c

prove to be false

repudiate

ME

reject, disown

regrettable

17c

causing regret, undesirable

regretful

17c

feeling regret

sensual

ME

gratifying the body

sensuous

17c

gratifying the senses

titillate

17c

excite pleasantly

titivate

19c

adorn, smarten

tortuous

ME

twisting, devious

torturous

15c

causing torture, tormenting

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congeries

pronounced kon-jeer-iz, is a collective name for ‘a disorderly collection’, and is singular despite its plural-looking form:
Whitehall, that congeries of government offices that takes in, for example, the Liverpool regional office of the Department of the Environment—Times, 1985. The plural is also congeries.

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conjugal

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable.

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conjunction.

A conjunction is a word such as and, because, but, for, if, or, and when which is used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Coordinating conjunctions join like with like: The room is large and bright / She would have to go back and look for it / You can come in but you cannot stay long / Would you like tea or coffee?. Subordinating conjunctions join a subordinate clause to a main clause: / shan't go if you won't come with me / As we're early let's have a drink / I was late because I missed the train. Pairs of conjunctions such as either … or … and neither … nor … are called correlative conjunctions: He must be either drunk or mad / I neither know nor care. Some conjunctions are used in BrE but not in AmE; these are whilst
(I would like to thank many friends and colleagues for their encouragement whilst I was writing this book—R. Jackson , 1981), now
(Now the tourist season's starting it's better to have someone there, like a caretaker— Murdoch , 1980), and nor
(His septic tank did not work, and nor did most others in the village—Eastern Evening News (Norwich), 1976), but nor
(I am not a trained architect but nor was Sir Edwin Lutyens—Sunday Times, 1985). The more important conjunctions are treated in separate articles: see AND, BECAUSE, BUT, FOR, etc.

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conjure

is pronounced kun-j in the meaning ‘to perform magical tricks’ and kn-joo in the meaning ‘to beseech’.

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conjuror

is the recommended spelling, not conjurer.

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connection

is now the dominant spelling, although connexion (preferred Fowler ) will be found in older printing styles. Fowler also wrote at length against what he regarded as the excessive use of in connection with, which he castigated as ‘a formula that every one who prefers vigorous to flabby English will have as little to do with as he can’. Certainly, when a simple preposition such as by or about or into will do instead, it should be used:
Inquiries in connection with the vandalizing of a local school—U. Curtiss , 1979 (use into instead).

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connote, denote.

Both words mean broadly ‘to signify’ but that is where the correspondence ends. A word denotes its primary meaning; it connotes attributes associated with the broad primary meaning. So the word spring denotes the first season of the year, but connotes fresh growth, renewal, young love, and so on.

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consensus.

Note the spelling, not concensus. It means ‘general agreement’, and is often used (1) in collocations with of: consensus of authority, evidence, opinion, etc. (although consensus of opinion is strictly tautological), and (2) in more recent usage, in attributive uses such as consensus view, consensus politics, etc.

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conscientious

is spelt -tious, not -scious.

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consequent, consequential.

Consequent is used either attributively or with on or upon and means ‘resulting, following in time’, with an element of causation that is not present in the purely temporal word subsequent:
He does not mention the decline in … control consequent upon self-employment—Times, 1973 /
Australian ratings terms have been revised to incorporate the introduction of colour TV and consequent multi-set use in many homes—TV Times (Brisbane), 1977. Consequential has two principal meanings: (1) ‘of the nature of a consequence or sequel’
(Conservative MPs are hoping that she will take the opportunity of the consequential changes in the junior ranks to bring in some new faces—Times, 1986) and (2, despite Fowler's objections) ‘of consequence, significant’
(He considered his notebooks far more consequential than his published prose—Times Literary Supplement, 1989).

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conservative,

in the meaning ‘moderate, cautious, low’, as in a conservative estimate, is one of Fowler's LOST CAUSES. He regarded it as a ridiculous ‘slipshod extension’ and rejected it outright. But it is now well established in the language and is unexceptionable.

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consider,

in the meaning ‘to regard as being’, occurs in three typical constructions, two that are accepted and a third that is disputed:
(1) with a noun or adjective complement in apposition to the object: I consider her a friend / I consider her friendly,
(2) with to be inserted between the object and its complement: I consider her to be a friend / I consider her to be friendly, and
(3) more controversially, influenced by words such as regard and treat, with consider followed by as: I consider her as a friend / I consider her as friendly. See further at AS (3). Construction (2) is especially common in reflexive use (consider oneself to be …), and (3) is the least common.

Examples:
The patient improved considerably but could not be considered as cured—M. Balint , 1968 /
The baby was considered to be at high risk—Lancet, 1977 /
The village boys considered it a privilege to enjoy a stroll with him in the evenings—M. Das , 1987. Note, however, that as can have a different syntactic function, associated with the object and not with consider, and these uses are acceptable:
Cologne Opera and San Francisco Ballet have both inspected the theatre and are considering it as [= in its capacity of] a venue—Times, 1980. See also CONSIDERING.

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considerable,

meaning ‘much; a lot of’ is used in BrE only of abstract things, such as attention, concern, difficulty, discussion, doubt, evidence, experience, improvement, interest, pain, pleasure, range, similarity, sums of money, thought, time, work. In AmE it is used in this meaning of concrete things as well, especially mass nouns such as grain, salt, etc. BrE achieves this by using a formula such as a considerable amount (or quantity) of:
Rodney Lad … carried off a considerable amount of Kittitian property, leaving the local whites in an unpatriotic mood—Country Life, 1973.

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considering

has been used for centuries as a preposition and conjunction meaning ‘taking into account (that)’. Like GIVEN and GRANTED, it is grammatically independent of the subject:
It's odd that one boasts considering that no one is ever taken in by it— Woolf , 1921 /
He looks round his palace of a house with sniffly and quite unfair resentment, considering its comfort—New Yorker, 1974. There is also an absolute use, which should only be used informally:
These were years of disappointment … for Nash, in what was, considering, a remarkably successful career in writing—New York Times Book Review, 1990. See also PARTICIPLES 3, 4.

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consist

is followed by of or in. Consist of means ‘to have as its parts or elements’ (in physical and abstract contexts):
Testing consists of checking that the students can carry out the task by the criteria detailed in the objectives—Teaching Clinical Nursing, 1986 /
Otherwise her wardrobe consisted only of three or four shabby black skirts and four or five shapeless black sweaters— Carter , 1993; see further at COMPRISE. Consist in means ‘to have as its essential features’:
This defence consists in establishing … that the derogatory words—or at least their sting—were true—Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1977. The two meanings can easily overlap, as can the notion of a thing's constituents and its characteristics:
Kim's Game consists in enumerating as many as possible of a miscellaneous assemblage of objects briefly glimpsed shortly before— Innes , 1972.

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console.

1 Console is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun (= panel, cabinet, etc.), and on the second syllable as a verb (= ‘to comfort’). The words have different origins: the noun from Latin solidus ‘solid’ (cf. consolidate) and the verb from Latin solari ‘to soothe’.

2 The verb console means ‘to comfort’ and takes an object:
David has us to console him—A. Price , 1976. It should not be confused with the less common word condole, which means ‘to express sympathy’, and is followed by with:
The priest came to condole with Madeleine— Roberts , 1993.
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consort

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun, and on the second as a verb.

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consortium

has a plural consortiums or (occasionally) consortia.

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conspicuous.

The phrase conspicuous by its (or one's) absence is a cliché. See CLICHÉS.

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constable

should be pronounced kun-, not kon-.

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construct, construe

are related words (from Latin struere ‘to build’) which are both used to denote grammatical function. A word is construed or constructed with (e.g.) on when on is its regular complement, e.g. insist on and rely on (the OED abbreviates this to ‘const. on’). You can also construe (but not construct) a sentence when you analyse its grammar in order to determine its meaning; this sense also has a more general application equivalent to ‘interpret’:
He asked his interrogators to specify anything he had written or said which could be construed as anti-Soviet—R. Owen , 1985.

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constructive

in general use means ‘helpful, positive’, as in constructive criticism. In this meaning it is the opposite of destructive. In legal language it is often applied to ‘what in the eye of the law amounts to the act or condition specified’ (OED), and is current in the phrase constructive dismissal, whereby an employer so alters an employee's conditions as to make continued employment impossible.

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construe

see CONSTRUCT.

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consummate

is pronounced kon-syuh-mayt, with the stress on the first syllable, as a verb and knsum-t, with the stress on the second syllable as an adjective (meaning ‘complete, perfect’).

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consumption,

in the meaning ‘a disease causing wasting of the tissues’, has been replaced in the 20c by more specific clinical names, especially by tuberculosis or TB.

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contact verb.

The meaning ‘get in touch with’ originated in the US in the early 1920s and was greeted with open hostility by purists for several decades. It is now established in AmE and BrE, although some older people who remember the controversy continue to avoid it. The stress pattern is unstable; most often the stress is on the first syllable, but the normal pattern of stress on the second syllable for the verb (and first for the noun) is beginning to establish itself.

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contagious.

A contagious disease is one transmitted by physical contact, as distinct from an infectious disease, which is transmitted by micro-organisms in the air or in water. In figurative use, contagious is used of welcome and unwelcome things (e.g. corruption, folly, guilt, panic, and suffering, as well as laughter, shyness, and vigour), whereas infectious is restricted to things that are welcome or pleasant (e.g. enthusiasm, good humour, laughter, sense of fun, simple delight, virtue, zeal).

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contemporary, contemporaneous.

1 Contemporary has two main meanings: (1) ‘living or occurring at the same time’, both as an adjective (often followed by with) and as a noun (often followed by of):
Austen Layard, a contemporary of Wallace who had discovered the ancient city of Nineveh—L. Blair , 1988 /
The finest novelists contemporary with him, particularly George Eliot and Hardy, are drawn to describe similar interiors for related, although slightly different, reasons—P. Tristam , 1989, and (2) ‘existing or done at the present time’ (as in contemporary literature) and hence ‘up-to-date, modern’ (as in contemporary ideas / contemporary furnishings). The risk of ambiguity is largely theoretical, although it might occur in a sentence such as music performed on contemporary instruments, where it is not clear whether contemporary refers to the time of the music or the time of the performance.

2 Contemporaneous (17c) is an adjective restricted to the first meaning, and is available when all risk of misunderstanding needs to be eliminated. It is found surprisingly often, especially in historical contexts:
Built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, they are contemporaneous with many of the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe—S. Stewart , 1991 /
Workers … experienced an absence of light and air that made conditions even in contemporaneous London and Paris seem favourable—S. Lash , 1990.
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contemptible, contemptuous.

Contemptible in current use means ‘deserving contempt’:
And above all there is Harold Wilson, ‘piggyeyed’, deceitful and contemptible—Independent, 1989, whereas contemptuous means ‘showing contempt’:
He has a fine independence of outlook and a contemptuous disregard for whatever is smart or fashionable among opinion-formers—Private Eye, 1977.

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content.

1 Content is pronounced with stress on the second syllable as a verb (see 2), adjective, and noun (meaning ‘a contented state’: see 3), and on the first syllable as a noun (meaning ‘what is contained’: see 4).

2 Content oneself with (not by) is the right form of the phrase that means ‘not go beyond (some course of action)’, when followed by a verbal noun:
Supporters of this option claim it reinstates the spectacle of democracy, while critics content themselves with painting out that it is currently used in Iceland, Bosnia, and parts of Turkey—New Statesman, 1992.
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3 Content and contentment both mean ‘a contented state’, but contentment is the more usual word, with content found chiefly as a poetical variant in the expression to one's heart's content.
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4 Content and contents both mean ‘what is contained’ in physical and abstract senses. There is little difference in meaning; content is more usual when the thing in question is a mass noun (and obligatory when preceded by a defining word, e.g. protein content), and contents is more usual when a number of countable items is involved, but exceptions are not hard to find:
Questions like the protein content of bacon butties … and the vitamin rating of corned beef sarnies—Times, 1980 /
The whisky bottle was still in play, though its contents … had not shrunk catastrophically—M. Hatfield , 1981 /
She took out the sink-tidy, with the rubbish from breakfast, and slapped the contents into the dust-bin—R. Barnard , 1981.
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contest

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

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Continent.

In the UK the Continent (capital C) still invariably means ‘the mainland of Europe’ as distinct from the British Isles, as a geographical and cultural designation not affected by Britain's membership of the European Union. A continental breakfast (small c) is a light breakfast of bread, rolls, coffee, etc., and a Continental Sunday (capital C) is one observed more as a day of public entertainment (as held to be customary on the continent of Europe) than as a day of religious observance (as held to be customary in Britain).

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continual, continuous.

1 Continual is the older word (14c), and once had all the meanings it now (since the mid-19c) shares with continuous (17c). Fowler (1926) expressed the current distinction somewhat cryptically as follows: ‘That is -al which either is always going on or occurs at short intervals and never comes (or is regarded as never coming) to an end. That is -ous in which no break occurs between the beginning and the (not necessarily or even presumably long-deferred) end.’

2 Continuous is used in physical contexts (such as lines, roads, etc.) and is preferred in technical contexts (e.g. continuous assessment / continuous stationery / continuous wave). The other principal use is with reference to time: continuous here means ‘going on uninterrupted’ whereas continual means ‘constantly or frequently recurring’. The following examples show how difficult it is to keep the two meanings apart:
The correspondence between the two men was continuous throughout the next few months—V. Brome , 1978 /
The continual underfunding of the Royal Shakespeare Company … was endangering its ability to … retain its talented staff—Daily Telegraph, 1981 /
The 1840s were years of continuous self-education for Philip Henry Gosse—A. Thwaite , 1984 /
The house and garden had seen their best days, and the decline was now continual, from season to season—R. Frame , 1986 /
His son was a continual source of amusement and delight to him—E. Blair , 1990. Note that other words are sometimes preferable, e.g. (in place of continual) constant, habitual, intermittent, recurrent, repeated, and (in place of continuous) ceaseless, constant, incessant, unbroken, uninterrupted. Note also that constant can be used to mean both continual and continuous.
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3 Of the corresponding adverbs, continually (14c) is older by far than continuously (17c). Here, for some reason, the current distinction is clearer to see; continually can be defined as ‘repeatedly; again and again’ and continuously as ‘without interruption’:
This lost energy must be continuously supplied by the engines—C.E. Dole , 1971 /
He said that the business of the court … was being continually held up by irrelevancies—J.B. Morton , 1974 /
The black coat had lost its warmth and he shivered continually—J.M. Coetzee , 1983 /
The synchronization was continuously monitored during the flight by checking the on-board clock—Nature, 1972. In the following example, continuously seems to be wrongly used for continually:
The Chinese officials also continuously stated that they could put a stop to inflation at any time—P. Lowe , 1989.
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continuance, continuation, continuity.

1 Continuance (14c) is much less common than continuation (also 14c). It is used when the context requires the meaning ‘a state of continuing in existence or operation’ (i.e. a fact) rather than ‘the act or an instance of continuing’ (i.e. a process), which calls for continuation. Examples:
The step-up in the air war might even jeopardize the continuation of the talks themselves—Newsweek, 1972 /
It is absurd for continuance of nonreturnable bottle production still to be allowed—Times, 1973 /
Tiering [of dresses] is a continuation of the peasant theme that has been with us for what seems like a long, long time—Detroit Free Press, 1978 /
Confusion has arisen about their desperate continuance of the struggle which was manifestly lost— Fraser , 1988.

2 Continuity means ‘the state of being continuous’ or (more concretely) ‘an unbroken succession (of a set of events)’:
Each shipment of wood parts will have a continuity of quality—House and Garden, 1972 /
A group of three large house mounds … was chosen for excavation to examine the sequence and continuity of occupation—Times, 1973. It has a special meaning in the cinema and broadcasting, denoting the process whereby separate shots or recordings are linked together to form a continuous sequence with consistent details.
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continue

should not be followed by on (adverb), although this is sometimes found in informal writing:
I continued on down the street—A. Bergman , 1975. Use either continue (without on) or a verb of motion (such as go, move, etc.) with on. This use of the adverb should be distinguished from the preposition on, which has a linking role and is quite acceptable:
The sensible thing to do would have been to continue on my way—R. Perry , 1973.

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continuous, continuously

see CONTINUAL, CONTINUOUS.

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continuous tenses

are tenses (or more strictly, aspects of tense) of the types I am staying, they were going, etc., as contrasted with the simple tenses I stay, they went, etc. They are also known as progressive tenses.

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contract

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb, except that in the phrasal verb contract in (or out) the stress is more variable.

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contractable, contractible

see -ABLE, -IBLE.

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contractions

see ABBREVIATIONS (2).

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contractual

is the correct form, not (on the analogy of procedural, structural, etc.) contractural.

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contralto

has a plural contraltos, not (as in Italian) contralti.

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contrary.

1 The position of the main stress has fluctuated over the centuries, and the OED notes that poets from Chaucer to Spenser and Shakespeare placed it on both the first and the second syllable according to need. In current English, the stress is now placed on the first syllable for the adjective and the noun, except in the meaning ‘perverse, obstinately self-willed’, in which the stress is on the second syllable, probably under the influence of the nursery rhyme beginning Mary, Mary, quite contrary.

2 The phrase on the contrary is properly used only in a statement intensifying a denial of what has just been stated or implied: You say that war is inevitable; on the contrary I think the outstanding differences between the two countries can be settled by negotiation. On the other hand denotes a differing (not necessarily opposite) point of view, and is often paired with on the one hand.
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3 The phrase to the contrary is used in AmE in the meaning of on the contrary (see 2), but in BrE is used only as a mid-sentence or end-of-sentence adverbial as in There is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
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contrast.

1 Contrast is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

2 In current use, the verb is normally constructed with with or and, and is used transitively and intransitively:
Her sudden energy contrasted with Henry's sudden exhaustion—J. Frame , 1970 /
Data is sometimes contrasted with information, which is said to result from the processing of data—J. Chandor , 1970 /
Some anthropologists have sought to contrast the ‘guilt cultures’ of Western Europe with ‘shame cultures’—A. Giddens , 1977.
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3 The noun can be followed by to, with, or between, and is also used in the fixed expressions by contrast and in contrast (to or with):
In contrast with ordinary grasshoppers, most of which live on the ground, the long-horned grasshoppers do more climbing—L.E. Chadwick , 1972 /
Gloria would have been able to detect few noteworthy points of contrast between sexual arousal and rabies— Amis , 1973 /
In contrast, the heaviest elements of the same groups … are metallic or semimetallic—D.M. Adams , 1974 /
Marx, by contrast, has a single-cause theory: all the evils of society arise from private property—P. Johnson , 1977 /
The presence of scientists will also allow ‘hands-on’ experiments to be tried out, in contrast to previous life-science experiments in space which were fully automated—Nature, 1978.
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contribute.

The standard pronunciation is with the main stress on the second syllable, although pronunciation with stress on the first syllable is increasingly heard.

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controversy.

The stress is always placed on the first syllable in AmE and normally in BrE too, although a variant with stress on the second syllable is becoming increasingly common, despite the strictures of purists. Early stress on words of more than three syllables is unusual in English (excellency, matrimony, and presidency are others), and so the shift is not surprising. The argument sometimes heard that a link vowel should not be stressed is confounded by words such as archaeology and helicopter.

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conundrum

is a 16c word of unknown origin, perhaps a facetious invention. It has a plural conundrums.

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converse

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as an adjective and noun (= the opposite), and on the second syllable as a verb (= to have a conversation).

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convert

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

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convertible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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convex.

See CONCAVE.

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convict

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

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convince.

The use followed by a to-infinitive with the meaning ‘to persuade’ is recorded from the 1950s and is still disapproved of by many, although it is now common, especially informally:
The miners tried to convince their colleagues to join them—broadcast on BBC World Service, 1991.

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cookie,

not cooky, is the established spelling in its various meanings: in AmE ‘a biscuit’ and (slang) a person (as in tough cookie), in Scottish ‘a plain bun’.

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coomb

is the usual form (rather than combe) in Britain for a valley or hollow on the side of a hill or a short valley running up from the coast. In place-names, however, -combe is more usual, as in Ilfracombe, Winchcombe, etc.

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cooperate

is now the preferred spelling, without a hyphen and without a diaeresis on the second o. See co-.

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cope.

The traditional construction followed by with has been in common use since the 16c:
Like many religious professionals, I cope with festivals, but I can't really enjoy them—L. Blue , 1985. Absolute uses without with have been recorded since the 1930s:
It wasn't as if Marcia was an invalid or unable to cope, even if she was a bit eccentric— Pym , 1977.

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copula

in grammar is a verb, such as be, become, feel, get, etc., that links the subject and complement of a sentence, as in He is a pilot / She felt annoyed / They look hungry / Will it turn cold?. Such a verb is also called a copular verb.

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cord

see CHORD.

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co-respondent,

meaning ‘a person named in a divorce case’, should be distinguished from correspondent. See co-.

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corn

means ‘wheat or oats’ in BrE, and ‘maize’ in AmE.

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corporal, corporeal.

Both words are now largely restricted to particular uses. Corporal means ‘relating to the human body’ and is found chiefly in the expression corporal punishment (beating, spanking, etc., now effectively banned in schools in the European Union). In other uses, bodily or personal is more usual. Corporeal means ‘bodily, physical, material, as distinct from spiritual’:
Apart … from his existence as a corporeal omnipotent first cause, all else about God was a matter of faith—R.S. Woodhouse , 1988.

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corps, corpse.

Corps, meaning ‘body of people’, is pronounced like core in the singular and like cores in the plural. It should be distinguished from corpse, meaning ‘dead body’, which is pronounced kawps.

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corpus,

meaning ‘a collection of writings’, has a plural corpora, although corpuses is increasingly found. In the domain of language and linguistics it is used to refer to a collection of texts of all kinds, written and spoken, which are read and analysed by a computer program designed to produce statistics and sort the material into accessible forms, usually as a screen concordance of consecutive lines with the word being studied (the keyword) in the centre of each line. The best known corpora in current use are the British National Corpus, the Cobuild Corpus (Collins-Birmingham University International Language Database), and the Survey of English Usage (at University College London).

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corpus delicti

means literally ‘the body of a crime’, and refers to all the facts and circumstances that together constitute a breach of the law. In lay use, it means the concrete evidence of a crime, especially the body of a murdered person.

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corrector,

meaning ‘a person who points out faults’, is spelt -or, not -er.

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correlative

is each of a pair of words used to link corresponding parts of a sentence, e.g. both … and …, either … or …. Correlatives that involve a subordinate clause include hardly … when … and if … then ….

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correspond.

If one thing is similar or analogous to another, or related closely to it, it is said to correspond to it:
Gandhi's concept of Religion corresponds to his concept of Truth—G. Richards , 1991. If one thing is in harmony or agreement with another, it is said to correspond with or to it:
There were two bedrooms to correspond with the rooms downstairs—D.H. Lawrence , 1921 /
The broadcasting service should be conducted by a public corporation … and its status and duties should correspond with those of a public service—R. Negrine , 1992. If two people exchange letters, they are said to correspond with one another:
Though it is not known how the two friends met, they were corresponding with each other by 1945—F. Spalding , 1991. In all these meanings, correspond can also be used absolutely, without to or with:
My brother Michael … and I corresponded about socialism and religion— Benn , 1979. It is also common as a participial adjective corresponding:
For the corresponding period in the previous year 818 men had been accommodated, plus 22 women and one child—B. Cashman , 1988.

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corrigendum,

meaning ‘something that should be corrected’, is normally used in its plural form corrigenda.

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corrupter,

meaning ‘a person or thing that corrupts’, is spelt -er, not -or.

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corset,

in its meaning ‘a closelyfitting undergarment worn by women’, should be used in the singular, although Somerset Maugham is not the only writer to have used it in the plural:
She did not put on her corsets again, but rolled them up—Cakes and Ale, 1931. The derivative forms are spelt corseted and corseting (one t).

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cortège,

meaning ‘a funeral procession’, is printed in roman type with a grave accent on the e. It is pronounced kaw-tayzh.

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cortex,

meaning ‘the outer part of a bodily organ’ (as in cerebral cortex, referring to the brain), has the plural form cortices.

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'cos

is a reduced form of because, first recorded in 1828 and only used to represent informal speech:
‘They'll be good if I tell them, Mister.’ ‘Then why aren't they?’ ‘'Cos I tell 'em to be bad.’— Waugh , 1942 /
They wouldn't take me 'cos I'd had a touch of TB—M. Butterworth , 1974.

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cosmonaut

see ASTRONAUT.

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cosset,

meaning ‘to pamper’, has inflected forms cosseted, cosseting.

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cosy,

as an adjective meaning ‘comfortable’ and a noun meaning ‘a cover for a teapot’, is spelt cosy in BrE and in other varieties except AmE, which prefers cozy. To cosy up to someone is a new phrasal verb, originally AmE, meaning ‘to ingratiate oneself (with)’, and is informal.

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cot.

There are two words with this spelling. The word meaning ‘a small bed for a child’ is Anglo-Indian; cot death is a recent formation (1970) for the unexplained death of a baby while asleep (the AmE form is usually crib death). The (mainly literary) word meaning ‘a small shelter; a cottage’ is Old English, and is used in combinations such as sheep-cot.

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cote,

pronounced like coat, is another form of the Old English word cot given in the preceding entry. It is most commonly used in dovecote, meaning ‘a shelter for doves’, and also occurs occasionally in other forms such as sheepcote and swine-cote (these being hyphened).

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couch,

meaning ‘an upholstered piece of furniture’ differs from a sofa in having only one raised end and in being designed for lying on as well as sitting on. It also has special (and often evocative) uses as in psychiatrist's couch, on which the recumbent patient tells all. It is also a poetic word for a bed, but in ordinary use is essentially different from a bed:
I've made a bed up for you on the couch— Amis , 1973.

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couch,

a type of grass, is pronounced kooch.

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could

modal auxiliary.
1 See CAN. It functions as (1) the past tense of can, as in We could see for miles, (2) as a conditional equivalent to would be able to, as in I could take you in the car if you like, and (3) as a more tentative form of can in questions seeking permission: Could I have another cake?. The negative form is could not.
2 COULD OF. This is an illiterate alteration of could've = could have, and occurs in the writing of children and some adults.

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council, counsel,

1 These are now distinct words and only distantly related. A council is an administrative body or meeting, and its members are councillors. Counsel is advice given formally and often professionally; counsel or a counsel is a barrister or other legal adviser. A counsellor is someone who gives professional advice, especially on personal and social matters; in AmE counselor is also a courtroom lawyer.

2 Note that in Britain a member of the Privy Council, the body of advisers appointed by the Queen, is a Privy Counsellor.
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3 Only counsel can be used as a verb, meaning ‘to give advice to’; it has inflected forms counselled, counselling.
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countable nouns,

also called count nouns, are nouns that form plurals, e.g. ship, crisis, fellowtraveller, kindness (= a kind act). They differ from uncountable (or non-count or uncount) nouns, which do not form plurals, e.g. adolescence, heating, richness, warfare; and from mass nouns, which form plurals only in the sense of ‘a type of … ’ or ‘a quantity of … ’, e.g. bread, medicine, wine. Some words are countable in one meaning and uncountable in another, e.g. ice, iron, paper.

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counterpart

means ‘the equivalent of a person or thing in another place or system’. It can refer to many aspects of similarity but principally has to do with function and behaviour, and is always preceded by a possessive word:
Southern schools are now more integrated than their northern counterparts—Times, 1974 /
With the same power at his elbow as his Continental counterpart the British car assembly worker produces only half as much output per shift—M. Edwardes , 1983.

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counter-productive

should be spelt with a hyphen. It is a modern word (first recorded in 1959) which has mushroomed in use to describe any action or series of actions having the opposite of the desired effect:
This sort of ‘reds under the bed’ scare … could only be counter-productive—Times, 1972.

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count nouns

see COUNTABLE NOUNS.

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countrified, countrify,

meaning ‘rural’ and ‘to make rural’, should be spelt this way, not countryfied, countryfy.

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coup,

meaning ‘a sudden and successful move’, or ‘an illegal seizure of power’ (in full coup d'état), is pronounced koo. The plural is coups, pronounced kooz.

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couple.

1 Couple, as in ‘a couple of … ’, needs to be used and understood with care, as it retains its original meaning of ‘two’ alongside its more informal meaning ‘a few’. A couple of girls will usually mean two girls, no more or less, whereas a couple of hours may mean two hours or three hours or an indeterminate period of time.

2 Couple is a singular noun that can be used with a singular or plural verb. A plural construction is usual when couple means ‘two married people or partners’ or when it is followed by of and a plural noun (see COLLECTIVE NOUN):
Palimony, the term for sharing money after an unmarried couple have split up—Time, 1980 /
A couple of expressions have only come my way in the last month or so—Guardian Weekly, 1981.
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3 Couple has developed attributive uses in the constructions (1) a couple more (+ plural noun):
‘How's your work?’ ‘Nearly done. A couple more days.’— Gee , 1992 (NZ), and (2) more controversially, and principally in AmE, couple (+ plural noun):
In the next couple months we got to know each other like real buddies— Keillor , 1989. This last use sounds decidedly alien to British ears, at least for now.
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coupon

should be pronounced koo-pon, not with a quasi-French nasalized second syllable.

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course

see OF COURSE.

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courteous, courtesy

are pronounced with initial kert-.

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courtesan

is pronounced kort-zan, with stress on the last syllable.

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courtier

is pronounced with initial kort-.

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court martial

is spelt as two words as a noun (plural courts martial). As a verb it is spelt with a hyphen, and it has inflected forms court-martialled, court-martialling.

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covert,

meaning ‘secret, disguised’, is pronounced like cover, although the AmE pronunciation like over is gaining ground in BrE and elsewhere.

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cowardly.

Fowler (1926) criticized the use of cowardly to describe people and their actions in cases where ‘advantage has [merely] been taken of superior strength or position’, and where a word such as cruel or unchivalrous might be more appropriate. The increase of international terrorism in the last few decades has tended to bring the word into more frequent use in exactly the way Fowler described, with reference to acts that are reprehensible and brutal, but not cowardly, which implies a lack of courage. But perhaps cowardice in this usage lies in attacking those who are defenceless from a position of safety instead of fighting on equal terms, in which case the extension in meaning is justified.

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cozy

see COSY.

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crabbed,

meaning ‘irritable’ or ‘hard to decipher’, is pronounced as two syllables.

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craft

has been revived as a verb in the language of advertising (a beautifully crafted antique-pine replica) and in literary and other criticism (performances crafted out of a shared language).

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crape, crêpe.

Crape is used for a band of black silk or ornamental silk worn as a sign of mourning, and crêpe is used for other gauzelike fabrics having a wrinkled surface and in crêpe paper.

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crash.

Since the 1950s, crash has been used attributively (before a noun) to denote something such as a course or programme that is done or undertaken urgently or quickly, e.g. a crash course in Russian or a crash diet. In this use, crash seems to be unaffected by possible associations of collision and violence (or indeed of computer failure), though a crash course in driving skills might come dangerously close to suggesting them.

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crayfish,

a 16c alteration of an earlier word crevis (or crevisse), is the usual word in Britain for a small lobster-like freshwater crustacean. Americans call them crawfish, and Australians and New Zealanders tend to abbreviate the word to cray (as in cray-fishing and cray-pot).

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credence, credit, credibility.

1 In general use,credence means ‘belief, trustful acceptance’, and is used mainly in the expression to give (or lend) credence to, which means ‘believe, trust’:
The radicality of these changes … had lent credence to the set of beliefs described above—Dædalus, 1979.

2 The phrase to give credit to once meant much the same as to give credence to, i.e. ‘to believe’, but in current use it is more likely to be used in the form to give a person credit for (something), meaning to ascribe some good quality to them:
You chaps do tend to give the rest of us credit for perceptions about your work that we don't … always have— Wain , 1953.
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3 Credibility shares some of the meaning of both credence and credit in that belief lies at the heart of its meaning, but it is used rather to mean ‘the condition of being credible or believable’:
The empirical basis of theory is fundamental to its reliability and its validity and, in the end, its credibility—P.H. Mann , 1985. This meaning, now largely confined to special domains such as religion and philosophy, has been overshadowed by an extended meaning ‘reputation, status’: It was clear to the [American]
President that his credibility was on the line with the leaders in Hanoi—Guardian. 1970 /
By then, however, the fatal damage to the Prime Minister's credibility will have been done—Today, 1992. Such credibility is regularly enhanced, established, gained, lost, maintained, and so on.
The overlap between the older and the newer meaning can be seen in the following example:
A major French archaeological discovery that was declared fraudulent by many prehistorians in the 1920's has now regained credibility as a result of dating studies conducted at three independent laboratories—Scientific American, 1975.
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4 Two special uses of credibility that have arisen recently are credibility gap, meaning ‘an apparent difference between what is said and what is true’
(Official American statements are no longer taken on trust …. The phenomenon … is called the ‘credibility gap’—Guardian, 1966) and, in BrE, street credibility (often reduced informally to street cred), meaning ‘acceptability among fashionable young urban people’
(Springsteen's street credibility is the core of his effectiveness. His striking working-class imagery is within everyone's experience—Washington Post, 1980).
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credible, creditable, credulous.

Credible means ‘able to be believed’, with reference to people or statements:
I stand on the balcony, apparently musing on this very credible story, but really wondering how soon we can step back inside—R. James , 1989 /
Was it credible that Elise should have a car accident that involved no other vehicle, no jay-walking pedestrian, no treacherous roads?—K. Kingston , 1993. It also has an extended meaning ‘convincing, having substance’, comparable to that of credibility:
The Secretary of State repeated several times that we need such a scale of weaponry to provide what he calls a credible deterrent—Hansard, 1992. Creditable means ‘bringing credit; deserving praise’:
The company produced a creditable performance, particularly when compared with the results of many of its competitors—Daily Telegraph, 1992. Credulous means ‘too ready to believe, gullible’:
It could be argued that the very incomprehensibility of the modern world has made us even more credulous—J. Empson , 1989.

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creole.

A creole is a language formed from the contact of a European language (especially English, French, or Portuguese) with another (especially African) language. Unlike a PIDGIN, which is an improvised language used mainly by traders who do not have a language in common, a creole is more developed and can be a mother tongue. The term creole is applied to a wide range of languages, including the original languages spoken by black slaves in the US; English-based creoles such as Krio (in Siera Leone), Guyanese, and Gullah; Frenchbased creoles in Haiti and the Ivory Coast, and Portuguese-based creoles in Brazil and Cape Verde.

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crêpe

see CRAPE.

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crescendo,

1 A crescendo, which in Italian means ‘growing’ (from Latin crescere ‘to grow’), is originally a term in music for a gradual increases in loudness or force, or a passage played in this way. From this it developed an extended meaning referring to other cumulative increases in force or effect:
His second-in-command at the Embassy … was unrattled by the crescendo of disaster to the allied cause—J. Colville , 1976. In the 1920s, and apparently first in AmE, it developed further to mean the result rather than the process of increasing, and has been widely used as a synonym for peak or climax, notably in phrases such as reach (or rise to) a crescendo:
It was in relation to the annual increment arrangements of the civil service pay system that your attack reached its crescendo of unfairness—Economist, 1975. The newer use lies in disputed territory, and is likely to prevail as the more commonly required meaning, despite the availability of alternatives such as apogee, climax, culmination, peak, pinnacle, and summit.

2 The plural is crescendos. Crescendo is occasionally used as a verb meaning ‘to increase in loudness or intensity’, and has inflected forms crescendoes, crescendoed, crescendoing.
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cretin,

now pronounced kret-in, was originally used to mean (in current terminology) ‘a person who is deformed and mentally retarded as the result of a thyroid deficiency’ and is etymologically related to the word Christian. Its dominant meaning in general use now (first recorded in the 1930s) is ‘a fool, one who behaves stupidly’. This use is widely regarded as offensive.

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crevasse, crevice

are both derived from a Latin root crepare meaning ‘to break with a crash’. A crevasse is a deep open crack or fissure in a glacier; in AmE it is also used to mean a breach in a river embankment. A crevice is a narrow cleft or opening, usually one in the surface of anything solid such as rock or a building.

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crick, rick.

Both words are commonly used of strains or sprains of the neck, back, joints, etc. Crick appeared earlier (15c as a noun, though not until 19c as a verb); rick is apparently of dialect origin and is first recorded as a verb in about 1800 and as a noun in the mid-19c. A variant form wrick has now fallen out of use.

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cringe,

meaning ‘to shrink back in fear’, has inflected forms cringed, cringing.

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cripple,

meaning ‘a person who is permanently lame’ is now regarded as offensive. Use disabled person instead.

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crisis.

1 The word is derived via Latin from a Greek root meaning ‘turning point’, and should strictly refer to a moment rather than a continuing process, so that uses such as a prolonged crisis are arguably self-contradictory. However, a word as useful as crisis will not allow itself to be strait-jacketed in this way, and many examples of the disputed use will be found:
The continuing and ever occurring crisis in the inner-cities, where large numbers of people are trapped in a cycle of poverty—Black Panther, 1973 /
Pakistan, despite its gas resources, has an ongoing energy crisis—D. Hedley , 1986. Some element of change should be present in the meaning
(The death of his father … triggers off a crisis for him too, producing a temporary breakdown, dismissal from his job, separation from his wife, the lot—Times, 1970); and the word should not be used as an enfeebled synonym of words such as difficulty, dilemma, problem, and
quandary (Scott Lithgow … were desperate for staff throughout the crisis—Economist, 1975 /
The crisis at strike-torn Leyland deepened—Belfast Telegraph, 1977 /
To make matters worse a crisis in the Council came to a head—W. Green , 1988).

2 Crisis is often used with a defining word, either an adjective or an attributive noun as in economic crisis, energy crisis, food crisis, identity crisis, refugee crisis, etc. It has also come to be used with the redundant addition of situation, a use that should be avoided:
Unless catchment areas are re-drawn Lord Williams's school will go through a crisis situation for at least five years—Oxford Times, 1978.
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3 The plural crises is often found in uses that are contrary to expectation on a strict evaluation of the word's meaning:
Three simultaneous crises … that seemed worrisomely different from those of the past—Newsweek, 1973.
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criterion,

meaning ‘a principle or standard by which something is judged’, has a plural criteria. This plural form is often taken to be singular, a use that is not standard:
Any call coming in … could be answered …, that's all the criteria is—conversation recorded in British National Corpus. The following examples illustrate correct uses of the singular and plural:
The Ottoman Empire … was a multinational state, … the criterion of differentiation among its subjects was religion and not nationality—A. Mango , 1971 /
Some possible criteria for this area of work are listed below—J. Thorpe , 1989. In order to render criteria effectively singular, a collective such as set can be used:
However, we may wish to use a different set of criteria—A. Lawton , 1991.

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criticism

in everyday use means ‘finding fault’, although strictly criticism can be favourable as well as unfavourable. The sense is more neutral in terms such as literary criticism and textual criticism.

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critique

is pronounced with stress on the second syllable, and means ‘a critical essay or analysis’. Fowler (1926) said of the noun that ‘there is some hope of it dying out’, and offered the alternatives review, criticism, and notice. Nonetheless, critique remains in use, albeit in contexts that justify Fowler's implied accusation of pretentiousness:
This melange of stroboscopic graphics, jingles and one-liner critiques—Art Line, 1989.

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crochet,

meaning a type of handicraft, is pronounced kroh-shay as a noun and a verb. The verb has inflected forms crocheted, crocheting, with the t remaining silent in both.

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crocus,

the flower, has plural forms crocuses (several flowers) and crocus (used collectively). Croci is limited to technical contexts.

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crow verb,

meaning ‘to make the sound of a cock’ and ‘to boast’, has past forms crowed (more usual) and crew (only in the first meaning, often in allusion to the cock in the New Testament account of Christ's betrayal). The past participle is always crowed.

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crown.

When the Crown is used to mean ‘the office of the monarch’, it should be treated as grammatically neuter and not as the gender of the king or queen: The Crown can only act on the advice of its [not her or his] Ministers.

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crucial.

1 Crucial means ‘decisive, critical’, and is often used as a more effective and more expressive alternative for important or significant:
There are four crucial stages in cheesemaking—J.G. Davis , 1976 /
I understand that you must edit letters, but the crucial point on avoiding sexist language was omitted—Today's Horse, 1991.

2 The same thing has happened to the adverb crucially, which is sometimes used as a synonym of ‘importantly’, and even of ‘very’ or ‘extremely’:
At this juncture, two crucially fundamental questions now emerge—Guardian, 1989 /
Crucially, he promised to undertake an immediate and fundamental review of the tax—Parliamentary Affairs, 1991.
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cruel

has the forms crueller, cruellest in BrE and crueler, cruelest in AmE.

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crumby, crummy.

When the reference is to actual crumbs, as in a crumby loaf or a crumby tablecloth, use crumby. When the meaning is ‘dirty, squalid; inferior, worthless’, use crummy.

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-ction

see -XION.

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cubic, cubical.

Cubical means only ‘shaped like a cube’, whereas cubic has other meanings as well, as in cubic equation, cubic measure, cubic metre, etc., and also the meaning ‘cube-shaped’ in technical applications such as cubic alum.

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cui bono?

This Latin phrase literally means ‘to whom (is it) a benefit?’, i.e. in English ‘who stands to gain (from an act or circumstance)?’, with the implication that this person is responsible for it. As Fowler (1926) pointed out, it does not mean ‘to what purpose?’ or ‘what is the good?’.

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cul-de-sac

is pronounced kul-d-sak and should be printed in roman type.

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cullender

see COLANDER.

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cult.

1 In the meaning ‘a particular form or system of religious worship’, especially with reference to ritual and ceremony, cult dates from the 17c. In the 19c, archaeologists applied the term to primitive practices which they did not think worthy of the name religion; hence cult acquired unfavourable connotations and is objected to by many whose activities are now described by it.

2 Cult has also developed extended meanings:
(1) ‘a devotion or homage to a person or thing’, as in the cult of beauty and the Wordsworth cult.
(2) in the 20c, ‘a popular fashion followed by a specific section of society’:

The eastern cult for junk food may be having a remarkable effect on the health and appearance of japan's youngsters—Times, 1986. In a further extension, cult is commonly used attributively (before a noun) to denote something that has a special following, as in cult drama, cult film, cult object, etc.
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cultivable, cultivatable

are both used in the meaning ‘capable of being cultivated’; the first is more comfortable and was preferred Fowler (1926).

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cultivated, cultured

are both used to mean ‘having refined tastes and manners and a good education’, but they part company in other meanings. Cultivated distinguishes a crop raised in a garden from one growing wild; and cultured is used of pearls (also called culture pearls) formed under controlled conditions.

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culture.

1 Here is a word that has had mixed fortunes in the 20c, and means all things to all men. There are about 10,000 examples of it (including the plural form and compounds such as culture-bound) in the 100-millionword British National Corpus (language database) in diverse meanings generally related to the OED's definition ‘the civilization, customs, artistic achievements, etc., of a people, especially at a certain stage of its development or history’. In many of these examples culture is used generically and not in relation to any particular people or time:
For him spiritual and political ideas were becoming more and more inseparable in his concern with ‘culture’ as a whole—R. Crawford , 1990. In others it has very specific reference, and is often preceded by a defining adjective or noun:
Unofficial sources report that the two organisations aimed to research and develop Mongol culture—Amnesty, 1992.

2 The word has also developed more limited reference within a broader ‘culture’, as in drugs culture, pop culture, youth culture, etc.:
The miners' strike revealed the range of new movements and organisations which have been arenas … for the development of working-class culture and working-class consciousness—T. Lovett , 1988 /
It was, nonetheless, a film that tried to solicit an understanding of the emerging drug culture—J. Parker , 1991 /
Pop music and its link with youth culture should be an important field of study in media education—Action, 1991.
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3 After 1914 culture came into contact with the German word Kultur, and from it assumed, in British eyes, connotations of arrogance and supposed ethnic superiority; and it was mocked by some who tended to distort the spelling (culchah, etc.) to indicate that the acquisition of cultured ways implied an absurd degree of affectation or vulgarity. In the 20c, significant combinations of the word have been culture shock, meaning ‘the feeling of disorientation experienced by a person suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture or way of life’, culturespecific, meaning ‘peculiar to a particular cultural environment’, and culture vulture, meaning ‘a person eager to acquire culture’. In 1956, the novelist and essayist C. P. Snow launched a topic of discussion that is likely to last indefinitely by coining the resonant phrase the two cultures to denote the arts and sciences as being somehow alien to one another. For so seemingly calm a word, the currents and conflicts it produces are paradoxical.
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cum.

This Latin preposition meaning ‘with’, apart from its use in Latin loan-phrases such as cum grano salis (‘with a grain of salt’), has been used for several centuries in place-names such as Horton-cum-Studley. Its principal use since the 19c has been as a combining word used to indicate a dual nature or function, as in kitchen-cum-dining-room (usually with hyphens). The productive nature of this use can be seen in numerous examples, e.g.: ‘
Do you work there?’ ‘Yes, as a sort of administrator cum priest.’—J. Higgins , 1985.

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cumulative, accumulative

are both used in the meaning ‘formed or increasing by successive additions’, although cumulative is now more usual (as in cumulative arguments, effect, evidence, force, etc.). Accumulative is however still found, and by virtue of its form has stronger associations with the process of accumulating:
Explanations of whatever kind are not universal answers, merely part of a progressive and accumulative act of learning and knowing—G. Watson , 1991.

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cuneiform,

meaning ‘ancient wedge-shaped writing’, is now normally pronounced as three syllables in BrE, i.e. kyoo-ni-fawm, and as four in AmE, i.e. kyoo-nay-i-fawm.

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cupful.

In the plural, care should be taken to distinguish cupfuls from cups full. A cupful is a measure, and so three cupfuls is a quantity regarded in terms of a cup; three cups full denotes the actual cups, as in three cups full of water.

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cupola,

meaning ‘a rounded dome on a roof’, is pronounced kyoo-p-l+. The plural is cupolas.

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curb, kerb.

In BrE, curb is a noun meaning ‘a check or restraint’ and a verb meaning ‘to restrain’. As a noun it also means ‘a strap fastened to a bit on a horse’, and ‘a fender round a hearth’. In AmE, curb has these meanings and is also ‘a stone edging to a pavement (sidewalk)’, which in BrE is spelt kerb.

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curio

is a 19c familiar abbreviation of curiosity, and means ‘a rare or unusual object or person’. The plural is curios.

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curriculum,

meaning ‘a course of study’, has a plural curricula. A curriculum vitae (abbreviated to CV or c.v.) is a brief account of a person's education and professional experience. The plural is curricula vitae (curricula vitarum is pedantic), although CVs gets round this awkwardness.

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curtsy,

meaning a woman's or girl's formal greeting, is spelt curtsy not curtsey. Its plural is curtsies, and as a verb it has inflected forms curtsies, curtsied, curtsying.

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cute

started out in the 18c as a shortened form of acute in the meaning ‘quick-witted, clever’; for a while it was often written with an apostrophe, and will be found that way in Dickens. This meaning has died out in BrE but is still a feature of AmE. In AmE, beginning in the 1830s, a new informal meaning emerged, ‘attractive, charming, pretty (often in a mannered or amusing way)’. It is now very common in AmE as a general term of approbation rather analogous to nice, and can refer to activities and practically anything else as well as people and things:
Yes, Lisa runs a little gym in the West Palm. We all go there to work out. Isn't that cute?—P. Booth , 1986. In BrE, this use is much more self-conscious, and is generally limited to babies and other small things with quaintly attractive characteristics.

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cybernetics.

1 The term was introduced in 1948 by Norbert Wiener , meaning ‘the theory or study of communication and control in living organisms or machines’. The word was derived from the Greek word kubernetes ‘steersman’. It spread rapidly to refer to organisms treated as if they were machines, to observed similarities between neural activity and the electronic devices of modern communications, and so on.

2 A by-product of the word is the use of the first element cyber- in a wide range of computer terms: a cybercafé is a café equipped with terminals to access the Internet, cyberphobia is an abnormal fear of computers, cyberpunk is a style of science fiction, and cyberspace is the environment of virtual reality, a hallucinatory illusion of being elsewhere as created by special equipment controlled by a computer program.
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Cyclops,

a mythological one-eyed giant, is pronounced siy-klops, and its plural is Cyclopes, pronounced siy-kloh-peez.

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Cymric,

meaning Welsh, is pronounced kim-rik.

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cynic, cynical.

Cynical is the adjective form used in the meaning ‘doubting human sincerity or integrity’ and has developed a further meaning ‘disregarding normal rules or standards’, as in a cynical foul, a cynical tackle, etc. Cynic is used with direct reference to the Greek philosophers who bore this name.

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cynosure,

meaning ‘a centre of attraction or admiration’, is pronounced sin--syoo or siyn-syoo. Its earlier meaning ‘guiding star’ related to its use as the name of a constellation, and the current meaning is immortalized by Milton's phrase The Cynosure of neighbouring Eyes in ‘L'Allegro’ (1632).

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cypher

see CIPHER.

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czar

see TSAR.

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Czech

is now the settled (Polish) form of the adjective relating to Czechoslovakia (now two States, the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

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D

dado

meaning the lower part of the wall of a room, or the plinth of a column, has a plural dados.

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dais

meaning ‘a low platform’, is pronounced as two syllables, day-is.

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dampen

was once regarded as an Americanism, but is now established as a variant of damp (verb) in BrE, especially in figurative uses:
Everyone ignored the snow that had failed to dampen the impact of John F. Kennedy's brilliant oratory— Archer , 1979 /
In that way, she argued, speculation about the marriage would be dampened rather than intensified—Today, 1992 /
(literal) Most weights of watercolour paper are dampened and stretched before painting—The Artist, 1993.

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dangling participles

see PARTICIPLES (3).

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dare verb.

1 Dare is an example of a so-called semi-modal auxiliary verb, because, like the modal verbs can, may, should, etc., it is used in certain special ways, but unlike these fully modal verbs it can also behave like an ordinary verb. Its special characteristics are (1) use with a so-called ‘bare’ infinitive without to (I'm not sure that I dare answer), (2) use in the negative and in questions without do (I dare not answer / Dare I answer?), although in practice interrogative forms are normally confined to how dare you, he, they, etc., as discussed in 6 below, (3) a third person singular form dare without addition of s (He says he dare not answer). Note that in all these uses dare is an auxiliary verb followed by an infinitive without to.

2 Dare is also used as an ordinary verb, with or without a following to-infinitive, forming negatives and questions with do, and having a third person singular form dares: They would not dare to come / Do you dare to contradict me? / I don't dare to answer / He dares to answer / Tell me if you dare. In practice, not all these options are used, and some constructions sound more natural than others. For example, I don't dare to answer is perfectly grammatical, but I dare not answer is more idiomatic, at least in everyday English. In the present tense, dare behaves as a modal verb much more often than as an ordinary verb.
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3 As a modal verb, dare is sometimes used in the past without inflection. Though formerly condemned (by the OED among others) as ‘careless’, the practice is common in writing as well as speech:
‘Yes, yes,’ she stuttered, then ‘thank you’, as an afterthought. She dare not look at his face—M. Duckworth , 1960.
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4 It is also noticeable that dare occurs more frequently in negative constructions and in questions, or preceded by if. As we have seen, the negative form can be dare not or do (etc.) not dare; and dare not is contracted to daren't in informal use (I daren't answer). The past dared not is rarely if ever contracted to daredn't.
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5 Further examples follow of dare used as a modal verb and as an auxiliary verb:
(modal) He hates only because he dare not love—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 /
I dare not speak these dreams to any person— Keillor , 1986 /
No one dared defy the group by going out at the last moment— McEwan , 1986 /
(ordinary) Marcus wouldn't dare to tell a lie like that unless it was true—R. Hill , 1970 /
I did not dare to look down—B. Rubens , 1985 /
How do they dare to be different?—New Yorker, 1987 (This construction is needed to avoid the special meaning of how dare they…?)/
She no longer dared to go into these shadowy apartments— Brookner , 1988.
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6 There are two other special uses of dare: (1) in the phrases how dare you (etc.)…? and don't (you) dare…, both normally followed by a bare infinitive
(How dare he dismiss Duke Ellington as a mere ‘tunesmith’!—Gramophone, 1976 /
How dare you come in without knocking?—R. Dahl , 1984 /
Now you sit down there and don't you dare even look at anybody till I get back— Amis , 1988), and (2) in the phrase I dare say (or I daresay, as one word), meaning ‘it is probable’, normally followed by a that-clause (often with omission of that)
(I daresay I'll come back to it, in the fullness of time— Lively , 1987).
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7 Finally, there is the use of dare with an object, meaning ‘to challenge or defy someone (to do something)’, followed by a to-infinitive:
He looked round the table as if daring anyone to smile— Lodge , 1988.
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dash.

1 There are, in formal printing at least, two types of dash: the en-rule (–) and the em-rule (—). An en-rule is twice the length of a hyphen, and an em-rule is twice the length of an en-rule. Most word-processing programs are able to distinguish the two lengths of rule, but in ordinary writing no distinction is usually made (and many people are not even aware of one).

2 The shorter en-rule has two principal uses:
(1) to separate a range of dates, as in pages 34–6 and the 1939–45 war, and
(2) to join the names of joint authors and suchlike, as in the Temple–Hardcastle project and Lloyd–Jones, 1939 (as a citation; Lloyd-Jones, with a hyphen, would be a single double-barrelled name).

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3 The longer em-rule is the more familiar in everyday use, and corresponds to what most people understand by the term dash. Its principal uses are: (1) a single dash used to introduce an explanation or expansion of what comes before it
(It is a kind of irony of history that I should write about the French Revolution in the very country where it has had the least impact—I mean England, of course—Encounter, 1990), and (2) a pair of dashes used to indicate asides and parentheses, forming a more distinct break than commas would
(Helen has only seen her father once in her adult life and—until her flight from Grassdale—her brother is a virtual stranger to her—J. Sutherland , 1996). The use of a dash to stand for a coarse word (e.g. f—) in reported speech is much less common than it used to be, because public acceptance of these words spelt out is that much greater.
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dastardly

like COWARDLY, is often used in a manner described by Fowler (1926) as inappropriate because it describes actions that, however reprehensible and brutal they may be, at least require boldness and courage. Acts of terrorism, however despicable, should not be described as dastardly.

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data.

1 Fowler , writing before the computer age, declared uncompromisingly that ‘data is plural only’, and pointed to the singular datum, which he conceded even then to be comparatively rare. For much of the time, data is used in contexts in which a conscious choice between singular and plural is not necessary:
Written sources provide systematic periodic data that can show trends and provide other relevant facts—J. Waters , 1989. In some technical contexts (such as sense-data in philosophy), in which the information is regarded as several items, the plural is still usual; but in general use there is a marked tendency towards the singular after about 1970, under the influence of computing (see below), and most examples of the plural have to be sought from an earlier date:
It is no wonder if some authors have gone so far as to think that the sense-data have no spatial worth at all— James , 1890 /
Most of the data concerning shock and vibration on airplanes are classified— Macduff and  Curreri , 1958 /
The data come from fairly high doses of radiation—Scientific American, 1972.

2 After about 1970, the primary meaning of data passed to the domain of computing, in which the information concerned is normally regarded as a unit, so that data is treated as singular and used with words such as its, this, and much, rather than their, these, and many (which now sound pedantic and even precious in this connection). This tendency is having a major impact on more general use. If the sentence in the quotations of 1958 and 1972 above were written today, the verbs would almost certainly be is rather than are and comes rather than come. Examples of singular use:
They have done little to analyse and interpret this data—Computer Weekly, 1971 /
Data is stored on a disk…as minute patches of magnetism—P. Laurie , 1985 /
Everything that is happening to Mount St Helens is a ‘classroom’ experience for geologists and scientists scrambling to gather as much data as they can—New Scientist, 1980 /
This data is open to a variety of interpretations—T. Harris , 1993. The plural, however, also continues to be used to emphasize the plural implications of the word data:
The data…are mapped so that each class has, as far as possible, an equal number of countries—P.M. Mather , 1991.
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datable

is spelt this way, not dateable. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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dates.

The recommended style for BrE is 5 June 2001, with no comma between the month and year. However, many newspapers, as well as American practice generally, prefer the style June 5 2001 or June 5, 2001. In numerical notation, there is an important difference of practice on the two sides of the Atlantic: 5/6/01 means 5 June 2001 in Britain and 6 May 2001 in North America.

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daughter-in-law

means one's son's wife. The plural is daughters-in-law.

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day, month, week, year

are singular in expressions such as a three-day week and a two-month term.

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day and age.

The phrase in this day and age is a cliché. It slid into the language in the 1940s, although a film called This Day and Age, released in 1933, is not certainly the source. It should be avoided in favour of more straightforward terms such as nowadays or at the present time.

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de-

is a highly active suffix in current English, forming verbs and their derivatives. Notable 20c examples (with date of first record indicated) include: debrief (1942), decaffeinate (1927), decertify (1918), decommunize (1980), de-emphasize (1938), de-escalate (1964), denet (1962), deregulate (1964, with deregulation 1963). Note that a hyphen is usual when the second element begins with an e; in other cases it is optional.

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dead letter

in general use, is properly a rule or regulation that is no longer observed; for example, capital punishment is a dead letter when it remains on the statute book although it is not used. The term should not be applied to aspects of life that have simply passed out of fashion, such as steam engines and cinema organs.

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deaf mute

is now regarded as derogatory because it implies an incapacity to communicate. It is safer to use neutral terms such as profoundly deaf.

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deal noun.

The phrase a deal, used for a good deal or a great deal, is now mainly confined to informal or dialectal use (The decision saved him a deal of trouble). A great deal and a good deal should not be used to mean ‘a large number’ of countable things ( A great deal of people have complained); in these cases use a great many.

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Dear

as part of a formal greeting at the beginning of a letter, was introduced in the 15c in various formulas. Dear Sir and Dear Madam have become the most formal types, with Dear Mr Jones and Dear Mrs/Miss/Ms Jones serving as more socially neutral alternatives. Increasingly people are using the full name as in Dear John Smith or Dear Jane Smith, or (especially in circular letters) a descriptive name as in Dear Customer or Dear Colleague, in order to avoid the need for a title, which is a welcome tendency.

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dear, dearly.

You love someone dearly (i.e. very much), whereas you buy or sell something, or something costs you, dear or dearly.

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dearth

rapidly extended its meaning from its 13c restriction to food, to refer to a scarcity of anything:
Unable to find what she needed in ‘romantic’ novels, Letty had turned to biographies, of which there was no dearth— Pym , 1977.

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débâcle

pronounced day-bah-kl, should properly be spelt with accents in place, although it is often written and printed without them.

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debar, disbar.

Debar means ‘to exclude from admission or a right’, as in They were debarred from entering, whereas disbar has the more specific meaning ‘to deprive (a barrister) from the right to practise’. Both words double the r in inflection.

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debatable

is spelt this way, not debateable. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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debouch

is pronounced di-bowch to rhyme with pouch.

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debris

is usually spelt without an accent, and is pronounced deb-ri, although d-bree is normal in AmE.

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debut

is usually spelt without an accent, and is pronounced day-byoo.

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debutant, debutante

are pronounced deb- or dayb-, and are normally spelt without accents. A debutant is a male performer, and a debutante a female performer, appearing in public for the first time. The other meaning of debutante, a young woman making her social debut, is passing into history.

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deca-, deci-.

In the metric system, deca- means multiplied by 10, so that a decalitre is 10 litres, and deci- means divided by 10, so that a decilitre is a tenth of a litre or 100 ml.

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decade.

The preferred pronunciation is dek-ayd, although di-kayd, sounding like decayed, is increasingly heard.

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deceptively.

1
His voice was deceptively innocent, and she was led right into the trap—E. Rees , 1992. Was his voice innocent or not? The answer seems to be that the appearance was of innocence whereas the reality was of something more sinister, and deceptively is therefore being used in the same way as apparently or misleadingly. This balance of meanings is more obvious when deceptively is used with words such as appear, seem, etc.:
Bill, who rarely played more than five minutes in any game because of a heart condition, was one of that rare breed who made the art of football look deceptively simple—M. Gist , 1993.

2 But deceptively does not readily accompany an adjective that denotes something unfavourable or unwelcome, in the way that the more neutral word apparently does. When the appearance is unfavourable and the reality is favourable deceptively still seems to accompany the favourable adjective, as in the following example which is an echo of familiar estate agents' jargon:
Manoeuvring down the narrow steps into the boat, and turning into the airy and deceptively spacious lounge, Birbeck was greeted by Branson and Al Clark—M. Brown , 1989. In this case, the lounge is claimed to be spacious (favourable) but appears not to be (unfavourable, i.e. the reverse of the balance found in the earlier examples), but it is understandable that no one in these circumstances would want to say that the room is (for example) deceptively cramped. Here, the analogy is with surprisingly (which strengthens the meaning of the adjective) rather than with apparently (which reduces it). This second type of use is idiomatic rather than suspect, but for those who prefer a stronger element of logic in their language an alternative word such as surprisingly or unexpectedly might be preferable.
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decided, decisive.

1 Both words have to do with decision and decision-making, and their meanings overlap; but there are clear differences. When used of people, decided means ‘having clear opinions’ and decisive means ‘able to decide quickly’; when used of circumstances, decided means ‘definite, unquestionable’ and decisive means ‘deciding an issue, conclusive’. There are contexts in which both words can be used, but the implications are different: a decided victory is one that is overwhelming, whereas a decisive victory is one that (whether overwhelming or not) has a definite effect on the course of a war. A manager is decided when he or she has a definite opinion on a subject, and is decisive when he or she makes decisions promptly and effectively.

2 The corresponding adverbs are decidedly (= unquestionably, undeniably) and decisively (= with conclusive effect).
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decimate

has changed its meaning because the old one is no longer needed. Historically, decimate means ‘to kill one person in ten’, and had its origin in military punishments. As the need for this meaning diminished, a new one emerged, the now familiar one ‘to kill or destroy a large number or proportion of (people or things)’:
In killing MOSS, they'd used sufficient ammunition to decimate a small army—R. Perry , 1979 /
The forest has largely gone, decimated by a forest industry that is just now assaulting the final remains—Dædalus, 1988 /
The populations of dolphins and porpoises in the Black Sea have been decimated—M. Donoghue , 1990.

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decor

is usually spelt without an accent, and is pronounced dek-aw.

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decoy

has an unstable stress pattern as both a noun and a verb, with both syllables variously stressed.

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decrease

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

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decry, descry

are related in origin but now have widely different meanings. To decry something is to belittle or disparage it
(She also decries the double standard that dictates what men can do, women can't—New Musical Express, 1992); to descry something is a somewhat literary word meaning to catch sight of it in the distance
(Her thoughts were brought to an abrupt end, as she descried two figures on their way up the path—J. Ashe , 1993).

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deducible, deductible.

Deducible means ‘able to be deduced or inferred’; deductible means ‘that may be deducted from or taken off a total’. See -ABLE, -IBLE

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deduction, induction.

Deduction is the inferring of particular instances from known or observed evidence; induction is the inferring of a general rule from particular instances.

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deem

is a fairly formal word, often used in legal contexts, for ‘judge, consider’, and is followed either by a complement without as or by a to-infinitive:
He was a senior policeman, and as such deemed to be unflappable—B. Mather , 1973 /
In Ireland what a man said was deemed more important than what he did—Times Literary Supplement, 1980.

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deep, deeply.

Deep is used as an adverb both literally
(With the horses provided you could trek deep into the forest—Drive, 1972) and figuratively
(He was soon deep in studies of…the biology of unicellular organisms—Microscopy, 1973 /
Johnny was standing with his back to the window, his hands thrust deep into his pockets—E. Nash , 1993). Deeply is normally used only as an intensifying adverb in combinations such as deeply aware, deeply satisfying, etc., and when the meaning is ‘profoundly, thoroughly’:
It is the deeply moving, contemporary story of a young man who wouldn't surrender to the System–Ottawa Journal, 1973 /
Powell himself was said to be deeply bothered by that—New Yorker, 1977 /
They had kissed and caressed, but it was deeply frustrating—D.M. Thomas , 1990.

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defect

should be pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun (= fault, imperfection) and on the second syllable as a verb (= to go over to an enemy or rival).

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defective, deficient.

Defective means ‘having a defect (= fault)’, whereas deficient means ‘having a deficiency (or lack)’. So eyesight, components, goods, logic, mechanisms, etc., can all be defective if they are not working properly; and courage, diet, funds, protein, the water supply, etc., can all be deficient if there is not enough of them. Neither word is used any longer in professional contexts relating to mental abnormality.

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defence

is the spelling in BrE, defense in AmE.

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defer

has the forms deferred, deferring; deference (= respect, with stress on the first syllable); deferral and deferment (postponement, both with stress on the second syllable).

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deficient

see DEFECTIVE.

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definite article

see THE.

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definite, definitely

have useful roles as emphasizing words, and should not be dismissed too readily as superfluous:
His expression was bland, unreadable, but there was a definite glint in his eye that made her pulse begin to race—E. Richmond , 1991 /
And pickled onions had definitely been a bad idea—S. Shepherd , 1988. Since the 1930s, definitely has come into widespread use informally as a strong affirmative reply meaning ‘certainly, indeed’: ‘
Would they recommend that the experiment is repeated another year?’ ‘Oh, definitely.’—Sunday Times, 1959. See also ABSOLUTELY.

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definite, definitive

both refer to things that are said or written. Definite means ‘clear and distinct’, whereas definitive means ‘decisive, unconditional, final’ and normally refers to an answer, verdict, treaty, etc. A definitive text, book, etc., is a printed work that is regarded as the best authority on its subject and likely to remain so. Only definitive has connotations of authority and conclusiveness: a definite no is a firm refusal, whereas a definitive no is an authoritative judgement that something is not the case.

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deflection

is now the normal form in BrE and AmE, not deflexion.

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defuse, diffuse.

It is surprising how often diffuse (correctly = to disperse) is used for defuse in its figurative meaning ‘to remove tension or potential danger from (a crisis, etc.)’. Examples of this wrong use are:
An early cut in base rates, which would …diffuse the dispute between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister—Times, 1988 /
The Scott report is a time-bomb stealthy politicians and officials are trying to diffuse—Guardian, 1995. Since this mistake occurs most often in newspapers, we might suspect that close writing deadlines are the culprit here.

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degree.

In Sheridan's The Rivals (1775), we find Assuredly, sir, your father is wrath to a degree. This means ‘your father is very cross’; the use survives in more florid modern English and was accepted by Fowler (1926) ‘however illogical it seems’. But ambiguity now arises because to a degree also means ‘to some extent’ as well as ‘to a great extent’ and the context does not always determine which is meant:
W. J. Bryan was to a degree exceptional even in the USA—P. Wiles , 1969. Confusion is avoided by qualifying the word degree in some way, as in to a large degree / to a certain degree / to some degree / to an amazing degree etc. A frequent (chiefly informal) phrase now is to the nth degree (a loan from mathematics).

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deify, deity

are now frequently pronounced day- as well as the traditional dee-, causing raised eyebrows in more conservative circles. The Deity (= God), is spelt with a capital initial.

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déjà vu

meaning in French ‘already seen’ and hence ‘an illusory feeling of having experienced a situation before’, is recorded first (1903) in the language of psychology and spread rapidly and widely in general use. The parallel phrases relating to other senses, déjà entendu (= heard, 1965) and déjà lu (= read, 1960) still sound somewhat affected.

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deliberative

now means only (1) ‘appointed for the purpose of deliberation or debate’,
(The political bureau was now to consist of 400 members and would be a deliberative rather than an executive body— Keesings , 1990), and (2) ‘using deliberation’
(Some problem-solving will take the form of a deliberative weighing of consequences—M. Leahy , 1991).

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delimit

see LIMIT.

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delusion, illusion

overlap in meaning because both are to do with things wrongly believed or thought for various reasons. There is, however, a distinguishing principle: a delusion is a wrong belief regarded from the point of view of the person holding it (and has special uses in psychiatry, as in delusions of grandeur), whereas an illusion is a wrong belief or impression regarded externally. Delusion, unlike illusion, has a corresponding verb, delude, and the action of this verb is sometimes implicit in the choice between delusion and illusion. The following examples will help to clarify these points: (delusion)
He suffered from the delusion that everything smelled of cats— Koestler , 1947 /
That was the way delusions started, thinking there was anti-Jewish feeling when there wasn't—P.H. Newby , 1968 /
Amorous delusions concerning …a lecherously attentive neighbour and her kindly but pre-occupied husband—Daily Telegraph, 1970 /
(illusion) In the world as we know it…freedom is largely an illusion—J.M. Roberts , 1975 /
The illusion must be maintained that this was a purely Polish debate with no intrusion being made by the Soviet Union—J.A. Mitchener , 1983 /
Alfred Crowther loved his first-born child, but he had no illusions about him—B.T. Bradford , 1986.

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de luxe

is written as two words in BrE and pronounced d luks or (less often), d looks. In AmE it tends to be written as one word, and variously pronounced.

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demand.

You demand something from or (less commonly) of someone (She demanded ten pounds from him), and you make a demand on someone for something (There were constant demands on her for her comments).

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demi-

is a less productive prefix than it used to be, being overshadowed by semi- and half- (and occasionally hemi- for words of Greek origin). It survives in a number of English words, some of them loanwords from French, e.g. demigod, demi-monde, demi-pension, demisemiquaver, demitasse. Demijohn (a size of bottle) is probably a corruption of French damejeanne (= Lady Jane).

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demo

is an informal shortening of demonstration in two meanings, (1) ‘a public march or gathering in support of some cause’, and (2) ‘a practical explanation of something, e.g. a machine works’. In its common computing application, demo is often used attributively (before a noun) to mean ‘demonstrating the capabilities of’, as in demo software / demo tape.

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demur

meaning ‘to raise scruples or objections’ has inflected forms demurred, demurring. It is normally used in negative contexts and without a complement (When we asked them they did not demur), although it is occasionally followed by at or to (They did not demur at my suggestion).

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denote

see CONNOTE.

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denouement

meaning ‘the final unravelling of a plot in a story, etc.’, is usually printed in roman type without an accent.

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dentures

was originally a genteelism (first recorded in 1874) for false teeth, but is now standard in more formal use.

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depart

is now used intransitively (without an object) either without any complement or followed by from (a point of departure) or for (a destination). Its use with an object is restricted to the formal or literary phrase depart this life, meaning ‘to die’, but in AmE is more common in general use (They departed the house at noon), being recorded in uses by J. K. Galbraith , Robert Craft , and others.

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depend.

1 Depend in its main meaning is followed by on or upon:
It was quite wrong to come to depend too much upon one's children— Fitzgerald , 1979 /
As grandfather grew older…he seemed to depend increasingly on my company—J. Simms , 1982. It is also commonly used in the informal expression you can depend on it/that etc.:
I'll have a damn good try…You can depend on that—A. Price , 1982.

2 The slightly archaic meaning ‘to hang down’, which is the word's etymological meaning, is still used in some literary contexts:
From a beam crossing the low ceiling depended a mobile, the property of Parker— Bowen , 1968, but is not a feature of normal usage.
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dependant, dependent.

Dependant in BrE is a noun meaning ‘a person who relies on another for financial support’, and dependent is an adjective meaning ‘depending or conditional on something or someone else’ (with several special meanings). In AmE dependent is the usual form for the noun.

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dependence, dependency.

Dependence is ‘a state of depending’; dependency can also mean this but is more usually ‘something, especially a country or province, that is dependent on another’. The distinction has been somewhat blurred by the recent term dependency culture, meaning ‘a way of life determined by being dependent on state benefits’.

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depositary, depository.

A depositary is a person or authority to whom something is entrusted, a trustee. A depository is (1) a storage place for furniture, books, etc., and (2) a source (normally a book or suchlike, occasionally a person) of wisdom or knowledge.

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depot

pronounced dep-oh, is printed in roman type with no accents.

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deprecate, depreciate.

1 The two words are similar in form and in current use overlap somewhat in meaning, but their origin is different. Deprecate is from Latin deprecari ‘to prevent by prayer’ and its primary current meaning is ‘to express disapproval of (a person or thing)’:
When news of this ‘record’ multiple birth emerged last weekend, few dared to deprecate it—Sunday Times, 1987. Depreciate is from Latin depretiare ‘to lower in value’ and currently means (1) without an object, ‘to become lower in value or price’
(Experience has shown me that their cars are more reliable and depreciate less—Mail on Sunday, 1985), and (2) with an object, ‘to undervalue, to disparage’
(Before this Wilde depreciated pity as a motive in art; now he embraced it—R. Ellmann , 1969). It is in this last meaning that the overlap in meaning occurs, the intruder normally being deprecate in place of depreciate:
Dealers have felt a need to deprecate their own firms' values, to disassociate themselves from them—A. Davidson , 1989 /
A talent that results in giving exquisite pleasure to collectors of memorabilia is to be admired, not deprecated—M.J. Staples , 1992. As a result depreciate is being more and more confined to its financial meaning in relation to currencies, share values, etc.

2 This intrusion on the part of deprecate is reflected in the derivative adjectives self-deprecating and self-deprecatory meaning ‘disparaging oneself’, and the noun self-deprecation, where the meanings are closer to depreciate than deprecate:
Barton…smiled, and then his face changed again, the old, self-deprecating expression over it— Hill , 1971 /
Sadly he declined, saying in a charmingly self-deprecatory way that he doubted he had any views worth hearing—L. Kennedy , 1990 /
Markby chuckled, his customary air of self-deprecation returning—A. Granger , 1991. These forms and uses are now fully established, although self-depreciation is also occasionally found.
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deprivation

meaning ‘depriving or being deprived (of something)’, is pronounced dep-rivay-shn, with stress on the third syllable. It should be distinguished from privation, which means ‘lack of the comforts or necessities of life’.

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de rigueur

is pronounced dri-ger, is non-naturalized in English and is printed in italics.

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derisive, derisory.

Although their meanings have coincided since their first appearance in the 17c, in current use they are for the most part kept separate, derisive meaning ‘scoffing, scornful’ as in derisive laughter and derisive remarks and derisory meaning ‘ridiculously small or insignificant’ as in a derisory pay offer and a derisory contribution.

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descendant, descendent.

In BrE descendant is the noun and descendent is the adjective, but in AmE either form is used in both cases.

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description.

Fowler (1926) discouraged the use of description as an alternative to kind and sort in expressions such as crimes of this description, but the use has become well established and often seems appropriate if sometimes a little old-fashioned:
That's the first flying machine of any description that has ever landed on Muck—B. Moore , 1972.

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descriptive.

As applied to language, the term denotes a concept of grammar as describing actual practice rather than laying down theoretical rules. See PRESCRIPTIVE.

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desert, dessert.

There are two unrelated words spelt desert: one, with stress on the first syllable, is the barren area of land, and the other, with stress on the second syllable, is what one deserves, as in get one's just deserts. The verb desert, meaning ‘to abandon’ and stressed on the second syllable, is related to the first of these words. Finally dessert, with two s’s and stressed on the second syllable, is a word for ‘the sweet course of a meal’.

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deserter

is spelt -er, not -or.

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deservedly

is pronounced as four syllables.

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desiccated

from Latin siccus meaning ‘dry’, is spelt in this way, not dessicated.

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desideratum

meaning ‘something lacking or needed’, is pronounced -ah-tm or -ay-tm and has the plural form desiderata.

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designer

has been since the 1960s a vogue word first used in the fashion world to denote articles bearing the name of a famous designer and therefore prestigious and expensive. In this use designer is used attributively (before a noun), as in designer dress, jeans, shoes, etc. The word then spread into much wider use to signify anything regarded as fashionable or specially made, with all sorts of figurative applications:
He remembered thinking to himself; so it's finally happened—designer industrial action— Lodge , 1988 /
The Home Secretary …turned on ‘designer violence’ on the [television] screen—Times, 1988 /
Designer stubble of the George Michael ilk has also run its bristly course—Guardian, 1989. A designer drug is a synthetic compound made to simulate an existing illegal ‘recreational’ drug, and a designer dyke is a glamorous Lesbian:
Gay girls have become rather fashionable…and the opportunity to write about ‘lipstick lesbianism’ and ‘designer dykes’ has not gone unseized—Daily Telegraph, 1995.

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despatch

see DISPATCH.

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desperado

is pronounced des-p-rah-doh, and has the plural form desperadoes.

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despicable.

Pundits and usage gurus since Fowler (1926) have been urging us to pronounce despicable with the stress on the first syllable, but unsurprisingly usage has swung in favour of a more comfortable pattern with the stress on the second syllable.

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despise

must be spelt -ise, not -ize. See -ISE.

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dessert

see DESERT.

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destruct.

1 This is a back-formation from destruction, formed as a specific alternative to destroy to denote a calculated action, originally with reference to space missiles that were malfunctioning, then in other military or related contexts, and later in figurative uses. The normal past tense is destructed. Like all so-called ‘ergative’ verbs, it can be used transitively (with an object) and intransitively (without an object):
At this point it was destroyed (or ‘destructed’ as the official explanation puts it) by remote control—Times, 1958 /
This was the prevalent left view until Thatcher's third term destructed, and Labour triumphalism had one last go—New Statesman, 1992. It is also used as a noun, normally in attributive position (before another noun), as in destruct system.

2 The reflexive form self-destruct appeared in the 1960s, and follows the same grammatical functions of destruct. It is also used figuratively:
Watergate came from within. The system itself has begun to self-destruct—Guardian, 1973.
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destructible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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détente

should be spelt with an accent and printed in italics.

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deter

has inflected forms deterred, deterring, and also doubles the r in the derivative forms deterrence and deterrent (both pronounced with -ter- as in ten).

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deteriorate

should be pronounced with all five syllables articulated. Pronunciation as if it were deteriate is often heard but should be avoided. A similar problem occurs with temporary and other words.

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determiner.

A determiner is a word that goes before a noun and determines its status in some way, such as a, the, this, all, and such. A predeterminer occurs before another determiner (all the time) and a postdeterminer occurs after another determiner (The only one).

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detract, distract.

Both words are used transitively (with an object) followed by from; but their meanings are different. Detract, which (more than distract) is also used without an object, means ‘to take away (a part of something), to diminish’:
The tape element involved in the production of a disc record detracts very little from the overall quality these days—J. Earl , 1971. Distract means 'to divert the attention of with a person, the mind, etc. as the object:
These days find Paris in a sort of limbo…There is, it is true, the Tour de France to distract us in the weeks ahead—Listener, 1972. Detract sometimes encroaches on distract, especially in the expression detract attention from, which was an accepted usage in the early 19c but should now be avoided in favour of distract attention from.

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devil's advocate

is someone who argues against a proposition or belief in order to test it. It should not be used to mean someone who supports a bad or wicked cause. Its origin lies in the Roman Catholic official (in Latin advocatus diaboli) who tests the case for canonization of a candidate for sainthood by preparing and arguing the case against it.

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devise

must be spelt -ise, not -ize. See -ISE.

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devoid

meaning ‘lacking’, is followed by of and comes after the word it refers to:
The Council is devoid of any powers—radio broadcast, 1976 /
The language is nearly devoid of metaphor—Observer, 1980.

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devolve

is a verb of reviving fortunes in the age of political devolution. Its three principal uses are as follows:
(1) you devolve powers, authority, etc., on or upon someone,
(2) power, authority, etc., devolves on or upon someone, and
(3) a right, benefit, etc., devolves to (or occasionally on) someone.

The word appears frequently in the form devolved to refer to a body or its powers when these have been devolved by a national government:
Our increasing dependence on tourism calls for highly devolved decision-making— Herald , 1986 /
Public support for the national question is at an historic high, with 50% of Scots favouring a devolved assembly and 30% of Scots wanting a separate parliament—Marxism Today, 1986. The back-formed verb devolute is occasionally found instead of devolve.

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dexterous

is preferable to dextrous. Both are pronounced dek-strs.

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diabolic, diabolical.

Diabolic is used primarily with direct reference to the devil (as in Byron ’s Satan…merely bent his diabolic brow an instant, 1822), whereas diabolical is used mainly in its extended meanings ‘bad, disgraceful, awful’:
Asked our postman about communications between Tunisia and England. He said they were ‘diabolical’—S. Townsend , 1982 /
From my point of view that pitch was dangerous. In fact, it was diabolical—Observer, 1986. However, diabolical is sometimes used in the first sense, especially when the rhythm of the sentence is improved by it.

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diagnose

is properly used to mean ‘to make a diagnosis of’ with the disease or problem as the object. Now, however, it is increasingly used with a person as object, usually followed by as with a verb participle:
He was diagnosed as having an anxiety neurosis—British Medical Journal, 1984 /
A baby who was incorrectly diagnosed as having died before birth—T. Stuttaford , 1990. At present, however, this use does not extend to things: you can diagnose clutch trouble in a car but you can't yet diagnose a car as having clutch trouble.

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diagnosis

has the plural form diagnoses (pronounced -gnoh-seez).

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diagram verb,

meaning ‘to represent by means of a diagram,’ has the forms diagrammed, diagramming, diagrammatic. In AmE the verbal forms are often diagramed, diagraming.

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dial verb

has inflected forms dialled, dialling in BrE and dialed, dialing in AmE.

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dialect

is the language form of a particular region, and varies from the standard language in matters of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Some dialects are also related to social class and ethnic origin. The dialects of the United Kingdom are recorded in Joseph Wright ’s magnificent but now dated English Dialect Dictionary (1896–1905) and in A Survey of English Dialects (1962–8) edited by Harold Orton and others. There is also a Linguistic Atlas of England (1978), edited by Orton and others, and numerous monographs and glossaries published by local dialect societies. Although words and uses that are grammatical within a dialect do not normally enter the standard language, there are some common words and phrases that had their origins in dialect, as is shown in the table below. Care should be taken to avoid confusing a dialect with a variety: Scottish English, for example, is a variety and not a dialect.
Some common words and idioms of dialect or local origin

WORD

DATE

ORIGINAL MEANING

beach

16c

shingle, pebbles

binge

19c

(as verb) = to soak

bleak

16c

pale, colourless

cack-handed

19c

cack = excrement

clever

16c

nimble-handed, adroit

elevenses

18c

elevens = morning meal

feisty

19c

ficety (US) = aggressive

old-fashioned (as in an old-fashioned look)

20c

knowing, precocious

pal

17c

Romany = brother

poke (as in a pig in a poke)

ME

bag, sack

tab

ME

short broad strap etc.

wilt

17c

become limp, droop

Bleak and clever are recorded at an earlier date in meanings that are historically unconnected to the later ones. ME = Middle English

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dialectal, dialectic, dialectical.

In the 19c all three words were used to mean ‘belonging to a dialect’, but only dialectal now serves this purpose. Dialectic is a form of philosophical argument by question and answer, and dialectical is the adjective derived from it.

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dialogue

is a conversation between two or more people. The first element has nothing to do with di- meaning ‘two’, but is derived from Greek dia- meaning ‘through, across’. It is now often used of the talking process involved in negotiations and discussions, for example between one country and another or between trade unions and management. In AmE it is frequently spelt dialog.

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diarrhoea

is spelt in this way in BrE and diarrhea in AmE.

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dice

is in origin the plural of die (as in the die is cast, meaning ‘the decisive step has been taken’). Dice are also the small cubes bearing 1 to 6 spots on each face, used in games of chance; this form is also used for the singular (He had a dice in his pocket).

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dichotomy

means ‘a division into two’ (from Greek dicho- meaning ‘apart’ and -tomos meaning ‘cutting’). The word has long-established meanings in technical domains such as logic, astronomy, and the life sciences; in the 20c it has moved into general use to mean ‘a difference or split’ (e.g. a dichotomy of opinion) and often implies a contrast or a paradoxical circumstance:
By a dichotomy familiar to us all, a woman requires her own baby to be perfectly normal, and at the same time superior to all other babies— Wyndham , 1957 /
The coffee-table featured a couple of Shakespeare texts and a copy of Time Out—an intriguing dichotomy— Amis , 1973.

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dictate

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (as in the dictates of conscience) and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb (as in dictate a letter).

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didn't ought

may be the result of a collision of the strange behaviour patterns of two modal verbs, do and ought, but its origins are in dialect and it features in literature only as a (sometimes stereotypical) representation of rustic or poorly educated speech:
And I hope none here will say I did anything I didn't ought. For I have only done my duty— Innes , 1942 /
You didn't ought to have let that fire out— Golding , 1954.

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die noun

see DICE.

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die verb.

When used with a complement, the normal uses are to die of a disease, old age, etc., to die from (or occasionally of) a wound, neglect, etc., and to die for (a cause). The modern (originally AmE) idiom to die for, meaning ‘outstandingly good’ and often used attributively (before a noun), is informal only:
Excellent Vietnamese fare, including to-die-for softshell crabs—Post (Denver), 1995.

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dietitian

meaning an authority on diet, is the recommended spelling, not dietician.

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differ

is widely used without any complement:
While their aims and activities differ slightly, all are clubs in the sense of recruiting members—R. Brown , 1993. It can be followed by from in the meaning ‘to be unlike’:
These languages…differ from the Polish dialects discussed above—Language, 1975 /
Most British school and college mathematics classrooms do not differ much from those of a hundred years ago—D. Pimm , 1988. When it means ‘to disagree (with someone)’ it is either used independently (We agreed to differ) or followed by with, but this use is becoming much less common as disagree takes over from it:
Dissanayake… had subsequently differed with the President on such issues as the handling of the withdrawal of Indian troops from Sri Lanka— Keesings , 1990.

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different.

1 Fowler wrote in 1926 that insistence ‘that different can only be followed by from and not by to is a superstition’. It is in fact a 20c superstition that refuses to go away, despite copious evidence for the use of to and than dating back to well before 1700. First of all we should recognize that for much of the time different, when used predicatively (after a verb) is used without any complement at all:
But tonight would have been different—A. Wells , 1993. We may then put than aside for a moment and concentrate on different from and different to. The argument in favour of from is based on the relation of different to differ (which is followed by from in this meaning); but this is an artificial construction based on the principles of Latin and not English grammar, and is contradicted by the varying practice of accord (with) and according (to). English works by analogy, and here the influence comes from words that have the same function, such as comparable, equivalent, and similar.

2 There are indeed occasions when from is inelegant and to is more natural, especially when different is separated from its complement (e.g. by an adverbial phrase), as will be seen from following examples which illustrate both uses:
(from) Casual shacking up was quite different from holy matrimony—M. Underwood , 1980 /
The Anglo-American approach to copyright was thought to be different from the approach taken by France and other European countries—New Yorker, 1987 /
He's no different from my brother, in the end— Gordimer , 1988 /
What makes chenille different from other carpets is that it's the product of two distinct processes—E. Blair , 1990 /
(to) He looked no different at first to other boys Margaret had known—M. Leland , 1986 /
I found that a meadow seen against the light was an entirely different tone of green to the same meadow facing the light—Scots Magazine, 1986 /
They don't seem to be any different to us—Chicago Tribune, 1989 /
Sound waves are very different to water waves but the length of a sound wave changes with its frequency in the same way—J. Downer , 1989.
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3 Different than is a more complex issue. It is better established in AmE than in BrE, especially when different is followed by a comparative clause:
It used to be they'd play at different times than on the U.S. stations, but not any more—Globe & Mail (Toronto), 1977 /
This discrepancy is intriguing because most scallops have a very different mode of life than other species—Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1987. BrE looks more strongly askance at this construction than it does on different to, and the objection can be better justified on grounds of style than the objection to to can be justified on grounds of grammar. It is natural to want to avoid an awkward relative construction such as we find in Joyce Cary's much discussed sentence I was a very different man in 1935 from what I was in 1916; for some the answer is I was a very different man in 1935 than I was in 1916, but a little lateral thinking might steer us right round the problem by suggesting an alternative: I was not the same man in 1935 as I had been in 1916. One should not presume to rewrite Joyce Cary , but this kind of solution might do better for those who simply want to stay clear of linguistic mantraps.
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4 The case for to and than is more compelling, as occasional alternatives to from, when different is used in an adverbial phrase such as in a different sense, and when they follow the adverb differently, where from can become uncomfortably cumbersome:
Sebastian was a drunkard in quite a different sense to myself— Waugh , 1945 /
A false sense of security which makes drivers behave quite differently on motorways than on ordinary roads—Daily Telegraph, 1971 /
The lepidopteran proboscis is very differently constructed from that of the Diptera—  &  , 1973.
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5 Note that different is commonly found in everyday use as a convenient synonym for more austere words such as distinct, separate, various, etc.:
Children's perceptions of their sexual roles are built up from many different sources—N. Tucker , 1981 /
After four or five different activities have been described, you read the list of activities—R. McCall , 1992 /
For sociology graduates there are career opportunities in many different areas—Edinburgh undergraduate prospectus, 1993. If the exact meanings of the other words given above are needed, use them; otherwise this use of different is a useful one.
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differential

is a noun and adjective with several technical and general meanings. As an adjective it is used principally in combinations such as differential rates of interest, which are not just different rates of interest but rates based on quantifiable differences (such as the type of investment). In the same way, a differential is a determining factor based on some difference, and is not the difference itself. Examples:
(noun) Differentials do exist between blue- and white-collar workers, but they appear to be narrower than in most Western companies—B. Eccleston , 1989 /
(adjective) As a result the effects of differential mortality rates for men and women are exacerbated—C. Ungerson , 1991. It should not be used to mean simply ‘distinguishing’ or ‘making a difference’, as in
A small event like mother-in-law coming to stay can have a differential impact on newly marrieds—J. Mattinson , 1989

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differently abled

is a politically correct alternative for disabled. See POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

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diffuse

see DEFUSE.

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diffusible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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digest

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun (meaning ‘a summary’) and with stress on the second syllable as a verb (meaning ‘to absorb (food) in the body’).

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digraph

is a combination of two letters which together represent a single speech sound, e.g. dg in judge and ea in head. Certain digraphs are printed as ligatures, in which the two letters are joined, e.g. æ.

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dike

see DYKE.

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dilatation, dilation

mean ‘making or becoming wider’ (from Latin latus meaning ‘wide’). Dilatation is the normal word in medical contexts, whereas dilation is more usual in general use. The verb is dilate.

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dilatory

meaning ‘given to or causing delay’, is pronounced dil--t-ri. The same stress pattern applies, rather more awkwardly, to the derivative forms dilatorily and dilatoriness.

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dilemma

is now more usually pronounced with the first syllable rhyming with die. The correct meaning is ‘a choice between two undesirable alternatives’ and has its origin in rhetoric and logic, where it relates to a special kind of argument involving two unfavourable choices. It should not be used as a mere synonym of difficulty, problem, and similar words, although overlap in meanings will often blur the distinction. Examples:
(correct) The dilemma is logically insoluble: we cannot sacrifice either freedom or the organization needed for its defence— Berlin , 1949 /
It is possible to raise only one cheer for user charges as a means of avoiding the dilemma of cutting public services or increasing taxes—Times, 1976 /
(questionable) Every pontoon player will understand the dilemma of the Tory chiefs. They are undecided whether to stick or twist on a relatively modest hand of cards—Guardian, 1972 /
He was caught in a dilemma, a choice between doing a show or going on a much-needed vacation—D. Halberstam , 1979 /
Three corridors: one to the left, one ahead, one to the right…‘Dilemma. Left, right or centre?’— Bogarde , 1980. A moral dilemma is a choice between two morally questionable courses of action, and its use is fairly self-determining:
He…warned present and future White House aides to be on the alert for…moral dilemmas that may arise while serving a President—Time, 1977.

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dilettante

meaning ‘someone with superficial or affected knowledge of a subject’, is spelt with one l and two ts, and has plural forms dilettanti or dilettantes.

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dingo

a wild Australian dog, has the plural form dingoes.

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diocese

is pronounced diy--sis, and the plural dioceses is pronounced either diy--seez or (less commonly) diy--si-siz.

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diphtheria

the bacterial disease, is spelt with -ph- and should be pronounced dif-, not dip-.

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diphthong

meaning a speech sound in which the articulation changes from one vowel to another, as in coin, loud, pain, spoke, etc., is spelt with -ph- and should be pronounced dif-, not dip-. Diphthongs are a common feature of English pronunciation.

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direct, directly.

Because direct is an adverb as well as an adjective, it gets in the way of directly, which is an adverb only. Directly is used (1) before an adjective (They were directly responsible for the accident), and (2) to mean ‘immediately’, both of time and position (I'll come directly / Directly after this, he was taken away / The house is directly opposite). Direct is usual when it means ‘by a direct route’ or ‘without any intermediary’ (Some flights go direct from Heathrow to Los Angeles / You can buy them direct from the manufacturer). In informal contexts, directly can be used as a conjunction meaning ‘as soon as, the moment after’ (She came directly I called).

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direct object.

In grammar, a direct object is the noun or pronoun or phrase that is directly affected by the action of a transitive verb. In the sentence They bought a new house, a new house is the direct object of the verb bought. See also INDIRECT OBJECT, INTRANSITIVE AND TRANSITIVE VERBS.

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dirigible

meaning ‘capable of being guided’, is spelt -ible not -able. It is also used as a noun, meaning ‘a dirigible machine’. See -ABLE, -IBLE

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dis-

is an active prefix which continues to form nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, with the meaning ‘not’ or ‘the reverse’ with reference to the meaning of the word it is attached to. Notable 20c formations included disaffiliation (1926), disarmingly (1901), disincentive (1946), disinformation (1955), disquieten (1921). Note that disfunctional is a variant of dysfunctional (formed on the prefix dys- meaning ‘bad, badly’) and is not connected with this prefix dis-.

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disassemble

see DISSEMBLE.

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disassociate

meaning ‘to end an association with’, was passed over by Fowler (1926) but was described by Gowers (1965) as a needless variant of dissociate. It is still found nonetheless, especially when the reversal of associate is emphatic:
Any other woman would have disassociated herself, gone where she wasn't known, changed her name—A.L. Barker , 1987 /
The Foreign Office at once issued a statement disassociating the Government from the idea—Spectator, 1988.

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disastrous

should be pronounced as three syllables (di-zah-strss), not as four (di-zah-st-rs).

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disbar

see DEBAR.

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disc, disk.

The normal spelling in BrE changed from disk at the time of the original OED (1896) to disc by the time of OED2 (1989); in AmE it has remained disk. In computer terminology, however, the American spelling is dominant everywhere (as in hard disk, disk drive, etc.), but in other technical applications, including compact disc and disc camera, it is spelt with a c, not k.

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discernible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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disciplinary

is pronounced with stress on the first or third syllable, depending partly on its position in a sentence.

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disco

is a shortened (and now standard) form of discothèque, meaning ‘a club or party with recorded pop music for dancing’. The plural form is discos, and as a verb, meaning ‘to dance at a disco’, it has the forms discoes, discoed, discoing.

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discomfit, discomfort.

Discomfit in current English means ‘to thwart the plans of’ (its original meaning) or ‘to embarrass or disconcert’. In its weaker second meaning, in which it occurs most often in the form discomfited, it overlaps with the unrelated word discomfort, which means ‘to make uneasy’, and in the normal flow of speech it is not always possible—for speaker or hearer—to distinguish them. Examples: (discomfit)
I should have corrected her, but, discomfited, missed the right moment— Lurie , 1969 /
Widger was not wholly without Schadenfreude at seeing his informative colleague discomfited for once— Crispin , 1977 /
He turned away from her, discomfited at her glance—L. Appignanesi , 1992 /
(discomfort) His Section's Mediterranean operations, where his cheerful courage discomforted the Germans and Italians, are dealt with in later chapters—J. Ladd , 1979 /
The show, entitled ‘Banality’, was eerie, discomforting, and seemed to offend nearly everyone—The Face, 1990.

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discontent

meaning ‘lack of contentment’, is pronounced with the stress on the last syllable. Shakespeare's famous opening lines from Richard III, Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York, have provided one of the most prolific of modern political clichés, winter of discontent, first used with reference to industrial unrest in Britain in 1978–9.

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discount

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun, and with stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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discourse

is pronounced with stress on the first syllable as a noun, and with stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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discover, invent.

To discover something is to find something that was hidden or not known; to invent something is to devise it by human effort: Halley discovered a comet and Galileo invented a telescope. Information as well as physical things can be discovered, and in this case a that-clause is common: They discovered that they had been underpaid for months. Similarly, excuses, stories, etc., can be invented, although a that-clause is not permissible.

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discreet, discrete

have the same origin in the Latin verb discernere meaning ‘to sift’, but their meanings are very different. Discreet means ‘circumspect in speech or action’, can be used of people or things, and is common as an adverb discreetly:
A public telephone stood in one corner of the discreetly lit foyer—R. Busby , 1971 /
I noticed a few discreet establishments that looked as unauthentic, or as authentic according to your viewpoint, as New York's massage parlours—Times, 1972. Discrete means ‘distinct, separate’:
Notwithstanding the vagueness of its aims, social work became sanctified as a discrete discipline under the Social Services Act of 1970—Times Literary Supplement, 1980.

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discus

has the plural form discuses.

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discussible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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disenfranchise, disfranchise

meaning ‘to deprive of a vote’, have both been in the language for several centuries. At present disenfranchise is the more common of the two. Both verbs should be spelt -ise, not -ize. See -ISE.

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disguise verb

is spelt -ise, not -ize. See -ISE.

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disinformation

a more sinister equivalent of propaganda, is first attested in 1939 in relation to a German ‘Disinformation Service’. Since then it has usually been applied to the activities of various intelligence groups during the cold war:
One technique of the Central Intelligence Agency…is disinformation…The Agency has expensive facilities for producing fake documents and other means for misleading foreigners—New Republic, 1975.

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disingenuous

meaning ‘insincere, having secret motives’, is the opposite of ingenuous meaning ‘innocent, honest’, and is applied to people and their actions:
The somewhat disingenuous slogan of ‘ban the bomb’— Macmillan , 1971 /
I should be disingenuous if I pretended not to be flattered— Golding , 1982 /
Every feminist critic has encountered the archly disingenuous question: ‘What exactly is feminist criticism?’—B. Bergonzi , 1990 /
‘I thought Amy wasn't here much,’ said Theodora disingenuously—D.M. Greenwood , 1991.

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disinterest.

1 The noun is 17c and has two current meanings corresponding to those of the more commonly used word DISINTERESTED. These are (1) impartiality, (2) lack of interest. A third meaning, ‘something contrary to one's advantage’, is now virtually obsolete. The first meaning is found in earlier writing
(We here see Morris working, with entire disinterest, at his work—Saturday Review, 1896), but the second is now far more common, despite the controversy attached to the corresponding meaning of disinterested
(The general reaction…was a mixture of curiosity, disinterest, fear, and embarrassment—M. Morse , 1965 /
He misread my quietude…as either agreement or disagreement. It was neither. Pure, unadulterated disinterest— Achebe , 1987 /
Despite British radio's disinterest in new music, and the reduced influence of the music press, I believe real talent will eventually get through—N. York, 1991). At present the best course is to avoid the word in this meaning, either by using the more explicit phrase lack of interest or by rephrasing. (A form uninterest is occasionally found but is not generally current:
She had no idea…whether all men went through periods of uninterest— Faulks , 1989.)

2 The verb disinterest, meaning ‘to rid of interest or concern’ is marked ‘now rare’ in the OED but there are signs of its revival:
I try to disinterest myself from politics— Huxley , 1923.
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disinterested

1 The use of disinterested to mean ‘uninterested’, although not a problem to Fowler (1926), is a keyword in current debates about correct usage. Those who rage most furiously are not always aware, however, that the word has changed its principal meaning several times during the nearly four centuries of its existence. It began by meaning ‘not interested’, then about 1650 developed the meaning ‘impartial, unbiased’, and has more recently tended to revert to its older meaning. These meanings reflect the different meanings of interest, as differently used in They showed no interest in the idea and They have an interest in the business.

2 The alternative word uninterested has had an opposite history, originally meaning ‘impartial’ and later meaning ‘not interested’, although it shows no sign of returning to its earlier meaning. The problem then lies with disinterested. Informed opinion is divided into those who believe that a useful distinction, between disinterested = impartial and uninterested = not interested, is being eroded, and those who are content to let disinterested serve as a synonym of uninterested as long as other words are available for the other meaning (impartial, neutral, objective, unbiased, unprejudiced).
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3 The following examples of disinterested show the strong presence of both meanings in current usage: (= impartial)
Many competent and disinterested experts on world poverty often stress the sterility of the East-West confrontation—Encounter, 1981 /
She could imagine the coroner's disinterested voice—J. Bedford , 1984 /
But of course none of the observers of twelfth-century England was disinterested— Fraser , 1988 /
The doctor ran her hands round again, with the same disinterested precision— Maitland , 1990 /
The giant palms lining the road inspected me disinterestedly as I coasted along trying to find the Alcade Apartments—P. Chester , 1990 / (= not interested: note that in this meaning disinterested is often followed by in, on the analogy of uninte.rested)
Washington ensured that he would appear to be what in fact he was, a republican gentleman disinterested in power—Times Literary Supplement, 1988 /
Many women complain of feeling chronically tired, tied to the home, unattractive, disinterested in sex and generally overwhelmed during early parenthood—J. Mattinson , 1989 /
She remains stubbornly neat and unadorned, disinterested in fashion—S. Johnson , 1990 (Australia).
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4 The recommendation must be to restrict disinterested to the meaning ‘impartial’ and to use alternative words when necessary to avoid possible misunderstanding. Uninterested remains the standard and recommended form in the meaning ‘lacking interest’:
I wouldn't say that—he was totally uninterested in both of us— Greene , 1980 /
He gave…a certain impression of being uninterested in people except at an agreeably superficial level—D. Fraser , 1982 /
To viewers who are uninterested in politics, it was worse than the World Cup—Observer, 1990.
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disk

see DISC.

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dislike verb.

The normal construction is with an object, which can be a noun (We dislike modern art) or a verbal noun (They dislike being absent). It is non-standard to follow dislike with a to-infinitive, although this is sometimes found:
She was hounded by a fear of imminent poverty that made her dislike to spend any money at all—B. Guest , 1985.

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dismissible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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disorient, disorientate.

Both verbs have a long history (disorient being first recorded in 1655, disorientate in 1704) and both are still in use meaning ‘to confuse (someone) as to whereabouts’. In most contexts disorient, being shorter, is preferable. The noun is disorientation.

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disparate

is in regular use in two main meanings, (1) ‘essentially different or diverse in kind’ (disparate creeds / disparate modes of thought) and (2) ‘unequal’ (people of disparate ages / countries of disparate size). The first meaning is the more common, although they tend to overlap. Disparate can qualify a singular (usually collective) noun or a plural noun:
Most of the conglomerates which were made up of a disparate collection of businesses have failed—D. Oates , 1989 /
Machines can keep the disparate parts of such a system co-ordinated much better than men can—Economist, 1991.

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dispatch

is the preferred form, not despatch (which was first recorded, probably in error, by Dr. Johnson ).

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dispel

means ‘to drive away in different directions, to disperse’, and is used literally (dispel clouds / dispel fog etc.) and with generalized abstract nouns (dispel fear / notions / dispel suspicions). It is not idiomatic to use dispel with an entity preceded by a or an that cannot be regarded as divisible ( dispel an accusation / dispel a rumour); in these cases alternatives such as rebut, refute, etc. should be used.

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dispensable

is spelt -able, not -ible. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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dispenser

is spelt -er, not -or.

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dispersal, dispersion

are both used to mean ‘dispersing, spreading’, but in non-technical meanings dispersal refers more to the process and dispersion to the result. The following examples show the difference of emphasis:
More efficient dispersal of sulphur dioxide at source cannot be regarded as an acceptable long term solution—I.M. Campbell , 1977 /
Unlike the dispersals of the teacher-training college libraries,…those from the older Universities are frequently discussed and the causes and problems are widely realised—W.J. West , 1992 /
In Yugoslavia,…there is a wide dispersion of incomes between different regions.—H. Lydall , 1989 /
It is wrong…to poison the sea with materials whose dispersion is difficult to control—Economist, 1993.

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disposable

is spelt -able, not -ible. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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disposal, disposition.

In general, disposal is the noun corresponding to dispose of (= get rid of) and disposition corresponds to dispose (= arrange). So the disposition of the furniture refers to the way the furniture is laid out, whereas the disposal of the furniture refers to its removal. Disposal also occurs in the fixed expression at one's disposal, and disposition has the special meaning ‘temperament, natural tendency’.

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disputable

is now normally pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

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dispute

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable both as a noun and as a verb. A tendency to stress the noun on the first syllable, especially by northern trade-union leaders in the 1970s and 1980s has not established itself in standard English.

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dissect

means ‘to cut into pieces’, not ‘to cut into two’; in other words, it is formed on the prefix dis-, not di-. The pronunciation is therefore di-sekt, not diy-sekt, although the second is often heard, probably under the influence of bisect.

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dissemble

means ‘to pretend; to disguise or conceal’ and should not be used to mean ‘to take apart’ as if it were a shorter form of disassemble. Example of correct use:
One of nature's innocents. He couldn't dissemble if he tried—P. O'Donnell , 1971.

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dissociate

is first recorded in 1623, slightly later than its variant disassociate, and is now the more favoured form. It is followed by from and is often used reflexively (with oneself etc.):
The mother immediately dissociated herself from this conversation—V. Glendenning , 1989 /
He is at pains to dissociate Reagan's party from the one he helped steer to victory in 1968—New York Review of Books, 1990.

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dissoluble, dissolvable

are both pronounced with the stress on their second syllables. Dissoluble is the general word meaning ‘capable of being separated into elements or atoms’ and dissolvable is normally restricted to its meaning ‘able to be dissolved in liquid’.

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distensible

means ‘capable of being distended or stretched’; the alternative form distensible is now obsolete.

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distil

is now spelt with one l in BrE and with two ls in AmE. The inflections in both varieties are distilled, distilling, and the noun derivatives are distillation, distiller, and distillery.

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distinct, distinctive.

1 Both words are related to the verb distinguish, but distinct means essentially ‘separate, different’ (The word has several distinct meanings) or ‘unmistakable, decided’ (She has a distinct impression of being watched), and is closer to distinguishable, whereas distinctive means ‘characteristic, identifying’ (The bird has distinctive black and white wing markings) and is closer to distinguishing. Distinct is often followed by from (Holiness is distinct from goodness), and this construction is common in the prepositional phrase as distinct from.

2 Examples of both words: (distinct)
Scrambling, as distinct from fell walking and rock climbing, is a Cinderella of a sport—Guardian Weekly, 1978 /
It was a comparatively shabby office…Euram Marketing gave a distinct impression of watching the pennies—G. Markstein , 1981 /
Software designers have used two distinct methods in their attempt to provide the perfect package—Micro Software Magazine, 1982 /
I can still hear her distinct, rather emphatic, very self-assured speech—R. Cobb , 1983 /
(distinctive) Everyone who knew the Temple School will remember the distinctive smell of Freddie's office— Fitzgerald , 1982 /
Her main ‘discovery’ was the way in which Marx had challenged all previous political traditions—D. May , 1986 /
Smooth, wedge-shaped styling makes for a distinctive appearance—Times, 1980.
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distinctly

as in distinctly interesting, belongs to the outer realms of Fowler's LOST CAUSES as a 1920s vogue word he much despised, less on linguistic grounds than because of the condescending attitude it revealed in the user, especially when used in combination with an otherwise complimentary word such as fine or majestic. Fowler had a point, and he would probably find confirmation of his opinion in more recent use, which often coyly distances the user from what is being said:
That night the singing was distinctly husky and out of tune—J.B. Morton , 1974 /
He had a distinctly Arabic look about him, slicked-down black hair—N. Thornburg , 1976 /
Religious references …to the Virgin Mary behaving in a way that is distinctly vampirish have been glossed over—N. Tucker , 1981.

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distribute

should be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, although stress on the first syllable is increasingly heard.

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distributive

in grammar means ‘referring to each individual of a number or class’. Distributive adjectives and pronouns are words such as each, every, either, neither. A distributive plural is one that corresponds to individuals separately rather than jointly, as in They wear gowns on formal occasions, meaning each person wears one gown. In such contexts a singular noun is often idiomatic, and one could equally say They wear a gown on formal occasions.

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distributor

is spelt -or in all its meanings, not -er.

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distrust, mistrust

are largely interchangeable both as nouns and as verbs, although distrust is more common. Examples: (distrust)
He was labelled as a diehard and a bigot, when he actually distrusted the diehards and was himself distrusted by the bigots—J. Ramsden , 1978 /
Just as quickly came the deep bitter distrust of all white people—M. Darke , 1989 /
(mistrust) He didn't mistrust her exactly, there was just something he couldn't get to the bottom of— Pilling , 1987 /
Pornography and a fear of rape play a huge part in girls' mistrust of their own bodies—J. Dawson , 1990.

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ditransitive.

A ditransitive verb is one that appears to have two objects, as in He gave the baby a bottle (= He gave a bottle to the baby; although suppression of a preposition is less clear when pronouns are involved as in He gave her a bottle and in idiomatic uses such as He gave the girl a kiss) and They envied him his good fortune.

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diurnal

is not an ordinary synonym of daily but has special technical meanings (especially in medicine and the life sciences) opposed to nocturnal:
Melatonin controls diurnal and seasonal adjustments of activity in many species—Nature, 1970 /
During the last two hundred years, the European continent has seen a period of intensifying persecution of the diurnal birds of prey—M. Bijleveld , 1974.

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dive verb.

In BrE the standard past tense is dived. In the 19c dove occurred in British and American dialect use and it remains a regular use alongside dived in northern parts of America and in Canada. It appears to have been first used in print by Longfellow (1855): Straight into the river Kwasind Plunged as if he were an otter, Dove as if he were a beaver. A modern American example:
The plane ducked and dove, the lights went out—New Yorker, 1989.

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diverse, divers.

Both words once shared the meaning now confined to diverse, i.e. ‘varied, unalike’, qualifying singular and plural nouns, as in
Why is it so diverse, so varied in its character?—J. Houston , 1990 /
Can a single author cover the diverse techniques of physical biochemistry?—New Scientist, 1991. Divers now means ‘several, sundry’ without the notion of variety:
Evelyn Underhill (author of divers fat books on mysticism)—D. Davie , 1991.

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divest.

The traditional uses of divest as a somewhat formal word meaning ‘to undress’ and, in the reflexive form divest oneself of, ‘to dispossess oneself of’, have been joined since the 1950s, first in AmE, and then elsewhere, by the financial meanings ‘to sell off (a subsidiary company)’ and ‘to cease to hold (an investment)’. The corresponding noun is divestment:
A 1966 decree requiring Von's Grocery Stores to divest a certain number of required stores…resulted in divestment of its forty least profitable outlets—New York Law Journal, 1973 /
She advises American people to divest their investments in South Africa—Christian Science Monitor, 1986.

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divisible

is the current word meaning ‘able to be divided’, not normally dividable.

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divorcee

is the established word in either gender for someone who has been divorced. The French forms divorcé and divorcée are also used for a man and a woman respectively, and are useful when a gender-specific term is needed.

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do verb.

1 GENERAL. Do is one of the most productive and complex verbs in English, although a great deal of its use comes naturally to speakers of English as a first language. Essentially, do has two functions:
(1) as an ordinary verb (I am doing my work), and
(2) as an auxiliary verb forming tenses and aspects of other verbs (I do like swimming / What do you think?).

2 AS AN ORDINARY VERB. Do is used as an ordinary verb, with or without an object, in a vast range of meanings connected with activity of all kinds. The following examples are typical but not comprehensive: I'll see what the children are doing (= carry out, perform) / Shall we do a casserole? (= make) / She did chemistry at university (= studied) / The garden needs doing (= deal with, attend to) / Have you done your teeth? (= clean) / Do as I do (= behave, act) / The school is doing Macbeth this year (= perform) / We did 100 m.p.h. (= reach, achieve). There are also many colloquial uses which are best kept for informal conversation, e.g.: We'll do the art gallery tomorrow (= visit) / They were done for shoplifting (= prosecuted); and idiomatic expressions (It'll do no harm / A hat does nothing for me / This will do us fine etc.)
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3 AS AN AUXILIARY VERB. In this role, do serves several key functions in relation to other verbs:
a Forming negative statements (either as do not or as don't) and questions in which the main verb is a plain infinitive without to: They do not want to come / I don't like it much / Do they want to come? / Don't you like it much? / Do they not want to come?
b Forming stronger or more emphatic positive statements: I do like your garden / If you do come, you can stay with us / We did enjoy ourselves / Do remember the shops are closed tomorrow.
c Forming constructions in which the subject follows the verb (inversion): Never did he want to try that again / Only after a long wait did he get to see the doctor / So angry did this make him that he had to leave the room.
d In so-called ‘tag questions’: They don't like dancing, do they? / We met at the party, didn't we?
e In constructions in which do (or do so) stands for a main verb to avoid having to repeat it (called a substitutive function): My wife likes travelling much more than I do / We said we'd buy one if you did too / We get on well and have done [so] for years / ‘He said I could doss down here.’ ‘He couldn't have done.’ Note that uses of do following another auxiliary verb, as in the last example, are less common in AmE (which prefers We get on well and have for years).
f There is also the emphatic construction, not recorded before the 18c, in which do (normally does or did) stands at the head of a subordinate phrase:
She likes the old books, Dickens and Jane Austen, does my old lady— Amis , 1988 /
He does have a sense of humour does Mr Marr— Williams , 1992. This use is clearly conversational and should not be used in more formal contexts.
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4 DON'T HAVE = HAVEN'T GOT. Don't have and do you have are more usual in AmE than the corresponding BrE haven't got and have you got, as in the following pairs of examples: (AmE) I don't have any money / (BrE) I haven't got any money / (AmE) Do you have the time? / (BrE) Have you got the time? Don't have is spreading into other varieties of English but still retains its American flavour:
We don't have any beer. Just red wine.—New Yorker, 1986 (US)/
But you don't have a car—M. Duckworth , 1986 (New Zealand)/
We don't have that kind of thing in my house, man—A. Brink , 1988 (South Africa)/
‘Don't you have central heating?’ Clare asked—F. King , 1988 (UK).
Question: Have you got a room for the night? Answer: Yes, we do. This apparently illogical use of do, replacing have as the auxiliary verb, arises because the question, implicitly answered is Do you have a room for the night? It is a common pattern in AmE, and causes less surprise to British speakers now than formerly, since it has also become a feature of BrE. Note, finally, that Fowler's argument (1926) for rejecting do have and don't have in uses referring to particular instances (i.e. Do you have a newspaper? [at this moment] as opposed to Do you have sugar [habitually]?) was one of his weaker propositions and ignored the force of American usage.
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5 CONTRACTED FORMS. The contracted forms don't (= do not), didn't (= did not), and doesn't (= does not), though not recorded in print before the 17c, are now customary in the representation of speech, and are gradually spreading into less formal business English, although it is best to avoid them in descriptive prose and in any writing intended for recipients not known to the writer.
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6 I DON'T THINK. This is so idiomatic that its slight illogicality, once the cause of disapproval, now goes unnoticed. When you say I don't think I've ever met anyone like you, you mean to say I think I've never met anyone like you; but the second alternative, though possible, is far less natural in ordinary conversation.
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7 NON-STANDARD USES. There are three non-standard uses of do which should be mentioned:
a done = did. This is common in regional and uneducated speech in Britain and elsewhere:
I think it done him good— Twain , 1873 /
I never done anybody any harm— Listener, 1969.
b don't = doesn't: He don't do much work. This is generally regarded as illiterate.
c done (= have already) is confined to American dialect:
I don't know what you need with another boy. You done got four—E.T. Wallace , 1945.
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do noun.

The plural form is dos or do's.

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do

(the musical note). Use DOH.

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dock

in BrE is an artificially enclosed body of water for the loading, unloading, and repair of ships; in the plural it means ‘a dockyard’. In AmE, however, a dock is a ship's berth or wharf.

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docudrama

is a word first recorded in AmE in 1961 for a dramatized documentary film, and it has since spread into BrE as, no doubt, will other docu- words such as docusoap (1990) and docutainment (1983; see also INFOTAINMENT).

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dodo

has the plural form dodos.

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dogged

is pronounced as one syllable when the meaning is as in He was dogged by misfortune and as two syllables (dog-id) when the meaning is as in He is a dogged fighter (= tenacious, determined).

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doh

is the preferred spelling for the musical note, not do.

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doily

meaning ‘a napkin’, is spelt like this, not doiley or doyly. It is named after a 17c London draper called Doiley.

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doll's house

is the normal form in BrE, but dollhouse is more usual in AmE.

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Domesday

or in full Domesday Book, is the record of the lands of England made on the orders of William I in 1086. It is pronounced with the first syllable as in doom, and is a Middle English variant of the word doomsday meaning ‘the day of the Last Judgement’ (because the book was to be a final authority).

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dominate, domineer.

Dominate means primarily ‘to exercise control or influence over’ and is used transitively (with an object). Domineer is a more judgemental word meaning ‘to behave in an arrogant and overbearing way’ and is often used with over or in the adjectival form domineering:
The term ballbuster…is a graphic, forceful expletive, typically applied to a domineering female—Verbatim, 1975.

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domino

has the plural form dominoes.

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donate

meaning ‘to give (money etc.) voluntarily’, is a back-formation from donation and spread rapidly from American to British usage:
She could donate certain organs to assist in research or spare-part surgery— Pym , 1977 /
The Silver Wink, donated by Prince Philip, is awarded to the winner of an annual elimination tournament [in tiddlywinks] for universities—F.R. Shapiro , 1979.

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doomsday

see DOMESDAY.

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double entendre

means ‘a word or phrase open to two interpretations, one usually risqué or indelicate’. The equivalent term in French is double entente, which is also occasionally used in the same sense in English.

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double negative.

1
He never did no harm to no one—The Archers (radio broadcast), 1987. This, and other double negative constructions, can easily be found in all varieties of English used throughout the world. It is commonly associated with poorly educated East London English and Black English spoken in the US:
I don't take no money from no white folks—Chicago Tribune, 1990.

2 It surprises many people, for whom double negatives are self-evidently wrong, to know that they were once an integral feature of standard English, and are to be found in Chaucer, Shakespeare, and other writers up to the 17c. For reasons that are no longer discoverable, the logic then changed: instead of compounding each other, a sequence of negatives came to be regarded as self-cancelling; in other words, an arithmetical argument replaced a linguistic one. Thereafter, playwrights put double negatives into the conversation of vulgar speakers, and 18c grammarians roundly condemned them.
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3 In current English, a type of double negative is used with intentional cancelling effect, as a kind of figure of speech as in It has not gone unnoticed (= It has been noticed). On the other hand, double negatives used to reinforce each other are taken as sure signs of a poor education and are rarely tolerated in normal speech. However, since attitudes have changed remarkably in the past on this issue, they may well change again.
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4 Double negatives also occur, especially in speech, in uses of the type You can't not go (= you cannot consider not going, i.e. you have to go), in which not go is effectively a unified concept expressed in a verb phrase.
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double passive

see PASSIVE 2B.

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double possessive.

This is a construction such as a friend of my father's and an admirer of hers, in which the possessive state is indicated by of and the possessive form of the noun father or pronoun hers. It is well established in English alongside the simpler form (a friend of my father), and is useful in avoiding ambiguity by distinguishing between (for example) a picture of the king (= an actual portrait of the king) and a picture of the king's (= a picture owned by the king). Use of the double possessive is normally limited to nouns and pronouns denoting people, and so you would not normally say (for example) an admirer of the British Museum's. The use is also less idiomatic with nouns, as distinct from pronouns, when the relationship implied by of is not fully possessive, as in an admirer of my mother (= someone who admires my mother) as compared with an admirer of my mother's (= an admirer my mother has). But you would always say an admirer of hers and not an admirer of her.

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double subject.

This is a name for a construction in which a noun subject is followed by a supporting pronoun, as in Longfellow's The skipper he stood beside the helm. The OED describes this use as ‘common in ballad style and now in illiterate speech’. Examples:
From time to time I clean. Mrs Pollypot she don't like cleaning.— Wesley , 1983 /
My cousin he didn't go to college— Williams (citing a second-language learner), 1987.

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doubling of final consonants in inflection.

The table below explains the differing practice in English shown by the forms hotter, enrolled, offered, targeted, in which the root word (hot, enrol, offer, target) ends in a single consonant. Practice can also differ with the same word in BrE (e.g. traveller) and AmE (e.g. traveler). A key factor is the position of the stress in each case, and it is therefore useful to distinguish between words of one syllable and words of more than one syllable. The inflections and suffixes which affect the spelling in these ways are: -ed and -ing (in verbs); -er and -est (in adjectives); -er (forming agent nouns such as traveller); and -y (forming adjectives such as rickety or adverbs such as initially).
1 WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE. Words ending in a single consonant double the consonant when adding any of the suffixes given above:

VERBS

beg

begged

begging

beggar

clap

clapped

clapping

dab

dabbed

dabbing

squat

squatted

squatting

squatter

throb

throbbed

throbbing

rub

rubbed

rubbing

An exception is bus (verb, = take people by bus), which has forms bused, busing.

ADJECTIVES

fat

fatter

fattest

fatty

glad

gladder

gladdest

wet

wetter

wettest

When the final consonant is w, x, or y this is not doubled:

VERBS

tow

towed

towing

vex

vexed

vexing

toy

toyed

toying

When the final consonant is preceded by more than one vowel (other than u in qu), the consonant is not normally doubled:

VERBS

boil

boiled

boiling

boiler

clean

cleaned

cleaning

cleaner

squeal

squealed

squealing

squealer

ADJECTIVES

clean

cleaner

cleanest

cleanly

loud

louder

loudest

loudly

2 WORDS OF MORE THAN ONE SYLLABLE. Words ending in a single consonant double the consonant when the stress is placed on the final syllable:

VERBS

allot

allotted

allotting

begin

beginning

beginner

occur

occurred

occurring

occurrence

prefer

preferred

preferring

preference [sic]

Note the change of stress in preference, which affects the spelling. But the same exception as above applies to w, x, and y:

VERBS

guffaw

guffawed

guffawing

relax

relaxed

relaxing

array

arrayed

arraying

Words that are not stressed on the final syllable do not double the consonant unless it is an l:

VERBS

audit

audited

auditing

auditor

ballot

balloted

balloting

benefit

benefited

benefiting

bias

biased

biasing

bigot

bigoted

blanket

blanketed

blanketing

budget

budgeted

budgeting

carpet

carpeted

carpeting

chirrup

chirruped

chirruping

cosset

cosseted

cosseting

crochet

crocheted

crocheting

ferret

ferreted

ferreting

fillet

filleted

filleting

focus

focused

focusing

gallop

galloped

galloping

gossip

gossiped

gossiping

hiccup

hiccuped

hiccuping

leaflet

leafleted

leafleting

market

marketed

marketing

offer

offered

offering

picket

picketed

picketing

plummet

plummeted

plummeting

profit

profited

profiting

ricochet

ricocheted

ricocheting

rivet

riveted

riveting

rocket

rocketed

rocketing

target

targeted

targeting

thicken

thickened

thickening

trumpet

trumpeted

trumpeting

visit

visited

visiting

visitor

vomit

vomited

vomiting

Exceptions in BrE:

input

inputting

output

outputting

kidnap

kidnapped

kidnapping

kidnapper

worship

worshipped

worshipping

worshipper

In AmE the forms are usually kidnaped, worshiping, etc.
In BrE words ending in t in the above list are the ones most likely to appear with a doubled consonant (under the influence of fitted, fitting), i.e. budgetted, leafletting, etc. Focus also sometimes inflects focussed, focussing. However, it is best to keep to the basic rule in these cases too.
Words ending in -l normally double the l regardless of where the stress is placed in the word:

VERBS

annul

annulled

annulling

appal

appalled

appalling

cancel

cancelled

cancelling

channel

channelled

channelling

chisel

chiselled

chiselling

counsel

counselled

counselling

counsellor

dial

dialled

dialling

dishevel

dishevelled

dishevelling

enrol

enrolled

enrolling

extol

extolled

extolling

fulfil

fulfilled

fulfilling

grovel

grovelled

grovelling

groveller

impel

impelled

impelling

initial

initialled

initialling

instil

instilled

instilling

label

labelled

labelling

level

levelled

levelling

leveller

libel

libelled

libelling

marshal

marshalled

marshalling

model

modelled

modelling

panel

panelled

panelling

quarrel

quarrelled

quarrelling

revel

revelled

revelling

reveller

rival

rivalled

rivalling

shovel

shovelled

shovelling

travel

travelled

travelling

traveller

tunnel

tunnelled

tunnelling

ADJECTIVES

cruel

crueller

cruellest

Exceptions:

VERBS

appeal

appealed

appealing

conceal

concealed

concealing

reveal

revealed

revealing

parallel

paralleled

paralleling

In AmE the final -l is not usually doubled:

BRE

AME

(always)

(usually)

cancel

cancelled

canceled

cancelling

canceling

cruel

crueller

crueler

cruelly

cruelly [sic]

dial

dialled

dialed

dialling

dialing

duel

duelling

dueling

jewel

jeweller

jeweler

jewellery

jewelry [sic]

label

labelled

labeled

labelling

labeling

marvel

marvelled

marveled

marvelling

marveling

travel

travelled

traveled

travelling

traveling

traveller

traveler

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doubt. verb

1 I doubt whether he'll come and I doubt if he'll come are the standard constructions when doubt is used in the affirmative to mean ‘think it unlikely’. When doubt is used in the negative to mean ‘think it likely’, a that-clause is normal: I don't doubt that he'll come. The logic behind this difference is that when doubt is in the affirmative it implies uncertainty in the following clause (which is consistent with use of whether or if), where as when it is used in the negative it implies probability in the following clause (which is more consistent with that).

2 This rationale lies behind the objection many people have to the increasing 20c use of doubt in the affirmative followed by a that-clause or by an object clause without a conjunction. This is commonly regarded as an Americanism, but it is attested in BrE use at the end of the 19c. Examples: (with that)
Schiller doubted that a poetic measure could be formed capable of holding Goethe's plan—B. Taylor , 1871 /
I doubt that the White House is responsible for this rash of tittle-tattle— Cooke , 1981 /
I doubt that the okapi which died…would agree with Mark Twain that ‘Wagner is not as bad as he sounds’—Independent, 1994 /
(with object clause) He doubted Ferrari would sue him—New Yorker, 1986 /
I doubt there was anything really wrong with him— Brookner , 1992.
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doubtful, dubious.

1 The constructions that follow doubtful correspond to the pattern outlined for doubt above, with whether and if still dominant but a that-clause now increasingly common:
It is doubtful that in the right-to-life controversy the rights of the unborn child will be inviolate—A.E. Wilkerson , 1973 /
It is doubtful whether the Peloponnesian detachment was dispatched during the actual celebration of the Olympic games—Classical Quarterly, 1976 /
Murray was doubtful as to whether this would be enough—N. Tranter , 1987 /
Even if Amelia McLean had made more ambitious claims, it is doubtful whether anyone would have listened to her—S. Reynolds , 1989 /
It was doubtful if Midge would ever again sleep in their old bedroom—D. Rutherford , 1990 /
It seems doubtful that such an item would have been produced much after c.1550—J. Litten , 1991.

2 Doubtful and dubious overlap in meaning but they should not be confused. Doubtful implies uncertainty about facts, whereas dubious implies suspicion about value or genuineness. Both words can be used of people or situations, but dubious is not normally followed by any of the constructions described above in relation to doubt and doubtful. The following examples (in addition to those already given) will clarify the differences between doubtful and dubious:
(doubtful) We're always a little doubtful about statements that have to be forced out of witnesses by revealing the extent of our prior information—R. Hill , 1987 /
‘Are you sure?’ she said doubtfully—T. Pratchett , 1990 /
If your tap water is of doubtful quality then you must be prepared to remedy the situation or use rain water instead—Practical Fish-keeping, 1992 /
Then meeting Sophie's anxious gaze, she said briskly, ‘Now don't look so doubtful.’—M. Bowring , 1993 /
(dubious) We still had the dubious privilege of representing two ‘resting’ actors—M. Babson , 1971 /
Dreaming of luxury, of the quick buck dubiously acquired—R. Barnard , 1980 /
Christine was a little dubious about Judith using brown eyeshadow, worrying that her eyes might end up looking bloodshot—She, 1989 /
The right of people to know the human cost was overruled on the dubious grounds that this information could help the enemy—Action, 1991.
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doubtless, no doubt, undoubtedly, doubtlessly.

1 Fowler (1926) rightly noted that doubtless and no doubt convey probability rather than certainty about what follows, so that They are doubtless [or no doubt] guilty and No doubt he [or He doubtless] meant well connote no more than strong belief and reassurance respectively. If real conviction is intended, it is important to use undoubtedly or without (a or any) doubt, as is shown by substituting them in the example already given: They are undoubtedly [or without doubt] guilty.

2 Doubtlessly, for long made unnecessary by the adverbial role of doubtless, is beginning to reappear, at least in the US:
The current argument…doubtlessly offers a cogent and easily understood explanation for the current deadlock in East-West relations—Washington Post, 1984.
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dour

meaning ‘severe, stern’, is pronounced in BrE to rhyme with tour and not with sour, although the second pronunciation is common in AmE and Australian English.

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douse, dowse.

Three verbs are involved here:
(1) douse, pronounced like the noun house, meaning ‘to doff (a hat etc.)’,
(2) douse, pronounced like the first one and possibly related to it, meaning ‘to plunge into water’, and
(3) dowse, pronounced like the verb house, meaning ‘to use a divining-rod to search for underground water or minerals’.

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dove

see DIVE.

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down-

is a productive 20c prefix forming verbs, e.g. downface (first recorded in 1909), downgrade (1930), download (in computing, 1980), downplay (1968), downpoint (1946), downscale (1945), downsize (1975), downturn (1909; also as a noun, 1926). Many of these are reversals of existing phrasal verbs (e.g. play down, scale down), but by no means all of them are (e.g. there is no form size down and turn down normally has a different meaning).

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down-market

an adjective denoting the inferior end of the market, is so well established that it is surprising to find that its first record in the OED dates from no earlier than 1970.

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downsize

meaning ‘to reduce in size or scale’, is first recorded in the 1970s with reference to the manufacture of smaller and more economical motor cars. In the US in the early 1980s it rapidly acquired its now primary meaning, in the euphemistic jargon of business management, of reducing the personnel of an organization by redundancies and other drastic measures:
Decline in demand for certain products and other factors ‘make it imperative to downsize the business’—Washington Post, 1983. It behaves like a so-called ergative verb in being used as an intransitive with the object made the subject:
New York hospitals ‘will downsize’—New York Times, 1986.

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downstairs, downstair.

Downstairs is the normal form for both the adjective (the downstairs lavatory) and the adverb (go downstairs). Downstair is occasionally found as an adjective, but not as an adverb.

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down to, up to.

1 When referring to people and their actions, down to suggests obligation or responsibility whereas up to suggests opportunity. If you say It is up to them you imply that they have a choice about how to act, whereas if you say It is down to them you imply that they are responsible for acting or having acted in some way. Examples:
The boom in Gucci and Pucci and…Lacoste ‘names’ on clothes, bags and other ornamentation is all down to the Yuppies—Sunday Telegraph, 1985 /
It all came to a head when we lost 3–0 to Derby and, if I'm honest, all three goals were down to me—Today, 1992. The origin of this use is possibly connected with the phrase put down to, which has a similar meaning:
My remarks…should be put down to my own lack of sympathy with the scientistic vision which Thomas upholds—Times Literary Supplement, 1980 /
If that change can be put down to one man it is Bob Brett, who took over coaching duties…in February last year—Tennis World, 1992.

2 Down to and up to are used interchangeably in the meaning ‘until’ (up to the 19th century or down to the 19th century), except that the viewpoint is slightly different, up to being essentially forward-looking and down to retrospective.
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downward, downwards.

The only form for the adjective is downward (in a downward direction), but downward and downwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for downwards in BrE:
She ferreted in her bag; then held it up mouth downwards— Woolf , 1922 /
Every time he looked downward he grew dizzy—J.M. Coetzee , 1983 /
The fact that commissioners' careers only seem to go downwards after they leave Brussels has a negative effect on morale—EuroBusiness, 1989.

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dowry, dower.

The two words have a common origin (via French) in Latin dare ‘to give’, but now mean different things: a dowry (the more common word) is the property or money brought by a bride to her husband, and a dower is a widow's share of her husband's estate.

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dowse

see DOUSE.

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dozen

is a collective noun used in two ways, (1) as dozen, preceded by a numeral, meaning a unit of twelve (two dozen eggs), and (2) as dozens, in informal use, meaning ‘very many’ (We made dozens of mistakes).

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drachm

is a British unit of weight or measure formerly used in pharmacy, equivalent to one-eighth of an ounce (60 grains), or one eighth of a fluid ounce (60 minims) in liquid measure. The abbreviation is dr. See also DRAM.

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drachma

the monetary unit of Greece (ancient and modern), has the plural form drachmas.

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draft, draught.

Draft, originally a phonetic respelling of draught, is used for (1) a preliminary sketch or version (She made a first draft of her speech), (2) a written order for payment by a bank, (3) a military detachment. A draftsman is someone who drafts documents. Draught is used in all other common meanings (game of draughts, a current of air, a ships' displacement, beer on draught, a dose of liquid medicine, a draught-horse). In AmE, draft is used for all these meanings and the game of draughts is called checkers.

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dram

is (1) a small drink of spirits, and (2) another spelling of DRACHM.

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drank

see DRINK.

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drawing

should not be pronounced with an intrusive -r- as if it were spelt drawring.

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dream.

For the past tense and past participle dreamt and dreamed are both used: dreamed is pronounced dreemd (and occasionally dremt) and dreamt is pronounced dremt. Dreamt appears to be somewhat more common in BrE than in AmE; and dreamed tends to be used more for emphasis and in poetry.

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drier noun

see DRYER.

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drier, driest, drily

are the comparative (= more dry) and superlative (= most dry) forms, and the adverb form, of dry.

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drink.

Notwithstanding a great deal of change over centuries of use, the standard forms in current use are drank for the past tense (They drank tea) and drunk for the past participle (They had drunk tea). See also DRUNK, DRUNKEN.

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drink-driving

is the form in BrE for the legal offence of driving a vehicle with an excess of alcohol in the blood; in AmE it is drunk-driving. The corresponding forms for the offender are drink-driver and drunk-driver.

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driving licence

is the form in BrE, and driver's license is the form in AmE.

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drunk, drunken.

In general drunk is used predicatively (after a verb: He arrived drunk) and drunken is used attributively (before a noun: We have a drunken landlord). There is sometimes a slight difference in meaning, drunk referring to a particular occasion and drunken suggesting habit. Drunken also qualifies nouns for circumstances and events as well as people (A drunken brawl ensued). Drunk is used as a noun, meaning ‘a person who is drunk’.

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dry

see DRIER, DRIEST, DRILY.

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dryer

is the preferred spelling for the noun meaning ‘a machine or device that dries clothes, hair, etc.’, not drier.

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dual.

Fowler (1926) described dual and (with better reason) dualistic as ‘words of the learned kind’, and warned against using them when alternatives such as double, two, and twofold were available. The danger was illusory, however, and dual causes no difficulty. In practice it has tended to form fairly fixed compounds, for example dual carriageway (first recorded in 1933), dual control (1913), dual nationality (1961), dual personality (1905), and dual-purpose (adjective, 1914).

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due to.

1 The use of due to is one of the key topics of discussion in debates about correct usage, along with infer/imply and the split infinitive. As an adjective meaning ‘owing, payable, attributable, (of an event etc.) intended to happen or arrive’ and so on, due + (optional) to causes little difficulty, and the following examples are unexceptionable:
Pay Caesar what is due to Caesar, and pay God what is due to God—New English Bible, 1961 /
Incorrect speed is generally due to a worn idler wheel—Reader's Digest Repair Manual, 1972 /
It was due to start at four o'clock, but didn't begin until twenty past— Trevor , 1976 /
Part of her happiness, her unaltered sense of her own superiority, was due to a sense of virginity preserved— Brookner , 1988. In all these uses, due is an adjective with a complement formed by the preposition to or by a to-infinitive, and they are compositional rather than idiomatic.

2 A problem arises when due to is used as a fixed prepositional phrase, on the analogy of owing to (which no one objects to in this way, for some reason), in which there is no noun or pronoun antecedent that due can be regarded as qualifying and no linking verb such as be or become. The purist view of the matter is that There was a delay due to bad weather is acceptable because due qualifies delay, whereas The train was delayed due to bad weather is unacceptable because due is grammatically unattached. (In some cases, it should be noted, the sentence can be construed either way, underlining the weakness of basing judgements about usage on close grammatical analysis:
Out in the countryside, two million people are at risk of starvation, due to the failure of the harvest—Independent, 1996.) At present it is prudent to avoid this use of due to and to use alternatives such as owing to, because of, or on account of. However, due to is in strong pursuit of owing to and will undoubtedly become standard in the 21c, if only because analogy is a powerful force and due to has the considerable advantage of convenience over its more awkward rival.
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3 Examples of the disputed use:
Due to the incidence of Christmas and New Year statutory holidays it has been necessary to rearrange certain collection days—Alyn and Deeside Observer, 1976 /
Michael…hated mathematics at school, mainly due to the teacher—Times Educational Supplement, 1987 /
In the past 25 years the population has trebled due to the building program—East Yorkshire Village Book, 1991 /
Cocaine smuggling charges against a well-known actress were dropped in 1988 due to legal bungling—Scottish Daily Mail, 1998.
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4 DUE TO THE FACT THAT. In this expression the fact that is used to turn a prepositional phrase into a conjunction. It can be awkward in use, and is often avoided by substituting because:
That this slippage is so slight is due to the fact that [substitute because] the other Enterprise staff have worked a great deal of extra time—Annual Report, 1993. In some cases, however, this substitution does not work well, especially when there is a strong link between due and an antecedent noun, as in the following examples:
The success of the tampon is partly due to the fact that it is hidden— Greer , 1970 /
Part of this frisson …is undoubtedly due to the fact that woman as a whole has been seen as a pacifying influence throughout their history— Fraser , 1988.
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dumb.

1 Dumb now has such strong connotations of stupidity and low intelligence that its original meaning, ‘not able to speak’, is often regarded as offensive. To be safe, it is better to use neutral terms such as speech-impaired.

2 The ailing fortunes of dumb as a verb have been revived by the emergence in the late 1990s of a new phrasal verb dumb down, meaning ‘to make more simple or less intellectually demanding’. It has an irresistible immediacy of meaning and nuance:
Your headline ‘Lords defy Straw over cannabis’ …is another illustration of how subeditors in search of a story dumb down serious debate—Guardian, 1998. A new noun dumbdown (no hyphen, for simplicity) is eagerly awaited.
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dumbfound, dumbfounded

meaning ‘to nonplus, nonplussed’, are formed on dumb and confound and should be spelt with a -b-.

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dunno

a phonetic representation of I don't know, is first recorded in 1842 and is widely used in fiction and drama in illiterate or highly informal speech:
‘Now it's back the way it used to be.’ ‘Why?…’ ‘Dunno, sweet. Do not know.’—New Yorker, 1986.

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dustbin

is the normal word in BrE for a rubbish bin, although dustman has largely been replaced by refuse collector. Neither dustbin nor dustman is used in AmE or in other varieties of English.

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Dutch

see NETHERLANDS.

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duteous, dutiful.

Both words mean ‘observing one's duty’ and date from the 16c; Shakespeare used both, though with a preference for duteous. Dutiful is now standard.

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dutiable

See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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dwarf.

The traditional plural in BrE is dwarfs, although dwarves is increasingly found, perhaps under the influence of J. R. R. Tolkien , who used it regularly. In general use meaning ‘a person of abnormally small stature’, alternative terms such as person of restricted growth, though more awkward, are now preferable.

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dwell

in the meaning ‘live, reside’, is largely limited to literary contexts or special effect. The past and past participle is dwelt, not dwelled.

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dye verb

meaning ‘to colour with dye’, has the forms dyes, dyed, dyeing, to avoid confusion with the forms of die (dies, died, dying).

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dyke, dike.

In the meaning ‘embankment’, dyke is the preferred form. This is also true of the different (slang) word dyke, meaning ‘a lesbian’.

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dynamo

has the plural form dynamos.

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dynast, dynasty

are pronounced din- in BrE and diyn- in AmE.

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dysentery

is pronounced in BrE as three syllables, and in AmE as four syllables, with stress on the first in both cases.

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E

each.

1 SINGULAR OR PLURAL. Each is treated as singular when it stands by itself as a pronoun, when it comes before a singular noun (each house), and when it is followed by of and a plural noun (each of the houses):
Each group is responsible for its own quality control—A. Francis , 1986 /
Each of the two key fobs has its own snap fastening—Sunday Express, 1981 /
Almost all accidents start with a simple error on the part of the pilot that leads to a chain of events, each of which makes the situation worse—D. Piggott , 1991 /
What the treaty did not do was to make the two kingdoms of France and England one; they were to remain separate, each with its own legal and administrative identity—C. Allmand , 1991. When each follows and qualifies a plural noun or pronoun, it is treated as a plural since it is the noun or pronoun and not each that determines the singular or plural status of the sentence:
They each carry several newspapers, a whole crop of the day's papers and the Sundays— Stoppard , 1976 /
In the last four beats of the third bar … the voices each have slight differences in note-lengths and the placing of syllables—R. Smith , 1986.

2 EACH AND EVERY. This is regarded as a cliché and is best reserved for special effect as in Sylvia Plath's allegory of the fig-tree representing life:
I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest—The Bell Jar, 1963.
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3 EACH OTHER. The belief that each other refers to two people or things and one another to more than two is a superstition already rejected by Fowler (1926). Historical usage shows that there is no basis for such a restriction, and many contrary examples can be found from good writers: (each other referring to more than two)
We took off in a motorcade traveling at a speed of close to 100 miles per hour with cars tailgating each other— Kissinger , 1982 /
Everybody knew each other or about each other— Brookner , 1983 /
KHAD, The Russians themselves, foreign governments, the competing Afghan political parties in exile—all spy on each other—New Yorker, 1987 /
(one another referring to two) He and Gussy were evidently very fond of one another—A.N. Wilson , 1978 /
There is no such thing as complete harmony between two people, however much they profess to love one another— Gordimer , 1987.
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4 For the differences between each and every, see EVERY.
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early on

is first recorded in BrE in 1928 and only later in AmE. It is a kind of back-formation from earlier on, itself modelled on later on (first recorded 1822). Early on and earlier on are both now common in both BrE and AmE:
The BBC recognised early on that there was money to be made from selling archive programmes on video—New Scientist, 1983 /
Early on, he puts a coin in a newspaper vending-machine—New Yorker, 1987 /
Earlier on, religion had supplied a drug which most of the clergy were quite ready to administer—V.G. Kiernan , 1990.

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earn

has a past and past participle form earned (They earned £200 a week / earned income), although earnt is found from time to time in newspapers, reflecting its pronunciation and by analogy with learnt:
Ray and Alan Mitchell once worked gruelling hours and earnt good money as contract plumbers in London—Independent, 1992.

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earth

is spelt with a capital initial (Earth) when it is regarded as a planet of the solar system. Like Mars, Venus, etc., it is then used without the (but note the planet Earth).

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earthen, earthly, earthy.

Earthen is used only in the physical sense ‘made of earth’ (either soil, or clay as in earthenware):
No city or government wants to build earthen structures or allow them to be built New Scientist, 1971. Earthly has two meanings, (1) denoting the earth or human life on earth, as distinct from heavenly
(They set themselves the difficult task of disentangling this cosmic dust from the earthly sort—Economist, 1991) and (2) as an intensifying word in informal use in negative contexts
(A trainee is no earthly use in here at all—M. Frayn , 1969). Earthy means (1) ‘of or like the earth or soil’, (2) figuratively, ‘somewhat coarse or crude’:
My friend Lindsey said I was consumed with earthy desires and unable to reach the higher planes—S. Rowbotham , 1985 /
In one direction only a little earthy bank separates me from the edge of the ocean—R. Sale , 1991 /
I'd been the typical first-year art-school person, entrenched in one style that was really landscapey—all earthy colours and shapes—Country Living, 1991.

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east, eastern, easterly adjectives.

What is said here applies equally to north, south, and west, and their corresponding forms. East denotes physical position (on the east side of town) and is spelt with a capital initial (East) when forming part of a recognized name (New York's East Side), whereas eastern denotes regional and cultural association (eastern forms of art). Easterly is used chiefly of a wind blowing from the east (an easterly wind / from an easterly direction), and also of movement towards the east or a position achieved by this movement (We took an easterly course / the most easterly part of the constellation).

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eastward, eastwards.

The only form for the adjective is eastward (in an eastward direction), but eastward and eastwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for eastwards in BrE:
Traffic snarled eastwards along Brompton Road at a snail's pace—G.F. Newman , 1970.

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easy

is established as an adverb in fixed expressions such as take it easy, have it easy, go easy on, easy does it, and stand easy. Otherwise its use as an adverb is non-standard, though common informally in BrE as well as AmE:
We'd get a confession out of him easy as blinking—R. Rankin , 1993. The main use of easily is in the meanings ‘by far, by a wide margin’, as in The home team won easily, and ‘very probably’ (It could easily rain).

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eatable, edible.

Eatable means ‘fit to be eaten’ and is normally applied to food, whereas edible means ‘suitable for eating’ and is often contrasted with what is poisonous or harmful (e.g. edible mushrooms / edible snails).

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ebullient

is pronounced with the second syllable as in bulb, not as in bull.

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echelon.

Gowers (1965) regarded the meaning ‘a level or rank in an organization or in society’ as a slipshod extension of the original English meaning ‘a military formation of parallel rows’. Both meanings are in use, but the extended meaning is by far the more common. The word is derived from French (ultimately from échelle meaning ‘ladder’), and it has developed in the same way in that language too.

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echo

has the plural form echoes. As a verb, it has inflected forms echoes, echoed, echoing.

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ecology

has spread rapidly in the 20c from technical to general use to mean ‘the study of the interaction of people with their natural environment’. An earlier spelling oecology, reflecting its origin in the Greek word oikos meaning ‘house’ (the same root as in economy), is hardly ever used. Ecology has also produced the prolific prefix eco-, as in eco-catastrophe (1969), eco-correct (1994), eco-friendly (1989), ecopolitics (1973), eco-terrorist (1988), etc.

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economic, economical.

1 These are both adjectives answering to the word economy: economic in the meanings ‘relating to economics’ and ‘frugal, characterized by good economy’, and economical in the meaning ‘sparing in the use of resources’. An economic cost is one that is practical and makes good business sense, whereas an economical cost is one that is modest and not excessive.

2 The phrase economical with the truth, meaning ‘saying just as much as is needed or relevant’, is a political cliché of our times, recalling earlier notions of Burke and others that ‘in the exercise of all virtues, there is an economy of truth’. In its present form it alludes to events of 1986, when the British Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong , giving evidence during the ‘Spycatcher’ trial (in which the British government sought to prevent the publication of a book of that name by a former MI5 employee), referred to a former statement in the following way: It contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth. Phrases such as this are not easily forgotten, and allusive references abound, e.g.:
The world is full of minimisers: civil servants are economical with the truth, engineers want to cut down the weight of aircraft, bees use as little wax as possible—New Scientist, 1994.
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ecstasy

is spelt -asy, not -acy. The drugs meaning is first recorded in the US in 1985 and is often spelt with a capital initial (Ecstasy).

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ecu, ECU.

Both forms are in use for the European currency unit, although the first is likely to prevail when the currency is established. Pronunciation differs between ek-yoo and ayk-yoo.

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ecumenical

meaning ‘relating to the whole Christian world’, is spelt ecu- and not (as formerly) oecu-. The root is Greek oikoumen ‘the inhabited world’. The first syllable is pronounced either ek- or eek-.

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-ed and -'d.

The adjectival form -'d is often added instead of the more usual -ed when the root word ends in a fully pronounced vowel, e.g. subpoena'd, shanghai'd. Practice varies, however, and forms such as antennaed, concertinaed, and shampooed are commonly found.

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-ed

see -T AND -ED.

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-edly.

1 The suffix occurs in a number of familiar words such as advisedly, allegedly, assuredly, deservedly, and unreservedly, of which some date back to the 14c but most date from the 17c to 19c. In a lengthy article, Fowler (1926) listed these along with many highly abstruse and idiosyncratic forms that were unlikely to survive, such as admiredly, ascertainedly, harassedly, incensedly, and statedly, some of which were not even entered in the OED. There are also a few 20c forms, including painedly, unashamedly, and (not mentioned by Fowler ) reportedly.

2 Normally -edly is pronounced as two additional syllables, even when the -ed element is not separately pronounced in the root words; this is true of all the words listed in the first sentence of the previous paragraph. That is to say, advisedly, assuredly, and deservedly are pronounced as four syllables, and fixedly and markedly as three. Formations from adjectives follow this rule only when -ed is pronounced as a separate syllable in the adjective, as in cold-bloodedly and high-handedly (four syllables), but not in frenziedly, hurriedly, and sham-facedly (three syllables).
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3 A few awkward cases remain. One wonders how Browning would have pronounced starchedly in his Red Cotton Night-Cap Country (1873); and how D. H. Lawrence would have pronounced painedly in his England, My England (1921); and indeed how the OED editors articulated to themselves the forms admiredly, depressedly, labouredly, and veiledly when they set them down as part of the language. Many of these, however, are used too rarely to cause any real problem.
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educable, educible.

Educable is the adjective formed from educate, and educible the adjective formed from educe (= bring out, develop). See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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-ee

is an active suffix originally drawn from Old French words denoting the recipient of a grant or the like, as in lessee and patentee. In more recent formations, -ee denotes (1) the recipient of an action, often corresponding to an agent-noun in -er or -or (addressee, amputee, employee, trainee), (2) in a few cases, a person who performs an action or is associated with it (attendee = a participant at a conference or meeting, escapee, refugee, standee = a standing passenger). A few are peculiar to AmE, e.g. enrollee and retiree. The -ee in bootee and a few other words is a separate suffix of obscure origin; that in goatee, jamboree, marquee, and settee, is yet another (or possibly more than one).

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-eer

is a suffix first recorded in the 17c, replacing an earlier (French) form -ier. One of its first occurrences is in mountaineer (first used in Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1610, in the meaning ‘one who lives in the mountains’). In more recent use, it has taken on disparaging connotations, as in pamphleteer (1642), profiteer (1912), racketeer (1928), and marketeer (originally 1832 in a neutral sense, now a person engaged in marketing in the sense of ‘product promotion’). There are many derivatives in -eering, e.g. buccaneering (1758), electioneering (1760), privateering (1664), and associated verbs, some of them independently formed (e.g. electioneer, 1789) and others as back-formations (e.g. mountaineer, 1892).

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effect noun and verb

see AFFECT.

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effective, effectual, efficacious, efficient.

1 All these words mean ‘having an effect’ of some kind, but with different applications and shades of meaning. Effective means ‘having a definite or desired effect’ that is actual rather than theoretical:
The toothbrush is undoubtedly the most effective weapon in the fight against bacterial plaque—Daily Telegraph, 1971 /
She is most effective as a live performer of her own material—New Yorker, 1975. Effectual means ‘capable of producing the required result or effect’, independent of a personal agent, and is often more theoretical than actual:
The rich ought to have an effectual barrier in the constitution against being robbed, plundered, and murdered, as well as the poor—A. Arblaster , 1987 /
The rim of my hat, while effectually shading my eyes, did not obstruct my vision—J. Davidson , 1991. A person cannot be described as effectual although he or she can be described as ineffectual, i.e. ‘lacking the ability to produce results’:
The Rangers' problems stemmed from the habit that…the team's general manager…had of hiring ineffectual cronies to coach the club—New York Times, 1979.

2 Efficacious applies only to things, and means ‘producing or sure to produce the required effect’:
It is perhaps dubious to argue that a prayer or worship becomes more efficacious if more people Join in—S. Lamont , 1989 /
How can I persuade them, when they go to the bar, that a Perrier or a tonic water might be just as efficacious as alcoholic liquor?—S.J. Carne , 1990. Efficient refers to a person's or thing's capacity to do work and produce results with minimum effort and cost:
You police spies don't seem to be a very efficient bunch, letting an old man be drowned while you are supposed to be keeping a watch on him—G. Sims , 1973 /
Older systems can be improved with modern, efficient components and controls can be added to improve fuel economy—Ideal Home, 1991. In recent use, efficient is sometimes preceded by an attributive noun that defines the scope of the efficiency:
Why not spend some of that money on improving public transport schemes— more energy efficient, safer and less polluting?—C. Wheater , 1990.
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effete

is a 17c word originally meaning ‘worn out by bearing offspring’ (from Latin fetus) with reference to animals. It rapidly developed the transferred meaning ‘(of a material substance) that has lost its special quality or virtue’, and by the late 18c was being applied to persons or systems that had lost their effectiveness. In the 20c it has come to be applied to effeminate men, though not, despite its etymology, to women who are or look as if they are past child-bearing age:
‘Do you mind if I sit down?’ asked the young man in effete, accented English—R. Kee , 1991. It is still commonly used of ineffective institutions:
Somehow the whole fabric of society is softening, becoming effete—R. Harrison , 1991.

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e.g.

is short for Latin exempli gratia and means ‘for example’. It should be distinguished from i.e., from Latin id est, which means ‘that is to say’. In other words, e.g. illustrates whereas i.e. explains.

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ego

has the plural form egos.

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egoism, egotism.

1 Both are 18c words for ‘preoccupation with oneself’ in various ways. There is no etymological difference to affect their meanings, and the intrusive -t- in egotism is unexplained. When Fowler wrote about these words (1926), egotism was the more popular form, and his prediction that egoism would oust it has not been fulfilled. It is useful to maintain a distinction: egotism is the general word for excessive self-centredness, whereas egoism is a more technical word in ethics and metaphysics for theories which treat the self as the basis of morality and sense-perception. In an extended meaning, egotism also means self-seeking conceit, whereas egoism is a more straightforward preoccupation with the self and an excessive use of I. The meanings are however so close that they will not stay apart in ordinary usage, nor will those of the corresponding personal designations egoist and egotist (although strictly an egoist is someone who subscribes to a type of morality based on the importance of the self and an egotist is a self-seeker) and of the adjectival forms egoistic / egoistical and egotistic / egotistical.

2 Some examples follow: (egoism and its derivatives)
I have never gone out of my way for man, woman, or child. I am the complete egoist— Sackville-West , 1931 /
How much of us will be recognisable in the pages of the history books of 2066? This egoist's niggle spiralled up into my mind—New Statesman, 1966 /
He can retain his insights into another person, and use them in choices of means, without abandoning his longterm egoistic ends for the altruistic goals to which he briefly felt himself drawn—A.C. Graham , 1985 /
He [sc. C. S. Lewis ] writes about it in unforgettably dramatic terms and with the sublime egoism (to use the word purely, with no pejorative sense) of a man alone with God—A.N. Wilson , 1990 /
Hutcheson thought of himself as defending the reality of moral distinctions, and the genuineness of a morally good benevolence which was not egoistically based—T.L.S. Sprigg , 1990 / (egotism and its derivatives)
Nothing so confirms an egotism as thinking well of oneself— Huxley , 1939 /
He was continually talking about himself and his relation to the world about him, a quality which created the unfortunate impression that he was simply a blatant egotist—H. Miller , 1957 /
To justify or to condemn them in public is a squalid piece of egotism when it will hurt the living—C. Lewis , 1960 /
I had always thought him to be egotistical and attention-seeking—D.M. Thomas , 1990 /
It amazed her that she'd ever believed herself in love with him, that she'd deluded herself into seeing his arrogance and his egotism as positive qualities—S. Marton , 1993.
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egregious.

Of its two opposed meanings, ‘remarkably good, distinguished’ (as in Marlowe's egregious viceroys of these eastern parts in Tamburlaine) and ‘remarkably bad’, only the second is now in use, although it is also used to mean ‘exceptional, unusual’ more neutrally. The word comes from Latin grex meaning ‘flock’, and originally meant ‘towering above the flock’, i.e. ‘prominent’. Modern examples: (with bad overtones)
His habit of surrounding himself with stooges and sycophants inevitably led to the debacle after an egregiously fraudulent election—Washington Post, 1960 /
It may well be the case that an egregious idiocy has formed the basis of a political tradition— Twentieth Century British History, 1991 /
I have waited a long time to catch The Economist out on an egregious factual error—Economist, 1993 /
(neutral) The inside is unified and austere, apart from an egregious baroque reredos, with a barrel vault, [etc.]— Sturrock , 1988 /
He was truly egregious but a kind man and a good skipper—Dictionary of National Biography, 1993.

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eighties.

This information is put here because eighties occurs first alphabetically, but it applies equally to nineties, twenties, thirties, and so on. These words, whether denoting decades or the years of a person's life, are spelt without an initial apostrophe, i.e. eighties, not 'eighties.

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either.

1 PRONUNCIATION. The pronunciations iy-dh and ee-dh are about equally common.

2 PARTS OF SPEECH. Either functions in two ways: as an adjective or pronoun, and as an adverb or conjunction. In all these uses, it means essentially ‘one or other of two’; when more than two alternatives are involved an alternative word (such as any) or construction is often needed, at least in more formal contexts. (This aspect is discussed further in section 3 below.)
a ADJECTIVE AND PRONOUN. Either means ‘one or the other of two’ (Either book will serve the purpose / Either of you can go) or ‘each of two’ (We sat down on either side of the table).
b ADVERB AND CONJUNCTION. The basic meaning is ‘as one possibility or alternative’, and is normally balanced by or (You may have either tea or coffee / Either come in or go out, but don't just stand there). The position of either and or should be such that the grammatical structures are correctly balanced, as in Either I will go with John or I will stay here with you but not in Either I will go with John or stay here with you. It is also used with a negative, normally at the end of a clause or sentence (She didn't want to come, either / There is no time to lose either).
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3 EITHER WITH MORE THAN TWO. The essential duality of either is shown by the following example:
We either rely on our children to translate for us or we can try to catch up—illustrated London News, 1980. If the number of alternatives is extended to more than two, opinion is divided about the elegance and even the acceptability of the results; in general a greater tolerance is necessary in conversational English, but in formal English it is advisable to restrict either to contexts in which there are only two possibilities. In the case of the adjective and pronoun use, either should be replaced by any when a choice from more than two is involved (Any of the books will serve the purpose). It should be noted, however, that any can mean one or more than one, and so any one should be used when this is the meaning (Answer any one of the following three questions).
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4 SINGULAR OR PLURAL AFTER EITHER. Normally either governs a singular verb (Has either of you seen my pen? / Either John or Peter has got it), but with the type either of (+ plural) a plural construction is sometimes used to emphasize the plurality of the statement as a whole, especially in inverted questions when the verb comes first
(Have either of you two ladies received an anonymous letter?—A.E.W. Mason , 1924). Notional and grammatical agreement are in conflict in informal uses such as Either John or Jane avert their eyes when I try to take their photograph. When one of the alternatives is singular and the other plural, normal usage is to make the verb agree with the one closer to it (Either the twins or their mother is responsible for this). See also NEITHER.
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ejector

is spelt -or, not -er.

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eke out.

Fowler (1926) wanted to limit the use of this phrasal verb to refer to things that can be made to last longer or go further, i.e. a supply: ‘you can eke out your income or a scanty subsistence with odd jobs or by fishing, but you cannot eke out a living or a miserable existence.’ The use which he rejected has nonetheless been standard since the 19c, and it is futile to object to it:
Some runaway slaves…contrived to eke out a subsistence— Darwin , 1845 /
He lived with his parents until their death, and thereafter eked out a marginal living as a messenger— Sacks , 1985.

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elder, eldest, older, oldest.

1 Elder and eldest mean the same as older and oldest but they are much narrower in their range of use, being applicable only to people and only as nouns or attributive adjectives (before nouns). You can say his elder brother / her sister is the eldest / John is my eldest son / but you cannot say John is elder than Paul / Which one is eldest? / Who has the elder car? In these cases, older or oldest has to be used, as it can also in the cases where elder and eldest are legitimate.

2 Elder has special uses in elder hand (in cards), elder (= senior) partner, and elder statesman, and (as a noun) is the title of lay officers of the Presbyterian Church.
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elector

is spelt -or not -er.

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electric, electrical.

In most contexts electric is the natural choice, especially to describe a device that works by electricity (electric blanket / electric kettle). Electrical is reserved for contexts in which the meaning is, more generally, ‘relating to or concerned with electricity’, as in electrical engineering.

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elegant variation

is the name Fowler (1926) gave to a celebrated article, nearly six columns long, on misguided avoidance of repetition which leads the user into stylistic traps that are anything but elegant, such as using women and ladies, cases and instances, or have, possess, and own in parallel uses in the same sentence, for example The total number of farming properties is 250,000; of these only 800 have more than 600 acres; 1,600 possess between 300 and 600 acres, while 116,000 own less than eight acres apiece. Another kind of variation is represented by the sentence We much regret to say that there were very regrettable incidents at both the mills. Although he found fault with Thackeray (careering during the season from one great dinner of twenty covers to another of eighteen guests). Fowler's main targets were ‘minor novelists and reporters’. A modern type of elegant (or not so elegant) variation occurs frequently in journalism, and involves the substitution of a general description for a specific name, for example: Today Mother Teresa announced she is so moved by the plight of the Romanian children she is going to do something about it. The Nobel Peace prize winner will open a mission in Bucharest to care for the children.

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elegy, eulogy.

An elegy was originally a lament for the dead, of which literary examples are Milton's Lycidas (1637) and Shelley's Adonais (1821). In the course of time, it came to mean any sorrowful poem or one written in the metre associated with elegies, as in Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751). A eulogy was originally a speech honouring a dead person, and has come to mean more generally anything formally written or spoken as a personal tribute.

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elemental, elementary.

Elemental refers primarily to the forces of nature and in particular to the ancient belief in the ‘four elements’ of earth, water, air, and fire, as in elemental fire / elemental forces / elemental spirits / etc. Elementary, on the other hand, means ‘rudimentary, introductory’, as in elementary school / elementary mathematics / etc. In modern physics, elementary means ‘not able to be decomposed’, as in elementary particle.

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elevator

is the word used in AmE and sometimes elsewhere for what in BrE is called lift. However, Americans as well as Britons use the word ski-lift for the device that carries skiers up a slope.

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elicit, illicit.

Confusion arises occasionally because both words are pronounced the same way (i-lis-it). Elicit is a verb meaning ‘to draw out or evoke (an answer, admission, etc.)’ whereas illicit is an adjective meaning ‘unlawful, forbidden’.

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eligible, illegible.

These are more likely to be confused in casual speech than in considered writing. Eligible means ‘fit or entitled to be chosen’ (eligible for a pension) or ‘desirable, suitable’ (an eligible bachelor). Illegible means ‘(of writing) not clear enough to read’.

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ellipsis.

1 MEANING. Ellipsis is the omission from a sentence of words which are normally needed to complete the grammatical construction or meaning. It occurs most often in everyday speech, in expressions such as Told you so (= I told you so) and Sounds fine to me (= It or that sounds fine to me), and also occurs regularly in all kinds of spoken and written English.

2 IDIOMATIC ELLIPSIS. Ordinary English grammar normally calls for the omission of certain elements, especially when they might otherwise be repeated from a previous occurrence in the same sentence. Examples are the definite article (He heard the whirr and click of machinery), the infinitive marker to (I was forced to leave and give up my work at the hospital), the subject of a verb (I just pick up wood in a leisurely way, stack it and slowly rake the bark into heaps), and the verb itself after to (Knowledge didn't really advance, it only seemed to ) or after an auxiliary verb (We must and will rectify the situation). More complex forms of ellipsis occur in literature, often for special effect:
Henriques knew they would eat his tongue for wisdom, his heart for courage and for fertility make their women chew his genitals—N. Shakespeare , 1989. Other examples are given by S. Greenbaum , Oxford English Grammar (1996), 77–8.
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3 UNACCEPTABLE TYPES. The extent to which English allows words to be omitted in these ways is determined by what can reasonably be supplied by the hearer or reader from the rest of the sentence, without causing ambiguity or confusion. Ellipsis is not possible when the omitted word is not identical in form and function to its role where it is present, as in No state has or can adopt such measures, in which the word to be supplied is adopted, not adopt. Nor is it permitted when there is a change from active to passive in an omitted verb, as in Our officials ought to manage things better than they have been, in which the word to be supplied is managed, not manage; nor again when the construction changes, as in The paintings of Monet are as good or better than those of van Gogh, which should read … are as good as or better than those of van Gogh. Less obviously wrong, but best avoided, are cases where number (singular/plural) changes, as in Fowler's characteristically gruesome example The ring-leader was hanged and his followers imprisoned (with ellipsis of were).
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4 OMISSION OF THAT IN RELATIVE CLAUSES. See THAT 3B.
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5 ELLIPSIS IN NON-STANDARD SPEECH. Ellipsis of auxiliary verbs such as can, do, and have is a feature of non-standard speech in AmE:
Well how you expect to get anywhere, how you expect to team anything?—E.L. Doctorow , 1989 /
Watergate, man. Where you been?—M. Doane , 1988.
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6 PUNCTUATION MARK. Ellipsis is also used to mean a punctuation mark consisting of (usually) three full points to mark either a pause or the intentional omission of words (for example in quoting). When the omission comes at the end of a sentence, it is normal to add a fourth point to mark the full stop.
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else.

1 The usual possessive forms are anybody else's, someone else's, etc., and not (for example) anybody's else, although this was used until the mid-19c:
They look to me like someone else's, to be frank— Lively , 1987 /
English feudalism was like anyone else's—London Review of Books, 1988.

2 In questions, else invariably follows an interrogative pronoun, as in What else did he say? Postponement of else to the end of the sentence, as in What did he say else?, although possible up to the early part of the 20c, is no longer grammatical.
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3 Thus use of else as a conjunction to mean ‘otherwise, if not’, which is common in literature since the Middle Ages, now seems archaic but is still found in informal speech:
Fortunately it [sc. a staircase] was not spiral, else I would have succumbed to vertigo—B. Rubens , 1985.
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elusive, illusory.

The confusion here has been greatly reduced by the virtual disappearance from the scene of the forms elusory and illusive. This leaves elusive as the adjective from elude, meaning ‘difficult to grasp (physically or mentally)’, and illusory as the adjective corresponding to illusion, meaning ‘deceptive, not real or actual’. Examples of each:
Preparations are now complete and they set off in a few days' time to try and capture that elusive denizen of the deep—the Loch Ness Monster—Stornoway Gazette, 1971 /
I must warn you that paper profits are often illusory—D. Westheimer , 1973.

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e-mail

short for electronic mail, is a term that has become rapidly familiar with the advance of technology over the last ten years or so. It is often spelt with a hyphen, presumably to afford some extra status to the prefix e, although this has not shown much sign yet of forming other words of this kind. Its grammatical behaviour follows that of mail, i.e. it is a noun and a verb; you can e-mail messages and you can e-mail people.

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embargo

has the plural form embargoes.

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embarrass, embarrassment

are spelt with two rs and two s's.

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embed

is spelt em-, not im-.

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emigrant, immigrant, migrant.

1 An emigrant is someone who leaves his or her home country to live in another country; and an immigrant is one who comes to live in a country from abroad. The same person is therefore an emigrant on going through the exit gate at a port or airport and is an immigrant when given permission to take up residence in the country of arrival. The corresponding verbs are emigrate and immigrate. (Note one m in emigrant etc. and two ms in immigrant etc.)

2 A migrant is either (a) a migrating animal or bird, or (b) in Australia and New Zealand, an immigrant. An émigré (French = having emigrated) is a political emigrant, originally one from France during the French Revolution.
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emote

is a back-formation meaning ‘to express emotion’. It is first recorded in America in 1917, and has been largely restricted to the language of ballet and theatre critics and to photography:
The female sitter had to emote in some way, either by dressing up or by gazing with drooping head into a bowl of flowers—Amateur Photographer, 1970 /
How are you going to get up and emote in front of an audience?—L.S. Schwartz , 1989.

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emotional, emotive.

Emotional and emotive both mean ‘connected with or appealing to the emotions’, but emotional is the word more often used in the neutral sense ‘relating to emotions’ whereas emotive has a stronger sense of ‘causing emotion’:
In this oppressive society women need the care and emotional support of other women—A. Wilson , 1988 /
The whole subject of removing children from their parents was no less emotive for them than for other members of the community—R. Black , 1992. Emotional, but not emotive, also means ‘easily affected by emotion’ with reference to people
(All of us get elated and emotional as we stroll through a pine grove on a hot summer day when the old trees fill the air with their pungent fragrance—P. Heselton , 1991). Emotive is more commonly used of words or behaviour that tends to arouse emotions, and often qualifies words such as issue, language, topic, etc.
(He was just firing a smokescreen of emotive words and phrases— Lyall , 1982), whereas emotional describes feeling and actions that involve emotion in themselves
(From a good script will emerge a film in which every scene carries an emotional charge—J. Park , 1990). However, the considerable overlap in meaning is shown by the fact that the two words could be exchanged in the last two examples without causing any major difference to the way they are understood.

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empathy.

1 This is originally a term used in psychology and aesthetics meaning ‘the power of identifying oneself mentally with (and so fully comprehending) a person or object of contemplation’. In general use it tends to replace sympathy or feeling for when these words are sometimes more appropriate; sympathy can be felt without the element of personal experience that is implied by empathy:
Seeing our sadness, our empathy with the pain she was surely suffering, she said, ‘What's wrong with you all?’—A. Davis , 1975 /
It was a hard life, and Byron recounts it with empathy and gusto— Burgess , 1986. It also gained some currency from educationists who established a fashion for teaching history by getting pupils to feel empathy for (or empathizing with) people of other ages, as an antidote to preoccupation with political history. But all that has changed again.

2 The corresponding adjective is either empathic (probably the more usual form) or empathetic.
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employee

has replaced employé (feminine employée) as the dominant form in BrE for someone who is employed. In AmE the alternative form is employe, pronounced as three syllables and usually stressed on the second.

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emporium

is a formal word for a large retail store or a centre of commerce. The principal plural form is emporia, although emporiums is increasingly found.

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empower, empowerment

Empower is a 17c verb meaning ‘to give power or authority to’. In the 1970s it acquired a new meaning, ‘to make (someone) able to do something’, implying the freedom to adopt moral values and principles of one's choice as advocated by members of the New Age movement and others. A person who is self-empowered is able to act independently of the constraints imposed by conventional values:
These self-empowered individuals are motivated by teamwork and developing broader skills rather than just achieving conventional status—Independent, 1995. The corresponding nouns are empowerment and self-empowerment.

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-en adjectives.

The practice of adding -en to nouns denoting a substance, as in golden, silken, and woollen, dates from Old English. From the earliest time, however, and especially from the 16c, there has been a tendency to use the corresponding noun attributively (before another noun), as in a gold [not golden] brooch and silk [not silken] curtains. By this process, forms in -en have been enabled to develop figurative meanings, so that we are now much more likely to encounter brazen impudence than brazen rods, leaden skies rather than a leaden roof, and a silken touch rather than silken curtains.

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enamel

has the forms enamelled, enamelling in BrE and enameled, enameling in AmE.

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enamour

is commonly used in the form be enamoured of, or sometimes be enamoured with, usually in negative or ironic contexts:
I am not so much enamoured of the first and third subjects— Dickens , 1866 /
Not all feminists were so enamoured with such tactics—F. Mort , 1987 /
He was also not enamoured of the music, although he later found it much more enjoyable—M. Hodkinson , 1990. The US spelling is enamor.

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en bloc

meaning ‘as a whole’, was adopted into English in the later 19c, and is now normally regarded as naturalized, i.e. printed in ordinary Roman type.

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enclose

is the correct form for the word meaning ‘to close in, include, etc.’, not inclose.

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encomium

meaning ‘a formal expression of praise’, has the plural form encomiums or occasionally encomia.

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encrust

meaning ‘to cover with a crust’, is preferable to incrust.

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encyclopaedia, encyclopedia.

This word is first recorded in English in the 16c, and was adopted from a late Latin word which in turn was based on a supposedly corrupted form of a Greek term meaning ‘general education’ in the arts and sciences. The form encyclopedia is now very common in book titles, especially of books of general information as distinct from books on special areas of knowledge, where the older form encyclopaedia is still holding its own.

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endeavour

is the spelling for the noun and verb in BrE, endeavor in AmE. See FORMAL WORDS.

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ended, ending.

Figures for the period ending / ended 31 December. In referring to periods of time, ended is used to denote the terminal date when the time is in the past, and ending when the time is in the future or (in current use) in the past; so ending is never wrong. The word used of the initial date is always beginning, never begun.

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endemic, epidemic.

An endemic disease is one that is regularly or only found among a particular people or in a particular region, whereas an epidemic disease is a temporary but widespread outbreak of a disease. Epidemic, but not endemic, also functions (more usually) as a noun. Both words have extended meanings in relation to things other than diseases:
It is among managerial and professional workers that sponging, skiving and malingering is epidemic—New Society, 1975 /
Recurrent energy crises are endemic in African agricultural societies—G.T. Nurse , 1985.

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end of the day.

At the end of the day is one of the less attractive 20c clichés. It is first recorded in 1974 and means no more than ‘eventually, when all's said and done’:
But, at the end of the day, it is an amateur sport and everyone is free to put as much or as little into the game as he chooses—B. Beaumont , 1982.

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endorse

in its modern marketing meaning ‘to give one's approval to (a product)’ was labelled by the Concise Oxford Dictionary in 1914 as ‘vulgar in advertisements’. Its original meaning is ‘to write on the back of (a document)’, from Latin dorsum ‘back’, with various applications in law and commerce. In the 19c it came to mean ‘to support (an opinion)’, from which the use in advertising developed.

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end product, end result.

These have both been criticized for containing an element of redundancy, since both a product and a result must necessarily come at the end, but they are well established. End product was first used in chemistry by Rutherford to describe ‘a stable, non-radioactive nuclide that is the final product of a radioactive series’ (OED).

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enforce

is the correct spelling, not inforce (which however survives in reinforce). Its typical grammatical objects are such things as a law, an action, a person's wish, etc. Occasionally an older construction is found with a person as object followed by a to-infinitive, on the analogy of force
(Are the companies legally enforced to complete the forms?—radio broadcast, 1978).

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enforceable

is the correct spelling, not enforcable.

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England, English

see BRITAIN.

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English worldwide.

English is used as a first language by an estimated 350 million people, and as a second language by over 400 million people (estimates vary widely.) There are many varieties and styles of English in different parts of the world; see the separate entries for AMERICAN ENGLISH, AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH, BLACK ENGLISH, DIALECT, ESTUARY ENGLISH, STANDARD ENGLISH. The diversity of English is reflected in the title of a recent (1998) book by Tom McArthur , The English Languages (plural).

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enhance

means ‘to improve or intensify (something already good)’ and is used typically with reference to achievements, reputations, values, etc. It is not used with a person as object; The book enhanced his reputation is correct, but The publication of his book enhanced him is not.

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enjoin.

1 Enjoin has meanings connected with commanding and issuing instructions, and is typically used in three constructions:
(1) you enjoin a person to do something,
(2) you enjoin something on a person, and
(3) you enjoin that something should happen.

Fowler (1926) wrote that the first of these ‘is not recommended’, but his reasons were not convincing even then and this construction is now too common and useful to be objected to:
The church had enjoined the faithful to say an Ave Maria— Unsworth , 1985.

2 In an almost opposite meaning, in use in legal language since the 16c, enjoin means ‘to prohibit or forbid’; in this meaning it can refer to a person or thing, and is followed by from:
The Al-Fayed brothers…sought to enjoin the Observer from publishing the results of its continuing enquiries—Observer, 1986 /
Because the Times by now had been enjoined from publication—Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1989.
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enjoy

continues to be used with reference to things that are the complete opposite of enjoyable (such as ill health or a poor reputation), despite its identification as a ‘catachrestic’ (incorrect) use in the OED:
Despite the jokey reputation that middle-class British hotels enjoy, they compare very well indeed for comfort with their European and US counterparts—Homes & Gardens, 1970 /
The Japanese Prime Minister…enjoys an even lower popularity-rating…than President Nixon—Listener, 1974. This use is no more than an apparently illogical development of meaning characteristic of all languages, and it is well established.

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enormity, enormousness.

1 Both words are derived from Latin e norma meaning ‘out of the ordinary’, and both originally had meanings associated with wicked and criminal aspects of abnormality. Enormity (15c) is older than enormousness (17c), and its first recorded meanings are ‘a breach of the law, a crime’. Both words have also been used unexceptionably at different times to mean what enormousness now means, ‘very great size’, but by the end of the 19c enormity was confined again to its special meaning, ‘great wickedness’, as in The enormity of the crime shocked everyone, and to its concrete use as in The regime inflicted many enormities on its opponents. This distinction continues to be defended by many advocates of careful usage in most contexts.

2 Because enormousness is such an awkward word, and alternatives such as hugeness and immensity are not much better, enormity is beginning to compete with it again (especially in AmE) in contexts that have nothing to do with wickedness, depravity, and suchlike, but these uses are likely to attract disapproval:
A wide-angle lens captures the enormity of the Barbican Centre, London's new arts complex—Times, 1982 /
The enormity of such open spaces momentarily alarms her— Johnson , 1990 (Australia) /
Menzies was wilting under the enormity of the work—D. Craig , 1991.
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3 In the examples that follow, enormity is used correctly according to the criterion given above:
Hanging would seem quite a lenient sentence considering the enormity of his crime in those harsh old days—R. Long , 1990 /
I did not know then that one frequently fails to live up to the enormity of death— Brookner , 1990 /
The enormities of the Hitler regime and the Holocaust opened up many fields of research into the workings of minds—J. Lawson , 1991. There is a practical point to be made, that generalized use of enormity, given its special meaning, can lead to ambiguity in contexts such as We all recognize the enormity of their achievement, when the achievement in question might anyway be open to different interpretations. However, meanings legitimately overlap in sentences such as the following:
She tried to be a strength for her daughter, but was overwhelmed by the enormity of what was happening to them all—R. Black , 1992.
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enough, sufficient, sufficiently.

1 Enough functions as both an adjective and an adverb, whereas sufficient requires modification as sufficiently. As an adjective (or modifier), enough will normally serve, but sufficient is more idiomatic when a more qualitative point is being made. For example, in the sentence
It was not sufficient for the tribunal merely to establish by whose hand information…was improperly leaked—Daily Telegraph, 1971, sufficient implies a stronger element of disapproval of the inadequacy than would be the case if enough had been used. Enough also has two grammatical characteristics that are not shared by sufficient:
(1) enough cannot be used with mass nouns denoting quantity, such as number, supply, etc., preceded by the indefinite article; you can say a sufficient number but not an enough number, and
(2) enough can be placed postpositively (after the word it qualifies), as in They have money enough for a holiday and They do not have a large enough house, which places a greater emphasis on the commodity or attribute in question

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2 Choice between enough and sufficiently when they are used as adverbs is normally determined by the degree of formality needed, sufficiently being the more formal. The main grammatical difference between them is that enough is placed after the word it qualifies when this is an adjective or another adverb: He was not firm enough and She did not sing well enough but He was not sufficiently firm and She did not sing sufficiently well. There is no difference in use when they qualify verbs or clauses: They are not working enough and They are not working sufficiently.
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enquire, enquiry, inquire, inquiry.

The forms in en- and in- have long been largely interchangeable. At present the in- forms are dominant in all meanings in AmE, whereas in BrE there is a tendency to prefer the in- forms for official or formal types of investigation and (to a lesser extent) the en- forms for routine or general types of information-seeking. The differences in BrE are seen in these typical collocations: (formal investigation) inquiry agent / judicial inquiry / a committee to inquire into child abuse / (general information-seeking) / I enquired after her health / There were several enquiries about the job / Try directory enquiries.

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enrol

is spelt with one l and is inflected with two ls in enrolled, enrolling, enroller, but there is only one l in enrolment. In AmE, there are two ls in all these forms, including enroll itself.

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ensure

see ASSURE.

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enterprise

is spelt -ise, not -ize.

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enthral

is spelt with one l and is inflected with two ls in enthralled, enthralling, but there is only one l in enthralment. In AmE, there are two ls in all these forms, including enthrall itself; and there is a variant inthrall.

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enthuse

is a 19c back-formation meaning ‘to show enthusiasm’ or ‘cause enthusiasm in’, and is used with and without an object; you can enthuse people, enthuse over something, or simply enthuse. Although regarded with disfavour by those for whom verb back-formations are second-class words, it is here to stay, and serves a useful purpose.

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entitled

means ‘having a right or claim to’ and should not be used as a synonym of liable (to a penalty), as in Germany suffered bitterly and was entitled to suffer for what she had done. Here was entitled to should be replaced by deserved to.

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entrench

meaning ‘to establish firmly’, is spelt en-, not in-.

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envelop, envelope.

Envelop (with stress on the second syllable) is the form for the verb, meaning ‘to wrap up, surround, etc.’, and it inflects envelops, enveloped, enveloping. Envelope (with stress on the first syllable, now normally pronounced en- rather than on-) is the form for the noun, meaning ‘a container for a letter, etc.’.

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-en verbs from adjectives.

1 There are about fifty verbs ending in -en (e.g. cheapen, harden) which have been formed from adjectives. The table given below shows that this process of verb formation was at its most productive in Middle English and in the early modern period up to about 1700. There is only one possible pair before the Norman Conquest (11c), namely the Old English antecedents of fast and fasten, but the relation of these two words to one another is not at all straightforward. The table also shows representative examples of (1) adjectives (such as blind) which function as verbs without adding -en, (2) adjectives which have two verb forms in current use (such as smooth), (3) adjectives (such as hot, long, and strong) which resort to cognates (heat, lengthen, and strengthen), and (4) adjectives (such as cold) which have no corresponding verb form at all. Dates refer to forms in the preceding columns, and are of the formation of the word, whether or not in the meaning(s) now current.

2 Other verbs, such as enfeeble, enlarge, and enrich (all ME), were formed by adding the prefix en- rather than the suffix -en.
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3 Nearly all the -en verbs which came into existence in the 16c and 17c joined or replaced words that were spelt in the same away as the adjective. For example, deep already existed as a verb in the Anglo-Saxon period, and deepen did not join it and compete with it until the 16c.
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4 By 1700 the productive power of the suffix had largely disappeared. The 18c produced only broaden, madden, and tighten; the 19c only coarsen, quieten, smarten, and tauten; and the most recent is neaten (1898).

ADJECTIVE

VERB 1

DATE

VERB 2

DATE

VERB 3

DATE

black

black

ME

blacken

ME

bright

brighten

OE

broad

broaden

18c

cheap

cheapen

16c

coarse

coarsen

19c

cold

damp

damp

ME

dampen

16c

dark

darken

ME

dead

deaden

17c

deaf

deafen

16c

deep

deepen

16c

fast

fasten

OE

fat

fatten

16c

flat

flat

16c

flatten

17c

foul

foul

OE

fresh

freshen

17c

glad

gladden

ME

good

hard

harden

ME

hot

hot

OE

heat

OE

lame

lame

ME

less

lessen

ME

light (= not heavy)

lighten

ME

light (shining)

light

OE

lighten

ME

like

liken

ME

long

lengthen

ME

loose

loose

ME

loosen

ME

mad

madden

18c

moist

moisten

16c

neat

neaten

19c

quick

quicken

ME

quiet

quiet

ME

quieten

19c

red

redden

17c

ripe

ripen

ME

rough

rough

15c

roughen

16c

sad

sadden

ME

sharp

sharpen

ME

short

shorten

ME

sick

sicken

ME

slack

slacken

16c

smart

smarten

19c

smooth

smooth

ME

smoothen

17c

soften

soften

ME

stiff

stiffen

15c

still

still

OE

stout

stouten

19c

straight

straighten

16c

strong

strengthen

ME

sweet

sweeten

ME

taut

tauten

19c

thick

thicken

ME

tight

tighten

18c

tough

toughen

16c

weak

weaken

ME

wet

wet

OE

white

whiten

ME

wide

widen

17c

worse

worsen

ME

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environs

meaning ‘the surrounding area of a place’, is a plural noun and should be pronounced in-viy-rnz, with the same pattern as in environment.

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envisage, envision.

1 Envisage is an early 19c loanword from French, meaning at first ‘to look in the face of’ and then (its current meaning) ‘to have a mental picture of (something yet to happen)’. Fowler (1926) dismissed it as an ‘undesirable Gallicism’ and recommended as alternatives the words face, confront, contemplate, recognize, realize, view, and regard. Gowers (1965) added imagine, intend, and visualize to the list of words for which envisage was ‘a pretentious substitute’. None of these will always quite serve, however, and only some of them can be substituted for envisage in its common construction followed by a verbal noun (We do not envisage leaving just yet).

2 Neither Fowler nor Gowers noticed the arrival, first in Britain (1921) and then more assertively in America, of the closely synonymous word envision, meaning ‘to see or foresee as in a vision’. The evidence of current use shows that envision is strongly favoured in AmE and envisage in BrE, but the division is not absolute. Examples:
(envisage) The best scenario…that we can envisage is one in which all those who want to do formal work will have an opportunity of doing two or three days a week—journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1980 /
So mother envisaged us all here, gathered round staring down in this ghastly way— Lively , 1989 /
Mr King spoke…more diplomatically, emphasizing that he did not envisage any ‘immediate’ change in force levels—Times, 1990 /
(envision) They envision themselves wearing berets…and crawling about the rubble, throwing Molotov cocktails—Melody Maker, 1968 /
His blackest hypochondria had never envisioned quite so miserable a Catastrophe— Strachey , 1921 /
He did not envision any basic change in the social structure or the standard of living—Bulletin of the American Academy, 1989 /
It may be only the stuff of newspaper editorials, of course, to envision a strategy in which the United Nations takes decisive action—Sunday Times, 1990.
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eon

is an American spelling of AEON.

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epic.

1 Epic is a term traditionally applied (first as an adjective, later as a noun) to narrative poems that celebrate the achievements of the heroes of history or legend, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Milton's Paradise Lost, the Chanson de Roland, the Old English elegiac poem Beowulf, and the Hindu Mahbhrata and Rmyana. The name normally applied to Old Norse narrative poems of this kind is saga.

2 The word has been extended in more recent usage to refer to any major literary work, theatrical performance, or (especially) film, which has some claim to be regarded as exceptional in terms of its length, subject matter, or scale of treatment:
I want very much to see the Birth of a Nation, which is said to be a really great film, an epic in pictures—  Huxley , 1916 /
Talking of films, Meier is still working on his wild, underground epic, Snowball, as well as producing a new Hollywood movie called MM— Face, 1992. It has also gone full circle in acquiring a new adjectival meaning ‘great, heroic’ in various applications when used attributively (before a noun):
The Communists' Red Army had just completed its epic Long March from the Southeast to its new headquarters at Yenan—Time, 1977 /
In his epic landscape of Jerusalem executed in April of 1830, Roberts draws the Holy City in silhouette—R. Fisk , 1991 /
Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank came face-to-face for the first time in 25 months since their epic world title fight—Today, 1992.
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epidemic

see ENDEMIC.

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epigram, epigraph.

Both words come from the same Greek roots meaning ‘to write (or written) on’. Epigram is slightly earlier (16c) and has two principal meanings in current use, (1) a short poem with a witty or ingenious ending, and (2) a terse or pungent saying. A third meaning, a dedicatory or explanatory inscription on a building, tomb, coin, etc., is now obsolete and is supplied by epigraph, which also means a short quotation or pithy sentence put at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc., as a foretaste of the leading idea or sentiment to be found in the work.

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episcopalian

means ‘belonging or referring to an episcopal church’, i.e. a church founded on the principle of government by bishops. It refers primarily to the Anglican Church in Scotland and the US, which has elected bishops; in this context it is spelt with a capital initial, Episcopalian.

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epistle

refers primarily to the letters of the New Testament, e.g. the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Romans. It is sometimes used ironically or whimsically to mean a letter of any kind:
The whole tenor of the epistle is that of one elite talking to another without reference to…those who have paid …Yuk—It, 1970.

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epithet.

An epithet is an adjective indicating some quality or attribute (good or bad) which the speaker or writer (or the verdict of history) regards as characteristic of a person or thing, eg Charles the Bold, Ethelred the Unready, Philip the Good, William the Silent, and many figures (Alexander, Alfred, Peter, Pompey, etc.) called the Great. An epithet can also be a noun used as a significant title or appellation, e.g. William the Conqueror, Vlad the Impaler. In more casual use, epithet simply means ‘description’ or ‘name’:
The epithets of liar, racist and worse hurled at the vice president just won't stick—Washington Times, 1988.

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epitome

pronounced as four syllables (i-pit--mi), is derived from a Greek word literally meaning ‘to cut into’. It has two main meanings in English, (1) a person or thing typically representing a quality or class
(Little did he dream when he designed the polka dot that one day it would become the epitome of fashion—New Yorker, 1970), and (2) a summary or shorter version of something written
(The book…is not intended to be popular. No doubt a lively epitome will one day be made for general reading— Waugh , 1956).

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epoch.

1 An epoch is the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of something or someone, whereas an era is a period of history characterized by particular circumstances or by a particular series of events. A period is a more general term for a distinct portion of time in relation to a person's life or to human history and an aeon is an immeasurable length of time often used in more rhetorical contexts. In geology, the three terms epoch, era, and period have special meanings: era denotes the largest unit of time, a period is a division of this, and an epoch is a subdivision of a period.

2 The adjective epoch-making is first recorded in the 19c (Coleridge had used epoch-forming in 1816), and is now widely used to mean ‘remarkable, significant’ as well as (more appropriately) ‘historic’:
Not an epoch-making or path-breaking book—Times Literary Supplement, 1973 /
This was an epoch-making moment in the history of Egypt, like the day a dam bursts—N. Barber , 1984.
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eponym, eponymous.

1 An eponym is a person after whom something is named, such as a building, an institution, an organization, a machine, a product, or a process. Examples include: Alzheimer's disease, from Alois Alzheimer, 1864–1915, German neurologist; Braille, from Louis Braille, 1809–52, French inventor; diesel, from Rudolf Diesel, 1858–1913, German engineer; mackintosh, from Charles Macintosh, 1766–1843 (with a change of spelling); Morse code, from S. F. B. Morse, 1791–1872, American inventor; sandwich, from the 4th Earl of Sandwich, 1718–92.

2 The adjective eponymous is used in the following way: Beowulf is the eponymous hero of the Old English poem of that name; Emma is the eponymous heroine of the novel Emma by Jane Austen ; and Robinson Crusoe is the eponymous hero of The Life and Strange and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe .
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equable, equitable.

Both words come from Latin aequus meaning ‘equal’, but their meanings are different. Equable means ‘even and moderate, regular’ and is typically used with words such as climate, disposition, and temperament. It denotes avoidance of extremes as well as avoidance of change. Equitable means ‘just, fair’ (usually with reference to several parties involved), and is typically used with words such as agreement, settlement, and solution.

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equal.

1 As a verb, equal has inflected forms equalled, equalling in BrE and equaled, equaling in AmE.

2 As an adjective, equal is followed by to (The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides), whereas the verb takes a direct object without to (The square on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides). Equal to also has the meaning ‘fit for, able to deal with’
(I hope I shall be equal to the challenge—P. Street , 1990); when it is followed by a verb this should be a verbal noun, not an infinitive (They are not equal to performing [ to perform] the task).
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3 Ellipsis (omission) of to should be avoided in phrases such as equal to or greater than, as in
Their budget must be equal to or greater than the minimum total cost of supplying the expected output—B.C. Smith , 1988. See ELLIPSIS.
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4 Equal is often regarded as an absolute that cannot be qualified by words such as very, more, rather, etc. However, this rule does not apply to all its meanings, and it is legitimate to say, for example, They wanted a more equal allocation of resources, in which equal means ‘fair’ as much as ‘divided equally’. There is also George Orwell's famous line
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others—Animal Farm, 1945, which is often recalled allusively in uses such as the following:
All victims are equal. None are more equal than others.— Le Carré , 1989.
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equally.

Fowler (1926) condemned the use of equally as (They are equally as good) as an ‘illiterate tautology’, preferring either (They are equally good) or (They are as good). Another unexceptionable possibility, which goes some way to providing the sentence balance that equally gives, is They are just as good.

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equilibrium

is pronounced with the first syllable either ek- or eek-. The plural form (not often needed) is equilibria or equilibriums.

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equip

has inflected forms equipped, equipping. The noun form is equipment.

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era

see EPOCH.

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-er and -est forms of adjectives and adverbs.

1 GENERAL. This article deals with the forms of the comparative and superlative of adjectives and adverbs, either by inflection (larger, largest; happier, happiest) or by using more and most (more usual; most unfortunately). It also deals in outline with the rules for using the various forms available. See also the articles on ADJECTIVE and ADVERB.

2 ADJECTIVES THAT HAVE -ER AND -EST FORMS. The adjectives that take -er and -est in preference to (or as well as) more and most are:
a words of one syllable (fast, hard, rich, wise, etc.).
b words of two syllables ending in -y and -ly (angry, early, happy, holy, lazy, likely, lively, tacky, etc.) and corresponding negative forms in un- when these exist (unhappy, unlikely, etc.). Words ending in -y change the y to i (angrier, earliest, etc.). In some cases only the -est form is used (e.g. unholiest but more unholy).
c words of two syllables ending in -le (able, humble, noble, simple, etc.).
d words of two syllables ending in -ow (mellow, narrow, shallow, etc.).
e some words of two syllables ending in -er (bitter, clever, slender, tender, etc., but not eager). In some cases only the -est form is used (e.g. bitterest but more bitter).
f some words of two syllables pronounced with the stress on the second syllable (polite, profound, etc., but not antique, bizarre, secure, etc.).
g other words of two syllables that do not belong to any classifiable group (e.g. common, cruel, pleasant, quiet); some words can take -er and -est although the forms sound somewhat less natural (e.g. awkward, crooked).
Adjectives of three or more syllables need to use forms with more and most (more beautiful, most interesting, etc.).
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3 ADVERBS THAT HAVE -ER AND -EST FORMS. The adverbs that take -er and -est in preference to (or as well as) more and most are:
a adverbs that are not formed with -ly but are identical in form to corresponding adjectives (e.g. runs faster, hits hardest, hold it tighter).
b some independent adverbs (e.g. often and soon).
Adverbs in -ly formed from adjectives (e.g. richly, softly, wisely) generally do not have forms in -er and -est but appear as more softly, most wisely, etc. The phrase easier said than done is a special case, in that there is no equivalent use as an adverb of the simple form easy.
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4 CHOICE OF FORMS. With adjectives and adverbs of one syllable it is usually less natural to use more and most when forms in -er and -est are available, although there are exceptions that are not readily explained: The job was harder than they thought sounds less idiomatic in the form The job was more hard than they thought, but We felt gladder after seeing the children sounds equally idiomatic in the form We felt more glad after seeing the children. With adjectives of two syllables it is often possible to form comparatives and superlatives both by -er and -est forms and with more and most. For example, the sentences He was most unhappy when he was on his own and He was unhappiest when he was on his own are both idiomatic, although the first but not the second can mean ‘extremely unhappy’ as well as ‘most unhappy (of all)’, in accordance with the different meanings of most.
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5 USAGE WITH AND WITHOUT THE. Comparative and superlative forms are used as adjectives without the, and comparatives can be followed by than (e.g. John is taller than his mother). They are also used as quasi-nouns (or absolute adjectives) preceded by the (e.g. John is the tallest of the children). Superlatives have a special function, without the, to express strength of meaning in uses such as Darkest Africa and to speak with deepest emotion.
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6 SUPERLATIVES IN COMPARISON OF TWO. The comparative forms are meant to compare two persons or things and superlative forms more than two, and it is normally ungrammatical to use the superlative in the role of the comparative, as in The largest of the two, although this is commonly found in spoken and written English. Use of the superlative is however idiomatic in certain fixed expressions, such as Put your best foot forward / May the best man win / Mother knows best, in which the comparison may effectively be of two but the idiom is sufficiently generalized to weaken strict duality.
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7 LITERARY USES. Some unconventional and ungrammatical formations are found as stylistic devices in literature, e.g. Shakespeare's easiliest, freelier, proudlier, wiselier, Charles Lamb's harshlier, kindlier, proudlier, Tennyson's darklier, gladlier, looselier, plainlier, George Eliot's neatliest, and Lewis Carroll's curiouser. See also ADJECTIVE (3). Other formations are occasionally used for comic effect, e.g. admirablest, loathsomer, peacefulest, wholesomer. Such devices belong to the category of special usage that makes exceptions to normal grammatical rules.
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-er and -or.

These suffixes form agent nouns denoting either a person or a thing that performs the action denoted by the word's stem; this is sometimes a word in its own right and sometimes not, e.g. dispenser, farmer, maker, porter, sailor, suitor. In theory, -er can be added to any English verb to form an agent noun; but in practice both -er and -or forms are used, sometimes as active English suffixes and sometimes as elements borrowed with the word as a whole (e.g. doctor from Old French doctour from Latin doctor). Choice between the two suffixes is purely historical and does not have any principled distinction. Note however that some agent nouns exist in two forms, e.g. adviser and advisor (the second probably influenced by advisory).
When -er is added to verbs ending in a consonant + -y, the y is normally changed to i, as in carrier, occupier, etc. Exceptions are flyer, which is now more usual than flier, and drier, which alternates with dryer.

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-er and -re

(noun and verb endings) see -RE AND -ER.

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eraser

is spelt -er, not -or. See -ER AND -OR.

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ere

pronounced like air and meaning ‘before’, has been in continuous use as a preposition and conjunction from the Old English period. Now it is only used for archaic effect or in poetry, but it refuses to disappear altogether:
And time seemed finished ere the ship passed by— Muir , 1925 /
I would give you a gift ere we go, at your own choosing—J.R.R. Tolkien , 1954 /
In that cluster of villages, London by name, Ere slabs are too tall and we Cockneys too few— Betjeman , 1958 /
No thriftful scrutiny was drawn When, ere creation's mighty dawn, Thou plannedst man's abode—P. Falvury , 1968.

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ergative

is a term for a type of verb of action or movement in which the object of the verb can become the subject of the same verb used intransitively (without an object), as in They closed the door / The door closed. There are many verbs of this type, including change, close, cook, finish, move, open, shut, slide. Some languages, such as Eskimo and Basque, have a special case for nouns used as the subject of ergative verbs.

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erotica

meaning ‘erotic literature and art’ is a plural noun, and any verb it governs should be plural (Erotica are much in evidence in the world of videos), although it is often treated as a singular mass noun:
None of Minton's erotic drawings have resurfaced, even today when erotica has become much sought after—F. Spalding , 1991. In many uses number is not explicit:
Above the pulp-line…lies the world of erotica, of sexual writing with literary pretensions or genuine claims— Steiner , 1967.

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err

meaning ‘to do wrong’, is pronounced as in her. Errant, meaning ‘doing wrong’, is pronounced with the first syllable as in merry.

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erratum

meaning ‘an error (in printed matter)’ is pronounced i-rah-tm. It is a singular noun, with a plural errata. Errata should not be used as a singular noun on the analogy of agenda; if a singular is needed, a phrase such as list of errata is preferable.

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ersatz

is a German loanword meaning ‘a substitute or imitation’ and is first recorded in English in 1875. It is still used, often in attributive position (before a noun, e.g. ersatz coffee / an ersatz culture), and is pronounced in a somewhat non-naturalized manner as er-zutz or er-sutz.

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erstwhile

is a word that dates from Old English, and is still occasionally found, mainly as an adjective meaning ‘of old, former’:
Many erstwhile Green Line travellers were doubtless driving their own cars—K. Warren , 1980.

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escalate

is a 1920s back-formation from escalator (first recorded in 1900), and has burst the bounds of meaning that a word for a moving staircase might be expected to impose. Not surprisingly, escalate is now rarely used in its first meaning ‘to travel on an escalator’. By the 1950s, it had come into regular use to mean ‘to increase or develop rapidly by stages’, chiefly in the context of military and political conflict. Typical examples from that time (the first intransitive, the second transitive, i.e. with an object) are:
The possibility of local wars ‘escalating into all-out atomic wars’—Manchester Guardian, 1959 /
Using tactical nuclear weapons which would be likely to escalate hostilities into a global nuclear war—Economist, 1961. In more recent use, escalate continues to be used in such contexts but has extended beyond them:
Only a tiny percentage of cannabis-smokers escalate to heroin—Listener, 1967 /
The police more often came under physical attack and began to respond with a steadily escalating counter-violence—Liberty and Legislation, 1989 /
Her previous calm gave way to terror that escalated until it threatened to overwhelm her—E. Blair , 1990 /
‘Iraq is not interested in escalating the situation or creating any crisis,’ he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme—Today, 1992.

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escape verb and noun.

There are three significant 20c uses, the first two of the verb and the third of the noun:
1 In intransitive use (without an object), to describe astronauts overcoming gravity and leaving the earth's atmosphere:
A spaceship will escape from Earth at 11.2 kilometres a second—Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 1949.
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2 In transitive use (with an object), to mean ‘to escape from (a place)’, both of astronauts as in the previous paragraph and in other contexts, such as escape from a convent in the following example:
It transpires she may have escaped Santa Clara to look for a well-known terrorist—N. Shakespeare , 1989. This is a revival of an older use and shows an obvious relation to more standard transitive uses as in escaping danger, arrest, criticism, suspicion, and other unwelcome circumstances.
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3 In computing, escape is a noun denoting a function (and keyboard key) that ends an operation or affects a following sequence of commands in some way. For anyone who has fallen into any of the engulfing traps that computer technology can lay for the unwary, the notion of escape provides a potent image.
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escapee

is first recorded in use by Walt Whitman , who refers to southern escapees in a memoir (1875–6) of his experiences as a hospital visitor during the American Civil War. It has come in for much adverse criticism from those who think that escaper (on the analogy of deserter) is the form called for, but the word is established and is supported by other forms such as refugee. It also accords well with the active use of the past participle (which is passive in form), as in an escaped prisoner. See -EE.

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escort

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second as a verb.

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Eskimo

has the plural form Eskimos, but Eskimo also is used as a collective. The Eskimo term Inuit (the plural of inuk meaning ‘person’) is preferred by the people themselves.

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especial, especially, special, specially.

1 There is no longer any great difficulty with especial because special has all but driven it out, although it is still used occasionally to refer principally to exceptional personal qualities or attributes as in your especial charm. The adverbs specially and especially present a much bigger problem, because each continues to the usurp the role of the other quite extensively. Essentially, the difference is this: especially means ‘chiefly, much more than in other cases’ and can qualify adjectives and adverbs as well as verbs, whereas specially means ‘for a special or specific purpose’ and qualifies verbs, participial adjectives formed from verbs (as in specially made), and occasionally (when it encroaches on especially, as described at 3 below) adjectives.

2 The following examples show this distinction:
(especially) The sumo wrestlers are not especially tall, but they are especially big—C. James , 1978 /
Ancient woods…are especially important for wildlife—Times, 1982 /
Insist on listening to some music, preferably piano music that shows up wow and flutter especially well—Listener, 1982 /
The transfer of Britain's most sophisticated technologies (especially in laser and) …will have appalling effects on the British economy—City Limits, 1986 /
(specially) This fine piano was made specially for us—Chicago Tribune, 1977 /
I gathered these specially in bud, because I thought it would be nice to see them open out in the warmth of the house—D. Madden , 1988 /
A poll, specially commissioned by London Weekend Television, examined the attitudes of different age groups to wealth distribution—F. Field , 1989.
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3 The meanings of the two words come closest when qualifying an immediately following adjective, as in the following examples in which each word is virtually interchangeable for the other, although especially is still the more correct:
It's a pretty anonymous mark. Not one I'm specially proud of, either— Lively , 1991 /
The function of the criminal law, as we see it, is…to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation or corruption of others, particularly those who are specially vulnerable because they are young, weak in body or mind or inexperienced—T. . , 1992 Specially more usually encroaches on especially, but sometimes especially is the offender:
These Pakistani garments are created especially for the wearer by a joint effort of the women of the family.—A. Wilson , 1988.
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espresso

a name for strong black Italian coffee (from a word meaning ‘pressed out’), is spelt with initial es- not ex- (a variant erroneously influenced by English express).

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Esq.

This abbreviation is a 16c shortening, as a written form of address, of esquire, which originally denoted ‘a young aspirant to knighthood who attended and served a knight’, and was later extended to refer to other classes of men including peers, lawyers, and so on. By the mid-20c Esq. had become a courtesy designation, principally in correspondence, with no significance as to rank. When Esq. is used, it follows the name and replaces any prefixed title (Mr, Dr, Capt., etc.) that would otherwise be used. With one exception (US lawyers addressing themselves), its use is restricted to Britain, and even here it is dying out as other conventions come into use.

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-esque

is a suffix forming adjectives, and corresponds to French -esque or Italian -esco (from the medieval Latin ending -iscus). In English it occurs in words derived from Italian and French, e.g. grotesque, picaresque, picturesque, and is an active suffix added to personal names to form adjectives meaning ‘in the style of…’, e.g. Audenesque, Disneyesque, Schumannesque. (It will be noticed that such words would only awkwardly make alternative forms in -ian).

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-ess.

1 This suffix forms nouns denoting female persons or animals, and was adopted in Middle English from the Old French form -esse (from late Latin -issa). The first wave of -ess words in English (countess, duchess, empress, hostess, mistress, princess, etc.) were all imported in their entirety from French. From this beginning, -ess rapidly became an active suffix added to words that already existed in English, e.g. Jewess (14c, Wyclif), patroness (15c), poetess (16c, Tyndale); and it supplanted the older native female suffix -ster, which now survives only in spinster. These words were formed by substituting -ess for -er in words such as adulterer / adulteress, or by adding -ess to the stem of words such as author / authoress. In some cases, a feminine form predated a corresponding masculine form; for example, sorceress (14c, Chaucer) is attested before sorcerer (1526, Tyndale). Some words required modification or refinement, producing (for example) governess in place of the earlier governeresse and ambassadress instead of the (unrecorded) alternative ambassadoress.

2 The OED records over 100 words in -ess formed from Middle English to about 1850, some merely fanciful or now obsolete (e.g. entertainess, farmeress, vicaress) but others still in regular use (e.g. ambassadress, heiress, mayoress).
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3 In the 20c, the feminist and politically correct movements have had a devastating effect on the fortunes of many -ess words, and have effectively brought the life of -ess as an active suffix to an end. Those regarded as especially offensive are (on racial grounds) Jewess and Negress, and (on gender grounds) occupational terms such as actress, air hostess, authoress, manageress, poetess, proprietress, stewardess, waitress, all of which have yielded to gender-neutral alternatives, either the traditional masculine forms (actor, author, manager, poet, proprietor, waiter) or specially devised forms (flight attendant, waitperson). Other words continue unchallenged, among them abbess, adulteress, adventuress, ambassadress, duchess, goddess, governess, heiress, murderess, postmistress, princess, songstress. Some of these are unalterable titles, others are not simply female equivalents of the masculine form (e.g. an ambassadress is the wife of an ambassador; a mayoress is the wife of a mayor, and in both cases a female office-holder would be called by the -or forms), and others are encountered too rarely (or only in special contexts such as fiction) to cause disquiet.
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4 A further limitation on the use of many -ess forms is that they cannot be followed by of to identify them in relation to a work or achievement; instead of the authoress of Persuasion you have to say the author of Persuasion. It is possible, however, to say the goddess of love, in which of plays a somewhat different role.
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Essex.

This name of one of the English Home Counties conjures up, in the expressions Essex man and Essex girl, a 1980s image of the brash, amoral, self-made right-wing young businessman lacking all refinement and cultural interest, and his promiscuous, materialistic girlfriend:
Essex man lies unheeded and unloved in the gutter of political history—Economist, 1995 /
An alarming tale of Essex girl jokes and sexual innuendo—Independent on Sunday, 1995. It remains to be seen how long these names, which are closely tied up with the materialistic political climate of the 1980s, continue in use.

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-est

(forming superlatives of adjectives and adverbs) see -ER AND -EST FORMS.

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Establishment.

The Establishment (with a capital E) means ‘the group in society exercising authority or influence, and seen as resisting change’ and, by extension, ‘any influential or controlling group’ as in the literary establishment. This concentration of a previously somewhat vague range of meaning was due largely to an article by the journalist Henry Fairlie published in The Spectator in 1955, where he defined the term as referring not only to ‘the centres of official power—though they are certainly part of it—but rather the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised’. The term Establishment had been applied earlier to the ecclesiastical system also known as the established Church, i.e. the Church of England and the corresponding churches in other parts of the United Kingdom.

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estate.

1 The meaning of estate in the term three estates of the realm is a historical one, ‘an order or class forming part of the body politic’. The three estates are the Lords Spiritual (i.e. the heads of the Church), the Lords Temporal (i.e. the peerage), and the Commons. The terms dates from the 15c, and has been used of similar institutions in other countries. A misuse, noted by the OED, which identifies the three elements as the Crown, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons, is first recorded as early as 1559. A fourth estate, the newspaper press, was added (possibly by Edmund Burke ) in the early 19c.

2 Estate meaning ‘a landed property’ is first recorded in the late 18c. In the 20c this has been supplemented by a meaning well noted by C. S. Lewis in his Studies in Words (1960): When I was a boy estate had as its dominant meaning ‘land belonging to a large landowner’, but the meaning ‘land covered with small houses’ is dominant now.
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3 Estate car is a general term in BrE for a kind of car that has the internal accommodation extended into the rear with a door at the back. The equivalent term in AmE is station wagon.
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esthete, esthetic

are American spellings of AESTHETE, AESTHETIC.

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estimable

means ‘worthy of esteem, admirable’. Estimatable is the form required for the meaning ‘capable of being estimated’, although it does not seem to be much used (there is one occurrence only in the 100-million word British National Corpus).

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estimation.

1 Fowler described the use of estimation in the phrase in my estimation (= in my opinion) as ‘illiterate’, a verdict which is negated by several centuries of use in this meaning:
The dearest of men in my estimation—E.W. Lane , 1841 /
It was about this time that Martin took a great slump in Maria's estimation—J. London , 1909.

2 Estimation, in addition to the meaning just discussed, is the process of forming a judgement or calculation, as distinct from estimate (noun), which is the result of the process, i.e. (1) an approximate decision about cost, size, value, etc., or (2) the cost or size itself, as in The total estimate comes to £500.
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Estuary English

is the name for a variety of informal and allegedly classless English spoken in the area of the Thames Estuary, i.e. London and parts of the Home Counties (notably Essex). The term was coined in 1984 by a London scholar named David Rosewarne . As well as peculiarities of vocabulary (such as cheers for thank you and mate for friend), the most recognizable features of Estuary English are phonetic: the replacement of t by a glottal stop in words such as butter and water, the replacement of l by a sound like w in words such as full and ball-game, and other features described more fully in books such as Paul Coggle's Do You Speak Estuary? (1993).

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et al.

is an abbreviation of Latin et alii (= and other people) or et alia (= and other things), and is used to avoid listing a long sequence of names, only the first or the first few being given, as in Smith, Jones, et al. It is regularly used in bibliographical citation for works having several authors, and is printed in roman or italic type according to the particular style in use. It is appropriately used for references to people; for other categories etc. is preferable.

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etc.

1 This is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase et cetera meaning ‘and other things of the same kind’, and is pronounced et set--r or et set-r, despite the temptation to articulate the first syllable ek on the analogy of words such as ecstasy and excellence.

2 It means ‘and so on’ or ‘and the rest’, and can refer to people or things or both. Practice varies regarding the punctuation that precedes and follows etc., but in general it is best to treat it as if it were ‘and so on’, i.e. precede it by a comma when it comes after two or more items already separated by commas (We need pencils, paper, etc.), but not when it comes after a single item or two items without a comma (We need paper etc. / We need some pencil and paper etc.). It should be followed by a comma when a comma would be used in the case of ‘and so on’ (We need pencils. paper, etc., as well as a desk to work on).
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3 Since etc. includes ‘and’ in its element et, it is illiterate to write and etc. (or & etc.). The form &c, though once common (and used by in ordinary writing), is now out of fashion.
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ethics, morals.

1 Both terms are concerned with the practice of right and wrong. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) defines ethics as ‘the science of morals in human conduct’; what this means is that morals forms the basis of abstract principles whereas ethics are the application of these principles in human activity, especially in specific areas of activity such as law and medicine (professional ethics).

2 Of the corresponding adjectives, ethical describes what is right or wrong in terms of an accepted code of behaviour, whereas moral describes what is right or wrong in principle, as affecting human behaviour generally:
The various moral systems of the world may include many of the same moral ideas—G. A. & A.G. Theodorson , 1970 /
They believe in the moral superiority of primitive over civilised man—Daily Telegraph, 1972 /
It is neither easy nor ethical to perch with notebook or video camera over spontaneous scenes of human mating or aggression—New Scientist, 1983 /
Condoning surrogacy as a solution is surely not justified on either ethical or practical grounds—Financial Times, 1985. Moral also occurs in a few fixed expressions such as moral certainty (= strong probability), moral courage, moral majority, and moral support, and here means ‘having a psychological effect associated with confidence in a right action’.
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ethnic

is now principally used to denote a section of a community having distinct racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics not shared by the rest of the community. Ethnic is typically used to describe clothing, dance, music, and other customs that distinguish such people:
The Radio Authority has helpfully decreed that classical music, light orchestra and non-amplified jazz, folk, country and ethnic music aren't pop—Times Educational Supplement, 1991 /
Vegetarian dishes in various ethnic cuisines—Mexican, Thai, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Middle Eastern, etc.— New Musical Express, 1991. An ethnic minority (first recorded in 1945) is a section of a community that forms a minority within a larger community, for example Sikhs, Muslims, and West Indian people in Britain. In a further development of the term, people are described as being (for example) ethnic Turks when they are of Turkish origin but living in a country other than Turkey; in recent times we have heard a great deal about ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia and ethnic Albanians in Serbia:
The ethnic Albanian ministers had been tendering their resignations one by one since late March— Keesings , 1990.

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ethnic cleansing.

This unfortunate euphemism, highly reminiscent of the final solution and other expressions to do with the suppression of peoples, is first recorded in 1991 in connection with events in Yugoslavia that have continued through the 1990s. It means ‘the mass expulsion or extermination of people from a minority ethnic or religious group within a certain area’:
The area has a large number of towns and villages, many emptied of Muslims and Croats in three years of ethnic cleansing—Times, 1995.

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ethnic names and stereotypes.

1 SLANG NAMES FOR PEOPLE. These range from the neutral or affectionate (Brit = someone British, Mick = an Irishman) via the category of often though not always derogatory (Limey (in America) = someone British, Yank (in Britain) = an American) to the invariably offensive (dago = Spaniard, Yid = Jew). Across this range much depends on the relationship between the user of the term and the hearer. Most offensive of all in current use are Nigger for a black-skinned person (so offensive that pressure groups in the US want to see it removed from dictionaries) and Paki for a person from Pakistan or the Indian subcontinent generally. The origin of some terms is obscured or forgotten; many have to do with trivialized conceptions of supposed habits (Frog = Frenchman, from the practice of eating frog's legs in France, Kraut = German, from the eating of sauerkraut in Germany, etc.), others are fanciful formations (Pommy (in Australia) = English immigrant, from pomegranate as a word-play on immigrant), and others again develop folk etymologies (e.g. wog = foreigner, supposedly an acronym of westernized (or wily) oriental gentleman but more likely a shortening of golliwog). Some are of unknown origin (e.g. kike, AmE = Jew). A fuller account of this topic will be found in the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), 381–4, from which much of this material is drawn.

2 STEROTYPES. Ethnic stereotypes have long featured as a component of idiom in many languages, and these often have more to do with popular conception than historical truth. Increased sensitivity to unfavorable ethnic description in the 20c has led to a strong disapproval of many terms, such as street Arab and young Turk. Most notorious of all has been the use of Jew as an opprobrious term for ‘a mean or grasping person’, a historical use which arose from the association of Jews with medieval money-lending and was duly recorded in successive editions of the Concise Oxford Dictionary but dropped (on grounds of lack of currency) from the ninth edition (1995).
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-ette

is a suffix corresponding to an Old French form -ette and is found in English (mostly from the 19c) in four types of noun, either as an active suffix or as part of a word adopted from French:
1 diminutive words, e.g. chemisette (= a small chemise, 1807), cigarette (= small cigar, 1842), novelette (= a short novel, 1820), pipette (= a small pipe, 1839), statuette (= a small statue, 1843). Formations of the 20c include kitchenette (= a small kitchen, 1910), launderette (which is not just a diminutive but means a special kind of self-service laundry, 1949), diskette (= a small computer disk), superette (= a small supermarket, chiefly AmE and Australian, 1938). In some words, such as launderette and serviette (originally Scottish, and reintroduced into standard English in the 19c: see U AND NON-U), -ette is not strictly a diminutive, but is best considered in this category.
2 feminine words, a usage launched in a spectacular way with the word suffragette (1906), a female supporter of, and active campaigner for, women's right to vote. No word of this kind coined since has had the same resonance. The American scholar H. L. Mencken (writing in 1921) noted the appearance of a string of ephemeral formations including conductorette and farmerette, but the only one to attain any permanent currency was usherette (1925):
What the hell are you holding that torch for as if you were a bloody usherette?—A.N. Wilson , 1990. This, together with undergraduette (1919, and see below) and majorette (AmE, in drum majorette, 1938), represent a distinct anticlimax after a promising start. A trickle of trivial words continued in the post-war years, until the suffix was taken up by male chauvinist magazine writers in the 1980s to form depreciatory and often hostile terms for women such as bimbette, hackette, snoopette, undergraduette (a revival of the 1919 word), whizzette, and even womanette.
3 names of fabrics, some but not all imitations of something else, e.g. muslinette (1787, the first recorded), leatherette (1880), flannelette (1882), stockingette (1824, now more usually written as stockinet), and winceyette (1922, a lightweight cotton fabric for nightclothes, from wincey, itself an alteration of woolsey in linsey-woolsey).
4 names of commercial foods. American newspapers in the 1990s have been carrying advertisements for Clubettes (= bite-size crackers), Creamettes (= a type of pasta), Croutettes (= a stuffing mix), and Toastettes (= a kind of tart). The model for these tradenames is possibly the word croquette (first recorded in 1706), a term borrowed from French and meaning ‘a fried breaded roll or ball of mashed potato or minced meat’.

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etymology.

1 Etymology is the study of the history and derivation of words, and an etymology is the history of a particular word. Most dictionaries of concise size and larger give detailed accounts of a word's sources, which can be from other English words (e.g. newspaper) or from other languages (e.g. kiosk via French from Persian). Some words borrowed from other languages have been assimilated to English-looking forms; for example Spanish cucaracha has given us cockroach by assimilation with the English words cock and roach (see ASSIMILATION).

2 The vast majority of English words (apart from those made from existing English words) are derived from Old English (Anglo-Saxon), from Norse languages, or from a late form of Latin via French words that came into English after the Norman Conquest in 1066. A succinct account of the main sources of English words is given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995), ix-xii, to which the reader is referred for further information. It is disappointing for many people that the origins of some quite familiar and important words remain obscure or unknown. The histories of boy and girl are unknown before Middle English, dog has no identified Germanic cognates, many informal or slang words, such as bamboozle, caboodle, cagey, clobber, gimmick, jiff, and posh, have no verified origins, despite spurious claims made for some of them (such as the supposed ‘port outward starboard home’ origin of posh), and some words that appear to be made up of distinctive elements, for example contraption and theodolite, are also doubtful or unknown in origin.
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3 Certain words, possibly including some of those in the last paragraph, are onomatopoeic, i.e. they represent a sound with which their meanings are associated, such as clang, plonk, and thwack; and a few words that are less obviously connected with sounds, such as blizzard and jumble, also belong to this class.
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4 The word etymology itself comes from a Greek word etymon meaning ‘true’. However, the etymology of a word represents its original meaning rather than its true meaning in any judgemental sense. Appeals to etymology to defend the use of words against change in meaning (as for example with DECIMATE), though commonly made, are usually futile, since few words in the core vocabulary of English now mean what they used to mean, as the complex history of nice demonstrates.
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eulogy

see ELEGY.

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euphemism

is the use of a milder or vaguer word or phrase in place of one that might seem too a harsh or direct in a particular context, and a euphemism is such a word or phrase. The most productive subjects for euphemism are bodily functions, sexual activity, death, politics, and violence. Euphemisms in these and other areas of language use are given in the table below.

WORD OR PHRASE

COMMON EUPHEMISMS

lavatory

bog (slang), comfort station, convenience, little boys' room, little house, loo, restroom (AmE), washroom (AmE), water closet (WC)

urinate

have a tinkle (slang), pass water, relieve oneself, spend a penny, take a leak (slang)

have sexual intercourse with prostitute

make love to, sleep with call girl, fallen woman, street-walker

die

depart this life, give up the ghost, kick the bucket (slang), pass away, pass on

kill

do way with, remove, take out, terminate

redundancy

downsizing, rationalizing, restructuring, slimming down

Examples of phrasal euphemism are collateral damage (= accidental destruction of non-military areas), ethnic cleansing (= mass expulsion or extermination of ethnic minorities), final solution (= Nazi extermination of European Jews), friendly fire (= killing of soldiers on one's own side), helping the police with their inquiries (= under interrogation and imminent arrest), pacification (= evacuation and destruction of villages in war), and (facetiously) tired and emotional (= drunk).

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euphuism

(not to be confused with euphemism: see the preceding entry) is an affected or high-flown style of writing or speaking, originally applied to work of the late 16c and early 17c written in imitation of John Lyly's Euphues (pronounced yoo-fyoo-eez 1578–80). The name is derived from Greek euphues meaning ‘well-endowed by nature’.

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Eurasian

is a term (noun and adjective) first used in the 19c for a person of mixed European and Asian (especially Indian) parentage.

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Euro-.

1 Euro-, shortened to Eur- before certain vowels, is one of the more productive combining forms of the 20c, as a linguistic reflection of far-reaching political and economic developments across Europe. The form is first used in the 1950s in hyphened combinations such as Euro-African and Euro-American, and in the institutional names Eurovision (1951, a network of European broadcasting organizations) and Euratom (1956, = European Atomic Energy Community). The first generalized words are Euro-dollar (1960, a dollar held outside the US, though not necessarily in Europe), the disparaging Eurocrat (= European bureaucrat, 1961), and the not much more favourable Eurocentric (= regarded in European terms, 1963). The first uses related to Europe (or Western Europe) generally, and this meaning continues in formations such as Euromissile (1979) and Eurostrategic (1977), whereas many terms that arose in the 1960s and since refer more specifically to the European Community (now Union) in relation to the UK's potential and later actual membership, especially the notorious Eurosceptic (1986) and its antonym Europhile, both used as adjectives and nouns, and other irreverent formations including Eurobabble (1986, in a US source) and Eurojargon.

2 Like many prolific combining forms, Euro- has succeeded in detaching itself and going into orbit as a word in its own right:
The Euro terrorists announced…that they had set up a ‘Western European Revolutionary offensive’— Evening Standard, 1987 /
The name Britannia had been dropped from the deal because its nationalistic connotations could have obvious drawbacks in a pan-Euro venture—European Investor, 1990. It remains to be seen what will be the linguistic consequences of choosing Euro (or euro) as the name for the new common currency of the European Union.
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evade

see AVOID.

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evasion, evasiveness.

Evasiveness is the quality a person has of being evasive, whereas evasion is the process or result of this quality, or an instance of it:
He has been in the trenches too long not to be a master at mixing sincerity with evasiveness—Rolling Stone, 1977 /
Never before can so many decent, explicit words have utterly altered their meaning to conceal an evasion or untruth—Sunday Times, 1977. Evasion has a special meaning in relation to legal obligations, and differs from avoidance in denoting illegality:
He'd been had up for offering bribes to council employees: the whole story had been ridiculous, tales of…call girls and twenty-pound notes, of tax evasion and porno-movies— Drabble , 1977. See also AVOID.

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eve

means ‘the evening or day before’ (as in Christmas Eve) and, in figurative use, also means ‘the time just before an event’ (as in the eve of the election). In the following examples, eve is literal in the first two phrases, is figurative in the third, and may be either in the last two: On Christmas Eve / on the Eve of St Agnes / on the eve of great developments / on the eve of the battle / on the eve of departure. The meaning in particular cases is often clear from the context.

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even

is normally placed immediately before the word or phrase that it qualifies: Doctors must pursue costly and even dangerous investigations / She is talking even more loudly / He even enrolled in a business studies course. In some cases even qualifies an entire subordinate clause: Even if my watch is right we shall be late. When even qualifies a verb formed with an auxiliary or modal verb (can, do, have, might, etc.), it is placed between the auxiliary verb and the infinitive (He had even managed to laugh at it / I did not even bother to read it) and this is also the case when even qualifies the complement of the verb: It might even cost £100. In informal contexts involving negatives, even sometimes comes at the end of a sentence: They didn't want anything to eat, or a drink even.

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evenness

is spelt with two ns.

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event.

1 In the event of is a somewhat awkward prepositional phrase used in BrE to mean ‘if such-and-such (should happen)’. It is followed by a noun or verbal noun:
The 12 members of the Basle central bankers' club have made reciprocal arrangements to make short-term loans to each other in the event of any currency coming under severe pressure—Times, 1968 /
Every manned space flight…has a backup crew, to replace the prime crew in the event of illness or death—R. Turnill , 1970. The expression has picked up some bad vibes from its extended form in the unlikely event, familiar to air travellers from its euphemistic reference to danger: In the unlikely event of a landing on water….

2 In AmE, and in the language of law and business also in BrE, the phrase is in the event (that), used as a conjunction:
A metal tubular structure over the cockpit which protects the driver in the event the car overturns—Publications of the American Dialect Society, 1964. /
Parties should consider at the outset the payment of their advisers' fees in the event that the transaction aborts—D.J. Cooke , 1993.
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eventuality, eventuate.

Both words date from the 18c and have had their fair share of criticism. Eventuate was derided by De Quincy (1834) as ‘Yankeeish’ and by Dean Alford (1864) as ‘another horrible word’, and Fowler (1926) castigated both as ‘flabby journalese’, leaving a string of ‘characteristic specimens’ to speak for themselves. It is undeniable that result or come about, or sometimes simply happen, are often preferable alternatives:
It had been intended to have educated Saudi women dealing with the public at the exhibition, but…this had not eventuated—Times, 1986 /
Many of the things we worry about never eventuate—D. Rowe , 1987. Eventuality has been less fiercely attacked, although it is often a mere synonym for circumstance, event, or possibility:
Although he had been ordered not to destroy it, Harmel was prepared for the eventuality—C. Ryan , 1974 /
Of course, different situations demand different reactions and one cannot plan for every eventuality—P. Mann , 1982.

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ever.

1 AS INTENSIFIER. In informal conversation ever is sometimes used as an intensifier immediately after an interrogative word such as who, what, why, etc.: Who ever can that be? / What ever did you say to him? / Why ever should you think that? These uses should be distinguished from the one-word forms whoever, whatever, etc., which are relative pronouns: I'll do whatever you want. See WHATEVER, WHAT EVER; WHOEVER, WHO EVER.

2 DID YOU EVER? This expression is informal only, and has a distinct Victorian ring:
‘And where is she now?’ ‘In a studio.’…‘Did you ever!’ said Mrs. Fanshaw—Peel City Guardian, 1892 /
Cody! Out there is the middle of nowhere, by sheer coincidence, Cody Tull!…‘Well did you ever.’—A. Tyler , 1982.
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3 EVER SO. An older use after if or though with the meaning ‘at all, in any degree’ now sounds archaic and has almost disappeared:
Though Sir Peter's ill humour may vex me ever so, it never shall provoke me— Sheridan , 1777. It is now overshadowed by the same phrase used (since the mid-19c) in positive contexts as an intensive meaning ‘vastly, immensely’:
It's the greatest idea, and I'm ever so grateful—J. Leland , 1987 /
He's done ever so well out there. He's a fashion photographer, has his own studio.— Lodge , 1991. This use is largely restricted to conversational English.
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every.

1 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EACH AND EVERY. Both words denote all the people or things in a group, and both normally govern a singular verb (for some exceptions see EACH). But each is a pronoun (as in I'll take three of each) as well as an adjective (or determiner), whereas every is only an adjective (or determiner); you cannot say I'll take three of every, although you can say I'll take three of every kind. Each can refer to two or more items, whereas every can only refer to three or more. The meaning is also slightly different in that each regards the people or things concerned separately, whereas every regards them collectively.

2 TYPICAL USES OF EVERY. Every is used (1) with singular countable nouns to denote three or more (It would be quite impossible to prosecute every motorist / The new version is better in every way / The company has a training day for every new employee / They have every right to be here), (2) with some abstract uncountable nouns referring to a feeling or attitude (We have every sympathy for their case / I have every confidence in you), (3) with nouns of time to form adverbial phrases denoting frequency (She comes every day / We get an extra day off every three weeks / We see them in town every now and then), (4) with numbers to denote distribution (They investigate one case in every ten / The police were stopping every third car). When a possessive pronoun precedes a noun, every comes between them: She'll look after your every need.
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3 EVERY SINGLE, EVERY OTHER. Single serves as an intensifier after every (I was able to hear every single word), and other denotes alternate items in a group (Every other house had a garage).
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4 EVERY ONE. As two words, every one can refer to people or things, and each word retains its distinct meaning (When we cut up the apples, every one of them was rotten). Written as one word, everyone refers only to people: see EVERYONE.
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everybody

has been written as one word since the 19c, and alternates with everyone with no difference in meaning. Both words take a singular verb, but pronouns in the continuation of the sentence are often plural to denote neutrality of gender:
Everybody seems to recover their spirits— Ruskin , 1866 /
Everybody has a right to describe their own party machine as they choose— Churchill , 1954 /
‘There's a bus waiting outside the terminal to take everybody to their hotels,’ said Linda— Lodge , 1991. See AGREEMENT (4).

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everyday

is written as one word when it is used as an adjective in attributive position (before a noun): They were wearing everyday clothes. As an adverbial phrase, every day is written as two words: She goes shopping nearly every day.

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everyone

as an indefinite pronoun meaning the same as everybody, is now regularly spelt as one word. This convention is surprisingly recent (20c); the OED (in 1894) preferred every one (two words), while Fowler (1926) presented a spirited argument in favour of the linked form everyone. As with everybody, everyone takes a singular verb but can be followed by a plural pronoun or possessive in the continuation of the sentence to denote neutrality of gender:
Everyone then looked about them silently, in suspense and expectation—W.H. Mallock , 1877 /
Everyone was absorbed in their own business—A. Motion , 1989 /
The classical allegories look like surreal school outings in which everyone got to take their clothes off, and then was sorry—M. Vaizey , 1991. See AGREEMENT (4). Unlike every one written as two words (see EVERY (4)), everyone refers only to people.

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everyplace

is a modern AmE synonym of everywhere:
Although, like everyplace else, the White Elephant had engaged a corps of college students—Saturday Review, 1976.

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every time

used as an adverbial phrase and conjunction, should be written as two words: It happens every time / Every time they come, there's an argument. It is sometimes found as one word, but this is incorrect:
Everytime I see a new line on my face, I'm also hysterically thinking it's all over—The Face, 1990.

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evidence verb.

This verb, meaning ‘to serve as evidence of’ or ‘to attest’
(The closer links with the London company were evidenced by the acquisition of LGOC-type buses and equipment—K. Warren , 1980) and, more loosely, ‘to indicate’
(Everything he was and did evidenced distinction— Gordimer , 1990), is decidedly awkward and is not often found in everyday use. Other more comfortable words are available (e.g. attest, demonstrate, exhibit, indicate, show) and are usually preferable.

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evilly

the adverb from evil, is spelt with two ls.

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evince

is used mainly in formal English (or, as Fowler put it, by ‘those who like a full-dress word better than a plain one’) to mean ‘to show or make evident (a quality or feeling)’. One might add that it is usually found in the company of other full-dress words:
Nobody he passed evinced the slightest interest in him or seemed to constitute any kind of threat—J. Leland , 1987 /
They constantly evince a smug hermeticism that is graceless and slight—Times, 1987.

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ex-

used as a prefix meaning ‘former’, causes no difficulty when it is attached to single words (ex-convict / ex-president / ex-lover). Fowler's objection to its use with noun phrases (ex-Lord Mayor / ex-Prime Minister) as ‘patent yet prevalent absurdities’, is uncharacteristically pedantic, and the eye easily accommodates most expression of this kind. In more awkward cases, especially where further hyphenation is involved, former is always available (a former trade-union leader). Ex- has a special use in ex-directory, meaning ‘not listed in a (telephone) directory’, in ex-dividend, meaning ‘before payment of a dividend’, and in ex-VAT, meaning ‘before VAT has been added’.

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exalt, exult.

The two words are not related and have different meanings which can be confused because of their closeness of form. Exalt (pronounced ig-zawlt) means ‘to praise highly’, and is often used in the participial form exalted, meaning ‘grand, noble’, with reference to status, ideals, etc.:
No member of your Government should consider his position to be more important and exalted than that of the Paramount Chief—Rand Daily Mail, 1917. Exult (pronounced ig-zult) means ‘to feel great joy or triumph’, and is common in its adjectival form exultant:
Alice could hardly prevent herself from openly exulting— Lessing , 1986 /
As the camera pulled back on the last shot and credits were shown on the screen, the tension in the studio relaxed, replaced by an exultant mood—S. Conran , 1992. The meanings come very close in the corresponding nouns, exaltation = expression of praise, and exultation = expression of joy.

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exceedingly, excessively.

Both words came into use in the late 15c. Exceedingly (16c in its current meaning) means ‘very, extremely’, and is now used only with adjectives and adverbs (most often well):
His room was exceedingly cold—P. Fitzgerald , 1982 /
Judd was doing exceedingly well as an air cadet—C. Lorrimer , 1993. Excessively has a much stronger meaning ‘too, by too much’, and is used with verbs as well as adjectives and adverbs:
She may exercise excessively, spending hours each day in the gymnasium— Abraham &  Llewellyn-Jones , 1984 /
In Enid Blyton's work, this excessively simple world picture is carried to extremes—N. Tucker , 1981.

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excellent

can be qualified by quite or most, which are adverbs with absolute meaning, but not by very or more, which are grading adverbs:
The quite excellent British Museum Press, which is managing to produce some twenty scholarly titles this season—Art Newspaper, 1992.

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except.

1 Use as a conjunction is now archaic, as in the famous passage in Psalms (AV, 127:1): Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vaine that build it (in more modern translations this is rendered Unless the Lord builds the house …).

2 Except should not normally be used by itself to mean ‘except that’ or ‘but’, although this is common informally and in conversation:
The day he turned 18, Trojan moved into his own council flat in Caledonian Road. Except he didn't like it—The Face, 1987.
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3 Except for, as in They all came except for James, is also somewhat informal, and is best avoided when except alone will do: They all came except James. At the beginning of a sentence, however, except for is needed: Except for James, everyone brought a gift with them.
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excepting

is correctly used as a preposition instead of except when it follows not (or another negative) or always:
His comprehensive knowledge of the Lakes stood above that of all the men of his time, not excepting Wordsworth—J. Sloss , 1984. An alternative, though less usual, construction is …Wordsworth not excepted. Examples of uses in which except would be preferable are:
Faith had left all her jewellery, excepting mother's pearl and ruby eternity ring, to Dorothea Shottery— Hill , 1969 /
These processes, excepting that of population growth, are largely unexplored—P. Blaikie , 1987.

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exception.

The proverb the exception proves the rule means ‘the existence of an exception shows that a rule exists in those cases that are not exceptions’. It should not be used to mean ‘the exception becomes the rule’, although this is often found.

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exceptional, exceptionable.

1 These adjectives relate to different meanings of exception. Exceptional means ‘unusual, not typical’, i.e. ‘forming an exception’ in a favourable sense:
Schizophrenes are often held to be people of exceptional charm—D. Cory , 1977 /
You could get an exceptional trade-in price for your old car—Sunday Express, 1980. Exceptionable means ‘to which exception may be taken’, i.e. ‘open to objection’:
Prince later wrote to Gould when he was in Australia, complaining that Alfred Newton had been ‘far, far too complimentary’ about Lear's part in the publication, 'particularly when we know that most of the subscribers are of the opinion that his plates are almost the only exceptionable part of your work—I. Tree , 1991. It is more often used in the negative form unexceptionable, meaning ‘not open to objection, perfectly satisfactory’.

2 In the following examples, exceptionable seems to be used in error for other words, exceptional in the first example, and acceptable in the second:
The establishment Whigs…came to argue that resistance was only allowable in exceptionable circumstances, such as those of 1688—T. Harris , 1993 /
The three point nine million pounds was effectively a minimum exceptionable level and it was within this figure they required the one point six million on minor works and footways to be increased to two million pounds—record of meeting, 1992.
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excessively

see EXCEEDINGLY.

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exchangeable

is spelt with three es.

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excise

is spelt -ise, not -ize. As a noun and verb in the ‘tax’ meaning, it is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable; as a verb meaning ‘to remove by cutting’ it is pronounced with stress on the second syllable.

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excitable

is spelt without an e in the middle.

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exclamation mark.

In ordinary writing, the exclamation mark (!) should be used sparingly, and in particular should not be used to add a spurious sense of drama or sensation to writing that is otherwise undramatic or unsensational, or to signal the humorous intent of a comment whose humour might otherwise go unrecognized. There are a number of established uses:
1 To mark a command or warning: Go to your room! / Be careful!.
2 To indicate the expression of a strong feeling of absurdity, surprise, approval, dislike, regret, etc., especially after how or what: What a suggestion! / How awful! / Aren't they odd! / What a good idea! / They are revolting! / I hate you!.
3 To express a wish or feeling of regret: I'd love to come! / If only I had known!.
4 To indicate someone calling out or shouting: Outside Edith's house, someone knocked. ‘Edith!’ / ‘You're only shielding her.’ ‘Shielding her!’ His voice rose to a shriek.
Many literary uses can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. The following are a few representative examples:
I weep for Adonais—he is dead! O, weep for Adonais!— Shelley , 1821 /
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland, And we in dreams behold the Hebrides!—J. Galt , 1829 (translated in Blackwood's Magazine)/
Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee!—S.F. Adams , 1841 /
Oh, to be in England Now that April's there…While the chaffinch sings in the orchard bough In England—now!— Browning , 1845 /
Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet—G.K. Chesterton , 1900 /
What a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don't you know, if you see what I mean.—P.G. Wodehouse , 1919 /
Six days of the week it [sc. work] soils With its sickening poison—Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion— Larkin , 1955.
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excusable

is spelt without an e in the middle.

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executive

in general use denotes one of three branches of government of which the other two are the legislative and the judicial. In the UK, it also denotes a rank of civil servant above administrative and clerical, and in the UK and US it means a high officer with important duties in a business organization. In attributive use (before a noun) executive has developed a meaning used in marketing to describe anything promoted as suitable for use by executives, i.e. luxurious or exclusive:
You can quaff from ‘executive bars’…in ‘executive suites’ and top up from ‘executive ice machines’ on ‘executive floors’…We have… luxuriated over ‘executive menus’ (smoked salmon is an extra with the ‘executive breakfast’), and I once gratefully pocketed my ‘complimentary executive gifts’.— Lambton , Listener, 1989.

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executor

meaning an official appointed to carry out the terms of a will, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. It should be distinguished from executioner, an official who carries out a sentence of death.

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exercise

both as a noun and a verb, is spelt -ise, not -ize, and has only one c.

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exhaustible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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exhaustive, exhausting.

Both words are derived from the verb exhaust, but relate to different meanings. Exhaustive relates to the meaning ‘use up the whole of’ (as in exhausting a supply) and means ‘thorough or comprehensive’:
We have all read the Steering Committee's exhaustive report—D. Meiring , 1979. Exhausting relates to the meaning ‘to tire (a person)’ and means ‘extremely tiring’ or ‘draining of strength’:
He's known as the studio's resident Romeo, with a social life and a string of girlfriends which must be exhausting rather than exhilarating—Leicester Chronicle, 1976.

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exigent, exiguous.

Both words are related to Latin exigere in its two meanings ‘to enforce payment of’ and ‘to weigh exactly’. Exigent corresponds to the first of these meanings and means ‘exacting’ or ‘urgent’:
He was a man whose personal life, though occasionally exigent, never became a siren song—A.S. Byatt , 1988 /
The exigent journalist Lynn Barber, in her collection of interviews Mostly Men, singles him out as the sole male representative of a type she describes as ‘nice, straightforward, feet on the ground’.—She, 1989. Exiguous corresponds to the second meaning and means ‘very small, scanty’:
She gulped it down, paid the exiguous dispensing fee, and left the premises—E.R. Taylor , 1991 /
The description of the facts is somewhat exiguous—Weekly Law Reports, 1992.

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exit.

In stage directions the correct style is Exit Macbeth (when one person leaves the stage) and Exeunt Banquo and Fleance (when more than one person leaves). The two forms are the third person singular and third person plural present tense of the Latin verb exire ‘to go out’.

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-ex, -ix.

Naturalized Latin nouns ending in -ex and -ix vary in their plural forms, sometimes (as English words) adding -es and sometimes (as Latin words) changing the ending to -ices. The following table lists the most important words and their plural forms.

SINGULAR

PRINCIPAL MEANING

PLURAL

apex

highest point (technical)

apexes

apices

appendix

supplement in book (medical)

appendices

appendixes

codex

manuscript in book form

codices

cortex

outer part of an organ

cortices

duplex

apartment on two floors (AmE)

duplexes

helix

spiral curve

helices

ilex

tree or shrub

ilexes

Index

list in book (technical)

indexes

indices

matrix

mould, grid structure, etc.

matrices or matrixes

murex

mollusc

murices

radix

number or symbol

radices

silex

quartz or flint

no plural

simplex

thing in its simplest form

simplexes

vertex

highest point

vertices or vertexes

vortex

mass of whirling fluid

vortices or vortexes

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ex officio

is a Latin phrase meaning ‘by virtue of one's office or status’ (The principal is ex officio a member of the board of governors). It is spelt with a hyphen when used attributively (before a noun, as in an ex-officio member of the committee).

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exorcize

meaning ‘to expel (an evil spirit or influence)’ is preferably spelt -ize, although -ise is common.

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exoteric, exotic.

Both words are derived ultimately from Greek ex meaning ‘outside’. Exoteric is the opposite of esoteric, and means ‘intended for people generally’; exotic means ‘coming from or associated with a foreign country’, often with connotations of the remarkable or bizarre, as in exotic dances.

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expandable, expansible

are two forms of the derivative of expand. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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expect

was the object of much criticism during the 19c when it was used to mean ‘to suppose, surmise’, as in I expect you'd like a drink. Fowler , however, regarded it as a natural extension of meaning and wrote (1926) that ‘it seems needless purism to resist it’. This view has been supported by the weight of usage, especially in spoken English.

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expedience, expediency.

Both forms are in use in the meaning ‘fitness, suitability, advantage’, although expediency is much more common. The rhythm of the sentence often determines which is used:
The present mentality on the island emphasises short cuts, expedience and disdain for professional standard—New Scientist, 1991 /
At the time there was a case to be made for the new policy satisfying the demands both of expediency and humanity—K. Tidrick , 1992.

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expiry, expiration.

The primary meaning of expiry is ‘the end of the validity or duration of something’, as in on expiry of the lease at the end of the month. It is also a rather formal or euphemistic word for ‘death’. Expiration can have these meanings, although much more often it means ‘the act of breathing out’, which expiry cannot be used to mean. Both words are derived from Latin expirare meaning ‘to breathe out’.

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expletive

is pronounced ik-splee-tiv, with the stress on the second syllable, for both the noun (meaning ‘an oath or swear word’) and the adjective (meaning ‘filling out a sentence, line of verse, etc.’).

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exploit

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (meaning ‘a bold or daring feat’) and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb (meaning ‘to take selfish advantage of’).

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export

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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exposé

meaning ‘a revealing of something discreditable’, is pronounced as three syllables and is printed in roman type with an accent on the final e. The accent is sometimes omitted in AmE.

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exposition

is sharply distinguished in meaning from exposé. Its main meanings are (1) an explanation or interpretation of something difficult, (2) an explanatory article or treatise, and (3) a public exhibition.

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ex post facto

is a legal phrase meaning ‘with retrospective action or force’, as in increasing its guilt ex post facto / ex post facto laws. Strictly speaking, as Fowler (1926) noted, the spelling should be ex postfacto (meaning ‘on the basis of the later enactment’), but the phrase has been written as three words since the 17c.

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expressible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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exquisite.

The position of the stress has been moving over the last two centuries from the first syllable, which used to be the rule, to the second, which is now very common. Neither Fowler (1926) nor Gowers (1965) made any comment, but there are many who continue to prefer the older stress pattern despite its awkwardness.

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extant

used to mean just ‘existing’, so that heresy, fashion, roads, etc. could all be extant. Now, it means ‘continuing to exist’, i.e. having withstood the ravages of time, so that ancient texts, fossils, old churches, etc. are the kinds of thing now described as extant.

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extempore

pronounced as four syllables, means ‘spoken or done without preparation’, and can be used as an adverb or an adjective. It is preferable to the cumbersome alternatives extemporaneous(ly) and extemporary / extemporarily. Impromptu means much the same, conveying perhaps a greater element of spontaneity.

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extend.

Fowler (1926) and others have castigated the use of extend to mean ‘to give, to offer’ in expressions such as extend a welcome. Fowler wrote that ‘extend in this sense has done its development in America, and has come to use full-grown via the newspapers—a bad record’. Few would object to its use today, which is common:
Sincere thanks were extended to all those who contributed to the success of the exhibition—Middlesborough Catholic Voice, 1992 /
An open invitation is extended to Mr Amos to attend meetings of the Village Association committee—record of meeting, undated.

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extendable, extendible, extensible

are three equally legitimate forms derived from the verb extend. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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extenuate

means ‘to lessen or reduce the seriousness of (guilt or an offence)’ and usually occurs in the participial form extenuating:
Poverty and desperation are extenuating factors in Bangladesh, but not in the United States—New Yorker, 1973 /
The law itself, framed as it is in terms of strict liability, is not concerned with any niceties which might be provoked by extenuating circumstances—K. Hawkins , 1993.

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exterior, external, extraneous, extrinsic.

1 The four words are related, and all have meanings based on outside. Exterior and external both refer to the outside of things in contrast to the inside
(Most manufacturers describe their exterior wall paints as masonry paint—Do It Yourself Magazine, 1991), and medicine is for external use when it is applied to the outside of the body; but exterior is generally physical only, whereas external is also applied in abstract or figurative meanings
(Changes in staff, changes in curriculum and increasing external demands making planning a chancy business—M. Sullivan , 1991); the external world is the world beyond one's perception. As a noun, however, exterior has the abstract meaning ‘the outward or apparent behaviour or demeanour of a person’:
How about your pal Ivan? Does he have sensitive feelings under that Neanderthal exterior?—D. Ramsay , 1973 /
Bob, who hides a sparky humour behind a grizzled exterior, said tenants who were taking his beers were doing it on a ‘belligerent, sod-the-brewer basis’—What's brewing?, 1991. External is used as a noun generally in the plural to mean ‘the outward aspects or circumstances’:
The place has all the appropriate externals, chimneys choked with ivy, windows with jasmine, wormeaten shutters, mossy thatch—P. Tristam , 1989 /
Eventually he found all forms of religion involving ‘externals’ and ordinances unsatisfying— Dictionary of National Biography, 1993.

2 Something that is extraneous is introduced or added from outside and is foreign to the object or entity in which it finds itself. Uses are both physical and abstract:
Several other insects attach extraneous objects or material to themselves, but for very different reasons—M.T. Birkhead , 1989 /
The best public art…is architectural art, the enrichment of buildings at which the Victorians excelled rather than extraneous pieces of sculpture and other items dotted around the streets—Daily Telegraph, 1992 /
A moment later any extraneous thoughts were driven from his mind—I. Watson , 1993. Extraneous points are irrelevant matters brought into a discussion to which they do not properly belong. Something that is extrinsic is not an essential and inherent part of the thing in question, and is often contrasted with intrinsic:
Motivation may be considered as either intrinsic or extrinsic; intrinsic motives include those of exploration and curiosity, and extrinsic those of status and social approval—B. O'Connell , 1973 /
Your personal belongings may be frugal and of little extrinsic value, but when they are lost or stolen, the cost of replacement can be surprisingly high—S. Meredeen , 1988.
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extol

meaning ‘to praise enthusiastically’, is spelt -ol in BrE and has inflected forms extolled, extolling. In AmE extol and extoll (with the same inflections) are both in use.

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extraordinary

is normally pronounced ik-straw-di-n-ri as five syllables, not six, the a being merged into the following or to form one syllable.

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extraterritorial

meaning ‘situated or having force outside a country's territory’, has prevailed over the variant form exterritorial.

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extrinsic

see EXTERIOR.

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extrovert

meaning ‘outgoing and sociable’ (also used as a noun to denote such a person), is now usually spelt extro- (on the analogy of introvert and controvert), although extra- is the better (and slightly earlier) formation, and the one used by Jung when writing in English.

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exult

see EXALT.

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-ey and -y in adjectives.

The normal suffix used to form adjectives from nouns is -y, as in dusty, earthy, messy. Nouns ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel normally double the consonant: fatty, funny, nutty. Some adjectives are formed from verbs rather than nouns: chewy, fiddly, runny. When the root ends in -e this is normally suppressed: bony, chancy, crazy, hasty, nosy, shady, etc. Some adjectives, however, are formed with -ey:
1 Those formed from nouns ending in -y: clayey, skyey. Note that cagey (also cagy) and phoney (also phony) are both of unknown etymology, and do not belong to this category. Fiddly is formed on the verb fiddle, not the noun.
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2 Those formed from nouns ending in -ue: bluey, gluey.
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3 Holey, meaning ‘full of holes’, is spelt -ey to distinguish it from the adjective holy = sacred.
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eye verb

has inflected forms eyes, eyed, eyeing.

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eyot

(an islet) see AIT.

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eyrie

meaning ‘nest of a bird of prey’, is the preferred spelling, not aerie, aery, or eyry. The word is probably derived via medieval Latin from an Old French word aire meaning ‘lair of wild animals’.

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F

fabulous

originally meant ‘mythical, legendary’, but already in the 17c its meaning was extended to refer to anything astonishing or incredible, whether or not it belonged to fable or legend. The word enjoyed a revival in America and Britain in the 50s and 60s in the weakened sense ‘marvellous, wonderful’, and spawned a shortened form fab. Fab now sounds dated, but fabulous is still very much in use in this meaning:
Miss Mitchell, looking, one must admit, fabulous, played down her frenzy—Cambridge Review, 1959 /
She stretched her stockinged toes towards the blazing logs. ‘Daddy, this fire's simply fab.’—Times, 1963 /
Trueman puffed at a cigarette and said he looked fabulous—A. Ross , 1963 /
That's a fab idea. I think I will—B.T. Bradford , 1983 /
He thought she looked fabulous, just like a dream—R. Ingalis , 1987. The principal usage of these words has always been with young people, and is likely to remain so despite the more recent appearance of much racier words.

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façade

meaning the outward aspect of something (both physical and abstract), should be spelt with a cedilla, although the word is otherwise fully naturalized.

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face up to

meaning ‘to confront, accept bravely’ (normally with a non-personal object), was first noted in America and Britain in the early 1920s, and at first provoked great criticism, Eric Partridge (1942) objecting to it as ‘a needless expression, the result of the tendency to add false props to words that can stand by themselves’. The fury has long subsided, and the expression is listed in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1990) without any limiting label. Examples of recent use:
He won't face up, can't face up, to them being gone—K. Hulme , 1984 /
Why don't you simply face up to the past?— Ishiguro , 1986 /
These are problems which it is a major responsibility of government to face up to—Parliamentary Affairs, 1991.

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facile

pronounced fas-iyl, means ‘easy, smooth, effortless’ with reference to people or what they do, and there is always a derogatory implication of something too easily achieved and of little value. A facile speaker is one for whom speaking comes easily and who therefore speaks glibly (rather than persuasively), and a facile task is one that is easily done but hardly worthwhile. If these connotations are not intended, a synonym such as (with reference to people) able, accomplished, fluent, etc. or (with reference to achievements) effortless, fluent, natural, etc., should be used instead.

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facilitate

meaning ‘to make easy or feasible’ should have as its object a task or operation (including a verbal noun in -ing), not a person:
The more expensive short-wave receivers include … additional features … which facilitate accurate tuning—BBC Handbook, 1962 /
They often used hypnosis to facilitate recall—A. Storr , 1979 /
The door kept open between them to facilitate communication—R. Cobb , 1983.

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facility, faculty.

1 Facility (from Latin facilis meaning ‘easy’) means ‘ease or ready ability to do something, aptitude’:
Firstborn children have greater verbal facility, and there is evidence that they have more successful relationships with their teachers—Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1973. It also has a concrete meaning which has proliferated greatly in the 20c, of ‘something that provides an amenity or service’, used in the singular or plural and referring either to the provision of an amenity (as in the third example) or to the amenity itself:
Other recreational facilities include two lighted tennis courts, a swimming pool and a jogging trail—Philadelphia Inquirer, 1976 /
What about gays, one asks, and will there be facilities for them to relate significantly to each other?—Sunday Telegraph, 1980 /
The channel will also have the facility for shopping from the armchair at the touch of a switch, now termed ‘teleshopping’—Times, 1983 /
Other features include sound facilities—Which Micro, 1984 /
You don't need a generously proportioned tub to fit a spa or whirlpool bath facility—Do It Yourself, 1990. A common use is in finance and banking, to denote an arrangement such as a loan or overdraft:
If you want credit, a bank facility is usually better value than even a good dealer can offer—Opera Now, 1990.

2 Faculty means ‘an aptitude or ability to do something’ in the sense of an inborn or inherent power rather than a proficiency developed (for example) by practice. The faculty of language is the natural ability of humans to speak, whereas a facility for language is an individual's particular skill in speaking.
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fact.

1 The expression the fact that has long had an important function in enabling clauses to behave like nouns:
Some studies give attention to the fact that non-smokers cannot avoid inhaling smoke when breathing smoky air—G. Richardson , 1971 /
The fact that I am gay is written down in black and white—Gay News, 1978 /
Ethnic minorities will hopefully be tempted into the force by the fact that a black and female PC is given a starring role in the film—Guardian, 1984 /
The fact that Nixon was willing to make his chastisement public suggests … that the President at least understands ‘the parameters of the problem’—Time, 1970. When standing at the head of a sentence (as in the second and fourth examples), the words the fact can sometimes be omitted without harming grammatical integrity, but a degree of emphasis or focusing is lost. On the other hand verbs that can be complemented by a that-clause do not need to be linked by the fact that, so that the sentence We acknowledge the fact that mistakes have been made can be rephrased as We acknowledge that mistakes have been made, and They convinced him of the fact that it was right can be rephrased as They convinced him that it was right. The phrases owing to the fact that and despite the fact that can normally be replaced by because and although respectively, thereby producing a more economical and clearer structure. For due to the fact that see DUE TO (4).

2 Fact is used in a number of idioms: in fact, as a matter of fact, in point of fact, the fact is, etc. These often serve to assist the rhythm and continuity of speech, but can easily become overused and redundant in written material.
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factious, factitious, fractious.

Factious means ‘characterized by faction or dissension’, as in factious quarrelling, whereas factitious means ‘contrived, artificial’, as in factitious reasoning; the words are related in their connection with Latin facere ‘to do’ but there is no overlap in meaning. Fractious has nothing to do with either but is sometimes confused with factious; it means ‘irritable, peevish’, as in a fractious child. See also FICTIONAL, FICTITIOUS.

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factor

aside from its technical senses, means ‘a fact or circumstance that contributes to a result’, and the notion of cause lies at the heart of its use, as in Gladstone's sentence (1878) The first factor in the making of a nation is its religion. A modern example of its proper use is:
Other factors can alter the Earth's climate from millennium to millennium and decade to decade—C. Tudge , 1991. In recent years, however, factor has become widely used in a weakened meaning ‘consideration, aspect, feature’ with little or no notion of causality:
A very important factor in the teaching of tennis is the value of practice once the lesson is over—Tennis World, 1991. A new use dating from the 1980s involves a preceding noun as a defining word (e.g. the Falklands factor) to denote an event which is considered to have a significant effect on the fortunes or politics of a country, political party, etc.:
With the Libyan Legacy taking over from the Falklands Factor, the only question about Thursday's local elections is the extent of Labour's gains—Observer, 1986. The feel-good factor is a feeling of material security in society; it is slowly yielding to the feel-bad factor.
The flagging fortunes of factor as a verb have been boosted with the evolution of the phrasal verb factor in, meaning ‘to include (a factor) in an assessment, plan, etc.’:
All the political and military variables should be factored in before Israel decides on a response—Los Angeles Times, 1991. It is chiefly used in AmE but is rapidly spreading to British use, and factor out is also occasionally found.

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faculty

see FACILITY.

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faeces

meaning ‘excrement’, is pronounced fee-seez and is spelt with -ae- in BrE but -e- in AmE. The corresponding adjectival forms are faecal and fecal (pronounced with a hard c).

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fag, faggot.

In BrE a fag is a colloquial word for (1) a piece of drudgery or a wearisome or unwelcome task, (2) a cigarette, and (3) a junior pupil at a public school who runs errands for a senior. In BrE a faggot is a ball or roll of seasoned chopped meat that is baked or fried, and in BrE and AmE it is a bundle of sticks or twigs bound together as fuel. In AmE both fag and faggot are slang words for a male homosexual.

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faint, feint.

Both words come from the same Old English root. Faint is used as an adjective meaning ‘indistinct, pale’ or ‘feeling dizzy’, as a noun meaning ‘a loss of consciousness’, and as a verb meaning ‘to lose consciousness’. Feint is used as a noun meaning ‘a sham attack or blow as a diversion’, as a verb meaning ‘to make a feint’, and (since the 19c) as an adjective denoting faint lines on ruled paper.

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fair, fairly adverbs.

Fair is used in its ordinary meaning ‘in a fair manner’ in several fixed expressions, e.g. to bid fair, to play fair, fair between the eyes. In dialect use and in some non-British varieties it is used to mean ‘completely, fully, really’, as in It fair gets me down. It should be remembered that fairly has several meanings:
(1) in a fair manner (He treated me fairly);
(2) moderately, to a noticeable degree (The path is fairly narrow / a fairly good translation);
(3) utterly, completely (He was fairly beside himself).

In some contexts it is difficult to know (as with quite) whether the meaning is 2 or 3, although in speech intonation can clarify which is meant.

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fait accompli

pronounced fayt -kom-plee, means ‘a settled arrangement or circumstance that cannot be altered’. It is normally printed in italic type.

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faithfully.

For Yours faithfully, see LETTER FORMS.

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fall

and autumn are used on both sides of the Atlantic as the name for the third season of the year, although in everyday use autumn is standard in BrE and fall in AmE. Fall is a shortening of the phrase fall of the year or fall of the leaf, and was in British use from the 16c until about 1800. The word autumn dates from the 14c, and comes from Latin autumnus, but the ultimate origin is obscure.

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false analogy

see ANALOGY.

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falsehood, falseness, falsity.

The three words, all to do with departure from the truth or what is true, have a considerable overlap in meaning and are sometimes interchangeable. Falsehood is the intentional telling of an untruth, and a falsehood is a lie or untruth. Falseness and falsity are both used more broadly to mean ‘deceitfulness or unfaithfulness’ or an instance of either. Examples:
A half-truth was a falsehood, and it remained a falsehood even when you'd told it in the belief that it was the whole truth— Huxley , 1939 /
As it had always been, truth and falsehood were inextricably intertwined in that statement—S. Naipaul , 1980 /
The engagement had probably not been a complete falsity, a piece of acting— Carpenter , 1982 /
Reason cannot decide the truth or falsity of what is revealed in such cases, but can decide whether the revelation is genuine—R.S. Woolhouse , 1988 /
The biggest danger in diplomacy is falseness, dishonesty and lack of credibility—D. Freemantle , 1988 /
Speaking for a generation of American and British intellectuals, Seldes condemned American movies for their ‘falseness’ but saw that it was ‘the falseness of the McKinley era’—P. Stead , 1989 /
His falsity and hollowness are not just the opposite of the true and the wholesome, but threaten to undermine it—J. Dollimore , 1991.

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famed

is a literary word meaning ‘made famous’, and is found (for example) in Shakespeare and Byron , often followed by for (the cause of the fame):
The English, for example, were famed for their assumptions of innate superiority—J. Wormald , 1991 /
Many in and after the Second World War were to ponder the strange, radical genius of famed humility of social origin and ambiguous political stance—G. Watson , 1991 /
Once famed as ‘Baghdad by the Bay’ in the days when such an appellation was a compliment, San Francisco has gone the way of many major U.S. cities—Daily Telegraph, 1992. It is not a mere synonym of famous, although it is often found with that meaning, especially in newspaper writing:
In her famed speech on election night 1987,…she announced that ‘we've got a big job to do in some of those inner cities’—B. Pimlott , 1991 /
John Parkinson offers a tribute to a famed astronaut—New Scientist, 1991.

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fan, fanatic, fanatical.

Fanatic is common as a noun meaning ‘a person having excessive or misguided enthusiasm for something’; as an adjective it has largely given way to fanatical:
He was a fanatical worker, often doing thirteen or fourteen hours a day—A. Thwaite , 1984. The abbreviated form fan, meaning ‘a keen supporter’, occurs in an isolated use in AmE as early as 1682, though not again until the late 19c when it became part of the ritual language of baseball, and then passed into general use in AmE, BrE, and elsewhere in the 20c in the senses ‘a supporter, an admirer’ (of a person or thing). Fan mail is first recorded in 1924, fan letter in 1932, and fan club in 1941, and other combinations are in use, including fanzine (= fan magazine), first recorded in 1951.

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fantastic.

1 Fantastic is one of the most popular 20c colloquial terms for ‘excellent, very enjoyable’. It is first recorded with this meaning in the 1930s and is now used in all sorts of contexts:
Oh, Val, isn't it fantastic?… It's amazing, isn't it?— Allingham , 1938 /
‘This is my favourite place,’ Jeremy shouts to her above the music, ‘fantastic girls here, really alive and witty’—M. Wandor , 1978 /
In the March issue of the Clothes Show Magazine, Wella offered our readers the fantastic opportunity to win a complete hair makeover—Clothes Show, 1991 /
Then suddenly I get a call saying, ‘We are going on the road,’ so I was in and it was fantastic—Guitarist, 1992. The adverb fantastically is also common as a general intensifier:
He's fantastically good-looking— Murdoch , 1989 /
‘We are doing fantastically well,’ insisted a spokeswoman—Today, 1992.

2 Both fantastic and fantastically meanwhile continue to be used in their more literal meanings connected with fantasy and imagination, albeit somewhat compromised by the newer meanings:
We gazed in wonderment at the fantastic shape of the small island of Tindholmur as we passed—B. Tulloch , 1991 /
De Quincey frequently dreamt of a fantastically elaborate and labyrinthine building—R. Castleden , 1993.
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fantasy, phantasy.

1 The OED, echoed by Fowler (1926), tried to assert a distinction between these two spellings, the first reflecting the Greek spelling and the second the more immediate French source of the word, ‘the predominant sense of the former being “caprice, whim, fanciful invention”, while that of the latter is “imagination, visionary notion”’. In modern use there is no such distinction, and fantasy prevails in all meanings.

2 The use of fantasy in attributive position (before a noun) is relatively recent. Fantasy world dates from 1920, and C. Day Lewis appears to have been the first to use fantasy life (but his hyphen is not now usual):
It is said that an only child develops a particularly vivid fantasy-life—Buried Day, 1960. In the 1980s came a new development with the invention, first in America and then in Britain, of a game called fantasy football, in which participants choose an imaginary team made up of real-life players; the actual performance of these players determines the fortunes of the fantasy team and ultimately the winner of the game. It will be interesting to see what impact this use has on the word fantasy.
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far.

1 FAR FROM + NOUN. This is a common way of expressing denial or rejection of a proposition:
The American dream seems as far from reality as my Communist dream—Guardian, 1986. Its function as metaphor is more strongly evident in the variant form far removed from:
The trial will seem far removed from the red-light districts and suburbs where Sutcliffe struck—Observer, 1981.

2 (SO) FAR FROM —ING. This construction, first recorded in the 17c, is used to reject or deny one proposition and assert another. The use of so was still current in 1926, when Fowler cited the example So far from ‘running’ the Conciliation Bill, the Suffragettes only reluctantly consented to it. So is still used for emphasis, but in general use it has tended to drop out of the construction:
Far from there being any noticeable improvement in the quality of relationships as practised among freaks, I would say there has been a distinct deterioration—Ink, 1971 /
The crowd of students… far from being calmed by the duplicated communication which the registrar had delivered had become wild and agitated—J. Mann , 1975.
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3 FAR-FLUNG. This quite modern word (first recorded in 1895) calls to mind Kipling's Recessional (1897):
God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle-line. Fowler (1926) wrote of ‘its emotional value … as a vogue-word. The lands are distant; they are not far-flung; but what matter? Far-flung is a signal that our blood is to be stirred.’ The far-flung Empire has been replaced by less stirring concepts, but the rich flavour of the adjective remains as a reminder of past grandeur.
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4 AS FAR AS / SO FAR AS. When used in contexts referring to physical distance, as and so were once freely interchangeable: I can take you as far as York or I can take you so far as York. In current use, as far as is used, and the option with so is obsolete. In adverbial clauses of the type as far as … is concerned or as far as … goes, the verbs is (or are) concerned and goes (or go) should not be omitted:
Young girls must be made to realise that boys of the same age have a ‘tiger in their tank’ as far as sexual desire goes—New Zealand Tablet, 1971 /
The old pals act will operate as far as the press is concerned—T. Heald , 1975. The expression as far as I am concerned is commonly used as a kind of emotional disclaimer:
It makes me a bit sick actually and they can keep their mag as far as I am concerned—Guardian, 1973 /
I started out with some idea of serving the community and bunk like that, and now the community can get on with it as far as I'm concerned—J. Bingham , 1975. See also IN SO FAR AS.
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5 GENERAL USES. Far is regularly used before comparatives and before too + adjective:
The people of Garston have suffered far too long from the planning blight that has caused serious deterioration in the area—Liverpool Echo, 1976 /
Hard disks are made to a far higher degree of precision, using an aluminium platter that is extremely finely ground—Times, 1982 /
It turns out to be a far more interesting car to drive than its Japanese clones—Australian Financial Review, 1984. It also occurs in many idioms, far and away, far be it from me, far and near, go too far, so far so good, etc., for which a large modern dictionary should be consulted.
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farrago

meaning ‘a confused mess or muddle’, comes from a Latin word meaning ‘mixed fodder’ (from far = corn), and is normally used in abstract senses. The plural from is farragos in BrE and farragoes in AmE.

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farther, further.

1 GENERAL. Further is the older form, being recorded in Old English and probably related to our word forth, while farther is a Middle English variant of further; from this stage the two words came to be used as the comparative of far, and by the 17c had entirely replaced the other Middle English forms farrer and ferrer. Farther is related only coincidentally in form to far, although this coincidence seems to have influenced its use. It is never wrong to use further and furthest, whereas farther and farthest are restricted in use, and in cases where there is a choice further and furthest still tend to be more common.

2 USE OF FARTHER, FARTHEST. The principal role of farther is in expressing physical distance, corresponding more closely to the notion of ‘more far’ and ‘most far’:
The gulls rose in front of him and floated out and settled again a little farther on— Woolf , 1922 /
And now the prince is scouring the farthest reaches of the globe for his bride—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 (South Africa) /
Most DIY owners find that five to ten miles is the farthest they want to travel—Today's Horse, 1991. This apparent preference may be carried over into uses that represent degree rather than physical distance, but within the context of a wider distance metaphor:
‘Why, Lord, no honey!’ I told her. ‘It's the farthest thing from my mind.’— Smith , 1983 (US)/
Kasparov simply saw farther, ‘much, much farther’, than the machine—New York Times Magazine, 1990.
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3 USE OF FURTHER, FURTHEST. Further and furthest are more usual when the meaning is one of degree rather than physical distance:
He … found English currency confusing and the driver sought to confuse him further— Waugh , 1961 /
It seeks the furthest extension of the educationally valuable among the masses—Encounter, 1987 /
In the case of her friendship with Flaubert she went one decade further and became a mother-substitute—Economist, 1993.
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4 OTHER EVIDENCE. The following examples show that the pattern is not totally consistent, with further (in particular) being used in ways associated with farther and (less so) vice versa:
This was the lower fountain, furthest from the house—A.S. Byatt , 1987 /
‘You get a lot farther using your nose than your palate,’ Patty says about wine-tasting—New Yorker, 1987 /
The New Delhi station which did appear, somewhat further away, was a functional monstrosity in concrete and steel—J. Richards , 1988 /
One, Lewis Holt, actually worked in Fleming's laboratory, and took the purification a stage farther than any of the previous workers—M. Weatherall , 1990 /
The ferryman pointed to a thatched, low-roofed timbered hut further along the shoreline—P.C. Doherty , 1991. Overall, the evidence shows a somewhat stronger presence of farther and farthest in AmE, but American usage guides do not normally reflect this tendency in their guidance.
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5 SPECIAL USES. There are some uses that are exclusive to further:
a When used as a sentence adverb:
Further, shameful as it might be to admit it, the idea of the play had started to interest him rather— Amis , 1958 /
Further, firms' employment policies may be discriminatory even when they appear not to be—J. Urry , 1993.
b When it is an adjective meaning ‘additional’ or an adverb meaning ‘additionally’ or ‘also’:
He wrote for booklets containing further particulars of almost every device he saw advertised— Bowen , 1949 /
Dundee's modern shopping precinct has now been further decorated with paint-sprayed gang slogans—Scotsman, 1973 /
The apartment was further defended by a police lock—J. Aiken , 1975 /
The person in custody is required … to appear again at a police station at a certain time for further questioning—Daily Telegraph, 1976 /
Brush with the beaten egg white and bake for a further 5 to 10 min until they're crisp and golden—Ideal Home, 1991.
c In certain fixed expressions in which further is an adjective, e.g. further education.
d In the formal expressions (1) further to, used especially in business correspondence to refer to matters raised previously: Further to our letter of 20 August …, and (2) until further notice.
e In the compound adverb furthermore.
f As a verb meaning ‘to favour or promote (an idea, scheme, etc.)’:
No city has done more than Coventry since the war to further the cause of internationalism—Times, 1973 /
There has been greater emphasis by unions upon legislative enactment to further their general objectives—R. Bean , 1992.
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Fascism, Fascist.

When Fowler wrote in 1926, Mussolini had not long been established in power, and the future of these words, and their Italian counterparts fascismo and fascista, was uncertain. He suspended judgement on their anglicization ‘till we know whether the things are to be temporary or permanent in England’. The concepts are still very much with us, the English words are still pronounced in an Italian manner with the central consonant as sh (fash-izm / fash-ist), and the Italian forms are not used at all except in the special contexts of Italian history.

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fatal, fateful.

Both words have to do with the workings of fate, and their complex histories, fully explored by the OED, have often intertwined. Fowler (1926) wrote a fond defence of the special meaning of fateful, ‘having far-reaching consequences’, which (unlike fatal) might be good or neutral as well as bad:
In summing up 1934 we can see, in the light of what was to come, that it was a fateful year—J.F. Kennedy , 1940 /
The fateful sequence of events had started with a malfunction in the main pumps supplying cooling water to the reactor's core—C. Aubrey , 1991. Fatal means ‘causing death’ (as in fatal accident), and can refer to inanimate things and situations as well as to those able to suffer actual death:
Even when your trump suit is solid, it may still be fatal to touch it too early—Country Life, 1976 /
The existence of these private but non-fee-paying schools will have a deeply depressing, if not fatal, effect on other schools in the area—M. Warnock , 1989 /
Until he faces up to his own fatal flaws, he has no hope of conquering them—Today, 1992. The closest synonyms to fatal in this meaning are catastrophic, disastrous, ruinous.

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father-in-law

means one's wife's or husband's father. The plural is fathers-in-law.

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fathom

a unit of measurement of depth, is unchanged in the plural when preceded by a number, i.e. six fathom deep but several fathoms deep.

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fatwa.

A fatwa (from Arabic fat ‘to instruct by a legal decision’) is a legal ruling given by an Islamic religious leader. It came dramatically to western attention in 1989 when by such a ruling Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called for the death of the writer Salman Rushdie for publishing The Satanic Verses (1988), which many Muslims considered blasphemous. Fatwa is already undergoing extensions of meaning, and is erroneously used to mean ‘sentence of death’ (which, in the case of Rushdie , it means only in effect). The plural in English contexts is fatwas, and the use of a verb form is also recorded:
Unlike many writers and artists, Chahine hadn't been fatwaed, but he felt threatened nevertheless—New Yorker, 1995.

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faucet

is a late Middle English word meaning ‘a tap for drawing liquor from a barrel or cask’. In BrE it survives in technical uses (often combined with spigot), but in domestic use it has given way entirely to tap. In AmE, faucet is in widespread use for an ordinary water tap, but its distribution is uneven, with spigot in use in the south and cock and tap also in use.

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fault verb.

To fault, meaning ‘to blame, find fault with’, has been criticized as an awkward verbalization by some 20c usage guides, especially in America, though not by Fowler (1926), nor by Gowers (1965) who declared supportively that it was enjoying a revival. The use dates from the 16c and is now fully established:
Martita wasn't too keen on Fay Compton I gathered (though she couldn't fault her perfect diction)— Guinness , 1985.

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fauna, flora,

meaning respectively the animal life and plant life of a particular time or region, are derived from the names of Roman goddesses and are singular (uncountable) nouns. The plural forms, though rarely needed, are faunas and floras (occasionally faunae and florae).

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faux pas

meaning ‘a minor blunder or indiscretion’, is pronounced foh pah and is printed in italic type. The plural form is the same, pronounced foh pahz.

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favour, favourable, favourite

are the normal BrE spellings, as distinct from favor, favorable, favorite in AmE.

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fax

is first recorded in 1948 as a shortened form of facsimile (process, etc.) and quickly established itself in the standard language as a noun and verb, especially during the 1980s when fax machines came into widespread use. The word has been accepted much more readily than pix (= pictures) and sox (= socks), presumably because no comfortable alternative exists, facsimile transmission being too technical and awkward for ordinary use.

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fay, fey.

Fay is a literary word for fairy. Used attributively (before a noun), it has the meaning ‘fairylike’:
When she made formal use of figures in her landscapes, they were somewhat mannered, almost fay children—Listener, 1962. Fey is an unrelated word of great antiquity originally meaning ‘fated to die soon’, a meaning it still has in Scottish English. In due course it came to denote a kind of frenzied excitement associated with impending death, and in extended use it means ‘strange, otherworldly; elfin, whimsical’:
She's got that fey look as though she's had breakfast with a leprechaun—D. Burnham , 1969. In this last meaning it makes close contact with fay, but properly used fey still has implications of imminent death and the supernatural, whereas fay inhabits the land of dreams. In speech, of course, there is no explicit distinction.

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faze

means ‘to disconcert, disturb’ and is used informally in mainly negative contexts:
It is a pretty daunting prospect going on stage for forty minutes but it does not seem to have fazed her—S. Stone , 1989 /
The one thing I am not going to do is look remotely fazed or ruffled—E. Galford , 1993. It is in origin a 19c AmE variant of the ancient verb feeze ‘to drive off, to frighten away’ and has nothing to do with the ordinary verb phase, although this spelling is sometimes used in the US.

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fearful, fearsome.

1 Fearful means ‘full of fear; frightened, apprehensive’, usually with reference to something specific, and is normally followed by of or by a clause introduced by that or lest:
There are parochial or communal parties which … are fearful of absorption into larger units—Economist, 1981 /
Eisenhower's official policy was to remain aloof, fearful that any direct intervention would make Castro a martyr—N. Miller , 1989 /
He became very fearful of cars, buses and stairs, eventually shutting himself in his room, with the curtains drawn, for 14 months—Guardian, 1989 /
She stood outside looking up at a creamy moon, fearful lest some bat might fly into her hair— Barnes , 1990. It is also used with reference to feelings and circumstances that are characterized by great fear:
His mother had brought him up to hold priests in fearful reverence—G. McCaughrean , 1987, and in the weakened meaning ‘unpleasant’, with reference to things and situations:
In fact it had been very hard-bought, some of the winnings, taking fearful tolls of nerve, straining every atom of him— Freeling , 1972 /
On the Left Bank, with a fearful expenditure of lives, the German all-out offensive had bought possession of two hills of secondary importance—A. Horne , 1993.

2 Fearsome means ‘appalling or frightening, especially in appearance’:
Ichiro continued to regard me with the most fearsome look— Ishiguro , 1986 /
Rhododendrons … have become a fearsome forest weed, preventing the growth of other plants—Outdoor Action, 1989 /
Despite their fearsome reputation, however, killer whales have never been known to attack humans without the provocation of a bullet or harpoon—M. Donoghue , 1990.
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feasible.

The key to the use of this word, and the problems associated with it, lies in its relation to the different meanings of possible. Feasible has three main uses, two unexceptionable and one controversial, all associated with different aspects of possibility:
1 With reference to ideas, projects, etc., ‘capable of being done, practicable’:
Changes became feasible over a period of time— Wilson , 1976 /
There was no question that a tunnel was technically feasible, but I wanted to know what the economics would be—N. Fowler , 1991 /
Clearly, it is not feasible to have cameras covering the whole of the track.— Hansard , 1992.
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2 With reference to people and things generally, ‘capable of being used or dealt with successfully’:
The sixties should see them [sc. labour-saving devices] put into commercial production in sufficient quantity to make them financially feasible—Sunday Times, 1960 /
The new semi-automated test could at last make massive screening programmes for cervical cancer economically feasible—New Scientist, 1991.
These first two meanings are often hard to distinguish, although essentially the first refers to actions and processes whereas the second refers to what is being dealt with or considered; they are given separately in the OED but are combined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Perhaps only compilers of dictionaries attempt to see a difference.
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3 With reference to a theory, proposition, etc., ‘able or likely to be the case’:
Had he not assumed the initiative it was feasible she would have given a reason to keep them out—L. Grant-Adamson , 1989. This third, and controversial, meaning comes closest to being a synonym of possible (in its meaning ‘able to be the case’ rather than ‘able to be done’) or probable, and Fowler urged strongly that when these words can be substituted without affecting the meaning they should be. The examples he gave, unattributed but probably from newspapers, were: Witness said it was quite feasible [better possible] that if he had had night binoculars he would have seen the iceberg earlier and We ourselves believe that this is the most feasible [better probable] explanation of the tradition.
Each case must be treated on its merits, but when the context requires the sense of likelihood or probability (as in the 1989 example above) rather than practicality it is prudent to test first whether possible or probable might not be the more satisfactory word (this will occur most often in constructions of the type It is feasible that …), and to use feasible only if both the other words seem unnatural or unidiomatic.
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feature verb.

Fowler (1926) warned against the extension of the meaning ‘to give special prominence to’ which he identified as originating in cinema announcements. He cited an unattributed example of 1924: Boys' school and college outfits, men's footwear and undergarments, as well as …, are also featured, and urged the use of display or exhibit instead. But his words went unheeded, and the verb feature is now in regular use both transitively (with an object, as in the example just given) or intransitively (without an object):
I was to have my name featured for the first time at the top of the bill— Chaplin , 1964 /
Libraries and the youth service feature prominently in many of the local authority cuts—Times, 1976 /
Student concerts featuring him as composer and pianist—R. Hayman , 1981.

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February

should be pronounced with both rs fully articulated. It is now common, especially in AmE, to hear the word pronounced as if it were Febuary (and it is occasionally spelt that way too, which is a great deal worse).

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federation, confederation, confederacy.

Federation and confederation are the more precise constitutional terms, a federation being a union of federal states and a confederation being a union of states in alliance. Confederacy is a looser term for an organization of states such as the southern states of the US which seceded from the Union in 1860–1, thus precipitating the American Civil War.

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feedback

developed its meaning in general use, ‘information about something from the people that have used it or been involved in it’, in the 1960s:
They would like feedback from the last issue, articles from individuals and groups giving a socialist-feminist analysis of activities—Women's Report, 1976 /
The aim of marking is…to give constructive feedback so that the students' work steadily improves—Electronic Publishing, 1991. Earlier technical uses in electronics and biology date from earlier in the 20c.

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feel verb.

1 Feel is followed by an adjective to denote the nature of a feeling, whether physical or emotional: I'm feeling cold / They began to feel afraid. For to feel bad, see BAD (1).

2 Occasional, but misguided, opposition has been expressed to the use of feel in the intuitive meaning ‘to think, believe, consider’ or, as the OED puts it, ‘to apprehend or recognize the truth of (something) on grounds not distinctly perceived; to have an emotional conviction of (a fact)’. The use goes back to Shakespeare
(Garlands…which I feel I am not worthy yet to wear—Henry VIII iv.ii.91, and has been current ever since in standard use. Modern examples:
But perhaps it was a little flat somehow, Elizabeth felt. And really she would like to go— Woolf , 1925 /
If Pascal had been a novelist, we feel, this is the method and the tone he would have used— Greene , 1969 /
Many gays either were in therapy or felt they should be—E. White , 1980.
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feel-good, feel-bad.

We have had the feel-good factor and feel-goodism since 1977, when the New York Times reported that the latest aberration in the American pursuit of happiness is the feel-good movement. The word had been used earlier in Dr Feelgood, a term for a physician who provided short-term palliatives rather than effective cures. In the 1990s, the term feel-good factor came increasingly to be associated with material prosperity as a political and social factor. The antidote to all this is the feel-bad factor, which dates from the early 1990s:
We're all so insecure about our short-term contracts and our feel-bad factors that we're terrified of appearing keen to leave the office—Guardian, 1995. No other set of words encapsulates so well the swinging emotional moods of peoples in the nineties.

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feint

see FAINT.

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fellow

in its meaning ‘belonging to the same class or activity’ used attributively (before a noun), is sometimes hyphened and sometimes written as a separate word: fellow citizen or fellow-citizen. The modern tendency is to spell such combinations as two words except when the second element is an agent noun (as in fellow-traveller) or when the combination is a verb (to fellow-travel).

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female, feminine.

1 GENERAL. Female is used as an adjective, contrasting with the etymologically unrelated word male, to designate the sex of humans and animals that can bear offspring and to designate plants that are fruit-bearing. Feminine is used only of humans and has two additional meanings:
(1) denoting characteristics or qualities associated with women, and
(2) contrasted with masculine and neuter, denoting a class of grammatical gender. Both words also have technical meanings in various domains.

In broad terms female is used principally to indicate the sex of a person, animal or plant, whereas feminine is used of characteristics regarded as typical of women, i.e. beauty, gentleness, delicacy, softness, etc. See also WOMANLY, WOMANISH.

2 FEMALE AS A NOUN. Female has a long history in the meaning ‘a female person’; ‘a woman or girl’, but despite this several 19c usage guides advised against the use on the grounds that it was unsuitable to apply the same term to animals and human beings. The OED (in 1895) said of female used as a synonym for woman that ‘the simple use is now commonly avoided by good writers, except with contemptuous implication’. This observation holds good in our gender-sensitive age, and it would be difficult to contemplate female being used in this way without some degree of disparagement being intended or understood:
He had no option now but to speak to his landlady in the morning about letting this homeless female have his bed for the night—M.J. Staples , 1992. The use is best reserved for use in natural history and for occasions when a general or neutral term is needed (for example, in technical writing) to include both woman and girl, or to avoid the social distinctions still sometimes inherent in woman and lady:
More than 55 females, from babies to elderly women, have been killed during the first year of the Uprising—Spare Rib, 1989 /
Young white females are by far the most common users of crisis and suicide prevention facilities—K. Hawton , 1990.
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feminine designations.

For most agent nouns and nouns indicating occupation no distinction is made between masculine and feminine: clerk, cook, councillor, counsellor, cyclist, doctor, lecturer, martyr, motorist, nurse, oculist, palmist, president, pupil, secretary, singer, teacher, typist, etc. A few, such as actress, hostess, and usherette, exist in feminine forms; forms in -mistress corresponding to the masculine -master (e.g. postmistress, schoolmistress) have fallen out of use. There is still some expectation that some occupations will be held by a man (e.g. chef) and that others will be held by a woman (e.g. secretary), but these barriers are falling fast. In practice, if there is a need to be specific about the gender of an occupational or agent noun, a feminine noun such as woman, lady, or girl is sometimes used (woman driver, lady doctor, etc.), although this too can offend sensitivities because corresponding male designations are only occasionally used in contexts in which the occupation has strong female associations (male nurse, male typist, etc.). The circumstances of these uses illustrate well the tensions between linguistic convention and social progress. See also -ESS, -ETTE, -MAN, -PERSON, -TRIX, -WOMAN, GENDER NEUTRALITY.

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feminineness, feminism, femininity.

These are the only survivors from a whole host of 19c formations which also included feminacy, feminality, feminility, and femininitude (the last a nonce-word used in 1878). Feminineness and femininity have much the same meaning, ‘the fact or quality of being feminine’, whereas feminism rapidly developed a special meaning ‘advocacy of the rights of women on the grounds of equality of the sexes’, a meaning which it has retained with increased force in the later part of the 20c.

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feral, ferial.

Both words are usually pronounced with the first syllable as in ferret rather than fear, although the second form is occasionally heard. Feral means ‘wild’ (from Latin ferus ‘wild’) and is commonly applied to animals in a wild state after escape from captivity. Ferial (from Latin feriae ‘holiday’) is an ecclesiastical term denoting a day not appointed for a festival or feast.

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ferment, foment.

1 Ferment is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

2 As verbs, ferment and foment are often confused because they are pronounced approximately the same way and their uses overlap in their figurative meanings. To ferment means literally ‘to effervesce or cause to effervesce’ (from Latin fervre meaning ‘to boil’) and figuratively ‘to excite or become excited’; and so it can be transitive (with an object) or intransitive: you can ferment trouble or trouble can ferment. Foment means literally ‘to bathe with warm or medicated liquid’ (from Latin fomentum meaning ‘poultice’) and figuratively ‘to instigate or stir up’ (especially trouble). Foment is only transitive: you can foment trouble but trouble cannot foment. Examples:
Gladstone's complaint in 1874 that the opposition fomented by the Daily News had been ‘one main cause’ of the weakness of his late government was, of course, a simplism—Times Literary Supplement, 1977 /
Such protestations ferment a running sore which breeds contempt for the authorities—Nonesuch (Bristol), 1991 /
He hosted the meetings where the rebellion was fomented which ousted Mrs Thatcher from power—Today, 1992.
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ferrule, ferule.

Ferrule, also spelt ferrel, is the ring or cup used to strengthen the end of a walking stick or umbrella, and is derived from Latin ferrum meaning ‘iron’. A ferule, also spelt ferula, is a flat implement formerly used for beating schoolchildren, and is derived from Latin ferula meaning ‘giant fennel’.

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fertile.

The standard pronunciation now is -tiyl in BrE and -t[schwa]l in AmE.

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fervent, fervid.

Both words mean ‘ardent, intense’ with reference to speech, feelings, etc. There are two significant difference in their use:
(1) fervent but not fervid is also used of people (a fervent supporter of free entrance to museums), and
(2) fervent has positive connotations whereas fervid can sound depreciatory, rather like the difference between warm and feverish as applied to feelings.

Examples: (fervent)
There is no doubt that trade unionists were fervently hostile to the actions of Franco—K. Laybourn , 1990 /
Every available wall space was covered with graffiti and fervent slogans—T. Strong , 1990 /
That they shared, along with all other participants in the crusade, a fervent devotion, a conviction that their sins would be forgiven, is certain—J. Dunbabin , 1991 / (fervid)
While a fervid interest in sex overpowered other girls, she listened to their confidences unmoved—C. Brayfield , 1990 /
I'm afraid your rather fervid imagination is running away with you—E. Rees , 1992 /
As in every war men confronted with death who had forgotten, or never knew how, began to pray fervidly—A. Horne , 1993.

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fervour

is spelt -our in BrE and fervor in AmE.

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-fest

is a new suffix derived from the German word Fest meaning ‘festival, celebration’. It occurred first in AmE in the late 19c in the word gabfest meaning ‘a gathering for talking’ and spread rapidly to produce other words such as talk fest, shooting fest, liquor fest, etc. It has also spread to BrE in formations such as discofest, filmfest, funfest, rockfest, etc.

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festal, festive.

Both words are derived from the Latin words festum meaning ‘feast’ and festus meaning ‘joyful’, and mean ‘in the nature of a feast or festival’. Festive is much the more common, and is the one generally chosen when the meaning is ‘cheerful, joyous, celebratory’:
A room can look festive and jolly without being overwhelmed by lots of gaudy decorations—Ideal Home, 1991. Festal lies somewhat closer to its etymological connection with festivals:
It was eaten with a spoon and served on festal days as part of the main course—Good Food, 1992. The festive season is a way of describing Christmas, and festive also occurs with words such as air, atmosphere, mood, and occasion.

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fetal

see FOETUS.

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fête

should be spelt with the circumflex in place, although it has disappeared in many forms of computer setting.

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fetid

meaning ‘stinking’, is normally pronounced fet-id, occasionally feet-id. The spelling fet-, rather than foet-, is now dominant.

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fetish.

1 Fetish, meaning ‘a thing evoking special respect’ (and more precise meanings in anthropology and psychology), is now pronounced fet-ish. The word is a 17c adoption of French fétiche, and was originally an African object or amulet having magical power, although the word itself is not of African origin.

2 Fowler (1926) extended the use of fetish as a term for ‘current literary rules misapplied or unduly revered’. These included the SPLIT INFINITIVE, insistence on from after DIFFERENT, aversion to putting a PREPOSITION at the end of a sentence, and the idea that two consecutive metaphors are necessarily ‘mixed’ (see METAPHOR AND SIMILE (2)). To these may now be added the use of HOPEFULLY as a SENTENCE ADVERB, insistence that NONE is always singular, and insistence that AGENDA, DATA, and other such words are always plural. (Capital letters indicate items that will be found as other entries in this book.)
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fetus

see FOETUS.

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few.

Few may be used with or without preceding a, although the sense is slightly different. There were few seats left means there were not many (and is negative in implication), whereas There were a few seats left means that some were still left (and is positive in implication).
2 For comparatively few, see COMPARATIVELY.
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fewer, less.

1 As a general guide, fewer is used with plural nouns (fewer books) and collective nouns (fewer people) and indicates number, whereas less is used with singular nouns and indicates amount (less money / less happiness). However, there is an extensive no man's land between these two positions. To begin with, less can be idiomatically used with plural nouns when these denote something closer to an amount than a numerical quantity, as with distances, periods of time, ages, and sums of money: less than 5 miles to go / less than six weeks / children less than three years old / less than £100. Supermarket checkouts are correct when the signs they display read 12 items or less (which refers to a total amount), and are misguidedly pedantic when they read 12 items or fewer. School examiners often invite candidates to write a summary of a passage of prose in fifty words or less. In some borderline cases it is more idiomatic to use less when fewer would put an unwelcome emphasis on the numerical quantity rather than the cumulative effect of the total: …
unashamedly rejoiced in having had in his house at one time no less than five Nobel Prize Winners— Drabble , 1987. But less should be avoided when it qualifies an otherwise unqualified plural noun:
I shall care about less things— Fitzgerald , 1980 /
We had been given less men…to perform a holding action—Paintball Games, 1989.

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fey

see FAY.

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fiancé, fiancée.

The first is masculine and the second is feminine. Both words are pronounced fi-on-say.

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fiasco

has the plural form fiascos.

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fiat.

The legal term, meaning ‘an authorization or order’, is pronounced fiy-at. The make of car (Fiat) is pronounced fee-at.

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fibre

is the spelling in BrE and fiber in AmE.

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fictional, fictitious.

Fictional means ‘occurring in fiction’, i.e. in a piece of literature, whereas fictitious means ‘invented, unreal; not genuine’. So Oliver Twist is a fictional name when it refers to Dickens's character, and a fictitious name when someone uses it as a false or assumed name instead of their own. Similarly, events are fictional when described in a work of fiction, and fictitious when invented in ordinary life.

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fiddle.

As a verb, fiddle is more in demand to convey the meaning of cheating than of playing the violin, and it is mainly as a noun that the musical sense survives. So the situation is still as described Gowers (1965): ‘A violinist will speak of his instrument as a fiddle, but not of his playing as fiddling or of himself as a fiddler.’

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fidget

as a verb has inflections fidgeted, fidgeting.

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field.

In the meaning ‘an area of operation or activity, a subject of study’, field tends to be overused, and it is advisable to be aware of available synonyms. The most commonly needed are (for fields of study) sphere, subject, area, discipline, domain, (for areas of operation or responsibility) area, province, department, line, speciality, responsibility, (sometimes) territory. These also need to be use with care, for fear of avoiding the hackneyed only to adopt an alternative that is precious or stilted, as can happen with department and territory, or still worse métier, for example.

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fifties

see EIGHTIES.

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figure.

1 Both the noun and the verb are pronounced fig- in BrE but fig-y in AmE. The derivative forms figural, figuration, and figurine have the -y-sound in both BrE and AmE; but figurative (fig--r-tiv) lacks it in BrE.

2 As a verb, figure is used, especially in AmE and often with out, to mean ‘work out, calculate, think’. To figure on something is to plan it or take it for granted, and in AmE something figures when it makes sense or seems likely. All these uses are informal only.
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figure of speech

is any of several recognized linguistic devices used to make language lively or more colourful, such as METAPHOR and SIMILE.

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fillers

are words such as actually, you know, in fact, really, and I mean, and pause markers such as er and um, that have little or no meaning and are merely used to help maintain a flow, and sometimes improve sentence balance, in conversational English. Their routine use is quite legitimate, and everyday discourse would be unnatural without them.

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finable

meaning ‘liable to a fine’, is spelt this way, not fineable.

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final clause

in grammar, is a clause that states a purpose, especially when introduced by a formula such as to, in order to, in order that, so as to, in the hope that, etc.:
He turned on the plane's radio, in order to hear the traffic controller—New Yorker, 1972 /
The Labour administration massaged the basis of the calculation of the exchange rate…so as to make the situation appear better—Daily Telegraph, 1982 /
Clerks double-book their barristers in the hope that one of the cases will be settled before getting to court—Economist, 1983 /
In order to fully understand an alarm reaction it is useful to think back many thousands of years to the time of the caveman—S. Enright , 1990.

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finale

meaning the last part of something, is pronounced as three syllables (fi-nah-li).

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finalize

as a synonym of complete or finish, came into use in the 1920s in Australia and New Zealand, then in the US and, in the 1930s, in Britain. It was widely denounced by usage pundits such as Partridge and Gowers as an unnecessary addition; but it often has a stronger sense of effective conclusion than is conveyed by complete or finish:
Arrangements have also been finalized for the establishment of a ranching scheme at Jaldesa—Inside Kenya Today, 1971.

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fine toothcomb

see TOOTHCOMB.

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finger.

The fingers are now usually numbered without including the thumb, so that the first finger is the index finger, the second finger is the middle finger, the third finger is the ring finger, and the fourth finger is the little finger. In the marriage service, however, the ring finger is called the fourth, not the third.

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fiord

see FJORD.

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fire verb

meaning ‘to dismiss from a job’, has its origins in AmE in the 1880s, when it was also used as a phrasal verb to fire out. Fowler (1926) entered both forms without much comment apart from mentioning their American origin; by the time Gowers wrote (1965), only the simple verb fire was used, and he noted that it was ‘still an American colloquialism, though making headway among us at the expense of the verb to sack’. As it turns out, fire stands alongside sack as one of two words used regularly and unexceptionably in informal English.

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firm adverb

is used mainly in two fixed expressions, to stand firm and to hold firm to. In all other contexts the natural adverbial form is firmly: The bracket was firmly fixed to the wall.

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first.

1 When used with a number, first (like last) normally precedes it, as in the first three cars. This practice dates from the 16c, when first came to be regarded more as an adjective than as a noun; before that time, it was common to say the two (or three, etc.) first …. In current use, the order the three first cars would suggest three cars that came first in three races, and not the three cars that came first, second, and third in the same race.

2 In listing a sequence of points or topics, there is a convention that the first item is introduced by first, not firstly, although the continuation can be secondly, thirdly, fourthly, etc. The reason for this is that first early on had a role as an adverb, and the use of firstly, though established by the 17c, was felt to be an unnecessary affectation. Today this rule seems little more than a superstition, and various sequences are in use: first…, secondly …., thirdly; firstly…, secondly…, thirdly…; firstly …, second…, third … Of these, the first two options are both acceptable, but the third should be avoided.
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first name

see CHRISTIAN NAME.

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firth

is the standard spelling for an estuary or inlet of the sea. In the past (notably in the work of Cowper and Tennyson), it was changed by a process called METATHESIS to frith, but this form is no longer in normal use.

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fish.

The plural form is normally fish (nets full of fish / They caught seven fish yesterday); but fishes is sometimes used to emphasize a plural rather than a collective concept and to denote kinds of fish: feed the fishes / food fishes like cod and flounder. In biblical allusions, fishes is used rather than fish: five loaves and two small fishes.

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fit verb.

In BrE the past tense and past participle are fitted in all meanings: The dress fitted well / The dress fitted her well / We've fitted a new lock to the front door. In some parts of the US, fit also is used in the first two of these three meanings:
His head fit snugly into his collar like a shell into a canister—D. Pinckney , 1992 /
Many questions were put; none fit—Bulletin of the American Academy, 1994.

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fix.

The meanings of the verb, which is first recorded in the 15c, and the noun, not recorded until the early 19c, do not correspond very well.
1 noun. The earliest meaning of the noun is ‘a difficulty, predicament, dilemma’, which is originally AmE but was soon used in BrE as well, for example in a letter written by Charlotte Brontë in 1839: It so happens that I can get no conveyance…so I am in a fix. This meaning remains common in BrE, although it still has a slight American flavour:
Since she had vowed to remain celibate, she was in rather a fix when her father planned to marry her to the King of Sicily—B. Cottle , 1983 /
The patient will indeed be in a fix from which he may find it hard to extricate himself—C. Rycroft , 1985. From the 1930s in the US, a dose of a narcotic drug came to be called a fix-up and then a fix, and this use (only fix) spread into BrE in the 1950s with the increased circulation of hard drugs such as heroin:
A weird scene where the dope peddlers gather to beat up Johnny, who gets more into debt with each ‘fix’—Oxford Mail, 1958 /
He needed her as a drug addict needs his fix— Murdoch , 1985. From this drugs meaning other figurative meanings soon developed:
Many people seem addicted to exercise and get depressed if they don't get their daily fix—Guardian, 1984 /
For them conventional war has been lived through—and they think nuclear weapons are a cheap fix to deter it—Green Magazine, 1990. A quick fix is a hasty remedy that deals with a difficulty in the short term; the expression is recorded first in a hyphened adjectival form from the 1950s:
Quick-fix reflectors and diffusers, heavy duty bi-pin lampholders—Architectural Review, 1959 /
The most recent ‘quick-fix’, suggests the committee, is desalting—New Scientist, 1966 /
He is urged to make quick-fix tax cuts and get the economy moving—National Observer (US), 1976.
2 verb. There are three uses of the verb, all American in origin and one still exclusively so, that call for comment. (Also to fix up.) ‘To prepare (food or drink).’ You must fix me a drink, Fanny Trollope said in her Domestic Manners of the Americans (1839); and Bret Harte , an American writer, wrote in a work of 1891, Mother'll fix you suthin' hot. The use is familiar in BrE, but is still regarded as an Americanism:
When I am quite exhausted, go and cook a meal, fix a drink— Bawden , 1981. (Also to fix up.) ‘To mend or repair (something broken or not working).’ This meaning is first recorded in AmE in the late 18c, and has spread to other varieties of English:
Other men would have fixed that fuse in a few seconds—News of the World, 1990. The informal American expression to be fixing to (do something), meaning ‘to be about to or preparing to’ (do it), first recorded in 1716, is still hardly ever encountered outside the US:
If you're after Lily, she come in here while ago and tole me she was fixin' to git married—E. Welty , c.1980.

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fixation

was used from the 17c with the general meaning ‘the action of fixing’. Its current meaning of ‘obsession, fixed idea’ is a legacy of the use in Freudian psychosexual theory:
Don has this very definite fixation that I am going to bang up our…new car—E.J. Barr , 1973 /
He adds his voice to those condemning the modern fixation on fitness at the expense of honing cricket skills—Wisden Cricket Monthly, 1992. It also has technical uses in chemistry and medicine.

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fixedly

is pronounced as three syllables. See -EDLY.

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fixedness, fixity.

Both are 17c words with a range of meanings to do with abstract senses of fixing and being fixed, but fixedness is now used much less often than fixity:
Beaten into a fixity of revolutionary purpose, the peasants will have no more of it—Times Literary Supplement, 1984 /
A film that seemed able to contemplate death ends up by denying even the fixedness of character—Independent, 1990 /
What distinguishes perversion is its quality of desperation and fixity—New York Times, 1991.

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fjord

is the recommended spelling for the Norwegian sea inlet, not fiord.

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flaccid.

The recommended pronunciation is flak-sid, not flas-id.

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flagrant

see BLATANT.

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flair

meaning ‘an instinct for what is excellent, a talent’, was adopted into English from French in the late 19c. It should be distinguished from the unrelated noun and verb flare meaning ‘a dazzling flame of light’ etc., which is 16c and of unknown origin.

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flamboyant

is now used mainly in abstract senses ‘showy, ostentatious’. It was adopted in the early 19c by architects to denote decoration marked by wavy flamelike lines. It is connected in origin with the French word flamber meaning ‘to burn’.

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flamingo

has plural forms flamingos (preferred) or flamingoes.

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flammable

meaning ‘easily set on fire’, was revived in modern use (in BrE by the British Standards Institution) and used together with the noun flammability in place of inflammable and inflammability (which have the same meaning) in order to avoid the possibility that the in- forms might suggest a negative meaning ‘not easily set on fire’. The negative forms now recommended are non-flammable and non-flammability.

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flannel

has inflected forms flannelled, flannelling in BrE and flaneled flaneling in AmE. Flannelette, a napped cotton fabric imitating flannel, is spelt -l- in both varieties.

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flare

see FLAIR.

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flat, flatly.

The dominant adverbial form flatly is always used figuratively, as in flatly contradicting and flatly refusing. Flat is used in fixed expressions such as flat broke and turn something down flat, and to mean ‘exactly and no more’ as in two minutes flat. Flat is only semi-adverbial, and mainly adjectival, in uses such as The ladder was standing flat against the wall.

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flatways, flatwise

both mean ‘with the flat side (and not the edge) uppermost or foremost’. Both forms have been in use from the 17c, but flatways is now dominant, especially in AmE:
Just cut in half flatwise, apply the topping and slip into a 450 F oven—Washington Times, 1989.

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flaunt, flout.

The two words are unrelated. To flaunt means ‘to display ostentatiously’:
Women should have it both ways—they should be able to flaunt their sexuality and be taken seriously—E. Wurtzel , 1998. To flout means ‘to show contempt for (a rule, the law, etc.)’:
Countries engage in covert activities because they do not want to flout the rules openly—Encounter, 1987. The confusion, apart from the similarities of sound, may be due to the notion of conspicuousness common to both actions, and it is noteworthy that flaunt is used mistakenly to mean flout but the reverse does not occur:
By flaunting these rules, Hongkong and Shanghai have challenged the Bank's authority—Daily Telegraph, 1981 /
The union continued its campaign against Sunday trading, targeting shops which flaunted regulations—Times, 1989.

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flautist, flutist.

Flutist is the older term (17c) for a player of the flute, and is still preferred in AmE. Flautist was adapted from the Italian word flautista in 1860, and is now the more usual form in BrE.

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flavour

is spelt -our in BrE and flavor in AmE. In BrE the derviatives (flavouring, flavoursome, etc.) are also spelt -our except flavorous.

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fledgling

is the recommended spelling, not fledgeling.

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flee

meaning ‘to run away, escape’ is most often used in its past tense fled. Flee has a somewhat literary or romantic flavour:
The fourteenth Dalai Lama…has lived in exile in the Indian Himalayas since 1959, when Khamba rebels persuaded him to flee from Lhasa—Times, 1973.

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fleshly, fleshly.

The distinction in current use is much the same as between earthy and earthly. Fleshly relates to flesh in its physical sense and means primarily ‘plump, fat’ (e.g. fleshy hands / fleshy fruit), whereas fleshly relates to the allusive senses of flesh, and means ‘carnal, sensual, sexual’ (e.g. fleshly desires / fleshly thoughts).

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fleur-de-lis

a heraldic lily, is spelt this way for preference rather than fleur-de-lys or flower-de-luce (which occurs in AmE). It is pronounced fler-d-lee, and the plural is fleurs-de-lis, pronounced the same way.

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flier

see FLYER.

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floatation

see FLOTATION.

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floor, storey.

In Britain the storey at ground level is called the ground floor. A single-storey house is one with a ground floor only; a two-storey house has a ground floor with a first floor above it; a three-storey house has a second floor above the first, and so on. In America, the floor at ground level is called the first floor; the British first floor is the second floor, and so on. Cellars, basements, and mezzanine floors are not counted in either reckoning.

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flora

see FAUNA.

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floruit

pronounced flor-oo-it, is a Latin third-person singular verb in the past tense meaning ‘he or she flourished’. In English it is used with a following designation of date to indicate when a writer, painter, etc., is believed to have been alive and working, e.g. floruit 1750.

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flotation

is now the dominant spelling for the word meaning ‘the process of launching or financing a business or commercial enterprise’. It has replaced the earlier form floatation, on the analogy of words such as flotilla, flotsam, etc.

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flotsam and jetsam.

The traditional distinction between goods found afloat at sea (flotsam) and goods found on land after being cast ashore (jetsam) is not historically straightforward and is now largely theoretical since the words are invariably used together. Jetsam (late 16c) is recorded slightly earlier than flotsam (early 17c), and is a form of jettison meaning ‘to throw overboard’. Flotsam is derived from an Anglo-French word related to float.

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flounder, founder.

These two words are easily confused because their form and meanings are both close. The physical meaning of flounder is ‘to struggle in mud or while wading’ and hence ‘to stumble or move clumsily’ and from these meanings developed the abstract sense ‘to perform a task badly or without knowledge; to be out of one's depth’. The corresponding meanings of founder are (physical) with reference to a ship, ‘to fill with water and sink’ and (abstract) with reference to a plan, scheme, intention, etc., ‘to come to nothing, to fail’. In the abstract senses, where the confusion mostly lies, it is therefore normally people who flounder and plans and relationships (and suchlike) that founder. In practice the use of both words in their physical meanings as part of a larger metaphor (as in the 1980 example that follows) tends to blur the boundaries between literal and metaphorical use. The following examples will help to clarify the differences between flounder and founder: (flounder)
The family physician bucks the case to a psychosomaticist, who flounders in jargon—Time, 1971 /
His early and unexpected death was a cruel setback which left the College floundering in indecision over the choice of a suitable successor—E. Cotchin , 1990 /
‘You'll feel better later on,’ he floundered—H. Forrester , 1990 /
(founder) I wanted to leave England…I did not intend to be aboard when that particular Titanic finally foundered in a sea of bureaucracy—K. Hagenbach , 1980 /
Without… help, the marriage may founder, thus providing … another dire example to romantic young people that ‘arranged marriages are best’—P. Caplan , 1985 /
While these approaches may have a grain of truth in them, they founder in the evidence of women's actual political activity—J. Urry , 1993.

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flu

a 19c shortening of influenza, is used (with or without the) as often as the full form, except in more formal contexts. The older form 'flu (with initial apostrophe) has dropped out of use.

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flunkey

a (usually derogatory) term for a liveried servant or (in extended use) a today, is the preferred spelling, not flunky. The plural is flunkeys.

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flutist

see FLAUTIST.

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fly.

1 The noun is used as a collective in special names for various small flies or aphids that trouble gardeners, such as fruit fly and greenfly. These accordingly function as singular nouns (with plural -flies) and collective plurals:
It is easy to see that would-be DIY funeral undertakers would be as welcome as a swarm of greenfly at the Chelsea flower show—J. Spottiswoode , 1991.

2 The perfect form of the verb can be is (or are) flown as well as has (or have) flown when the meaning is ‘escape’.
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flyer, flier.

Flyer is the preferred spelling in all meanings of this agent noun formed from the verb fly. Flier is more common in AmE.

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fob off.

There are two ways of using this phrasal verb, either with the person or the thing as the object. You can fob someone off with something (or just fob someone off, with no further complement stated), or you can fob something off on someone; in both cases someone is deceived into accepting something inferior or unwelcome. The first construction seems to be more common:
She tried to fob him off tactfully at first, but then he became brutal—D.M. Thomas , 1990 /
Do not allow yourself to be fobbed off without getting the information you need—G. Brandreth , 1992 /
They were instructed to fob them off with promises in order to get them back to work as quickly as possible—M. Almond , 1992 /
There is no ‘mass audience’ of uncritical couch potatoes ready to be fobbed off with any old rubbish—East Anglian Daily Times, 1993 /
(on construction) Aghast at the roll-call of drunks, aduiterers and pederasts that Central Office had fobbed off upon him, [etc.]—J. Paxman , 1990.

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fo'c'sle

is a much reduced form of forecastle, the forward part of a ship where the crew has its quarters. In both spellings the word is pronounced fohk-sl.

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focus.

The noun has plural forms focuses in general use and foci (foh-siy) in technical use, and the verb has inflected forms focuses, focused, focusing, although some printing styles prefer forms with -ss-.

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foetid

see FETID.

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foetus, fetus.

Medical usage in Britain and the US favours fetus, following the word's origin in Latin fetus ‘offspring’. In AmE this spelling is preferred generally, but foetus still prevails in non-medical use in BrE. Because this preference is largely based on a misconception that the -e- spelling is some kind of Americanism, the -oe- spelling is likely to continue obstinately in use, but in the fullness of time the cards are stacked in favour of fetus. Meanwhile, the corresponding adjective is fetal in AmE and medical usage and foetal in general BrE use.

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fogey, fogy.

This occurs mainly in the expressions old (and now also young) fogey. Fogy was formerly the dominant spelling; Thackeray and Charles Kingsley , for example, wrote about old fogies, implying a singular form fogy. But with the more recent arrival of the young fogey (‘a young person with conservative tastes and attitudes’), the spelling with -ey (plural -eys) is now more common.

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foist

has meanings similar to FOB OFF, but it is not followed by off and is not used in this meaning with a person as its object; you can foist something on someone but you cannot foist someone (off) with something:
I'm not about to foist something on the public just for the sake of releasing something—Record Mirror, 1982.
An older use with a person or thing as object followed by in or into, meaning ‘to introduce surreptitiously’ is now found only rarely. It was once a favourite of scholars referring to the introduction of false readings into texts; Bulwer-Lytton wrote in 1936 of interpolations…supposed to be foisted into the Odyssey.

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folio

has the plural form folios.

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folk

as an ordinary word for people in general is tending to fall out of use in BrE, except in northern parts of the country and occasionally elsewhere to denote a greater degree of affection than the word people does:
Even folk who know little about Scotland have probably heard of the Trossachs—Scottish World, 1989 /
What Ursula brought home every week made all the difference to the old folk— Lodge , 1991. It also survives strongly in certain specific uses:
1 As the last element of compounds and fixed expressions, or qualified by an adjective, as in menfolk, north-country folk, townsfolk, womenfolk. In general use, however, even these are beginning to sound somewhat jocular or precious.
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2 In the plural (usually folks) to mean ‘one's parents or relatives’.
That really messes us up if my folks try to get hold of me—L. Duncan , 1978 /
The folks wouldn't like it too much—R.J. Conley , 1986. Folks is also used as a light-hearted form of address to an audience by public entertainers, and this is sometimes imitated for special effect by journalists and writers:
Yes, folks, in 1990, 2,245 people were murdered in the city of New York— Levin , 1991.
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3 In the singular as an elliptical form of the term folk music (see 4 below).
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4 In attributive combinations in which folk is joined to a second word, some of the combinations being loan translations from German, e.g. folk-dance, folk-dancing, folk memory, folk music, folk-singer, folk-song, folk-tale, folk-ways; and especially in folklore.
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folk etymology

is ‘a popular modifying of the form of a word or phrase in order to make it seem to be derived from a more familiar word’. Examples are cockroach (from Spanish cucaracha), sparrow-grass (a dialect and colloquial name for asparagus), and hiccough (a later spelling of hiccup under the mistaken impression that the second syllable was related to cough).

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following

has long been used as a participial adjective either qualifying a noun, as in for the following reasons, or by itself as a quasi-noun, as in The following are my reasons. From this has developed a use of following as a quasi-preposition independent of any noun:
Used car prices are going up, following the Budget—Observer, 1968. This use was not a problem for Fowler (1926) but Gowers (1965) condemned it in cases where the connection between the two events is ‘merely temporal’ and the preposition after would serve. In the example just given, there is a strong element of consequence, and so the use of following is perhaps justified, but this is not so in the example that follows, in which after could have been used with no loss of meaning:
Members are invited to take tea in the Convocation Coffee House … following the meeting—University announcement, Oxford, 1991. In some cases there is even a possibility of ambiguity with other meanings of following: Police have arrested a man following extensive inquiries.

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font

see FOUNT.

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foot.

The normal plural form feet alternates with foot when used as a unit of measurement: She is six feet / foot tall / a plank ten feet / foot long. When such a phrase is used attributively (before a noun), a hyphen is normally placed between the numeral and foot, as in a 12-foot dinghy. When the number of inches is also given, foot is more common than feet: He is six foot eight.

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for.

1 As a coordinating conjunction introducing a clause that gives a reason or explanation, for has two features of use not shared by because and since: (1) it cannot come at the beginning of a sentence but must follow a main clause:
He picked his way down carefully, step by step, for the steps were narrow—G. Greene , 1988, and (2) it is normally preceded by a comma, except occasionally when the sentence is short:
it was gloomy and damp, for the sun could hardly shine through the tops of the trees—New Yorker, 1989 /
I wanted a setting for my own little life, for I did not think that I should know too many people— Brookner , 1990 /
(comma omitted) He did not cry any more for it did not help—D. Matthee , 1986. In most uses, for is rather more formal in effect than either because or since.

2 In AmE for is used to introduce a subordinate clause after certain verbs:
I didn't intend for you to find out—J. Mclnerney , 1985 /
I can't afford for that bike to break down—New Yorker, 1986. In BrE other constructions would be used instead: for example intend would be followed by a that- clause.
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for- and fore-.

The prefix for- occurs in a number of words formed in Old English, such as forbid, forgive, and forsake. It is not an active prefix in the sense of being used to form new words. Fore-, on the other hand, is a prefix native to English and is widely used to form verbs and nouns from existing words in the general meanings ‘before, in front’ with regard both to space and to time, e.g. forearm, foreshorten, foretell. Special care should be taken to distinguish between words that exist in both for- and fore- forms; see the separate entries for FORBEAR, FOREBEAR; FORGO, FOREGO.

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forbear, forebear.

1 Forbear is a verb (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable) meaning ‘to abstain from, go without’ and is usually followed by to + infinitive or from + verb in -ing:
He did not enquire after their progress and Nutty forbore to mention it—K.M. Peyton , 1988 /
Naturally he couldn't forbear from upsetting me— Self , 1993. Its past form is forbore and its past participle is forborn.

2 Forebear is a noun (pronounced with the stress on the first syllable) meaning ‘an ancestor’:
Henry Carew had chosen the Church as some of his forebears had done—T. Hayden , 1991 /
The main myth being punctured… is the old erroneous view that humanity evolved gradually over the aeons from an ape forebear—New Scientist, 1991. Forebear is also used figuratively:
Heseltine may not prove as co-operative as his DTI forebears—Marketing Week, 1992. The situation is complicated somewhat by the fact that most dictionaries allow forbear as a variant of forebear, but the advice here is to maintain the distinction.
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forbid.

1 The past tense is forbade, although forbad is occasionally used and cannot be said to be wrong. The pronunciation of forbade is f-bayd or (as if it were forbad) f-bad.

2 Forbid can be followed by a noun (often a verbal noun): Cars are forbidden on the beach / We decided to forbid smoking altogether. When forbid has a personal object it is normally followed by to + infinitive: I forbid you to go / We were forbidden to go. A construction with object + from + verb in -ing is also found, on the analogy of prevent and prohibit:
He overcame the barrier known as the ‘colour line’ which effectively forbade blacks from boxing whites—E. Cashmore , 1982 /
Current laws forbid a company from operating a reactor even after it has been built—New Scientist, 1991. Fowler (1926) regarded this construction as ‘unidiomatic’ but it has been in use since the 16c and is likely to remain so since the analogies are powerful. This construction is occasionally used with omission of from
(The petition asked the king to forbid villeins sending their children to school—S.J. Curtis , 1948 /
She'd far rather have enjoyed the company of her contemporaries and, in fact, Colonel Goreng didn't forbid her consorting with them— Mo , 1991), but this can be regarded as non-standard. (In the 1991 example, consorting may be a verbal noun qualified by possessive her).
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forceful, forcible.

1 Fowler (1926) identified the difference in meaning as follows: ‘while forcible conveys that force rather than something else is present, forceful conveys that much as opposed to little force is used or shown; compare forcible ejection with a forceful personality.’ He then went on to say that the more important consideration than difference in meaning was the need to use one (forcible) as the natural regular word and reserve the other (forceful) for ‘poetical or other abnormal use’. His conclusion was that otherwise, ‘we shall shortly find ourselves with a pair of exact synonyms either of which could well be spared instead of a pair serving different purposes’. In practice, the two words are kept apart fairly comfortably, and Fowler's prescriptions and predictions were wide of the mark; neither is the ‘ordinary’ word any more than the other. The principal use of forceful is in the meaning ‘vigorous, powerful’, whereas forcible means primarily ‘done by or using force’. Forceful can be used of people as well as actions, whereas forcible is used only of actions.

2 Examples: (forceful)
It might be easier to … start again from scratch, crystallizing a lifetime's experience into a hundred forceful pages?— Murdoch , 1976 /
He was strong and his resources of stamina enabled him to play just as forcefully in the final ten minutes of a game as in the first ten—S. Studd , 1981 /
She said she tried to push him off, but he was too forceful—Independent, 1989 /
John McLeish, himself a forceful character, felt as if he had been put through a wringer—J. Neel , 1991 /
(forcible) He favoured the forcible sterilization of criminals, diseased and insane persons, and ‘worthless race-types’—J.R. Baker , 1971 /
Section 47 of the National Assistance Act 1948 allows for the forcible removal from their own homes of elderly people who are not mentally ill—O. Stevenson , 1990 /
They will wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them—W. Jackson , 1990.
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forceps.

The plural is the same.

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fore.

To the fore was originally a Scottish and Anglo-Irish phrase meaning ‘at hand, available, surviving’. It came into English literary use during the 19c, and in current standard English means ‘into view, to the front’. A person is said to have come to the fore when he or she has become prominent in some way.

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forebear

see FORBEAR.

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forecast

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable both as a noun and as a verb. As a past form and past participle, forecast (identical to the form of the present tense) has more or less ousted forecasted.

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forecastle

see FO'C'SLE.

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foregather

see FORGATHER.

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forego

see FORGO.

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foregoing

means ‘preceding, previously mentioned’ and is used as an adjective corresponding to the verb forego = to precede, especially in writing to refer to points made in earlier parts of the text:
if the foregoing representation of Jesus Christ can be accepted, it would be the end of the mysticism surrounding him—W.E. Gale , 1988 /
All the foregoing are drawn from documents employed by the author in various studies—J. Campbell-Kease , 1989.

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foregone

means ‘previous, completed’ and is used mainly in the expression foregone conclusion, meaning ‘an easily foreseen or predictable result’:
The privatisation of the BBC and the race downmarket of ITV would then be a foregone conclusion—Listener, 1984.

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forehead.

The pronunciation faw-hed, reflecting the word's spelling, is now much more usual than fo-rid, which was once favoured and is still recommended by some dictionaries.

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foreign words and phrases.

Fowler (1926), in an article entitled ‘foreign danger’, warned that ‘those who use words or phrases belonging to languages with which they have little or no acquaintance do so at their peril’. He was thinking primarily of so-called ‘non-naturalized’ expressions that are customarily put in italics in printed matter so as to alert the reader to the presence of something unusual. Some of these expressions tend to retain the grammatical behaviour of the languages from which they were borrowed, notably in the formations of plural forms, so that the plural of curriculum vitae (see CURRICULUM), for example, can cause some initial difficulty (it has to be curricula vitae, unless one resorts to CVs). Further difficulty is caused by uncertainty as to whether a word is naturalized or not; REFERENDUM has the plural form referenda if it is not naturalized and referendums if it is (and for those in doubt about this one, naturalized forms ultimately, and rightly, prevail). Problems also occur when the meaning in English changes from that in the source language, or when mistaken meanings are applied, as with CUI BONO?. For other examples of foreign words and phrases, see the separate entries for items in bold italics throughout the book, including BÊTE NOIRE; BONNE BOUCHE; CORPUS DELICTI; DE RIGUEUR; DÉTENTE; DOUBLE ENTENDRE; EX OFFICIO; FAIT ACCOMPLI; FAUX PAS; IBID.; INGÉNUE; INTER ALIA; JEU D'ESPRIT; LAISSEZ-ALLER; LAISSEZ-FAIRE; MATÉRIEL; MODUS OPERANDI; MODUS VIVENDI; PETITIO PRINCIPII; PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE; PIED-À-TERRE; PIETÀ; PIS ALLER; POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC; RAISON D'ÊTRE; REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM; SINE QUA NON; ULTRA VIRES.

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forename

see CHRISTIAN NAME.

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forensic

means ‘connected with courts of law’(from Latin forum meaning ‘public square’ where among other things judicial business was done), and should not be used as a general word for ‘technical, scientific’. Forensic evidence means ‘evidence presented in connection with a legal trial’ and is usually, though not necessarily, medical or technical evidence; a forensic scientist is a scientist employed by a police department. Informally, forensic is also used elliptically to mean ‘a forensic department or unit’:
Perhaps the boys at forensic had made a gaff—M. Maguire , 1976.

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for ever, forever.

This is written as two separate words in BrE (but often as one word in AmE) when the meaning is ‘for all future time’(He said he would love her for ever) and as one word when the meaning is ‘always, continually’ (They are forever complaining).

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foreword, preface.

Preface is the traditional word (first recorded in the 14c) for the author's introductory remarks at the beginning of a book, normally dealing with the practicalities of the book's development and making due acknowledgements rather than introducing its content (which in some cases in done by an Introduction). Foreword is a 19c word (originally used as a term in philology) for an introductory section of a literary work, and practice has varied between use of this term and Preface. More recently, publishers have sometimes favoured the inclusion of both a Foreword (usually written by a distinguished or authoritative person other than the author) as well as a Preface written by the author. In such cases, the Foreword is placed first.

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for free, for real.

These two phrases, originally Americanisms, are regularly used in BrE, often in a jocular manner and with quotation marks in print:
Two pilots have in fact done the Job ‘for real’—both Sqn Ldr Marshall and Flt Lt Dave Fischer have put Harriers down on the deck of HMS Bulwark—RAF News, 1977 /
I'd love a research assistant, but you have to pay for them. And most people want me to do things for free!—C. Tickell , 1991.

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forgather

is the recommended spelling for this word meaning ‘to assemble, meet together’ rather than foregather, which is also found by association with the prefix fore- (see FOR- AND FORE-). It is a 16c Scottish loanword from Dutch vergaderen used in the same sense.

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forge

has a derivative form forgeable, with an e in the middle.

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forget

has the inflected form forgetting and the derivative form forgettable, both with -tt-.

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forgive

has a derivative form forgivable, without an e in the middle.

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forgo, forego.

Both words are pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Forgo means ‘to go without, abstain from’ forego means ‘to go before, precede’ and occurs principally in the forms FOREGOING and FOREGONE (see the separate entries for these, and FOR- AND FORE-).

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forgot

as a past participle used instead of forgotten, is limited to archaic and dialect language, and to use in some forms of AmE.

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forlorn hope

now means only ‘a faint hope, an enterprise which has little hope of success’ but its form has nothing to do with the English word hope. It was a 16c adaptation of Dutch verloren hoop, literally meaning ‘lost troop’, and in English originally meant ‘a picked body of men detached to lead an attack’. The current figurative use, first recorded in 1641, has driven out all memory of the original meaning.

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formality, formalism.

The first is the ordinary noun corresponding to formal: formality is primarily the observance of rules and conventions, a formality is something that has to be done by convention (often with implications of superfluousness: The interview was a mere formality), and formalities are customary procedures. The word in all these uses often has a dismissive tone. Formalism, first recorded in 1840, has meanings based on the notion of ‘excessive adherence to prescribed forms’ and is used in various technical applications in theology, mathematics, linguistics, and the arts.

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formal words.

Fowler (1926) aptly identified words ‘that are not the plain English for what is meant’ and characterized choice between different words for the same thing in terms of the clothes we choose: ‘we tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out.’ The examples he gave now sound dated (‘We think of our soldiers as plucky fellows, but call them in the bulletins valiant troops’), but the message is as vivid as ever. Peruse is more formal than read, purchase than buy, luncheon than lunch, endeavour than try, evince than show; and purloin is more formal (or, often, more jocular) than steal. As is the case with most of these, formal words can be turned on their heads and made to look silly in trivial or jocular use. Different modes of writing and speaking call for different levels of vocabulary. At one extreme there is the language of legal documents, business, and academic monographs; at the other there is the language of everyday conversation, with a broad range of styles in between. The language of broadcasting and journalism, in particular, has become a great deal less formal in recent years, to such an extent as to cause unease among those who mistakenly identify formality, or the lack of it, with standards of English.

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format

is pronounced faw-mat, and as a verb has inflected forms formatted, formatting. The verb dates from the 1960s and is mostly used in the context of computing.

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former, latter

1 These two words are used contrastively (as the former and the latter) to refer to the first and second respectively of two people or things previously mentioned; in this role they are used attributively (before a noun) or, more usually, absolutely (with no noun following). Former has an important and extremely common additional meaning, for which latter has no corresponding meaning, ‘having been previously but no longer’, as in the former Miss America / his former employers / The former East Germany. When another adjective or qualifier is present, former normally comes after it to ensure association with the noun:
In England the death of a 71 year-old former process worker at ICI is being investigated—Nature, 1974.

2 For the meaning of former contrasted with latter, there are several points of usage to consider:
a In their contrastive uses, former and latter are more often used without a following noun:
The relationship between capitalist and non-capitalist modes is one of exploitation, in which the former creams off the surplus from the latter—T. Cubitt , 1988. They are occasionally used attributively
(No one mentioned the latter point and only four teachers the former—D. Pimm , 1988), but care needs to be taken in these cases to avoid possible ambiguity with the ‘having been previously’ meaning of former: the sentence I am sure the former view will prevail needs its context to clarify whether it is an earlier view or the first of two views that is intended.
b Former (in particular) and latter should only be used in writing when they are close to their antecedents, so that the reader is not forced to search back over earlier passages in order to establish the identity of the persons or things referred to.
c When more than two people or things are involved, former and latter should not be used; either first and last should be used, or the sentence should be rephrased:
Though her bibliography includes Hecht, Snyder, and Daiches, she omits the latter's first name [correct to… Daiches' first name]—Modern Language Notes, 1957.
d When former and latter refer to something in the plural, they are regarded as plural in turn:
The former describe events which are possible if not mundane, while the latter are metaphors—J. Empson , 1989.
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formidable.

The standard pronunciation is with the stress on the first syllable, although the word is often heard with the stress on the second syllable.

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formula.

In general contexts the plural form is formulas, and in chemistry and mathematics it is formulae, pronounced -lee. Formulae is more common in general use in AmE than in BrE.

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for real

see FOR FREE.

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forsake

meaning ‘to give up, go without’ is spelt for- not fore-, and has inflected forms forsook, forsaken. See FOR- AND FORE-.

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forte.

There are two distinct though related words with this spelling. One (pronounced faw-tay or faw-ti) comes directly from Latin fortis meaning ‘strong’ and means ‘a person's strong point’. The plural, if needed, is fortes. The other (pronounced faw-ti) comes via Italian forte and is an instruction in music to play a passage loudly or strongly. It is also used as a noun meaning such a passage, and the plural is again fortes.

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forth.

The phrase and so forth is a less common and somewhat more literary alternative for and so on, used after the enumeration of items that could be continued further. There is no difference in meaning, despite the associations of assertiveness that forth has in expressions such as go forth and set forth.

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forties

see EIGHTIES.

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fortuitous

1 The OED and all reputable dictionaries show this to be a word with only one meaning, ‘caused by chance, accidental’. Addison wrote in the Spectator in 1712 that the highest Degree of [wisdom] which Man can possess, is by no means equal to fortuitous Events. It is first recorded in the 17c, and was used for nearly three centuries without difficulty. But about 1920 it started to get in the way of the older (Middle English) word fortunate, which is also connected with the working of chance and more specifically with the good effects of chance. (Whether this confusion was due to a double association with fortunate and propitious cannot now be determined; but propitious is sometimes the word called for rather than fortunate.) In an example given by Fowler (1926), the word required is fortunate but the word used is fortuitous: I must say I should not have expected so fortuitous a termination of a somewhat daring experiment. This encroachment is restricted to events and circumstances; with reference to people, fortunate remains unthreatened so far:
I was fortunate in being on the spot to take this photograph—Country Life, 1971.

2 Modern examples of fortuitous used to mean ‘fortunate’ or ‘fortunately coincidental’ are:
Ellen Orford in the poem is a middle-aged woman and it was fortuitous for me that I was about the right age [to sing the role]— Cross , 1983 /
King successfully persuaded them to lend the collection for the exhibition… A move which proved fortuitous for the future of the national music collection—Independent, 1995. An unwelcome effect of this confusion is that it is not always possible to know which meaning is intended in a particular use of fortuitous, since in many cases an event can happen equally by plain chance or by good chance:
The choice was not altogether fortuitous—M. Freeland , 1990 /
I had already made up my mind to join the South African tour when it happened, so it was fortuitous in a way—Today, 1992. Fortuitous is too useful in its primary meaning for this uncertainty to be acceptable, and care should be taken not to use it when fortunate or a similar word such as propitious is the word intended. In the following examples, fortuitous is used in its proper sense:
His presence was not fortuitous. He has a role to play; and you will see him again—A. Brink , 1979 /
Quite fortuitously, Morse lights upon a set of college rooms which he had no original intention of visiting— Dexter , 1983 /
In some instances death is caused fortuitously—M. Jefferson , 1992.
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forum

has the plural form forums.

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forward, forwards.

1 For the adjective, the correct form in standard English is forward:
It has four forward gears and reverse controlled by a speed-sensing governor—Daily Telegraph, 1971 /
Already clouds of steam were rising, obscuring the forward view—D. Rutherford , 1990 /
The aggressor's own forward momentum even strengthens the force of the counter-blow against him—P. Lewis , 1991. In addition to its directional meanings, forward has the meaning ‘bold in manner, precocious’
Any child who requested a book by title he at once designated as ‘forward’ or ‘lippy’—R. Roberts , 1971.

2 For the adverb, choice between the two forms is even less clear-cut than in the case with backward and backwards. The OED (in 1897) attempted to distinguish forward as having a meaning that ‘expresses a definite direction viewed in contrast with other directions’, but doubts about this were expressed already by Fowler (1926, but evidently writing in about 1917). In some fixed expressions forward is either preferred or obligatory: backwards and forwards (preferred), come forward (obligatory), look forward (to; obligatory), put forward (= propose; obligatory). In some other meanings there is a preference for forward: >‘to the front, into prominence’
(Hugh stepped forward. ‘It's me, don't be frightened.’— Wesley , 1983 /
Her mind refused to bring any such memory forward—E. Jolley , 1985 (Australia) /
Then Nigel Carew drew his sabre and thrust it into the hand of his youthful son and pushed him forward—T. Hayden , 1991), ‘in advance, ahead’
(Civilian volunteers from the town carried sacks of grenades forward to the men in action—J. Ladd , 1979), ‘onward so as to make progress’
(Rossi expressed surprise that the Commission was ‘apparently no further forward than in 1984’—C. Rose , 1990 /
He had continually to be looking at his watch and calculating whether they were forward enough—G.E. Evans , 1993), ‘towards the future, continuously onwards’
(The overall feeling is that the Jockey Club is genuinely concerned with helping the industry move forward—Independent, 1989).
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3 The most common occurrence of forwards is in meanings denoting straightforward movement towards the front:
A control stick adjusted the airflow from the fan, to make the craft hover or go forwards—Motoring Which?, 1970 /
Certain single-celled organisms are propelled forwards in the water—New Scientist, 1971 /
Then he leaned forwards and touched Colin's forearm— McEwan , 1981 /
It was Amelia who came forwards—K. Newman , 1990 /
The opponent sees the opening and moves forwards to sweep or punch you—D. Mitchell , 1991. In all these examples, however, forward would be at least as natural (except perhaps in the 1990 example, in which the use of forwards emphasizes the physical action not always present in the expression come forward); in general forward occurs significantly more often as an adverb than does forwards, both in BrE and in AmE.
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foul, foully.

The normal adverb from foul is foully (pronounced with both ls):
Jerome had done foully, but not so foully as he himself and all here believed— Peters , 1993. The older form foul survives in the quasi-adverbial expressions foul-mouthed and to fall foul of.

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fount, font.

These are the traditional British and American spellings respectively of the term meaning ‘a set of printing type of one size or face’. Font is now also used in BrE, and is rapidly ousting fount. Both words are only remotely connected with fount meaning ‘fountain, source’ (see next entry) and font meaning ‘a basin for water in a church’.

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fount, fountain.

Fount is a shortening of fountain (compare mount and mountain) and is mainly used in poetry and for special effect. It also occurs with the meaning ‘source, origin’ in phrases such as the fount of all wisdom, knowledge, etc.

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fowl.

The collective use of the singular form is now largely restricted to compounds such as guineafowl and wildfowl.

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foyer

meaning ‘the entrance hall in a theatre, etc.’, is pronounced foy-ay.

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fracas

meaning ‘a noisy disturbance’, is pronounced frak-ah in BrE and fray-ks in AmE. Its plural form is also fracas, pronounced frak-ahz and fray-ks respectively.

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fraction

in general use means ‘a very small part’:
Teaching loads at white schools often are only a fraction the size of those at black schools—Saturday Review (US), 1971. This use is idiomatic despite the pedantic objection occasionally heard that a fraction can be nine-tenths as much as one-tenth. In some cases, however, the point is reinforced by an adjective such as small or tiny:
The tax deduction for having a company car is a tiny fraction of its real value—Guardian, 1979. See also PERCENTAGE.

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fractious

see FACTIOUS.

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fragile, frail.

1 Fragile is pronounced fraj-iyl in BrE and fraj-l in AmE.

2 Fragile is normally used of things being easily broken, whereas frail is normally used of people being infirm or in poor physical condition:
The lectern at the Guildhall is a classic example of one that looks beautiful but is too small and fragile to use—H. Thomas & L. Gill , 1989 /
After Charlotte's death in 1943, the villagers all noticed how extraordinarily frail and sunken Shaw looked—National Trust Magazine, 1990. There is an overlap in meaning created by the figurative use of both words in the sense ‘weak, easily overturned’:
OPEC last week managed to preserve its fragile unity—Observer, 1985 /
The drinking, drug-taking and the high-pitched battles soon toppled the frail structure of their romance—J. Rose , 1990 /
Our international institutions are frail, fragile and tend to be powerless—D. Adamson , 1990. In general, fragile tends to be used more often than frail in this meaning, whereas frail alone has the meaning ‘morally weak, easily yielding to temptation’.
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fragmentary

should be pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.

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framework.

Sir Ernest Gowers (1965) was greatly offended by what he saw as the overuse of the expression within (or in) the framework of, meaning broadly ‘in the context of’. Presumably he grew tired of reading it in successions of official Civil Service memos and reports, and he devoted a lengthy article to discouraging its use; but his judgement that ‘it has become so trite that the very sight of it may nauseate the sensitive reader’ is personal rather than objective. It is also listed among the ‘clichés and modish and inflated diction’ in the Oxford Guide to English Usage (1994). It is true that effective images like this one can lose power through constant use, but it is difficult to find evidence of excessive use in the case under review, and it is hard to fault examples such as the following:
The exercise of justice is only possible within the framework of established institutions which command respect— Scruton , 1980 /
The qualities that make a good diplomat…a willingness to work within the framework of civilised courtesies—M. Binyon in Times, 1991.

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Frankenstein

in Mary Shelley's Gothic tale, is the name of the creator of a monster and is not the monster itself. In allusive use since the late 19c, however, the word has been used as if it referred to the monster and not its creator:
There are now growing indications that the Nationalists in South Africa have created a political Frankenstein which is pointing the way to a non-White political revival—Daily Telegraph, 1971 /
Indoctrinated mass organizations…could, critics charged, easily prove a Frankenstein—Soldier of Fortune, 1990. The allusions in these case should be to a Frankenstein's monster.

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frantically

is the correct form of the adverb from frantic, not franticly.

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free gift

is recorded from 1909 and has persisted in use in advertising and marketing circles, despite its evident tautology.

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freeman, free man.

A free man is a man who is free in general senses (literally or metaphorically). A freeman is (1) a person who is granted the freedom of a city, or (2) in historical uses, a person who is not a slave or serf.

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free rein

meaning ‘unrestricted scope for action’ is spelt this way, not free reign (as if it were connected with reign = rule). The following example should be corrected accordingly:
If they are given free reign to invest and produce they will grow—New Yorker, 1987.

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French words and phrases used in English.

1 English has been receptive to words and phrases from French for several centuries. The process has been continuous although there are two periods of special importance: the years after the Norman Conquest (11c), and the time of the French Enlightenment (18c) when movements in science and philosophy exposed gaps in the vocabulary of English (much as the French computing industry and media are absorbing English words at the moment). Many words from these periods have now been fully assimilated into English and behave like English words with no hint of foreignness (e.g. button, glory, ounce, place, prime, uncle, etc.). In the 19c, moral and other sensitivities sought refuge in the alien flavour of French in expressions such as affaire de cœur (first recorded in English in 1809), crime passionnel (1910), and ménage à trois (1891), and in the domains of art, literature, food, and wine French was felt to have an appropriacy corresponding to perceived national stereotypes.

2 The process of assimilation into English is illustrated by the noun abandon, meaning ‘surrender to natural impulses’, which entered the language early in the 19c. It was first printed in italics as a foreign word and pronounced in the French manner with a nasalized final syllable. By the early 20c it was printed in ordinary roman type as an English word (in James Joyce's Ulysses, for example), and about the same time, or a little later (after Daniel Jones's English Pronouncing Dictionary of 1917), it acquired the anglicized pronunciation that is now familiar, aided by the pre-existence of the fully assimilated verb. Hundreds of French loanwords had a similar history between the time of their adoption into English and their complete assimilation, and others are in the process of doing so. In the assimilation process, accents constitute the most persistent features of the original language when these are present. Even the most fully assimilated words, such as café and façade, tend to retain their accents, probably as an orthographic support for a still partly French pronunciation. Pronunciation in fact, as these two words show, is usually the least reliable guide to the degree of a word's assimilation.
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3 The table below lists a selection of French words and phrases to illustrate four levels of adoption into English: A = printed in italic type and pronounced in a French manner (with some modification, e.g. in the articulation of r, the introduction of the indeterminate schwa sound () for unaccented vowels, and the elimination of nasalized sounds); B = Gallicisms mainly confined to literary or scholarly use; C = printed in roman type but retaining some features of the French pronunciation; D = fully anglicized and printed in Roman type.

WORD / PHRASE

APPROXIMATE MEANING

DATE

CATEGORY

affaire de cœur

love affair

19c

A

à merveille

wonderfully

18c

B

arrière-pensée

ulterior motive

19c

B

au fond

basically

18c

B

au pied de lettre

literally

18c

B

baroque

of 17c and 18c art

18c

D

billet-doux

love letter

17c

C

bizarre

strange

17c

D

blasé

indifferent

19c

C

brunette

brown

16c

D

cachet

sign of prestige

17c

D

café

coffee house

19c

C

camembert

cheese

19c

C

cartel

association of manufacturers

16c

D

charlatan

sham, fraud

17c

D

clairvoyant

one who foresees

17c

D

crime passionnel

crime of passion

20c

A

déjà vu

already seen

20c

C

éclair

cake

19c

D

enfant terrible

unconventional person

19c

A

escargot

edible snail

19c

C

esprit de corps

team spirit

18c

A

esprit de

inspiration too late

20c

B

l'escalier gigolo

paid escort or lover

20c

D

laissez-faire

non-interference

19c

A

mayonnaise

thick sauce

19c

D

ménage à trois

household of three

19c

A

nom de guerre

name assumed in war

17c

A

nom de plume

pen-name

19c

C

pièce de

most remarkable item

18c

A

résistance

point d'appui

strategic point

19c

B

sobriquet

nickname

17c

C

soi-disant

so-called

18c

B

son et lumière

sound and light effects

20c

A

touché

word used to concede a point

20c

C

tour de force

feat of skill

19c

C

tournedos

cut of beef

19c

C

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frequentative.

Frequentative verbs express repeated or continuous action and are formed with certain suffixes, in English principally -er and -le. Examples are chatter, clamber, flicker, flitter, glitter, slumber; crackle, dazzle, paddle, sparkle, wriggle.

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fresco

meaning a type of wallpainting, has plural forms frescos (preferred) and frescoes.

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friar, monk.

A friar is a member of a mendicant (i.e. living on alms) or originally mendicant religious order of men, especially the Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans, who live among the people and do good works. A monk can include these, but properly denotes a member of a religious community living apart under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

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Friday (and other days of the week).

Friday, being the first day of the week alphabetically, is chosen to make this point, which also applies to the other six. The suppression of on in adverbial references to days of the week (See you Friday / He normally eats fish Fridays) is spreading to BrE from America, but the process is not complete and the use remains informal in Britain, especially in the singular. Only an American would say or write that something ‘happened Friday’ instead of ‘happened last Friday’, or to give a real example:
Noriega…said Monday the U.S. Southern Command in Panama…threatens the Central American nation—USA Today, 1988.

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friendlily

is available as an adverb from friendly but because of its awkwardness it is rarely used:
The women…still addressed him friendlily— Trevor , 1980 /
All this was friendlily presented— Jenkins , 1991. The phrasal alternative in a friendly way (or manner) often serves better.

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frier

see FRYER.

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frith

see FIRTH.

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frock

was originally a male garment, especially the mantle of a monk or priest. Discarded by men, the word came back into favour in the 19c as a synonym of gown or dress for women or girls. Fowler described it as a vogue word used ‘especially for a dress regarded from the decorative point of view’. It is still in use but has a distinct period flavour and can be disparaging or facetious. A recent (1998) advertisement for a sports car shows the car with a supermodel in an elegant designer dress standing beside it. The caption reads ‘our latest model…and Claudia Schiffer in a frock’.

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frolic verb

has inflected forms frolicked, frolicking.

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from.

Avoid the mixture of styles shown in the type He was chairman of the board from 1979–1985. This should be expressed either He was chairman of the board from 1979–1985 or He was chairman of the board from 1979 to 1985. See also BETWEEN (3).

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from whence, from hence.

1 Although widely disapproved of on the grounds that from is redundant, from whence has a long and distinguished history of use in questions
(From whence these Murmurs, and this change of mind— Dryden , 1697) and in indirect questions or as a conjunction introducing a relative clause
(No man can say from whence the greater danger to order arises—F. Harrison , 1867). The phrase with from continues to be used in modern literature:
When they show the captive a picture of the City of London, that he may know from whence they come, he displays no interest— Lively , 1991 /
Dark clouds had gathered over the hills to the north, from whence came the lucky changeling folk in times long past—S. Koea , 1994 (New Zealand). The modern uses have mostly to do with people's origins and can be justified stylistically as archaisms (cf.
Thys felowe, we knowe not from whence he ys— Tyndale , 1526). In general use, if whence has to be used, it is best used without from; but of course the problem can be avoided altogether by rephrasing in a way that is in any case more natural in modern English:…so that he can know where they come from.

2 The OED gives numerous examples, dating from the 14c to the 19c, of the use of from hence. A typical 19c example is
From hence I was conducted up a staircase to a suite of apartments—W. Irving , 1820. In the 20c this use is best avoided.
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fruition

has only an indirect connection with fruit, but the false association led it astray in the 19c. Its current meaning ‘fulfilment, the realization of aims’(especially in the phrase come to fruition) dates from then; before that it meant ‘enjoyment’(from the Latin deponent verb frui ‘to enjoy’), a meaning which is still listed in dictionaries of current English though hardly much used.

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fryer

is the preferred spelling for the agent noun meaning ‘a person or thing that fries’, not frier.

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frying-pan

is the usual term in BrE, but in AmE it alternates with frypan and skillet.

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-fs, -ves.

Nouns ending in -f and -fe have plural forms as shown in the table below:

NOUN

-FS PLURAL

-VES PLURAL

VERB FORM

beef

beefs (= kinds of beef)

beeves (= oxen)

belief

beliefs

calf

calves

calve, calved

dwarf

dwarfs

dwarves (see entry)

dwarf, dwarfed

elf

elves

half

halves

halve, halved

handkerchief

handkerchiefs

hoof

hoofs

hooves (see entry)

hoof, hoofed

knife

knives

knife, knifed

leaf

leaves

leaf, leafed

life

lives

live, lived

loaf

loaves

loaf, loafed

oaf

oafs

proof

proofs

prove, proved

roof

roofs

rooves (see entry)

roof, roofed

scarf

scarfs

scarves (see entry)

self

selves

sheaf

sheaves

sheave,

sheaved

shelf

shelves

shelve,

shelved

staff

staffs

staves (music)

staff, staffed

thief

thieves

thieve, thieved

turf

turfs

turves (see entry)

turf, turfed

wharf

wharfs

wharves

wife

wives

wolf

wolves

wolf, wolfed

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fuchsia

the plant, is correctly spelt this way (after the 16c German botanist Leonhard Fuchs), not fuschia, although this is sometimes erroneously used (and encouraged by the word's pronunciation, fyoo-sh).

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fuel verb

has inflected forms fuelled, fuelling in BrE and fueled, fueling in AmE.

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-ful

is a suffix forming nouns that denote amounts, as in cupful, handful, mouthful, etc. In many cases these nouns develop meanings that are remote from the word that forms the first element; for example, a handful means ‘a small number’ as well as ‘an amount that can be held in the hand’ The plurals of these words is cupfuls, handfuls, mouthfuls, etc.

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fulcrum

is pronounced fuhl-krm or ful-krm and has plural forms fulcra or fulcrums.

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fulfil

is the BrE spelling; in AmE it alternates with fulfill. The inflections in both varieties are fulfilled, fulfilling.

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full

survives as an adverb only in the phrases full well (as in You know full well what I mean) and full in the face (as in The ball hit him full in the face). Other uses (e.g. full early, full fain) are now somewhat literary or archaic; in Shakespeare's Full fathom five thy Father lies (Tempest I.ii.399), the meaning is ‘fully, quite’ and refers to the number.

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fullness

is spelt with two ls, but the form fulness occurs in 19c and earlier printed works.

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full stop.

1 The principal use of the full stop (also called point, full point, and period) is to mark the end of a sentence that is a statement (as in this sentence). This applies to sentences when they are not complete statements or contain ellipsis (see SENTENCE), as in the opening of Dickens's Bleak House (1852–3): London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Hall. Implacable November weather. If the sentence is a question or exclamation, the mark used is the QUESTION MARK or EXCLAMATION MARK, which include a full stop in their forms.

2 The full stop is also used to mark abbreviations and contractions, although this use is diminishing, partly as a matter of printing style and partly because many abbreviations have become more familiar and no longer need identification. The distinction between abbreviations (e.g. I.o.W = Isle of Wight) and contractions (e.g. Dr = Doctor), though arguably a useful one, has been rapidly eroded by this process, so that shortenings of various kinds are printed and written without full stops, e.g. BBC, DPhil, etc, ie, IoW, Mr, Ms, pm (= post meridiem), St (= Saint or Street), etc. The style recommended here is somewhat more conservative than this, dropping full stops in initialisms that are all capital letters (e.g. BBC, NNW = north-north-west, TUC), in many contractions (Dr, Mr, etc.), and in acronyms that are pronounced as words (e.g. Anzac, Nato), but retaining them in lower-case initialisms such as a.m., e.g. and i.e., in mixed styles such as D.Phil. and M.Sc., and in shortened words such as Oct. (= October) and Tues. (= Tuesday). The important point, however, is to achieve consistency within a particular piece of writing or printing. Some shortenings have a greater need of full stops to avoid possible ambiguity with other words in some contexts, e.g. a.m. (= ante meridiem), no. (= number).
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3 If an abbreviation with a full stop comes at the end of a sentence, another full stop is not added when the full stop of the abbreviation is the last character: Bring your own pens, pencils, rulers, etc. but Bring your own things (pens, pencils, rulers, etc.).
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4 Full stops are routinely used between units of money (£11.99, $27.50), before decimals (10.5%), and between hours and minutes (10.30 a.m.; AmE 10:30 a.m.).
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fulsome.

1 The first meaning of fulsome was ‘copious, abundant’, but it had lost this along with other meanings by the 16c and acquired an unfavourable sense ‘excessive, cloying’, especially with reference to praise or flattery. This meaning has remained the dominant one until the second half of the 20c, when fulsome began to be used in favourable meanings, so that fulsome praise meant high or lavish praise rather than excessive or nauseating praise. This new use, more common in AmE but increasingly found in BrE too, should be avoided, because the adverse meaning is still much in use and there is a danger of unfortunate misunderstanding. Examples of the erroneous use:
That very fulsome tribute to Mrs Shirley Williams by the PM—radio broadcast, 1979 /
I got a very fulsome apology from the President of Iraq— Reagan , quoted on NBC News, 1987. An example of the correct use is:
Walks surefootedly through the minefield that separates fulsome idolatry from condescending anecdotal chitchat—Times Literary Supplement, 1977.

2 Fulsome is also occasionally used to mean ‘full-figured’, with reference to a woman's figure, by fashion writers who analyse the word as consisting of full + -some as in handsome, wholesome, etc.:
I am warned that these particular cassocks will only fit either the exceptionally petite or the handsomely fulsome—Daily Telegraph, 1985.
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fun

first recorded in 1700 and stigmatized by Dr Johnson as a ‘low cant word’(i.e. ephemeral jargon), has long hovered on the brink of adjectival status (It was really fun) and more recently has taken a step further in informal attributive uses such as We had a fun time or That would be a fun thing to do. It still has a way to go, however, since it cannot yet be qualified by intensifying adverbs such as very or extremely (use of great instead gives away the noun's disguise), and lacks the comparative and superlative inflections that a single-syllable adjective normally has (although more fun as in This sounds more fun is legitimate; funner and funnest are beginning to appear in youth slang in AmE).

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function.

1 The noun has a number of technical meanings in mathematics and (now) in computing, and has acquired general meanings that caused Fowler (1926) to categorize it as a POPULARIZED TECHNICALITY. As a noun, it is often used somewhat pretentiously in meanings for which other words would serve as well: (1) role, duty, or responsibility
(This function is now discharged by departmental select committees—H. Calvert , 1985), (2) use or purpose
(Identify the main functions of a hedge before deciding its composition—Gardeners' World, 1991), (3) action, activity, or performance
(He was embarrassed about the nature of his illness and reluctant to discuss his bowel function with anyone—J. Merchant , 1989), (4) capacity, facility, or operation
(especially with a preceding word: In some countries major social consumption functions are controlled by the central government and social investment functions by local governments—P. Dunleavy 1987), or (5) party or gathering
(It was not the kind of function to which Nat was accustomed to go, but his father's employer…pressed a ticket on him— Raphael , 1960).

2 As a verb, function often substitutes unnecessarily for more workaday words such as act, operate, think, or work:
Excessive heat may make us feel ‘stupid’ and unable to function mentally—U. Markham , 1991. The phrase to be a function of is a direct borrowing from mathematics, and usually means little more than to be caused by:
This suggests that, in part, the housewife's dissatisfaction with her work is a function of downward social mobility—A. Oakley , 1990.
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3 There is a place for function as a formal and technical word, but in general use the alternatives suggested above are usually worth considering.
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functional.

In addition to its special meanings in medicine and psychology, the primary meanings of functional are (1) ‘designed or intended to be practical rather than attractive’, a synonym of utilitarian, and (2) ‘having a function, working’. In the 1990s the word has been used in the second meaning to describe a type of food, originated in Japan, that contains health-promoting additives instead of the conventionally harmful ones:
Functional foods are sometimes wrongly referred to in the media as ‘miracle foods’ implying they are something of a panacea, negating the need for a healthy diet—Grocer, 1996.

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funerary, funeral, funereal.

Funerary is the standard adjective in the neutral meaning ‘of or used at a funeral or funerals’, as in funerary ashes, funerary urn, etc. It dates from the late 17c and has replaced funeral, which was originally an adjective but became predominantly a noun from the 16c onwards (in uses such as funeral expenses and funeral rites it is a noun used attributively and not an adjective). Funereal, which is first recorded in 1725, has a special judgemental meaning ‘appropriate to a funeral’, either ‘deadly slow’(like a funeral procession) or ‘gloomy, dreary, dismal’:
Her mother and brother had departed to the kitchen from where Wexford could hear their muted whisperings and the funereally careful clink of cups— Rendell , 1981 /
Karl nodded and began to walk slowly up the steps, Erika by his side, moving at a funereal pace—P. Carter , 1986 /
Even with Donald there, Aileen thought, the place had a funereal silence about it—C.F. Roe , 1992.

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fungus

has the plural form fungi, pronounced fung-giy or fun-jiy, although funguses is sometimes used, especially to mean ‘types of fungus’. The adjectival forms are fungal and fungous, and fungus itself is sometimes used attributively (before a noun, as in a fungus disease).

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funnel verb

has inflected forms funnelled, funnelling in BrE and funneled, funneling in AmE.

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funny

is used in two primary meanings:
(1) amusing, comical (as in a funny joke),
(2) strange, hard to explain (as in a funny look).

Since the 1930s, as first recorded in a novel by Ian Hay , meaning (1) has come to be called funny-ha-ha and meaning (2) funny-peculiar.

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furore

meaning ‘an uproar, an outbreak of fury’ is pronounced as three syllables. The word is spelt furor in AmE and pronounced fyoo-raw.

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further, furthest

see FARTHER.

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fuse.

There are two distinct words:
(1) the one meaning ‘a device for igniting a bomb’ is 17c from Latin fusus ‘spindle’, and
(2) the one meaning ‘a device or component for protecting an electric circuit’ is 19c, derived from the earlier verb meaning ‘to melt’.

The first of these words, but not the second, is usually spelt fuze in AmE.

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-fy.

This suffix forming English verbs corresponds to French -fier and Latin -ficare. It occurs from the 15c onwards in words either borrowed whole from French or modelled on French forms (e.g. beautify, classify, horrify, pacify), and is also an active suffix occasionally forming new (often somewhat jocular) words such as bullify (18c = to make into a bully), Frenchify (16c), and ladify (17c). These words have inflections in -ifies, -ified, -ifying. When there is a choice of spelling between -ify and -yfy (as with countrify/-yfy and ladify/-yfy) the spelling in -ify is preferable. A small group of words end in -efy (e.g liquefy, stupefy) and inflect -efies, -efied, -efying.

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G

gabardine.

This is the recommended spelling for the word meaning ‘a smooth durable cloth’ or a raincoat made from it. The form gaberdine is used with historical reference to the smock worn by almsmen and beggars, and by Jews on the Elizabethan stage, as in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice I.iii.111 (Shylock): You call me misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine.

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Gaelic,

pronounced gal-ik or gay-lik, denotes any of the modern Celtic languages spoken in Ireland (Irish Gaelic), Scotland (Scottish Gaelic), and the Isle of Man (Manx). There are two main varieties that were ancestors of these languages: Brythonic (or P-Celtic), also the indigenous language of Wales and Cornwall and taken by Britons to Brittany, and Goidelic (or Q-Celtic), which spread from Ireland into the Isle of Man and Scotland.

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gala

is normally pronounced gah-l but the traditional pronunciation, as recorded in the OED (1899) and as used in the Durham Miners' Gala, is gay-la. Both pronunciations are in use in AmE. The plural form is galas.

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gallant

is pronounced gal-nt in the ordinary meaning ‘brave’, and g-lant in the special meaning ‘attentive to women, amorous’ and the related noun ‘lover or paramour’. Fowler thought that these two uses were, even then (1926), ‘perhaps moribund’, but they persist, usually in fictional or romantic contexts rather than in everyday language.

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galley

has the plural form galleys.

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Gallicisms.

Fowler (1926) used this term to describe what he called ‘borrowings of various kinds from French in which the borrower stops short of using French words without disguise’. That is to say, they are words that have been assimilated in various ways, or in some cases translated, into English. While acknowledging their established contribution to English vocabulary, he gave a warning not to use them as a kind of affectation derived from their foreignness. There are three principal types of Gallicisms; Fowler was thinking especially of the third:
1 French words which have been adapted to suit the ordinary conventions of English by dropping accents or substituting English endings, e.g. actuality (from French actualité) and redaction (from French rédaction). See also FRENCH WORDS AND PHRASES USED IN ENGLISH.
2 Mismatches, i.e. words that do not mean in English what they mean in French; for example, papier mâché is literally ‘chewed paper’ and does not exist in this meaning in French (the equivalent is carton-pâte), duvet in English means ‘a continental quilt’ but in French means ‘a sleeping-bag’, and cagoule, which in English means ‘a windproof outdoor garment with a hood’, in French means a monk's hood or ‘a child's balaclava’. Some food terms have different meanings in the two languages: fromage frais, which is now widely seen in British supermarkets, is what in French is called fromage blanc, fromage frais being a fresh unmatured type of cheese.
3 Loan translations, i.e. expressions adopted from French in a more or less literally translated form, e.g. gilded youth (from French jeunesse dorée), jump (or leap) to the eyes (French sauter aux yeux). marriage of convenience (French mariage de convenance), and that goes without saying (French cela va sans dire).

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gallop

meaning ‘to go at a fast pace’, has inflected forms galloped, galloping.

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gallows

has been treated since the 16c as a singular noun, with a (rarely used) plural gallowses. Gallows humour means ‘grim and ironical humour’.

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galore,

meaning ‘in plenty’, comes after the word it qualifies (bargains galore in our spring sale). It is derived from Irish go leór meaning ‘to sufficiency, enough’.

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galosh,

meaning ‘a waterproof overshoe’, is normally used in the plural galoshes. This spelling is preferred to the variant golosh.

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gambit,

in its generalized meaning ‘an opening move in a conversation, meeting, set of negotiations, etc.’, is a technical term taken from chess (see POPULARIZED TECHNICALITIES), where the meaning is ‘an opening in which a player sacrifices a piece or pawn to secure an advantage’. In the extension of meaning, the notion of sacrifice has largely disappeared:
Liza was attractive and her response to some of his occasional conversational gambits on the way home had been interesting and unusual—P. Street , 1990 /
These questions are often opening gambits for a negotiation of some sort—P. Davies , 1991.

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gambol,

meaning ‘to skip or frolic playfully’, has inflected forms gambolled, gambolling. In AmE the forms gamboled, gamboling are also used.

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gamut.

In music, gamut properly means ‘the note G at the pitch now indicated by the lowest line of the bass staff’. From this it was extended eventually to mean ‘the whole series of notes used in medieval or modern music’, and this has given rise to the generalized meaning ‘the whole series or range or scope of anything’ which chiefly occurs in the expression run the gamut (= experience the whole range of):
The audience for science fiction now runs the gamut from the high school ‘trekkie’ to the serious literary scholar—book catalogue, 1983. The word is formed from medieval Latin gamma (= the note G) + ut, the first of six arbitrary names forming the hexachord (ut; re, mi, fa, sol, la); these were said to be taken from the initial letters of a sequence of Latin words in the office hymn for St John the Baptist's day.

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gantry

is spelt in this way when it refers to any of various structures supporting a crane, set of railway signals, space rocket, etc. In the meaning ‘a wooden stand for barrels’, it is also spelt gauntry and pronounced gawn-tri.

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gaol, gaoler,

see JAIL, JAILER.

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gap

is widely used as the second element of expressions denoting ‘a divergence in views, sympathies, development, etc.’ Those recorded in the OED include credibility gap (first recorded in 1966), dollar gap (1948), export gap (1952), generation gap (1967), missile gap (1959), and technology gap (1967).

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garage.

The standard pronunciation in BrE is ga-rahzh, although some speakers say ga-rij or (with the stress on the second syllable) ga-rahzh. The dominant pronunciations in AmE are ga-rahzh and ga-rahj.

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garrotte

is the customary spelling for the word (verb and noun) to do with killing by strangulation. In AmE the dominant spelling is garrote (with inflections garroted, garroting), although other forms are also found.

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gas.

The plural of the noun is gases, but the verb has inflected forms gasses, gassed, gassing. Gas, short for gasoline, is the most usual word in AmE for BrE petrol, and permeates BrE in colloquial expressions such as step on the gas.

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gaseous.

The dominant pronunciation in standard English is gasi-s; gay-si-s is now only rarely heard.

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gasoline

is the AmE term for what in BrE is called petrol, a volatile liquid obtained from petroleum. This spelling is preferred to gasolene, but the word is normally used in its shortened form gas. See GAS.

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-gate

is a suffix taken from the name Watergate, a building in Washington DC containing the headquarters of the Democratic Party, which was the centure of a break-in and political scandal in 1972. The suffix is used in various combinations to denote an actual or alleged scandal that is in some way comparable. Examples are Dallasgate (1975), Koreagate (1976), Irangate (1986, referring to secret US sales of arms to Iran), and most recently Monicagate (1998, referring to a sexual scandal involving Monica Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton ). These formations are a godsend to journalists wishing to instil the breath of scandal into short eye-catching headlines.

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gateau,

a loanword from French meaning ‘a rich cake’, has the plural form gateaus, or occasionally gateaux.

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gauge

is spelt in this way, not guage.

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gauntlet.

There are two distinct words here:
(1) ‘a stout glove’ used in the expression throw down the gauntlet (= accept a challenge), from an Old French diminutive of gant meaning ‘glove’, and
(2) used in the phrase run the gauntlet (= undergo a punishment or ordeal), assimilated from an earlier form gantlope, of Swedish origin. The second word is sometimes spelt gantlet in AmE

.

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gay.

1
There is no historical case for homosexual ownership of ‘gay’. So can we have our word back, please.— Johnson , 1995. This typifies the reaction of many people to this major change, occurring from the mid-20c but with occasional earlier evidence, in the use of a basic English word. At this time, the homosexual community made it clear that they wanted to be called gay instead of homosexual or any of the other derogatory names including fag, faggot, fairy, homo, pansy, and queer. The first substantial evidence is from the 1950s:
In a way it was an odd threesome. It occurred to me that Esther rather hung round our two gay boys—E. Lambert , 1951. The historical basis for this use of gay is sometimes sought in earlier meanings: (17c) ‘addicted to social pleasures and dissipations’ (as in gay dog and gay Lothario) and (19c) ‘(said of a woman) leading an immoral life, living by prostitution’. But these older and hardly favourable meanings constitute dubious precedents, and in all probability the connection was impressionistic rather than analytical. Whatever the case, the new meaning looks here to stay, and dictionaries of current English tend to list it first of the several meanings of gay. There are a number of points to be made in defence of the new meaning: it is useful to have a word that is not offensive; the traditional meaning of gay was in any case acquiring something of a period flavour; and there are plenty of synonyms available: merry, jolly, cheerful, happy, high-spirited, lively, and others that can be found in a good thesaurus.

2 Gay is also used in the meaning ‘intended for, used by, or associated with homosexuals’ (as in gay bar and gay politics), and as a noun:
What about gays, one asks, and will there be facilities for them to relate significantly to each other?—Sunday Telegraph, 1985. Unlike the adjectival use, however, the noun gay usually denotes male homosexuals only, and the phrase lesbians and gays (usually in that order) is used to show clearly that both sexes are meant:
Venues and services staffed by lesbians and gays are invaluable in maintaining a sense of community—P. Lincoln & T. Kaufmann , 1991 /
One end result has been an increase in the extent to which gays and lesbians have been subjected to physical violence—J. Dollimore , 1991. The gay gene is a slang term for DNA sequences which can predispose an individual to homosexuality.
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3 It should be mentioned that, despite all the inhibitions reviewed above, the traditional meaning of gay is still alive and well for some writers:
She had lived a very gay life in London, when she was on the stage— Bawden , 1991 /
But she disobeyed him, brought the baby out, and he had never found her so gay, so welcoming— Warner , 1992.
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gazebo,

pronounced ga-zee-boh and meaning ‘a small glass building designed to give a wide view’, has the plural form gazebos. The word is 18c, and is thought to be a fanciful formation on gaze, as if it were a Latin future verb meaning ‘I will gaze (at the view)’.

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geezer

is a (now somewhat dated) slang term for a person, usually a man. It is a late-19c adaptation of guiser meaning ‘mummer’, reflecting a dialect pronunciation.

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gelatin, gelatine.

Gelatin (pronounced jel--tin) is the customary form in chemical use, and in AmE in all uses, but gelatine (pronounced jel-a-teen) is common in BrE in contexts to do with the preparation of food.

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gender.

1 Since the 14c the word has been primarily a grammatical term denoting groups of nouns in terms of their being masculine, feminine, or neuter. In the earliest form of English (Old English or Anglo-Saxon, c. 740 to 1066), nouns fell into three classes, masculine, feminine, and neuter: stn (stone) was masculine, giefu (gift) was feminine, and scip (ship) was neuter. The definite article and most adjectives varied to accord with the gender of the accompanying noun, as they still do in other languages. By the end of the 11c, this system was lost. In modern English grammatical gender exists only in the singular personal pronouns he, she, it, his, hers, its, etc., and in some feminine endings such as -ess, -ette (imported from French), and -ine.

2 Although nouns associated with female and male persons and animals are generally feminine or masculine as appropriate, grammatical gender and sexual gender do not have a complete correspondence in any language, which accounts for some of the anomalies that can cause offence in our modern gender-sensitive age (e.g. in referring to vehicles as she).
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3 The evidence in the OED shows that the term gender was also used as a term meaning ‘the sex of a person’, although the OED editors (1899) marked this as ‘now only jocular’. Since the 1960s this meaning has come back into regular use, especially among feminists, to emphasize ‘the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological, distinctions between the sexes’ (OED2, 1989). This revival, which is a useful one, has given rise to many new compound expressions, including gender gap, gender identity, gender language, gender model, gender role, and gender-specific; and academic disciplines now include the field of gender studies.
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gender-neutrality.

1 In English, explicit grammatical gender is chiefly confined to the third-person singular personal pronouns, he, she, it, his, hers, its, etc. From earliest times until about the 1960s it was unquestionably acceptable to use the pronoun he (and him, himself, his) with indefinite reference to denote a person of either sex, especially after indefinite pronouns and determiners such as anybody, anyone, each, every, etc., after gender-neutral nouns such as person, individual, and speaker, and in fixed expressions such as every man for himself and one man one vote. The feminist movement has greatly intensified sensitivities in this area, and alternative devices often have to be found. When a gender-neutral pronoun or determiner (i.e. one that is free of grammatical gender) is needed, the options usually adopted are he or she (or his or her, etc.), or the plural forms they, their, themselves, etc.:
Each client should take the advice of their estate agent, who will take into account the style of the property, [etc.]—Real Property Guide (Edinburgh), 1995 /
Anyone who involves themselves in such issues does so for their own salvation—Big Issue, 1998. (This use of plural pronouns is not new, but a revival of a practice dating from the 16c.) An alternative strategy is to rephrase the sentence, for example by couching the whole thing in the plural; by this device the 1995 example above becomes Clients should take the advice of their estate agents …, although the loss of singular focus can sometimes blur the sense (as, perhaps, in this example).

2 Artificial devices, including the use of composite forms such as s/he, hesh, wself, etc., have not found general currency, partly because they are difficult to articulate and are only possible in writing. A reflexive pronoun themself is occasionally found and is likely to become more common, but at present it is non-standard:
It is not an actor pretending to be Reagan or Thatcher, it is, in grotesque form, the person themself—I. Hislop , 1984 /
Someone in a neutral mood can devote themself solely to problem solving—Independent, 1995.
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genealogy,

meaning ‘(the study of) a person's line of descent’, is derived from a Greek word genea meaning ‘race, generation’. The existence of so many words ending in -ology (archaeology, psychology, sociology, etc.) and the influence of its own derivative word genealogical (with a stressed -o-), traps some people into pronouncing genealogy as if it too ended in -ology, and even into spelling it that way.

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generator

is spelt -or in all its meanings, not -er.

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genie,

meaning ‘a spirit of Arabian folklore’, is pronounced jee-ni and has the plural form genii, pronounced jee-ni-iy. See also GENIUS.

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genius,

meaning ‘a person of great intellectual power’, has the plural form geniuses, not genii, which is the plural of GENIE.

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gent

(= gentleman). Apart from its use in commercial circles (e.g. gents' outfitters) and (in the UK) the colloquial euphemism the Gents, meaning a men's lavatory, this shortening is mainly used to indicate sociability, courtesy, etc., e.g. He's a perfect gent.

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genteel.

Its primary meaning is ‘affectedly or ostentatiously refined or stylish’, but it is often used ironically to mean ‘of or appropriate to the upper classes’.

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genteelism.

Fowler (1926) described genteelism as ‘the substituting, for the ordinary natural word that first suggests itself to the mind, of a synonym that is thought to be less soiled by the lips of the common herd, less familiar, less plebeian, less vulgar, less improper’. It is euphemism taken a stage further by virtue of the inappropriate social context into which the substitute word is placed. Fowler's list included items that would now be considered normal or even preferable, such as assist for help, close for shut, mirror for looking-glass, and stomach for belly. Others, such as anent for about and domestic for servant, have fallen out of use or are no longer socially relevant. A few might be thought valid as genteelisms: e.g. carafe for water-bottle, edifice for building, endeavour for try, expectorate for spit, inquire for ask, lingerie for underclothing, peruse for read, perspire for sweat, and sufficient for enough. To these may be added dentures for false teeth, desire for want, hard of hearing for deaf, lounge for sitting-room, and retire for the night for go to bed. See also U AND NON-U.

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genteelly,

the adverb from genteel, is spelt and pronounced with two ls.

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gentle.

The phrase the gentle art, which was used with clever irony by the American painter James McNeill Whistler in his title The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890), had already become a cliché by the time Fowler wrote (1926). As well as being used allusively in titles, e.g. The Gentle Art of Singing (1927), it occurs in general contexts:
Grant took full advantage of the lunchtime lull in traffic, and in derestricted areas excelled himself in the gentle art of speed with safety— Tey , 1936 /
Hype is an American word for the gentle art of getting a tune into the pop charts without actually selling any records—Sunday Times, 1968. The gentle art is also an affectionate name for the sport of angling.

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gentleman.

The word gentleman, formerly a term indicating social class, has largely fallen out of use in this meaning with the gradual erosion of class distinctions. It survives as a form of address (usually as ladies and gentlemen), in the phrase gentleman's agreement (an informal agreement not binding in law) and as a term of general polite reference, especially in public (I have a question from the gentleman in the second row). The designation gentlemen is still occasionally seen on signs for public lavatories, but men is more usual. The feminine form gentlewoman, meaning ‘a woman of good birth or breeding’ has almost entirely fallen out of use except as an archaism.

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genuflection,

meaning ‘a bending of the knee’, is the preferred spelling, although genuflexion is also in use.

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genuine

is pronounced jen-yuh-in in BrE. In AmE the pronunciation jen-yuh-iyn is widespread (sometimes for humorous effect) but non-standard.

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genus,

the term for a taxonomic grouping in biology, is pronounced jee-ns. The plural is genera, pronounced jen--r.

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geographic, geographical.

Both forms have a long history, geographic being first recorded in 1630 and geographical in 1559. The longer form is dominant in BrE, but geographic alternates with it more frequently in AmE.

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geometric, geometrical.

As with the preceding words, the longer form is about a century older than the shorter one (1552 and 1630 respectively). In this case, the shorter form is dominant in fixed collocations in BrE (geometric mean, geometric progression, geometric tracery, etc.), but in general contexts the choice seems to depend on the rhythm and balance of the sentence. In AmE geometric seems to be more usual both in fixed collocations and in general contexts.

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German words used in English.

English has been steadily adopting words from German for several centuries, although there are fewer loans of phrases than there are from French. There are sometimes changes of form (e.g. kaput) or changes of meaning (e.g. spiel). The table below shows the more important loans, with their dates of first appearance in print and their meaning, together with an indication of whether they have been naturalized in English (i.e. are printed in roman type and regarded as English words) or non-naturalized:

WORD

MEANING

DATE

NATURALIZED

angst

guilty anxiety

1944

yes

blitz

sudden attack

1939

yes

echt

authentic

1916

no

edelweis

Alpine plant

1862

yes

ersatz

artificial, imitation

1875

yes

kaput

broken, not working

1895

yes

kindergarten

children's nursery

1852

yes

kitsch

garish or gaudy art

1926

yes

poltergeist

mischievous ghost

1848

yes

quartz

mineral

1765

yes

rucksack

type of bag

1866

yes

schadenfreude

enjoyment of another's misfortune

1895

no

spiel

glib talk

1896

yes

ur-

original, earliest

1880s

yes

waltz

dance

1781

yes

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gerrymander

meaning ‘to manipulate election districts unfairly’, is originally a US word formed from the name of Elbridge Gerry , governor of Massachusetts in 1812. His name was pronounced with a hard initial g, and the word was at first pronounced likewise, but pronunciation with a soft g (j-) is now standard in both AmE and BrE.

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gerund

see VERBAL NOUN.

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gesticulation, gesture.

1 Gesture is a somewhat older word (15c) than gesticulation (16c), and both are related to Latin gestus meaning ‘action’. In current use they overlap in their meanings to do with movement of the body or parts of the body as a mode of expression, and it is the degree of animation that governs the choice, gesticulation indicating a much more theatrical movement of the arms or body. The extended meaning of gesture, ‘a friendly action intended to evoke a positive response’, first came into English as recently as the early 20c:
The gift of your Medal of Honour to a British comrade in arms … is a gesture of friendly sympathy and good will which we will not forget—Times, 1921 /
Flowers didn't occur to Sneed until he had arrived at the hospital, and there the gesture was pointless—G.F. Newman , 1970.

2 A 20c neologism that extends this use is gesture politics, defined as ‘political action which concentrates primarily on publicity value and influencing public opinion’. It is normally used with connotations of disapproval:
There is no room for gesture politics. If we want to open debate about the future and our constitution, that is fine—Daily Mail 1995.
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get.

1 RANGE OF USE. Get is one of the most frequently used and most productive words in English. Often it has virtually no meaning in itself and draws its meaning almost entirely from its context, especially in idiomatic uses such as get to bed, get dressed, get home, get the flu, get a letter, get a new hat, get going, get rich, get one's feet wet, get a train, and so on. It will be seen from these examples as an all-purpose substitute for a whole range of verbs including arrive, become, buy, catch, collect, obtain, receive, etc. Get also has a highly productive role in forming idiomatic phrasal verbs such as get along, get at, get away, get away with, get back, get by, get down to, get on, get out, get over, get through, get together, etc.

2 SUPPOSED OVERUSE. The view that get is an overused word and should be avoided in good English is a superstition. It was not a problem for either Fowler (1926) or Gowers (1965), whose entries on this word dealt with different aspects of its use. There are some uses that should be recognized as informal, e.g. We got along fine might be better expressed as We were on good terms in more formal contexts and What are you getting at? as What are you suggesting [or implying]?, but there is no advantage in I received a letter this morning over I got a letter this morning nor in She's gone to collect her post over She's gone to get her post. Many idiomatic phrases involving get, such as get away with and get down to, are effectively neutral in terms of register and can be used in virtually any context.
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3 HAVE GOT = POSSESS. This was one of the issues that Fowler and Gowers dealt with, as mentioned above. Fowler wrote that ‘have got for possess or have is good colloquial English but not good literary English’, and Gowers suggested that ‘the intrusion of got into a construction in which have alone is enough originated in our habit of eliding have. I have it and he has it are clear statements, but if we elide we must insert got to avoid the absurdity of I've it and the even greater absurdity of he's it.’ In negative contexts and questions, BrE have (or had) not got and have (or had) you got? is as common as (and somewhat less formal than) do (or did) not have, and do (or did) you have?, but the second alternative is the usual form in AmE.
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4 The neologism get a life, meaning ‘to start living a fuller or more interesting existence’, is informal only:
The aristocracy is having to make some hard decisions: whether to pretend that the twentieth century never happened or to jump ship, join the middle class and get a life—Tatler, 1993.
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5 See also GOT, GOTTEN.
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get-at-able,

meaning ‘accessible, attainable’, is recorded from the late 18c, and is now more common than the older form COME-AT-ABLE.

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geyser.

The pronunciation in both its main meanings (‘hot spring’ and ‘heating apparatus’) is now gee-z, although giy-z is also used for the ‘hot spring’ meaning. In America and New Zealand, where the ‘heater’ meaning is not used, the pronunciation is uniformly giy-z.

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ghastlily,

the adverb from ghastly, is best avoided as being too awkward to say.

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ghetto

has the plural form ghettos.

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ghoul,

meaning (1) ‘an evil spirit’ and (2) ‘a person morbidly interested in death’, is pronounced gool.

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gibber, gibberish

are pronounced jib--.

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gibbous,

meaning ‘convex, protuberant’, especially with reference to the moon, is pronounced gib-s.

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gibe, jibe.

The first spelling is recommended for the verb meaning ‘to jeer, mock’. See also (the sailing term) GYBE.

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gigolo,

meaning ‘a woman's paid escort or lover’, is pronounced zhig--loh or jig--loh, and has the plural form gigolos.

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gild,

meaning ‘to cover thinly with gold’, has a past participle gilded (The porcelain is gilded by a magma of gold), but the adjectival form is either gilt (gilt tooling / gilt-edged securities) or gilded (gilded youth). This word should be distinguished from the noun guild (with u), meaning ‘a medieval association of craftsmen or merchants’.

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gild the lily,

meaning ‘to try to improve what is already as beautiful as it can be’, is a not quite accurate quotation from Shakespeare , King John iv.ii.11: To gilde refined Gold, to paint the Lilly; To throw a perfume on the Violet, [etc.].

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gill.

The word for ‘the respiratory organ in fishes’ is pronounced gil, and the word for ‘a unit of liquid measure’ is pronounced jil.

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gimmick,

a word of unknown origin meaning ‘a trick or device, especially to attract publicity or trade’, entered AmE in the 1920s, appearing first in glossaries and then in writers such as James Thurber (1948). Few other words have shared the speed with which it has passed from being a slang word to being a part of normal English.

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gingerly

is now used primarily as an adverb meaning ‘in a careful or cautious manner’
(He descends gingerly from the cab—New Yorker, 1990); formerly it meant ‘elegantly, daintily’. Its use as an adjective meaning ‘showing great care or caution’ is now less common than it once was.

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gipsy

see GYPSY.

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gird.

The normal past tense and past participle of the verb meaning ‘to encircle or secure with a band or belt’ is girded, but girt has been in use as recently as the 19c and is still used as an archaism, especially in adjectival compounds such as sea-girt.

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girl

is falling out of use as a term applied to adult women, partly under pressure from the feminist movement and partly because some of the institutions with which the word is associated in this use have become obsolete, for example the employment of female domestic servants (who were called girls whatever their age). However, the use remains active in several contexts: in referring to a regular female companion as a girl or girlfriend; in titles of books and films (e.g. Kingsley Amis's Take a Girl Like You, 1960, and Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl, 1962), in the lyrics of popular songs (e.g. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, Leo Robin , 1949; Thank you girl, Lennon & McCartney , 1964), in the expressions glamour girl, cover girl, page three girl, etc., and in the plural use of the girls to refer to a group of young women friends, analogous to the boys. In general use, however, woman or young woman are to be preferred. See LADY, WOMAN.

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girlie

has been used as an adjective since the 1920s to refer colloquially to entertainment and magazines that include pictures of naked or scantily dressed young women. It is spelt girlie, not girly.

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girt

see GIRD.

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given, given that.

These are used as a preposition and conjunction (introducing a subordinate clause) respectively with the meaning ‘(it being) granted or assumed (that)’. The history of their use shows them to be free of the need to be attached to a particular subject, and so they are not so-called ‘unattached participles’ (see PARTICIPLES (3), (4)). In the following modern examples, given is grammatically free of the subject of the main clause in each case:
(preposition) He didn't think that, given her ambitions and temperament, she would enjoy it—A. West , 1984 /
Given the world around us, that would be unhelpful, to say the least—Times, 1992 /
(conjunction) Given how busy the Spanish monarchs were in the 1480s, it's a wonder they gave Columbus any notice at all—Chicago Tribune, 1988 /
Given that the government shies away from a graduate tax, student loans are the next best way of ensuring that students who benefit from higher education foot some of the bill—Economist, 1991.

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given name

see CHRISTIAN NAME.

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glacial, glacier.

The standard pronunciations in BrE are glay-shl and glas-eer respectively; in AmE they are glay-shl and glay-shr.

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gladiolus

is pronounced gla-di-oh-ls, and the plural form is gladioli, pronounced gla-di-oh-liy.

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glamour

is spelt -our in BrE and either -our or -or in AmE. The word is originally Scottish, and was brought into general literary use by Walter Scott about 1830. It is an alteration of the word grammar (or more strictly, of the old form gramarye) with the meaning ‘occult learning, magic, necromancy’. It then passed into standard English and meant ‘a delusive or alluring charm’; nearly a century later, in the 1930s, it acquired its main current meaning, first in AmE and then in BrE and elsewhere, relating to the charm or physical allure of a person (usually a woman).

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glance, glimpse.

A glance (which can be followed by at, into, over, or through) is a brief look
(He cast a doting glance at his wife—M. Underwood , 1973 /
Karen and Jill exchanged glances of not-quite-mock despair—M. Babson , 1975), whereas a glimpse (which is usually followed by of) is what is seen by taking a glance rather than the glance itself
(The automatic roof light gave me a quick glimpse of two men, then the driver reached up to switch it off—A. Ross , 1970). There is a corresponding difference in the use of the verbs:
He glanced down at the face of his gold Rolex—W. Wager , 1970 /
Under the best conditions it might be possible with glasses to glimpse the red supergiant star Antares—Daily Telegraph, 1973.

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glasses

is the usual term in both BrE and AmE for what are also called in BrE (though not in AmE) spectacles. In AmE eyeglasses is often used in the same meaning, but this has long fallen out of use in Britain.

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glassful.

In the plural, care should be taken to distinguish glassfuls from glasses full. A glassful is an amount contained in a glass, and three glassfuls (e.g. of water) means three times this amount, though not necessarily held in three glasses. Three glasses full (of water) means three different glasses each full of water. Note that there is no form glassesful. See also CUPFUL.

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glimpse

see GLANCE.

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global

has developed its meaning from the original simple meaning ‘spherical, round’ to ‘all-inclusive’ in abstract senses (19c) and, more recently, ‘world-wide, involving the whole world’, as in global warfare and the global village (coined by Marshall McLuhan in 1960 to denote the effective shrinking of the world by virtue of advanced communications), and especially in global warming, a term that became established in the 1980s to mean ‘an increase in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere thought to be caused by the greenhouse effect’. In computer technology from the 1960s onwards, global means ‘operating on the whole of a file or program’, so that a global change made to an item is one that affects every occurrence in that item.

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glue

verb has inflections glues, glued, gluing; the adjective is gluey.

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glycerine

is spelt -ine in BrE and -in in AmE. In technical writing glycerol (same meaning) is used.

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gn-.

English words beginning in gn- are pronounced with the initial g silent, i.e. gnat and gnostic are pronounced nat and nos-tik respectively. Exceptions are the food-term gnocchi (a 19c loanword from Italian), which is pronounced nyo-ki, and the animal name gnu (from a South African language), which is sometimes pronounced nyoo as well as noo.

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gnaw.

The past tense and past participle are gnawed. Gnawn is sometimes found in print and is given in dictionaries, but it has an archaic or poetic ring:
From crock of bone-dry crusts and mouse-gnawn cheese— de la Mare , 1921.

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go.

1 The noun has the plural form goes.

2 There are five uses of the verb that call for comment:
a IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING. This is a naturalized Gallicism (see GALLICISMS), from French cela va sans dire. Native English equivalents are needless to say, of course, and others, which some people prefer.
b GO + BARE INFINITIVE. The construction go + infinitive without to was the primary construction until the 17c, occurring many times in Shakespeare (e.g.
He is walked up to the top of the hill. I'll go seek him—1 Henry IV II.ii.10). Although this construction survives in AmE (e.g.
I'll go put your lovely flowers in water— Updike , 1986), in BrE it is now confined to a few fixed expressions such as let him go hang (for all I care). In BrE the current constructions are go + and + infinitive or go + to-infinitive:
Let's go and see that film at the local—K. Benton , 1976 /
You go to buy a car, offering your Old Faithful in part-exchange—Drive, 1977 /
She … said she would go and turn the sprinkler off herself—New Yorker, 1986.
c GO + AND. The combination go + and + infinitive often has special meanings, e.g. (1) ‘to be so foolish, unreasonable, or unlucky as to’:
You herd cattle all day, you come to despise them, and pretty soon … you have gone and shot one— Keillor , 1990, and (2) as an instruction in the imperative:
It's late, child … Go and get some sleep—J.M. Coetzee , 1977 (South Africa).
d GO = SAY. The use in question here is illustrated by the following example:
Butch and I were discussing this problem, and Butch goes, ‘But you promised you'd do it.’ Then I go, ‘Well, I changed my mind.’—Chicago Tribune, 1989. Go is always used in this way with past reference (though very often in the present tense, as here). It may be regarded as an extension of the meaning that refers to a thing making a sound, as in cows going moo and bells going dong, and a transitional stage between names of sounds and reported speech can be discerned in the evidence given by the OED (Additions Series II, 1993):
He was roused by a loud shouting of the post-boy on the leader. ‘Yo-yo-yo-yo-yoe,’ went the first boy. ‘Yo-yo-yo-yoe,’ went the second— Dickens , 1836 /
She was a dear little dickey bird, ‘Chip, chip, chip,’ she went—Illustrated Victorian Songbook, 1895. The extended use in reported speech is especially common in school and youth language, and is also heard in conversational adult use.
e GO FOR IT. In 1987, the (American) cox of the Oxford boat in the University Boat Race wore a shirt with the slogan Go for it displayed on the back, thereby signalling the arrival in Britain of this popular American phrase of the 1980s:
I told her about Scott [sc. a boyfriend]. Eileen said, ‘Go for it, Andrea!’—New Yorker, 1986. It may be seen as an extension of the meaning of go illustrated by uses such as I could go for you in a big way, i.e. ‘be enthusiastic about, be enamoured of’.
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gobbledegook.

1 The term, though not the concept, was unknown to Fowler (1926); Gowers (1965) knew it, but like Fowler put his material in an entry called jargon. Gobbledegook (or gobbledygook) is the extensive use of unintelligible jargon in printed information that is intended for a general readership. Jargon within particular fields of study, such as computing or linguistics, is quite legitimate; it becomes gobbledegook when ordinary people not experienced in those domains are expected to understand it. The term is first recorded in America in 1944, and was probably coined as a representation of a turkey-cock's gobble.

2 The following passage from an American policy document about transport plans (as reported in a Chicago newspaper of 1995) shows gobbledegook in its most potent form: While EPA [the Environmental Protection Agency] will solicit comments on other options, the supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on transportation conformity will propose to require conformity determinations only in the metropolitan planning areas (the urbanized area and the contiguous area(s) likely to become urbanized within 20 years) or attainment areas which have exceeded 85 percent of the ozone, CO, NO_2, PM-10 annual, or PM-10 24-hour NAAQS within the last three, two, one, three, and three years respectively. Doubtless the statement made good sense to members of the EPA, and its accuracy is not in question. The fault lies in its inability to make any more than laborious sense to the general public to whom it was addressed.
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3 Dr James Le Fanu , medical correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, reported (in 1995) a much more worrying case of the result of a cervical smear test sent to a patient in the following form: The results of your test showed early cell changes (mild dyskaryosis suggesting CIN I) and wart virus changes. The patient was advised to have a repeat test in six months, but no further explanation was offered. She turned to Dr Le Fanu , and he translated it for her as follows: There are some funny-looking cells (‘dyskaryosis’) which may or may not indicate the very earliest signs of precancerous change (‘suggesting CIN I’) which almost always returns to normal with no treatment. However, when associated with evidence of infection with the wart virus, it is slightly more likely to progress up through grades CIN II and III—at which point something may need to be done, hence the need for a further test in six months' time. Dr Le Fanu concluded that until those responsible for sending such reports to women include a translation of what they mean, ‘tens of thousands of women every year … will continue to be unduly and unforgivably frightened’.
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4 Other areas of information that are vulnerable to gobbledegook include law, social services, welfare, taxation, banking, local government, and technical subjects. In some domains, especially law, complex language arises from a need to achieve detailed precision and to avoid the ambiguity or uncertainty that can result from using everyday language. Efforts are being made to improve the clarity of public documentation, and have been furthered by the work of writers such as George Orwell , Sir Ernest Gowers (The Complete Plain Words, 1954 and later editions), and others, by writers of several manuals entitled Plain English for Lawyers, and by the work of the Plain English Society (see M. Cutts , The Plain English Guide, 1995).
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5 See also JARGON, OFFICIALESE, PLAIN ENGLISH.
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gold, golden.

Of these adjectives, gold is used more often to denote something made of gold (gold ring / gold watch), whereas golden is used of colours and in abstract and figurative meanings referring to wealth generally (golden hair / golden retriever / golden goose / golden handshake).

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golliwog,

meaning ‘a black-faced brightly dressed soft doll with fuzzy hair’ was first used as Golliwogg, the name of a doll character in books by the American writer B. Upton from 1895. It is now regarded as offensive, because of its stereotypical racial allusions.

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good

survives as an adverb only in non-standard AmE, e.g.:
I'm looking after the place good— Gee , 1994. The use in feel good (which is current in BrE and AmE) is adjectival, not adverbial:
I didn't feel too good the next day—S. Wall , 1991.

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goodbye

is spelt as one word and (as a noun) has the plural form goodbyes. The AmE variant good-by has the plural form goodbys.

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good will, goodwill.

Good will means ‘the intention and hope that good will result’ (and is hyphened in attributive position, i.e. before a noun as in a good-will gesture); goodwill is ‘the established reputation of a business etc. as enhancing its value’.

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gossip

has inflections gossiped, gossiping; the adjective is gossipy.

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got.

The past and past participle of get is as productive of idiom as the verb as a whole. Some noteworthy uses are informal and verge on the non-standard:
a Use with to-infinitive, meaning ‘to have an opportunity to’:
This was considered a bonus for me, because I got to sit in the front—F. Kidman , 1988 (New Zealand) /
We got to see exactly what happens to the green when we were taken out on the floor of MRQ—New Yorker, 1989.
b Elliptical for have got = possess:
What you got in that jar, Alvie?—M. Eldridge , 1984 (Australia) /
I can't get my head around it, Sharon. Suddenly I got three fathers—Times, 1987 /
Right now, we got nine cops in the Miami police department being tried for murder—The Face, 1987 (US speaker).
c Got to, elliptical for have got to = must:
We just got to live. Isn't that so?—A. Fugard , 1980 (South Africa, black speaker) /
‘We got to help these people,’ he says, ‘any way we can.’—Newsweek, 1990.
d Use of got to be to mean ‘came round to being’:
It got to be 11 p.m. We left the way we had come—New Yorker, 1989.

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gotten.

1 Few uses mark out the Americanness of a person more readily than their natural use of got and gotten as alternative past participles of get. (These uses are also spreading to Australia and New Zealand, as some of the examples given below will show.) Gotten is no longer used in Britain (except in ill-gotten), although it was once in regular use. In AmE, it is used only when the meaning is ‘have (or has) obtained or acquired’, i.e. when it denotes coming into possession; when the meaning is ‘have (or has) in one's possession’, i.e. when it denotes the fact of possession now, got is used. The difference can be seen by comparing the two sentences We have gotten an apartment in Manhattan, which means we have recently acquired it, and We have got an apartment in Manhattan, which means we have one available to us (as well as a house in Boston, for example). BrE uses got in both cases, with consequent ambiguity in some cases. Examples:
An army friend … had gotten us tickets for a Tchaikovsky extravaganza— Roth , 1979 /
Have you gotten your paper the last couple of Sundays?—New Yorker, 1986.

2 Gotten is also used when the meaning is ‘have (or has) become, come, developed, etc.’, i.e. when a notion of progression is involved:
Has my reputation in town gotten that bad?—T. Winton , 1985 (Australia) /
Been sewn up for a long time and the locals have gotten used to the idea—T. Winton , 1985 (Australia) /
‘You have gotten close to the whirlpool,’ Fleda said—J. Urquhart , 1986 /
This last year and a half I've gotten to fill out a lot of forms— Updike , 1986 /
People in the USA have gotten much healthier in the past 30 years—USA Today, 1988 /
It had gotten too quiet in the neighbourhood—T. McGuane , 1989 /
They may have finally gotten rid of Sir Robert [Muldoon] from under their feet, [etc.]—NZ Herald, 1991.
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3 Got, not gotten, is used in the expression have (or has) got to = must; for example, if you say I have gotten to leave this evening you mean you have made arrangements to leave, not that you are obliged to leave.
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gourmand, gourmet.

The older of these two historically unrelated loanwords from French is gourmand, which came into English in the 15c, first as an adjective meaning ‘greedy, fond of eating’ and later as a noun denoting such a person, which remains its primary meaning. In the 18c it developed the meaning that gourmet (early 19c) was to have, i.e. ‘a judge of good eating’. In current use, gourmand is confined to its original noun meaning and gourmet continues to be used in the one meaning it has always had. Gourmet, unlike gourmand, is also used attributively (before a noun), as in gourmet food and gourmet meal.

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government.

Note the n in the middle of this word, which should be pronounced as well as written.

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Governor-General.

The recommended plural form is Governors-General, although Governor-Generals is also found.

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graceful, gracious.

Both words are derived from Latin gratia meaning ‘the quality of being pleasing’, but their meanings are different. Graceful means ‘having or showing grace or elegance’ and is generally used of physical appearance and movement (a graceful bow / graceful dances / graceful lines). Gracious means ‘showing grace, kindly, courteous’ and refers to things that people say and do rather than their physical attributes (a gracious response / gracious acknowledgement). It also has the meaning ‘characterized by elegance and wealth’ (gracious wealth). The adverb graciously occurs often in the meaning ‘courteously, kindly’:
‘Oh, aye,’ said Jock graciously, ‘he's magic with that mashie.’—Scotsman, 1976.

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gradable adjectives

are adjectives that can vary in the intensity of their meaning, have comparative and superlative forms, and can be qualified by adverbs such as very, too, fairly, etc. Greedy, large, patient, and rich are all gradable, whereas dead, female, married, and rectangular are non-gradable or absolute adjectives. See ADJECTIVE (4).

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graduate verb.

There is no problem with the ordinary intransitive meaning (without an object), as in He graduated from Yale in 1994 and She graduated last year. The newer AmE use with the name of the university or college as kind of adverbial with from omitted (He graduated Yale in 1994, compare He teaches school, in which at is omitted) is more controversial, and is not standard in BrE. Note that in AmE graduate can refer to completion of a high-school course as well as of a university degree.

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graffiti

is in the 1990s a plural word requiring a plural construction, but its use is rapidly on the move. Its singular is graffito, which is hardly used. Before the 1960s graffiti was mainly used by art historians and archaeologists to refer to drawings or writing scratched on the walls of ancient buildings (notably at Pompeii). Spray-can daubings since the 1960s have brought the word dramatically into general use, with the result that graffiti is now commonly used as a mass noun like confetti:
That haunting graffiti inscribed on the approaches to Paddington station—Times, 1980 /
‘I don't need drugs,’ the T-shirt graffiti proclaims—Observer, 1981. Some writers on usage express a hope for the resurgence of a singular form graffito, but even this would not cater for the mass use and graffiti is likely to go the way of confetti, spaghetti, not to mention data and media and suchlike. For now, however, graffiti should be treated cautiously as the plural noun it originally is.

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grammar

is the system by which words are used together to form meaningful utterances. It denotes both the system as it is found to exist in the use of a language (also called descriptive grammar) and the set of rules which form the basis of the standard language, i.e. the variety of a language that is regarded as most socially acceptable at a given time (also called prescriptive grammar). See STANDARD ENGLISH.

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grammatical agreement, concord

see AGREEMENT.

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grammatical gender

see GENDER.

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gram, gramme.

The shorter form is now usual for the metric unit of mass. The abbreviation is g (without full point).

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gramophone,

a late-19c word formed by inversion of the older word phonogram (compare AmE phonograph), is now old-fashioned except with historical reference, having been replaced by record-player and largely superseded anyway by the development of the CD player. In modern systems, the equipment for playing vinyl records is often called a record deck or simply a deck.

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grand compounds.

Grand, which is derived via French from Latin grandis meaning ‘full-grown’, is used in combination with other words to form words denoting (1) rank (grand duke), (2) family relationships involving a gap of more than one generation (grandmother), and other items involving large size or status (grand slam). Most of these compounds are now spelt either as one word (especially the relationships) or as two, although some of the relationship terms are also written with a hyphen. The following table shows the principal items:

ranks

grandma

grand master (chess)

grand duchy

grandmother

Grand National

grand duchess

grand nephew

grand opera

grand duke

grand niece

grand piano

family relationships

grandpa

Grand Prix

grand aunt

grandparent

grand slam (sport, bridge)

grandchild

grandson

grandstand

grandad

grand uncle

grand total

granddaughter

miscellaneous

grand tour

grandfather

grand jury

grand unified theory (physics)

Terms denoting family relationships are spelt with a capital initial (e.g. Grandma) when used as a form of address in letters etc.

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granny,

an affectionate name for grandmother, is spelt -y, not -ie, although the choice is more open in Scotland. It is spelt with a capital initial (Granny) when used as a form of address in letters etc. The plural form is grannies.

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granted.

1 Like CONSIDERING and GIVEN, granted can be used as a preposition and (as granted that) conjunction that is grammatically free of the subject:
And, granted the initial assumptions … I think it stands the test—A. White , 1965 /
Granted that Americans are not interested in Atlantic union, the emotional value to them of European union is enormous—Listener, 1961. There is also an absolute use, which should only be used informally:
Granted, it was not hard to interest a security man, who apart from a regular soldier had the most boring job on earth— Keneally , 1985 /
I somehow don't see life in an ordinary manner, not even this sere and monotonous existence in Africa granted, it browns me off sometimes, but I do pretty well on the whole—I. Young , 1990. See also PARTICIPLES (3), (4).

2 The common expression take for granted can be followed by a simple object or by a that-clause (often with a preceding it):
It was taken for granted that the astronauts would be brought down in the Bermuda ‘recovery area’ at 12.22 a.m.— Listener , 1965 /
He took it all for granted, and would never have a clue just how blessed he was—F. Cooper , 1991 /
Economists have taken it for granted that … creditors will in practice need to get most of the benefit from debt relief—Economist, 1991 /
If she missed his letters for a few days, she would probably stop taking him for granted—F. Pitt-Kethley , 1991.
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gratis,

meaning ‘free of charge’, is pronounced grah-tis or gray-tis in BrE and grat-is in AmE.

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gratuity

is a somewhat pretentious word for ‘tip’, and is usually found in printed form on restaurant menus and bills. It also refers (without the same pretension) to a bounty given in certain circumstances to servicemen and servicewomen when they are discharged.

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gray

is a common AmE variant of grey.

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greasy

is pronounced gree-si in its literal meaning ‘smeared with grease’ and gree-si or gree-zi when applied to an unctuous or smarmy person.

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Great Britain

see BRITAIN.

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Grecian.

The adjective Grecian has steadily retreated before the word Greek, and is now idiomatically restricted to describing architecture, facial outline (especially Grecian nose) and a soft low-cut slipper. It is no longer used at all as a noun. Otherwise Greek is the natural word (Greek alphabet / Grecian language). A third form, Greekish, was largely obsolete by the end of the 19c.

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greenhouse effect.

This important but often misunderstood term is defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) as ‘the trapping of the sun's warmth in the lower atmosphere caused by high levels of carbon dioxide and other gases more transparent to incoming solar radiation than to reflected infrared radiation.’ See also global warming, under GLOBAL.

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greenness,

the quality of being green, is spelt with two ns.

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grey

is the dominant form in BrE, although gray is also used in AmE. In an unusually long note the OED (1901) recorded that ‘an enquiry by Dr. Murray in Nov. 1893 elicited a large number of replies, from which it appeared that in Great Britain the form grey is the more frequent in use, notwithstanding the authority of Johnson and later English lexicographers who have all given the preference to gray’.

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grid, griddle, gridiron.

It would be natural to assume that grid was the original word, griddle (‘a circular iron plate that is heated by a fire or by other means for baking, toasting, etc.’) a diminutive of it, and gridiron (‘a cooking utensil of metal bars for broiling or grilling’) a compound form based on it. However, the OED shows that griddle and gridiron were the original terms (both 13c) and that grid is a recent (19c) back-formation from gridiron.

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grievous,

meaning ‘severe, causing grief or suffering’ (as in grievous bodily harm), is sometimes wrongly pronounced as if it were grievious, and even spelt this way.

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griffin, griffon, gryphon.

A griffin (also spelt many other ways, e.g. griffon and, e.g. by Lewis Carroll , gryphon) is ‘a fabulous creature with an eagle's head and wings and a lion's body’. A griffon is (1) a small dog like a terrier, and (2) a large vulture. All three uses represent variants of the same word, which is derived from Greek gryps referring to the fabulous creature.

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grill, grille.

In BrE a grill is a device for cooking food, and the food itself. A grille is a metal grid protecting the radiator of a motor vehicle; this too is sometimes spelt grill.

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grimace,

meaning ‘a distortion of the face’ or ‘to make a grimace’, is most commonly stressed (especially when a verb) on the second syllable, as gri-mays. First-syllable stress, as grim-as, is also used, especially in AmE.

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grimy,

meaning ‘covered in grime, dirty’, is spelt grimy, not grimey. The comparative and superlative forms are grimier, grimiest.

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groin, groyne.

The groin is the part of the body between the belly and thigh; a groyne (AmE groin) is a low wall or timber framework built out from a seashore to prevent beach erosion.

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grotto

has the plural form grottoes.

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ground, grounds.

Both the singular and the plural are used in the expressions on the ground (or grounds) that, and grounds is more common in the expression grounds for (complaint etc.):
Occupations that various insurance companies consider to be grounds for rejection of applications for auto insurance … included … paperhangers, … sports coaches and assistants, travelling salesmen, … and doctors—New Yorker, 1975 /
The Post Office tried to register the name Viewdata for its product but this was refused on the ground that it was too all-embracing a title—Guardian, 1979 /
Fundamentalist Jews are limbering up to oppose the plan on the grounds that it will depict scenes from the New Testament as well as the Old—Daily Telegraph, 1985.

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group names of animals

(e.g. a pride of lions) see PROPER TERMS.

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grovel,

meaning ‘to behave obsequiously’, has inflected forms grovelled, grovelling, and in AmE also groveled, groveling.

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groyne

see GROIN.

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gruelling,

meaning ‘extremely arduous or demanding’, is spelt with two ls in BrE and also as grueling in AmE.

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gryphon

see GRIFFIN.

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guano,

meaning ‘fertilizer made from bird dung’, is pronounced gwah-noh, and has the plural form guanos (in the sense ‘types of guano’).

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guarantee, guaranty.

The two words have close meanings relating to the fulfilment of a legal obligation. Guarantee is used for the verb, and also for the noun when the obligation relates to the quality of a product or service, whereas guaranty is a noun only, is mostly restricted to legal and commercial contexts, and refers primarily to undertakings to pay a debt if the person or party primarily responsible defaults.

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guarantor

is a person, bank, etc., that gives a guarantee or guaranty.

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guerrilla

is the recommended spelling in English for the word meaning ‘a member of an independent fighting force’, not the common variant guerilla. It is pronounced g-ril-, like gorilla (the animal).

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guess.

The informal use of I guess meaning ‘I think it likely, I suppose’ developed in America in the late 18c from the standard use of the phrase meaning ‘it is my opinion or hypothesis (that)’. The Americanness of the informal use has been marked throughout the 19c and much of the 20c, and it still has the flavour of an Americanism, but it is now widespread throughout the English-speaking world:
No, I guess I don't look at him very much— Vidal , 1955 /
Martha. You remember them now? George. Yes, I guess so, Martha— Albee , 1962 /
I guess it takes a long time to grow up—M. Sarton , 1978 /
I guess you're supposed to think to yourself that you're in a garden—R. Ingalls , 1985. Use of I guess as a tag at the end of a statement is characteristic of AmE:
He would have been watching the returns in the Senate elections I guess—A. Broinowski , 1973.

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guest

has developed a wide range of uses in which payment may or may not be involved (as it is with paying guests and guest workers). The development of attributive uses (before a noun) that go well beyond the core meaning of guest may be seen in guest artist, guest beer, guest speaker, guest star, guest worker, guest writer, and others.

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guild

see GILD.

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guillemot,

the name of a bird, is pronounced gil-i-mot.

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gulf, bay.

In their meanings to do with the sealine, bay is the ordinary word, whereas gulf is chiefly reserved as a name for a large or notable stretch of sea (as in the Persian Gulf which is also known as the Gulf) and implies a deeper recess and a narrower width of entrance.

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gullible,

meaning ‘easily fooled or cheated’, is spelt -ible not -able.

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gunwale,

meaning ‘the upper edge of a ship's side’, is pronounced gun-l.

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gusseted,

meaning ‘having gussets’ (in meanings connected with clothing and architecture), is spelt with one t, not two.

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guts,

meaning ‘courage or determination’, is more forceful and less neutral than either of these words. It is now only slightly informal, although it is more so in idiomatic expressions such as hate a person's guts and work one's guts out (in which guts has a more literal meaning within a broader metaphor).

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guttural

is a non-technical term denoting a consonant produced in the throat or by the back of the tongue and the soft palate, for example k and hard g.

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guy,

in informal use, means ‘a (primarily male) person’ in BrE and (especially in the phrase you guys) ‘a person (of either sex)’ in AmE. In BrE it is fast replacing chap, which now sounds dated. This use with reference to people established itself in North America towards the end of the 19c and has made steady progress in Britain and other parts of the English-speaking world, especially Australia and New Zealand. Examples:
You guys all belong in the same ballpark—Observer, 1970 /
I'm just as romantic as the next guy, and always was— Lennon , 1980 /
She was a regular guy, a good sport and a fine actress—quoted in American Speech, 1983 /
I could see John by the bar talking to some guys—New Yorker, 1989.

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gybe noun and verb.

This sailing term is spelt gybe in BrE and jibe in AmE. See also GIBE.

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gymnasium.

The preferred plural form is gymnasiums, although gymnasia is widely used. In Germany and Scandinavia the word (pronounced gim-nah-zi-m) also means ‘a school that prepares pupils for university entrance’.

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gynaecology,

meaning ‘the physiological study of women’, is pronounced with a hard initial g. The spelling is -ae- in BrE and -e- (gynecology) in AmE.

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gypsy, gipsy.

The term has both ethnic and general reference: either to a member of dark-skinned nomadic people of Hindu origin and associated with Egypt (hence the name) or a person who adopts the same mode of life. The recommended spelling is gypsy or (to emphasize ethnic status) Gypsy. The OED gave priority to gipsy, but this spelling is far less usual now.

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H

h.

1 The sound of h (aitch) at the beginning words such as have and house and in the middle of words such as ahead and behave is known technically as a voiceless glottal fricative. In Britain, the presence or absence of this sound in speech is one of the key factors in the social evaluation of an individual's use of language or, as the OED expressed it, it ‘has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position’. Dropping initial h, in particular, is associated with the working-class and poorly educated speech of East London, so that there is no difference between the sounds of (for example) hedge and edge, hill and ill, and high and eye.

2 Dropping one's aitches may be a sign of uneducated speech, but standard speakers do not always notice that certain function words (e.g. has, have, had), pronouns, and possessives tend to lose their initial h sounds when these occur in unstressed positions in rapid speech, e.g. She shoved him into her car, in which him is articulated as im and her as er. Until the beginning of the 20c, words containing the letters wh (e.g. what, whistle, nowhere) were regularly pronounced with the h sound intact by most RP (received pronunciation) speakers in England as well as other parts of Britain and America. But the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) and most other dictionaries of current English give an unaspirated w sound in their phonetics for all this class of words, reflecting the fact that the aspiration of wh has largely disappeared from spoken standard English in England, so that there is no audible difference between the sounds of (for example) whales and Wales, where and wear, and whit and wit.
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3 The use of an instead of a as the form of the indefinite article before words beginning with an unstressed but lightly aspirated h (e.g. an habitual complaint / an historic occasion) is in decline: see A, AN (2).
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habitué,

meaning ‘a habitual visitor or resident’, is now printed in roman type and pronounced in an anglicized manner as h-bit-yoo-ay. The plural is habitués, pronounced h-bit-yoo-ayz.

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hackneyed,

meaning ‘made commonplace or trite by overuse’, is spelt -eyed. For hackneyed phrases, see CLICHÉS.

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had.

1 HAD BETTER. See BETTER (1).

2 HAD HAVE. This occurs with unreal (or unfulfilled) propositions in the past, constructed either with if (or an equivalent construction) as in the sentence If I had have known, I would have said something or with a verb expressing an unfulfilled intention, such as wish: I wish you'd have kept quiet. Though now associated with dialect and informal usage, the construction can be traced back in print to the 15c,
e.g. Had not he have be [= been], we shold never have retorned— Malory , 1470–85. In a discussion of this issue in the journal English Today (1986), Professor Frank Palmer commented that ‘there is a problem with past unreal, because it needs to mark past tense twice, once for time and once for unreality’. Another correspondent pointed out the type had + a- + verb as shown in the first part of a sentence in Galsworthy's Strife (1909): If we'd a-known that before, we'd not a-started out with you so early, which is distinct from the substitution of of for have in American regional use:
It was four o'clock in the morning ten, and if we'd of raised the blinds we'd of seen daylight.— Fitzgerald , 1925. The upshot is that constructions of this type, of which had have is the most common in BrE, should be avoided in more formal speech.
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3 HAD RATHER. The type I had rather is as idiomatic as, though much less common than, I would rather, and in its contracted form I'd rather is indistinguishable. In historical terms it was formed on the analogy of the now archaic type I had liefer meaning ‘I should hold it dearer’:
I had rather err with Plato than be right with Horace— Shelley , 1819 /
I had rather gaze on a new ice age than these familiar things— Winterson , 1985.
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haemo-, hemo-.

This combining form derived from Greek haima meaning ‘blood’ occurs in words such as (BrE) haemoglobin, haemophilia, haemorrhage, etc. In AmE they are written hemo-. Note the two rs in haemorrhage.

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hair-brained

is an erroneous variant (first recorded in 1581 and still found) of hare-brained, meaning ‘rash, wild’.

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hairdo,

meaning ‘the style or styling of a woman's hair’, is informal only. The plural form is hairdos.

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hale

is the spelling in the expression hale and hearty. It comes from an Old English word hal meaning (and related to) ‘whole’.

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half.

1 Half functions as a noun or pronoun (the first half of the year / I've still got half), an adjective (a half share) or predeterminer (i.e. placed before another determiner such as the, half the audience), and an adverb (He'll come half way / I'm half inclined to agree).

2 When half is followed by a singular noun (with or without of between), the verb is also singular, and when the noun is plural the verb is plural: Half of the country is employed in agriculture / Half the people like the idea / Half that amount is enough. Occasionally, by the principle of ‘notional agreement’, the type half (of) + collective noun can correctly be used with a plural noun: Nearly half (of) the population lose at least half their teeth before they reach the age of 40.
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3 In some phrases concerned with quantities, measures of time, etc., the position of half is variable in relation to the following a or an, e.g. I'll have half a pint (no hyphen) or I'll have a half-pint (with a hyphen). In most cases, however, the type half a year, half a million dollars, etc., is more usual. Repetition of the article, as in It took a half an hour, is non-standard.
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hallo

see HELLO.

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Hallowe'en

is spelt with an apostrophe and pronounced hal-oh-een.

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halo

has the plural form haloes.

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handful

has the plural form handfuls. See -FUL.

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handicap

as a verb has inflected forms handicapped, handicapping.

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handkerchief.

The recommended plural is handkerchiefs, not handkerchieves.

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handsome

is applied equally to men and women who are, as Dr Johnson put it, ‘beautiful with dignity’. In current use there is a tendency to use the term of women only when they are middle-aged or elderly.

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hanged, hung.

In standard usage, the past tense and past participle of hang is hanged with reference to capital punishment and hung in other meanings. So curtains and pictures are hung but a convicted murderer is (or was) hanged. The distinction can be traced back ultimately to the existence of two separate words, one Old English and the other Old Norse. Hung is occasionally used in the meaning of hanged, especially in regional and dialect use.

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hangar, hanger.

A hangar is a large shed for housing aircraft; a hanger (in full coat-hanger) is a light frame with a hook for hanging clothes. Both are pronounced hang-, without the middle g sounded.

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hanger-on,

meaning ‘an unwelcome follower or dependant’, has the plural form hangers-on.

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hara-kiri,

meaning ‘Japanese ritual suicide’ is spelt with a hyphen.

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harass.

There are two pitfalls with this word meaning ‘to trouble or annoy repeatedly’ and its derivatives harassing, harassment, etc. One is the spelling, with only one r (unlike embarrass); the other is the pronunciation, which should be ha-rs with the stress on the first syllable, although h-ras with second-syllable stress is spreading rapidly from AmE to BrE and will probably prevail in the end.

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harbour

is spelt -our in BrE and harbor in AmE.

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hard.

1 HARD AND HARDLY. The normal adverb from hard is hard, as in They are working hard and Don't hit it so hard. Hardly has a special use, meaning ‘scarcely’ (as in We hardly know them) and ‘only with difficulty’ (as in She could hardly speak).

2 HARDLY … WHEN …AND HARDLY … THAN … The standard construction is hardly … when …:
Hardly had the two children been freed when they [sc. a rescue team] were on the spot, having covered the ground in a snowtractor—Country Life, 1971. The construction with than, though increasingly common and perhaps suggested by the analogy of no sooner … than …, is non-standard:
Hardly had the chalky jet stream dissipated above the horizon than it was time for another jet-away get-away to points west—American Square Dance, 1991.
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3 CAN'T HARDLY. Since hardly already has a negative or restricting force, use of another negative (as in I can't hardly believe it) is incorrect:
Mom just loaded us with fried chicken and I can't hardly walk—New Yorker, 1988 /
No, Swedon can't write anything. He can't hardly write his own pawn-tickets— Fitzgerald , 1990.
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hard words.

is a semi-technical term for what it immediately suggests, long and difficult words that are often derived from Latinate rather than English sources, such as rebarbative (= repellent) and nugatory (= futile, trifling). The first English dictionaries devoted much space to hard words, explaining words of foreign origin in terms of native English words. The following list is drawn from Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall of 1604:

agnition

acknowledgement

Latin gnoscere ‘to know’

carminate

to card wool

Latin carmen ‘a card for wool’

combure

to burn up

Latin comburere ‘to burn up, consume'

deambulation

a walking abroad

Latin ambulare ‘to walk’

enarration

exposition or commentary

Latin narrare ‘to relate'

All these words are now obsolete. The following, from the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993), are still in use:

claustration

enclosure, confinement

Latin claustrum ‘enclosed space’

coriaceous

like leather

Latin corium ‘leather’

edulcorate

purify

Latin dulcis ‘sweet’

evasible

able to be evaded

French (as table)

idoneous

apt, suitable

Latin idoneus ‘apt’

infraction

act of breaking an agreement

Latin frangere ‘to break’

straticulate

arranged in thin layers

Latin stratum ‘laid down’

tergiversation

equivocation, betrayal

Latin tergum ‘back’ and vertere ‘to turn’

velleity

a mere wish

Latin velle ‘to wish’

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hare-brained,

meaning ‘rash, wild’, is spelt hare-, not hair-.

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harem,

an Arabic word denoting the women living separately in a Muslim household, is spelt this way in English. It is usually pronounced hah-reem, although pronunciation with the second-syllable stress is also heard. In AmE the stress is on the first syllable, which is pronounced either as in hair or as in hat.

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have.

1 For the type No state has or can adopt such measures, see ELLIPSIS (3).

2 In a sentence of the type Some Labour MPs would have preferred to have wound up the Session before rising, the present infinitive is preferable, i.e. Some Labour MPs would have preferred to wind up the Session before rising, although the perfect infinitive is sometimes found when the past nature of the unperformed action is being emphasized. Examples:
Fish, who had decent feelings, would have preferred to be pawed in privacy—J.I.M. Stewart , 1975 /
I would have preferred to have seen an accompanying annotated sketch so that the plant zonations could be easily recognised—Birds, 1981.
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3 HAVE TO AND HAVE GOT TO. In the meaning ‘must’, have to normally denotes habitual or continuing necessity (I have to wear contact lenses) whereas have got to denotes immediate or temporary necessity (I've got to catch a train in half an hour). In the past tense, had to is much more usual than had got to:
In addition to his normal day's work in the library, he had to care for a complete invalid, shop on the way home, … and then translate demanding tomes until one or two o'clock in the morning—D. Murphy , 1979 /
He knew … that in order not to lose control irretrievably of his life he had to hold on to his job— Boyd , 1981. The only available perfect and pluperfect forms are have had to and had had to:
They like the feeling that they have had to fight other men for possession. That is what it is all about, really— Brookner , 1984 /
Turning the other cheek was for girls who hadn't had to give blow jobs to tramps in exchange for a few pieces of candy—P. Booth , 1986.
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4 For don't have = haven't got and do you have = have you got, see DO (4).
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5 For had have, see HAD (2).
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haver,

meaning ‘to hesitate’, is originally Scottish. This meaning spread south of the border in the 20c, but in its other meanings ‘to talk foolishly’ and (as a plural noun havers) ‘nonsense’ it is still anchored in the north.

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he.

1 For he or him after the verb be, see CASES 2A.

2 For the expression he or she, see GENDER-NEUTRALITY.
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heading, headed.

In BrE the expression meaning ‘to be going in a particular direction’ is to be heading for (in physical and figurative contexts, e.g. heading for trouble). In AmE to be headed for is also common and this form is beginning to appear in BrE and other varieties of English:
You're bloody cheerful … for a bloke that's headed for a number one reaming [= reprimand] from the CO—J. Charlton , 1976 /
They were headed for the perilous North Channel … if they survived the wolfpacks—D. Grant , 1980 /
Deng Xiaoping barreled on down the capitalist road last week—but he might be headed for a collision—Bulletin (Sydney), 1984 /
They were all headed for Ralph's house—New Yorker, 1991.

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headline language

see JOURNALESE.

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headquarters

can legitimately be used either as a singular (a large headquarters in Paris) or as a plural (The firm's headquarters are in Paris). The singular more often denotes the physical premises and the plural the institution in its broader sense.

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head up.

This phrasal verb has passed rapidly from AmE to British use, and means ‘to take charge of (an enterprise or group of people)’. There is not a great deal of difference in meaning between head up and the simple verb head, except that head up has stronger implications of taking charge as distinct from being in charge.

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heaps.

There was heaps of time— Wesley , 1983 represents the normal colloquial idiom when the word following heaps of is a singular or mass noun (and the same is true of loads of, lots of, masses of, and similar expressions). But when the following noun is plural the verb should be plural too: ‘Heaps of people do say it [sc. ‘bloody’]. Even on television.’ ‘But not on schools programmes.’ C. Storr , 1971. Note that heaps is plural in all cases when it is being used literally rather than idiomatically:
Great heaps of cumulo-nimbus cloud were boiling up— Francis , 1970.

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heave.

The past tense and past participle is heaved in its ordinary meanings ‘to lift, haul, throw, etc.’ and ‘to utter (a sigh)’, and hove (i) when the meaning is ‘come into view’
(She hove around the Minister's flank with the effect of an apparition— Keneally , 1980), and (2) in nautical usage (The ship hove to / The anchor was hove up).

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hectic.

1 The meaning that is now the dominant one, ‘busy and confused’, is fairly recent (early 20c) and has developed in the same way as the figurative meaning of feverish. Hectic was originally an adjective or noun referring to the kind of fever that accompanied consumption
(For like the hectic in my blood he rages— Shakespeare , Hamlet iv.iii.80); its physical use declined with the decline in occurrence of the disease itself, but fevers are still with us. An early figurative use occurs in Kipling:
Didn't I say we never met in pup-pup-puris naturalibus, if I may so put it, without a remarkably hectic day ahead of us?—Traffics & Discoveries, 1904. Modern examples follow (note that hectic often comes before a period of time):
At times, though, in these hectic weeks of organization, … it seemed we should never make our deadline for packing all our gear ready to go to India— Bonington , 1971 /
It might be that you are having a hectic day at work and you feel that things are getting to you, or you might be stuck in a traffic jam with your pulse racing—S. Spindler , 1991 /
After the hectic activity of summer, I look forward to doing more relaxed boating and fishing trips in early autumn—B. Tulloch , 1991.

2 The adverb from hectic is hectically:
Hectically she scrabbled for something constructive to say—R. Ash , 1993. Note also that hectic is still occasionally used in its medical sense:
The hectic face on the thin neck rose too sharply out of the collar of a silk blouse— Brookner , 1990.
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hegemony,

meaning ‘political leadership of a group of states’, is pronounced hi-jem--ni or hi-gem--ni, with the g either hard or soft and with the stress on the second syllable.

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hegira,

the term denoting Muhammad's departure from Mecca in AD 622 and used for dates in the Muslim era, is pronounced hej-i-r in BrE and in AmE more commonly ha-jiy-r. The spelling hejira is occasionally found.

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he, him

see cases 2A.

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heifer,

meaning ‘a cow that has not born a calf’, is spelt this way.

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heinous,

meaning ‘extremely wicked’, is pronounced hee-ns.

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heir.

An heir apparent is an heir whose claim cannot be set aside by the birth of another heir. An heir presumptive is an heir whose claim may be set aside if another heir with a stronger claim is born. Heir apparent is often used now of a person regarded as likely to succeed to the position held by the head of a political party, business organization, etc.

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helix,

pronounced hee-liks and meaning ‘a spiral or coiled curve’, has the plural form helices, pronounced hel-i-seez, or occasionally helixes.

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Hellene, Hellenic

are the noun and adjective respectively referring to the people and culture of Greece, ancient and modern. They are normally used in the context of the history, literature, and archaeology of Greek lands. Hellene is pronounced hel-een and Hellenic is pronounced he-len-ik or he-lee-nik.

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hello, hallo, hullo.

There is a bewildering array of spellings and stress patterns with this greeting word; or they would be bewildering if anyone ever worried about them. In speech, the stress alters instinctively, and to list the variations would be as pointless as counting the hairs of one's head. The spelling preferred is hello; hallo is more common in BrE than in AmE; and hullo is now the least usual, despite being the first recorded (in 1864). The noun has the plural form hellos (etc.); and the verb (meaning ‘to say hello’) has inflected forms helloes, helloed, helloing.

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helmeted,

meaning ‘wearing a helmet’, is spelt -eted.

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help verb.

Help is one of the oldest words in English, going back to the time of King Alfred (9c). It has two principal meanings in current English: ‘to assist’ (Can I help you?) and ‘to prevent’ (I can't help it). The connection between these two apparently unrelated sets of meanings lies in the use of help in the context of dealing with disease and misfortune, in which the interrelated notions of providing help and of preventing suffering are more clearly perceptible. (For a fuller account, see the OED entry, one of the most interesting and complex in the language.) There are three issues to explore with help, the first two connected with the ‘assist’ meaning and the third with the ‘prevent’ meaning:
1 CANNOT HELP BUT. This use is illustrated by the example
She could not help but notice that all the passengers on the bus were pensioners—S. Mackay , 1984. The construction used here is common, and is a fusion of two other typical constructions: She could not but notice … and She could not help noticing …. It is preferable to use either of these constructions in more formal contexts, although the fused construction is common informally and is likely to become more so.
2 MORE THAN [OR AS LITTLE ETC. AS] I CAN HELP. This idiom is illustrated by the examples Don't sneeze more than you can help and Sneeze as little as you can help. Fowler , in an uncharacteristically weak and rambling article (1926), found this construction indefensible and corrected the examples to Don't sneeze more than you must and Sneeze as little as you can. These emendations are unexceptionable in themselves, but correcting idiom on the grounds of logic is a futile exercise.
3 HELP + TO-INFINITIVE. The construction help someone to do something (as in He helped me to dig out my driveway) has been shortened since the time of Shakespeare to help someone do something (He helped me dig out my driveway). Shakespeare used both constructions, omitting to when help is itself preceded by to:
The day will come that thou shalt wish for me To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed toad—  i.iii.247. The reluctance to repeat to accounts for some but not all of the following modern examples, which are taken from several varieties of English:
(to omitted) The purpose is as much to help the actors discover their roles as to work out cinematically-effective moves—Daily Telegraph, 1970 /
Our every deed must help make us acceptable—Times, 1986 /
I had helped her carry it to her bedroom— Keillor , 1986 (US)/
One of my housemates … offered to help me move in—New Yorker, 1986 /
Mandy helped him choose something for Claire—C.K. Stead , 1986 (New Zealand) /
When he is done he instructs Ria to help him pull the wire tight—S. Johnson , 1990 (Australia) /
(to included) It may help us to conceive of our predicament if we imagine … [etc.]— Dædalus ,1986 (US) /
The levees were helping to aggravate the problem they were meant to solve—New Yorker, 1987 /
(to repeated) An interpersonal relationship in which one person (the counselor) attempts to help another (the counselee) to underst and and cope with problems—Encyclopedia of Psychology, 1972 (US) /
If a male employee asks for time off to stay at home with his sick wife to help to look after her and the kids, the affiliative manager agrees—Harvard Business Review, 1976 /
She allowed Pearl to help her to stack up her hair— Murdoch , 1983. There does not seem to be any distinction in preferences between AmE and BrE or the other major varieties of English.

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hence.

For the use of from hence, see FROM WHENCE, FROM HENCE.

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hendiadys

pronounced hen-diy--dis, is derived from a Greek phrase meaning ‘one by means of two’. It is a figure of speech in which a single complex idea is expressed by two words connected by a conjunction (usually and). for example nice and easy, good and ready.

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he or she

see GENDER-NEUTRALITY.

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her

should not be used as the subject of a clause in standard English, although the use is found in some regional and dialect usage:
Her and Kitty didn't have much to do with each other anymore—N. Virtue , 1990.

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here.

The type this here friend of mine and these here bicycles is confined to uneducated speech, but here placed after the noun is standard: your friend here / these bicycles here.

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here is, here are.

The normal agreement rules apply in most cases, i.e. Here is [or Here's] my ticket and Here are my tickets. However, in spontaneous discourse a sentence such as Here's some flowers for you is idiomatic and acceptable.

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hereby, herewith.

These two formal words are the strongest survivors of a group of words that also includes herein, hereof, hereto, heretofore, and hereunder, and even they are restricted to the contexts of legal and business correspondence or to humorous imitations of them: I hereby promise never to smoke again / Herewith I enclose a cheque to cover my subscription. The other words are mainly confined to legal language and are rapidly being forced out in the interests of PLAIN ENGLISH.

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hero

has the plural form heroes.

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heroin, heroine.

Both words are pronounced the same way, her-oh-in. The first is the drug and the second is the principal woman in a novel, play, etc. Despite their closeness of form and pronunciation, they manage to stay out of each other's way.

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hers.

This possessive pronoun, as used in The blame is not mine but hers, is written without an apostrophe. Hers is wrongly used in the following example and should be replaced by her: Hers and my children got together for a party. (The error is obvious if the sentence is simplified by the removal of and my.)

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herself, himself, itself.

These pronouns have two primary roles, (1) as reflexives (He was talking about himself / Mary was looking at herself in the mirror / He made himself a cup of coffee), and (2) as emphatic words in apposition to a noun or pronoun (The supervisor herself called / The lock itself is still working). Himself is still used as a gender-neutral pronoun despite the weakening of this role with the simple pronoun he, probably because the alternatives available for he are more complex when applied to himself:
None of us was willing to commit himself to a clearcut opinion—R. Linder , 1955 /
In this way the casual viewer … is liable to come away with the impression that here is an anti-Semite attempting to denazify himself—Daily Telegraph, 1970 /
This problem faced by the teacher who sees himself as deliverer of prepacked information is admirably expressed by  Cook —H. Pluckrose , 1987 /
The investigator himself may not know whether these effects have occurred—A. Ashworth , 1992.

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hesitance, hesitancy, hesitation.

All three words are first recorded in English in the early 17c, and the story since then has been one of advancement for hesitation and of sharp retreat for the other two, especially for hesitance although this occurs occasionally. There is a residual distinction between hesitancy and hesitation; the first denotes a tendency, whereas the second denotes a fact or action (and occurs in the plural):
(hesitancy, hesitance) He understood the hesitancy of many landlords to rent to male rather than female students—Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.), 1973 /
An examination of the client's hesitance, however, indicates that he is not at all sure about the terminology and that he may simply be echoing the wording of the charge—J. Citron , 1989 /
He was reluctant to begin and his hesitancy made her look questioningly at him—T. Hayden , 1991
(hesitation) He had driven the Deputy Director … half mad with his hesitation, his recycled arguments for accepting and not accepting—D. Bloodworth , 1978 /
Women have trouble communicating in a ‘male’ language and the result is hesitations, false starts, and so on—D. Cameron , 1992. Hesitation but not hesitancy is used in the idiomatic phrases not have a moment's hesitation and without hesitation:
When Granpa asked me what I wanted for my fifteenth birthday I replied without a moment's hesitation, ‘My own barrow.’— Archer , 1991 /
When in 1974 I was flattered by an invitation to make a T V appearance as the Dimbleby lecturer, I accepted without hesitation—A. Goodman , 1993.

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hew,

a literary word meaning ‘to chop or cut’, has a past form hewed and past participles hewn or hewed.

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hiccup

has inflected forms hiccuped, hiccuping. The spelling hiccough, formed by false association with cough, has nothing to recommend it.

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hierarchic, hierarchical.

Hierarchical is more common, but the choice of form seems to depend on the rhythm of the sentence rather than on any other factor.

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high, highly.

High is used as an adverb to mean ‘far up, aloft’ and in figurative uses in which allusion to physical height is the metaphor: Most surfaces were piled high with magazines / The junior executive is aiming high / Feelings were running high. Highly is used to mean (1) ‘very, extremely’ before adjectives and participial adjectives (It was highly amusing / a new wave of highly talented intellectuals), and (2) as an intensifier with verbs such as praise, speak, think, etc. when denoting favourable opinion (She spoke highly of her tutor / I think quite highly of the latest efforts). Note also the phrase high and low, as in He searched high and low for the lost ring.

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hike,

meaning ‘an increase (in prices, wages, etc.)’ is fairly recent (first recorded in 1931) and has spread rapidly from AmE, especially to the informal language of British journalism:
The oil industry is still accommodating itself to its new size following the 1979 price hike—D. Hedley , 1986 /
An announcement by Argentina's President Carlos Menem rescinding a planned threefold hike in the duties on paper imported for book production was greeted with delight by hundreds of publishers—Bookseller, 1993 /
Football fans hit by big ticket price hike—headline in Independent, 1998.

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him

should not be used as the subject of a clause in standard English, although the use is found in some regional and dialect usage:
Him and Carol lived too high, kept buying stuff they couldn't nohow afford— Capote , 1965.

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him or her

see GENDER-NEUTRALITY.

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himself

see HERSELF.

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hindsight.

At first used to mean ‘the backsight of a rifle’, since the later part of the 19c it has been used in an abstract sense ‘wisdom or knowledge after the event’, especially in the phrase in (or with) hindsight:
With hindsight, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him, otherwise he would no doubt have ended up as a Bomber Pilot—J. Beech , 1989 /
In hindsight, if I had been aware of the exact nature of the Foreign Legion, … I would have been much more hesitant about joining—C. Jennings , 1990.

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hinge.

The present participle is better spelt hingeing to clarify the sound of the soft g.

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hippo, hippopotamus.

The respective plural forms are hippos and hippopotamuses.

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his.

For his or her see GENDER-NEUTRALITY. For the use of his to refer back to one, see ONE.

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hisself

is non-standard for himself, and arises from the tendency to regard self as a noun and to place possessive pronouns and adjectives in front of it (e.g. his very self).

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historic, historical.

Both words are used to mean ‘of or concerning history, belonging to the past rather than the present’, but historical is the more objective word denoting something that happened in the past, whereas historic describes not simply what belongs to the past but what has an important role in the past, i.e. it means ‘famous or important with regard to history’. A historical treaty is one that took place (as opposed to one that is fictitious); a historic treaty is one that is of great importance in history (as opposed to one that is insignificant). Historic is often used with reference to buildings and monuments:
The president of the Historic Houses Association … plays down too much euphoria over the Chancellor's proposed substitution of inheritance tax for capital transfer tax—Daily Telegraph, 1986 /
After visiting the Hayward Gallery I spent a half-hour just gazing along the river line, the historic buildings sharp in the clear, cold, sunny air—D.M. Thomas , 1990. When the meanings are confused, it is usually historic that is used when historical would be more appropriate:
Extinct volcanoes are those that have not erupted in historic time, whereas active volcanoes have been seen to erupt—M.A. Summerfield , 1991 /
It may involve the use of relevant historic documents—R. Brooks , 1993.

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historic present

is a term used of narrative that is put in the present tense for dramatic effect, although it is describing events in the past. For example:
She had no notion of how welcome she would be. But Raymond opens the door before she can touch the bell, and he hugs her around the shoulders and kisses her twice—A. Munro , 1989.

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hither,

meaning ‘to or toward this place’, is an ancient word that existed in Old English. In current English it is restricted, except for formal or archaic uses, to a number of fixed phrases: hither and thither or hither and yon (= in various directions), and come-hither, used adjectivally to mean ‘enticing, flirtatious’, as in a come-hither look.

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HIV.

Since the abbreviation stands for ‘human immunodeficiency virus', the word virus is strictly redundant in the phrase HIV virus, although this is now established usage.

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hoard, horde.

A hoard is a large stock or store of money or accumulated objects (in archaeology, for example); a horde is a large collection of people or animals, and is used in the singular or plural, often disparagingly:
A horde of football fans attempt to lure into their bedrooms a pair of tarts by arrangement with the pimpish day porter—Daily Telegraph, 1976 /
By shooting a gun numerous times and flashing a sun-gun, we persuaded hordes of bats to fly round the cave—Listener, 1976.

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hoe verb

has inflected forms hoes, hoed, hoeing.

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hoi polloi.

The normal construction is the hoi polloi, meaning ‘the masses, the common people’. The fact that hoi in the original Greek expression (literally ‘the many’) already means ‘the’ is therefore ignored; objection to this now seems pedantic, is countered by the weight of usage (Dryden , Byron , and others, not to mention W. S. Gilbert ), and itself ignores the need for naturalness in English, since omission of the would usually be awkward. Examples:
(with the) Nothing like a yacht to ensure your privacy and not having to mix with the hoi polloi— Archer , 1991 /
As trains and coaches and carriage excursions organised by Thomas Cook were deemed to be for the hoi polloi, the party had decided to take their own carriages—A. Myers , 1991 /
(without the) Seat-holders were let in through side doors while hoi polloi had to come in through the front in the hope of getting what they could—J. Munson , 1991.

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hoist,

meaning ‘to raise or haul up’, has past and past participle forms hoisted. Historically hoist is a participial form of an earlier verb hoise (with the same meaning), and it survives in this form in the expression hoist with one's own petard, meaning literally ‘blown up by one's own bomb’ and hence ‘adversely affected by one's own bad schemes for others’.

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holey,

meaning ‘full of holes’, is spelt -ey to distinguish it in writing and print from the adjective holy meaning ‘sacred’.

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Holland

see NETHERLANDS.

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home.

1 As an adverb, home has many idiomatic uses as in come home and go home, see someone home, drive a nail (or point) home, etc. When the meaning is ‘in his or her home’ the British preference is to use at home (He stayed at home / Is Jane at home?) whereas AmE prefers home by itself (He stayed home / Is Jane home?).

2 As a noun, home means ‘the place where one lives’, and when referring to the building is distinguished from house in designating residential function as well as physical existence:
The well secured home probably includes an entry-phone, grilles, … and an alarm—Financial Times, 1982. It is usual to say in the privacy of one's own home rather than one's own house, and estate agents tend to prefer home as having a more personal sound. In AmE, home is used much more freely where in BrE house would be used:
In Beverly Hills and Bel Air, we saw the homes (never called houses) of Jane Withers, Greer Garson, and Barbra Streisand—Guardian, 1973.
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3 As a verb, used chiefly of pigeons and in the phrasal verb home in on, home has inflections homed, homing.
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homely.

The connotations of this word as applied to a person (usually a woman) are favourable in BrE, in which it means ‘simple, unpretentious’ and disparaging in AmE, in which it means ‘unattractive, dowdy’.

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homo-, homoeo-.

These two prefixes are derived from the Greek words homos meaning ‘same’ and homoios meaning ‘of the same kind’, and this difference in meaning is reflected in the English words formed on them, e.g. homosexuality denotes sexual attraction towards the same sex and homoeopathy denotes treatment of disease by using small doses of drugs that have the same kind of effect as the disease itself. Words in homo- are pronounced either hom- or hohm-, whereas words in homoeo- are more usually pronounced hom-. In AmE, homeo- is the more usual spelling.

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homogeneity,

meaning ‘being of the same kind’, is better pronounced -ji-nee-i-ti than -ji-nay-i-ti, i.e. with the stressed syllable having the sound of bee, not bay.

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homogeneous, homogenous.

Homogeneous is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable and means ‘of the same kind’:
The most common way of grouping was to sort the children by ability … and to make the groups as homogeneous as possible—R. Alexander , 1992. The word homogenous (stressed on the second syllable) was formerly used in biology to mean ‘having a common descent’, but has been largely superseded by homogenetic, so as to become a loose cannon colliding frequently with homogeneous:
The community was not homogenous, but made up of a multitude of different groups with different attitudes and beliefs—Guardian, 1989. Homogeneous is still the correct word to use. The adjective homogenized, denoting milk that has been treated so that the cream does not separate, is related in form but not in meaning.

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homograph, homonym, homophone.

Homonym is a generic term for a word having the same spelling or sound as another word but a different meaning. Homonyms are either homographs, words written the same way (e.g. bat denoting either an implement or an animal and entrance meaning either ‘a way into a place’ or ‘to beguile’) or homophones, words pronounced the same way but (usually) not spelt the same way (e.g. pair and pear, hoard and horde, right and write).

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homosexual,

pronounced either hom- or hohm-, is still the term used in more formal contexts, although gay is become more widely used and is often heard (for example) in news broadcasts.

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Hon.

is an abbreviation of (1) honourable, especially in parliamentary contexts (The Hon. Member for Lincoln) and as a courtesy title given to sons and daughters of members of the nobility and to civic dignitaries such as the Lord Mayor of London (the correct form is with the first name in full, e.g. The Hon. James Brown), and (2) honorary, as in The Hon. Secretary. For full details see Debrett's Correct Form or other manuals dealing with forms of address.

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honeyed

is recommended in preference to honied.

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honorarium,

meaning a voluntary payment made for professional services instead of a formal fee, is pronounced with the third syllable as in air. The plural form is honorariums (preferably) or honoraria.

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honour, honourable

are spelt -our in BrE and honor, honorable in AmE.

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hoof

has a plural from hooves (more usual) or hoofs.

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hope.

Apart from the expression to live in hopes, the use of the plural noun in phrases such as to be in hopes, in the hopes that, etc., is more characteristic of AmE than of BrE:
He never said a kind word to them, and they worked like dogs in hopes of hearing one— Keillor , 1989. The normal BrE equivalent is in the hope of (or in the hope that):
Clerks double-book their barristers in the hope that one of the cases will be settled before getting to court—Economist, 1983.

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hopefully.

1 This (now controversial) adverb has been used since the 17C as a straightforward adverb of manner:
As lovers do, as lovers will, they travelled hopefully to Paris— Gee , 1985 /
Out on the corridor, Nurse Bodkin was hovering hopefully near a suspended piece of mistletoe—E. McGrath , 1990. According to the evidence of the OED, the controversial use of hopefully as a sentence adverb sprang up, after an isolated use in 1932, in the 1960s, first in AmE and almost immediately in BrE:
We asked her when she expected to move into her new apartment, and she answered, ‘Hopefully on Tuesday.’—New Yorker, 1965 /
The cost of developing a new ‘Dash 50’ series of engines, that hopefully will power Lockheed's ‘extended range’ jet, is put at around £75 million—Daily Telegraph, 1970 /
I want a bigger range to choose from and hopefully this role will help me—S. Stone , 1989.

2 Like thankfully, hopefully stands apart from the routine sentence adverbs clearly, frankly, happily, luckily, normally, sadly, unfortunately, etc., because the rationale of its formation differs and it cannot be resolved grammatically into a phrase such as in a hopeful way or to a hopeful extent. The argument based on ambiguity, however, is less compelling; sentences of the type They are working hopefully towards a solution of the problem will normally be clear enough either from intonation (in speech) or from context. For more on this issue in its context, see SENTENCE ADVERBS.
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3 The recommendation must be to use these meanings of hopefully and thankfully with caution; they are here to stay but strong rearguard actions continue to be fought over them. And hopefully, in particular, can sound irritating.
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horde

see hoard.

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horrid.

Horrid may be seen as the least emphatic in a series of adjectives meaning ‘disagreeable’ which proceed with increasing severity to horrible and horrifying. Horrendous and horrific, once stronger still than any of these, have lost much of their power through overuse in popular fiction, film, and broadcasting. In older literature, references to horrid spears, mountain peaks, thickets, etc., reflect a now obsolete meaning ‘bristling, shaggy, rough’.

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hospitable

should be pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, although second-syllable stress is common.

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hospitalize,

meaning ‘to send or admit (a patient) to hospital’, first recorded in 1901, is regarded with some suspicion in BrE, but is standard in AmE.

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host verb.

This is first recorded in the 15c, and is not a modern verbalization of the noun. For this reason, objection to the use of host meaning ‘to act as host or compère of (a television show)’ is somewhat misconceived, although it is often prudent to use readily available alternatives such as present, introduce, or compère.

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house

see HOME.

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how come?

This colloquial American phrase, meaning ‘how is it (or did it happen) that?’, was first noted in the mid-19c, and still has strong North American associations, although no one in Britain would fail to understand it: ‘
How come you're still thin?’ she asked with amusement—A. Munro , 1989.

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however.

1 When ever is being used as an intensive after the interrogative adverb how, as in How ever did you do it?, the two words should always be written separately.

2 However, in the meaning ‘nevertheless’, has many possible positions in a clause. If it is put at the beginning, it should be followed by a comma:
I should be angry if the situation were not so farcical. However, I had a certain delight in some of the talk— Golding , 1980. This use should be distinguished from however used at the beginning of a sentence as an ordinary adverb meaning ‘no matter how’, which is not followed by a comma:
However confident he may be that he has outgeneralled a woman, a man likes to have reassurance on the point from a knowledgeable third party—P.G. Wodehouse , 1973. In mid-sentence, however is preceded and followed by commas. The choice of position depends on the word being emphasized, which is normally the one that comes immediately before however:
Parry, however, had had an alibi which Mr Wilkes is confident that he has broken—Daily Telegraph, 1984 /
Even with the stimulatory measures, however, the deficit does not seem likely to be excessive in the years to come—Times, 1981. It is preceded by a comma when it occurs at the end of a sentence:
The presence of a girl in a group of tipsy young men keeps them in check, however—Lancashire Life, 1978.
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3 There are two erroneous uses to guard against:
(1) however as a simple substitute for but: They came for dinner, however they left before ten and
(2) a sentence allowed to run on when however should have a capital letter and start a new sentence: Resources for doing so are not available, however, the matter will be reviewed at a later date

.
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hullo

see HELLO.

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human, humane, humanitarian.

1 The notion that human should only be used as an adjective and that human being should be used for the noun is found in some older usage books (though not Fowler , 1926) but is not supported by the weight of usage. Many examples of human as a noun will be found in OED2, to which may be added:
There rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick— Golding , 1954 /
Behind the mental subterfuges … by which humans escape from reality lies a deep sense of inadequacy— English , 1989 /
The human got in and, still holding the box with exaggerated care, placed it on its knees—T. Pratchett , 1992.

2 As an adjective, human is used predominantly as a classifying word in non-judgemental contexts, qualifying words such as body, eye, life, mind, nature, race, rights, and voice. The difference between human and humane in their judgemental meanings is that human denotes a generalized quality that distinguishes (actual or ideal) human behaviour from that of non-humans, whereas humane denotes a quality as it affects treatment of other people:
(human) When he pushed the postern closed behind him she stepped back into the gateway, eyeing him with very human caution—J. Byrne , 1993 /
(humane) This is only a temporary solution and there have been many attempts to organise more humane working systems—W.T. Singleton , 1989 /
Most academic criminologists had tended to regard the advances of rehabilitation in the penal process as being a beneficial and humane trend—B. Roshier , 1989. Note, however, that humane is used with reference to animals as well as people:
There is a range of attitudes including the position of those who can accept whaling in principle if it can be made more humane in practice—Animal Welfare, 1992 /
They believe in a humane rearing system for livestock, which is mindful of the needs of the animal in question—C. Wheater 1990.
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3 Another adjective to be considered in this context is humanitarian, a 19c word that was originally a noun used in theological contexts. From the 1850s it has had the adjectival meaning ‘practising humanity or humane action’, and it is a common word in modern contexts of international aid and support:
Reports from Jordan indicated that Iraqi businessmen fearful of incurring penalties were no longer prepared even to transport food and essential humanitarian supplies to Iraq— Keesings , 1990.
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humankind.

First recorded in the 17c as an occasional variant of mankind, humankind has gathered strength in the 20c, largely because it serves well as a gender-neutral term for the human race:
One single species—humankind—is putting the Earth at risk—BBC Wildlife, 1990.

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humour

is spelt -our in BrE and humor in AmE, and the same distinction applies to the derivative humourless / humorless. Humorous and humorist, however, are spelt the same way in both varieties.

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hybrid formations

are words made up of elements belonging to different languages. They vary widely in the degree of irregularity they represent, from the routine addition of English prefixes and suffixes to stems from French (bemuse, besiege, genuineness) or vice versa (breakage, disbelieve, readable) to the merging of major word elements with different origins, as with bureaucracy (18c, from French bureau and Greek -kratia ‘rule’), coastal (19c, from English coast and the Latin-derived suffix -al: see LOST CAUSES), gullible (19c, from English gull ‘to deceive’ and the Latin-derived suffix -ible), speedometer (20c, from English speed and the Greek-derived combining form -ometer), and television (20c, from Greek tele- ‘far’ and vision a word of Latin origin). Some so-called blends and portmanteau words are in effect hybrids, e.g. breathalyser (20c, from English breath and Greek-derived analyse) and workaholic (20c, from English work and alcoholic, a word derived via French from Arabic). In a language as eclectic in its origins as modern English the formation of such hybrids is natural and inevitable, and it is difficult to discern a sustainable principle behind the occasional objections that are made in the letter columns of the broadsheet newspapers to formations of this kind.

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hyena

is spelt -e-, not (as formerly) -ae-, and has the plural form hyenas.

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hygiene, hygienic

are spelt -ie- and pronounced respectively hiy-jeen and hiy-jee-nik. The Greek word from which these words are ultimately derived is the first word (an adjective) of hugiein techn; ‘art of health’.

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hyper-, hypo-.

These prefixes are derived from Greek prepositions huper and hupo meaning ‘over, above’ and ‘under, below’, respectively. In English, hyperthermia means ‘abnormally high body temperature’ and hypothermia means ‘abnormally low body temperature’; hypertension means ‘abnormally high blood pressure’ and hypotension means ‘abnormally low blood pressure’. Both prefixes are usually pronounced in the same way (hiy-p), and the meaning may have to be clarified by the context in which they are used. In other words the prefix does not correspond so closely to sense; for example, hypochondria means ‘excessive anxiety about one's health’ (suggesting hyper- rather than hypo-) and is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘the soft parts of the body below the ribs’, where such feelings were thought to arise. Hypercritical duly means ‘excessively critical’, but hypocritical and hypocrisy (pronounced hip-, not hiyp-) are derived from a Greek word hupokrisis meaning ‘acting a part, pretence’.

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hyperbole,

pronounced hiy-per-b-li, is a figure of speech involving an exaggerated statement that is not meant to be taken literally, e.g. a thousand apologies. It should not be confused with hyperbola, pronounced hiy-per-be-l, a term in geometry.

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hypercorrection

is a modern (20c) term for the application of a grammatical rule, especially in sensitive areas of usage, in a case where it is not appropriate. Examples are (1) the use of a pronoun form I, he, etc., instead of me, him, etc., e.g. It is time for you and I to have a talk on the analogy of It is time you and I had a talk, and (2) use of as instead of like as a preposition, e.g. He talks as a fool, influenced by the preference for as when used as a conjunction: He talks as a fool talks.

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hyphen.

In print, a hyphen is half the length of a dash; unlike the dash, it has the purpose of linking words and word elements rather than separating them. Beyond this apparently simple rule, in the world of real usage, lies chaos (Fowler's word, 1926), especially when use of the hyphen is governed by contextual discretion rather than clear-cut rules. The following paragraphs describe the main uses of the hyphen, beginning with the more routine and ending with the least straightforward:
1 To join two or more words so as to form a single expression, e.g. ear-ring, get-at-able, and words having a grammatical relationship which form a compound, e.g. load-bearing, punch-drunk. The routine use of the hyphen to connect two nouns to form a compound word is diminishing in favour of one-word forms, especially when the elements are of one syllable and present no problems of form or pronunciation, as in birdsong, eardrum, and playgroup, and in some longer formations such as figurehead, nationwide, and even (despite the clash of vowels) radioisotope, which is entered in this form in the OED. However, a hyphen is often necessary to separate two similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word, e.g. breast-stroke, co-opt, fast-talk, sword-dance, Ross-shire. In the area of choice between spelling as one word with hyphen and as two words, the second option is now widely favoured, especially when the first noun acts as a straightforward modifier of the second, as in filling station and house plant. Different house styles in publishing and journalism have different preferences in many of these cases.
2 To clarify the meaning of a compound that is normally spelt as separate words, when it is used attributively (before a noun): an up-to-date record / the well-known man; but the record is up to date / The man is well known; also (with no ambiguity) prettily furnished rooms.
3 To join a prefix to a name or designation, e.g. anti-Christian, ex-husband. There is no satisfactory way of dealing with the type ex-Prime Minister, in which the second element is itself a compound, except to rely on the tendency of readers to use their knowledge of the world to choose the natural meaning, i.e. ‘former Prime Minister’ (which makes sense) rather than ‘Minister who was once Prime’ (which is nonsense). A second hyphen, e.g. ex-Prime-Minister, is not recommended.
4 To avoid ambiguity by separating a prefix from the main word, e.g. to distinguish re-cover (= provide with a new cover) from recover and re-sign (= sign again) from resign.
5 To represent a common second element in all but the last word of a list, e.g. two-, three-, or fourfold.
6 To clarify meanings in groups of words when the associations are not clear or when several possible associations may be inferred. This is the area of usage that involves the greatest initiative and discretion on the part of the writer, and it is also the area to which Fowler devoted most of his attention. The best way of offering guidance is to give examples in which careful hyphenation prevents misunderstanding: The library is reducing its purchase of hard-covered books / Twenty-odd people came to the meeting / The group was warned about the dangers of extra-marital sex / There will be special classes for French-speaking children.
7 The hyphen is also used in printing to divide a word that comes at the end of a line and is too long to fit completely. The principle here is a different one, because the hyphen does not form a permanent part of the spelling. Printers have sets of rules about where to divide words; for example, between consonants as in splen-dour and between vowels as in appreci-ate, and words of one syllable should not be divided at all, even quite long ones such as queues and rhythm.

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hyphen, hyphenate, verbs.

Both words mean ‘to spell (a word or phrase) with a hyphen’. This book uses hyphen, following the practice of the successive OED editors C. T. Onions and R. W. Burchfield , although hyphenate is more common in general usage.

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hypo-

see HYPER-.

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hypocritical, hypercritical

see HYPER-, HYPO-.

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hyponym, hypernym.

In linguistics, a hyponym of a given term is a more specific term in the same domain; e.g. spaniel is a hyponym of dog, and bag, box, and cup are hyponyms of container. A hypernym is a more general term, so that dog is the hypernym of spaniel, and container of bag, box, and cup. Because the two words can sound the same in speech, the alternative term superordinate is often used instead of hypernym.

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hypothecate, hypothesize.

The correct word for ‘to form a hypothesis’ is hypothesize, and it is used with or without an object or with a that-clause:
Quick to learn, quick to grasp concepts and to hypothesize, they need the best minds to provide appropriate support and challenge—J. Spink , 1989 /
It was then decided to hypothesize a particular market situation for a single product line—C. Tomkins , 1991 /
I hypothesise that if I move and turn the lamp in a particular way I will get the result I want—W.T. Singleton , 1989. Hypothecate, which is sometimes wrongly used in this meaning, correctly means ‘to give as a pledge or security’ (from Greek hupothk; ‘deposit’) especially in the context of taxation in which the money raised is used for a special purpose:
An alternative scheme for financing the NHS involves the removing of finance from general taxation and the introduction of a health stamp or hypothecated tax—P. Hardy , 1991.

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hypothesis,

meaning ‘something proposed as a basis for reasoning’, has the plural form hypotheses, pronounced -seez.

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I

I.

1 I, the first person pronoun representing the speaker (or writer), is a shortening of earlier forms ic, ich, ik, etc., and has been written as a capital letter at least since the development of printing imposed uniformity in the 15c.

2 Popular preoccupation with the correctness (or hypercorrectness) of ‘John and I’ (rather than ‘John and me’) as an answer to questions such as Who do you mean? has led to an absurd proliferation of the use of I where me is correct because the pronoun is governed by a verb or preposition. The best known case, between you and I, is discussed at the entry for BETWEEN (section 5). Other types are shown by the following examples:
I think she disapproved of Beth and I, just quietly—S. Johnson , 1990 (Australia) /
‘What is it?’ asked Lempriàre. ‘Part of you and I,’ said Septimus—L. Norfolk , 1991
… after seeing you and I lingering over a late breakfast—Chicago Tribune, 1991. The fallacy of these uses can readily be seen by isolating the pronoun and removing the noun it is paired with in each sentence, e.g. I think she disapproved of I, just quietly.
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i before e.

The traditional spelling rule ‘i before e except after c’ should be extended to include the statement ‘when the combination is pronounced -ee-’, as in believe, brief, fiend, hygiene, priest, siege, and in ceiling, deceive, conceit, receipt, receive, etc. The extension to the rule is necessary in order to take account of words such as beige, freight, neighbour, sleigh, veil, vein, weigh (all pronounced -ay-), eiderdown, feisty, height, heist, kaleidoscope, sleight (all pronounced -iy-), and words in which the i and e are pronounced as separate vowels, e.g. holier, occupier. This leaves caffeine, protein and seize as the most important exceptions to the rule as qualified.

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ibid.

is a shortening of Latin ibidem ‘in the same place’ and is used principally in printed matter to indicate a reference to a source already mentioned.

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-ible

see -ABLE, -IBLE.

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-ic, -ical adjectives.

1 There are three main situations:
(1) cases where only an adjective ending in -ic is available (e.g. alcoholic, basic, dramatic, linguistic, patriotic, public),
(2) cases where only an adjective ending in -ical is available (e.g. chemical, practical, radical), and
(3) cases where adjectives ending in -ic and -ical are available, often with a difference in meaning (e.g. classic / classical, comic / comical, economic / economical, historic / historical) but sometimes with no difference in meaning (e.g. geographic / geographical, problematic / problematical)

. Pairs that represent a difference in meaning are discussed as separate entries. When there is no difference in meaning, choice is often determined by considerations of idiom and sentence rhythm. Assertions relating to regional distinctions (e.g. that -ic forms are more common in AmE) lack adequate statistical support.

2 With one exception, all these adjectives, whether they end in -ic or -ical or both, form adverbs in -ically (basically, dramatically, geometrically, practically, etc.). The exception is public, which has an adverb form publicly.
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-ics.

1 There are a few names of arts or of branches of study that end in -ic, of which the most important in general use are logic, magic, music, and rhetoric. Otherwise the normal ending for terms of this kind is -ics: acoustics, classics, economics, ethics, mathematics, obstetrics, physics, and many others. (In some cases a singular noun exists with a different meaning: a classic is something of acknowledged fame or quality, an ethic is a set of moral principles, and a statistic is an item of statistical data.) Although these are plural forms, they take singular verbs when they are the name of a subject and a plural verb when they are used generally: compare Economics is her main interest and The economics of the foreign aid are extremely complex.

2 Another class of nouns in -ics corresponds to adjectives in -ic or -ical, e.g. heroics, hysterics, tactics, and these are treated as regular plurals, e.g. Heroics are out of place.
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idea.

Idea is followed by of + noun (or verbal noun) when the meaning is ‘notion, concept’ (It's not my idea of having a good time) and by a to-infinitive when after a construction with the verb be (The idea is to get the ball in the hole).

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ideology

was first used in the later 18c in the meaning ‘the science of ideas’, and has since filled a much-needed role as a term free of religious and spiritual connotations to denote ‘a system of ideas forming the basis of an economic or political theory’, as in capitalist ideology.

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idiom

in the context of language has two principal meanings:
(1) the manner of expression that characterizes a language, and
(2) a group of words that has a meaning not deducible from the individual words

. The first can therefore be seen as the sum total of all the instances of the second. Examples of idioms in the concrete second meaning are over the moon, under the weather, might as well, and hard put to it. The adjective idiomatic draws on both these meanings in denoting what is natural and customary in the use of a language; as Fowler recognized (1926), ‘grammar and idiom are separate categories’, so that a mode of expression can be idiomatic or grammatical or both or neither. Fowler's various examples are still valid and useful: It was not me and There is heaps of material are idiomatic but ungrammatical, The distinction leaps to the eyes and a hardly earned income are grammatical but unidiomatic, He was promoted captain and She all but capsized are both grammatical and idiomatic, and You would not go for to do it is neither.

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idiosyncrasy,

meaning ‘an individual's particular habit or mode of behaviour’, is derived from the Greek words idio- ‘own, peculiar’, sun ‘together’, and krasis ‘mixture’ and so its etymological meaning is ‘a peculiar mixing together’. It is wrong to spell it -cracy, as if it were connected with words such as democracy and autocracy.

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i.e.

is short for Latin id est and means ‘that is to say’. It should be distinguished from e.g., from Latin exempli gratia, which means ‘for example’. In other words, i.e. explains whereas e.g. illustrates.

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-ie, -y.

1 These suffixes are used in pet-names and diminutives. There is often a free choice between -ie and -y, except that -y is always used in the pet-names baby, daddy, ducky, granny, hubby, mummy, and sonny, and in the diminutives bunny, fatty, kitty, nappy, and teddy, and -ie is always used in the diminutives bookie, girlie, goalie, and nightie, and is the preferred form in a number of words associated with Scotland (beastie, kiltie, laddie, lassie, etc.). In other cases (dearie / deary, goalie / goaly, nightie / nighty, etc.), it is largely a matter of individual preference or of a particular printing style. Spellings of individual words will be found in the current edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary. The plural forms of all these words end in -ies.

2 Spelling of personal names (Jamie, Katie, Molly, Sally, Willie, etc.) is not a matter of choice but of the form favoured by the bearer of a particular name.
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if.

1 If is followed by the subjunctive form were (instead of was) when the condition it introduces is hypothetical or impossible to fulfil, as in If I were younger, I'd travel the world. Was is used (1) informally in such cases (If I was younger, I'd travel the world), and (2) to indicate past tense in which the condition is capable of fulfilment (If I was younger, I wasn't any wiser). Use of the subjunctive form be (instead of am, is, or are) is now decidedly old-fashioned: If this be true, all is not lost. See SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

2 If and whether are both used to introduce noun clauses as in Tell me if / whether you can come, but whether is regarded as somewhat more formal and is preferable in avoiding possible ambiguity (in the sentence just given, a possible interpretation, though not the natural one, when if is used is ‘If you can come, tell me (some other thing)’.
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3 If and though are both possible in constructions of the type a cheap, if / though risky method, although again there is sometimes a small risk of ambiguity in the use of if.
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4 If is sometimes used in a clause without any continuation, either as a way of making a strong assertion or as a polite request. This use is normally limited to conversation:
Well, if that isn't the best thing I've heard since I was home— Mackenzie , 1919 /
‘I've got to leave this morning, so if you'll make out my bill, please?’— Dexter , 1983 /
‘There's your tea. Drink it.’ … ‘If I could have another lump of sugar.’— Greene , 1988.
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if and when.

If and when the law catches up with them, I hope it has it in for them—Punch, 1967. This phrase (along with as and when and unless and until) almost belongs to the category of the Fowlers' LOST CAUSES, but not quite. They wrote of it in The King's English (1906), ‘this formula has enjoyed more popularity than it deserves; either “when” or “if” by itself would almost always give the meaning’, and gave several examples to support their case, making an exception of the following quotation from Gladstone: If and when it was done, it was done so to speak judicially, in which the force of both if and when is needed. Significantly, this was their only example in the past tense; all the other examples referred to future time. While it is true that if alone (when there is doubt) or when alone (when there is no doubt) would often serve, there are contexts in which a point needs to be made with regard both to the likelihood of occurrence and to the time of it:
Many drugs will be given if and when needed, probably with no obvious rhythm—J.M. Waterhouse , 1990. The expression is especially popular with lawyers because at the very least it makes the same point doubly effective.

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ignoramus,

meaning ‘an ignorant person’, has the plural form ignoramuses. It was originally a law term from the Latin word meaning ‘we do not know’, and so the ending has nothing to do with Latin nouns in -us.

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-ile.

Many nouns and adjectives ending in -ile (docile, domicile, facile, fertile, fragile, missile, mobile, sterile, virile, etc.) are pronounced -iyl in BrE and -l in AmE. The main exceptions are automobile and imbecile, which are usually pronounced -eel in both varieties, and profile, which is pronounced -iyl in both varieties, as (with some variation) are the statistical terms decile, percentile, and quartile.

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ilk

is a word that arouses passions when it is used to mean ‘kind or sort’:
Fifteen years a faithful husband, that was his ilk— Bellow , 1987. Ilk arrived at this meaning by a strange route: originally it meant ‘same’ (Old English ilca), but was pushed aside in this role by the arrival in the Middle English period of same (from Old Norse). In Scotland from the 15c, the phrase of that ilk emerged with the meaning ‘of the same place, territorial designation, or name’, to denote the names of landed families, e.g. Guthrie of that Ilk = Guthrie of (a place also called) Guthrie. The Scottish use was rapidly misunderstood south of the border and by the 18c the word ilk had acquired the meaning ‘family, class’ and hence ‘kind or sort’, and we are back at the point where we started. Although there is much evidence of the spread of the popular use, it should be borne in mind that it can sound absurd to anyone (not necessarily Scottish) who is familiar with the word's historical usage. Examples:
Her husband's employment was not of the ilk of the typical man on the job on the coast—A. Kennedy , 1986 (New Zealand)/
Rambo and Rocky and their ilk are the mere tip of a vast iceberg—Encounter, 1987 /
I'm being flippant. Irresponsible in the well-known propensity of my ilk— Amis , 1988.

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ill, sick.

Ill and sick share responsibilities in peculiar ways, and are not always interchangeable. To begin with, ill is more usually predicative (placed after a verb, as in She was ill), whereas sick occurs naturally in attributive position (before a noun, as in She was a sick woman) as well as predicatively (as in She was sick), and in compounds such as sick leave and sick room). Ill is used attributively only in the broader sense ‘out of health’ (He was an ill man when I last saw him), in the extended meanings ‘faulty, unskilful’ (ill judgement / ill management), in idioms and proverbs (do an ill turn to / It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good). It also occurs adverbially in compounds (ill-behaved / ill-considered). In BrE, to be sick and to feel sick have the special meanings ‘to vomit’ and ‘to be inclined to vomit’, and to underline the anomalies of the two words a person can look ill and then report (or go) sick. In varieties of English other than BrE, the overlaps in meaning and usage vary considerably, and in some varieties there is little difference other than the more formal nature of the word ill. In AmE, the meaning ‘vomiting’ is normally supplied by the phrase sick to (or at) one's stomach.

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illegal, illegitimate, illicit, unlawful.

The different meanings of these words correspond to the meanings of legal, legitimate, licit (now rarely used), and lawful. Something is illegal when it is in all circumstances against the law, illicit when it is in some circumstances against the law or prohibited in some way, and illegitimate when it is contrary to custom or common justice as well as (or instead of) contrary to the law. Unlawful is a somewhat oldfashioned word for illegal and refers to divine as well as human law. See further at LEGAL, LAWFUL.

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illegible, unreadable.

In current use what is illegible is not clear enough to be decipherable (as in illegible handwriting), and what is unreadable can be physically read but is too dull to be worth reading or too difficult to be understood.

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illicit

see ELICIT; ILLEGAL.

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illiteracies.

This was a term used Fowler (1926) to denote examples of ‘a kind of offence against the literary idiom that is not easily named’ and identified its chief habitat as the correspondence columns of the newspapers. The instances he gave included aggravating (= annoying), between … or … instead of between … and …, however for how ever in the type However did you find out?, like used as a conjunction ( If I could think like you do), frequent use of split infinitives ( Am ready to categorically affirm), think to (= remember to, as in I did not think to tell them,), and individual to mean ‘person’. In 1965 Gowers added three more instances: between you and I, likewise used as a conjunction ( Its tendency to wobble … likewise its limited powers of execution), and neither with a plural verb ( For two reasons neither of which are noticed by Plato ). Some of these illiteracies may still be so called, notably, as explained elsewhere, between you and I (see BETWEEN (5)) and however for how ever. In other cases, time has moved on, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary gives many of the castigated uses with the much milder warning ‘colloquial’ or ‘disputed’ rather than ‘illiterate’.

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illiterate, innumerate.

Illiterate (16c) means ‘unable to read or write’ or ‘poorly educated’; innumerate (20c) means ‘having no knowledge of or aptitude for the principles of mathematics’. The corresponding positive forms literate and numerate date from about the same times, although numerate is attested much earlier (15c) in a now obsolete meaning ‘numbered, counted’.

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illusion

see DELUSION.

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illusive, illusory

see ELUSIVE.

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image

is an old word (13c) derived from Latin imago meaning ‘copy, likeness, picture’ and in all its meanings suggests a real or mental picture. Since the late 1950s it has been used by marketeers, advertisers, and (more recently) political spin-doctors to mean ‘a concept or impression created in the minds of the public about a particular person, product, institution, etc.’:
The first task of the public relations man, on taking over a business client, is to ‘re-engineer’ his image to include something besides the production of goods—J.K. Galbraith , 1958 /
In contrast to the image of police work as exciting and dangerous …, patrolling was invariably boring and somewhat aimless—I. Marsh , 1992 /
It is important, too, that close attention is paid to image building (e.g. banks and insurance companies must be seen to be stable, reliable institutions, but with a friendly, non-intimidating attitude—an image which banks in particular have spent a lot of money fostering over the past decade.—G. Lancaster , 1992.

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imaginable,

meaning ‘able to be imagined’, is spelt without an e in the middle.

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imaginary, imaginative.

Imaginary means ‘existing only in the imagination, not real’, whereas imaginative means ‘having or showing a high degree of imagination’. Both words can be applied to people as well as things; an imaginary person is one who does not really exist (e.g. is fictitious), whereas an imaginative person is one who is creative or inventive.

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imbalance

is a surprisingly recent word (19c), first used as a technical term in ophthalmology and now used generally in many contexts:
The imbalance in the world's financial system has become grotesque—Times, 1969 /
The marked increase in the average salary reflects both the imbalance of supply and demand for health workers—Scientific American, 1973 /
Teaching implies an imbalance of knowledge, otherwise it would not be necessary—B. Bergonzi , 1990.

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imbroglio,

an originally Italian word meaning ‘a confused or complicated situation’, has the plural form imbroglios.

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imbue

see INFUSE.

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imitate

has a derivative form imitable meaning ‘able to be imitated’.

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immanent

see IMMINENT.

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immediately

has been used informally since the early 19c, especially in BrE, as a conjunction equivalent to immediately after:
I starting writing ‘Jill’ immediately I left Oxford— Larkin , 1983 /
Immediately I heard the front door I switched off his computer— Williams , 1992.

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immigrant

see EMIGRANT.

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imminent, immanent.

The more common word imminent, derived from the Latin word minre ‘to threaten’, means ‘about to happen’ and has connotations of threat or danger. Immanent, derived from the Latin word manre ‘to remain’, means ‘indwelling, inherent’ and is chiefly used in theology to denote the divine presence throughout the universe.

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immoral, amoral.

Both words are applied to people, to people's actions, and to standards of behaviour. Immoral means ‘morally wrong, wicked’, whereas amoral means ‘having no morals’, i.e. ‘outside the scope of morality’ and is strictly neutral in meaning, although in practice both words are used judgementally. Examples:
(amoral) Children are first amoral … then enter a pre-moral stage, when social and authoritarian factors are the main restraints—M.E. Wood , 1973 /
For someone who appeared so gleefully wicked and amoral, Cleo seemed surprisingly dim when it came to character judgment—C. Storm , 1993 /
(immoral) This view takes into account the general view that crime is or ought to be those actions which are considered so immoral or damaging that they should be subject to punishment—J.D. Rogers , 1987 /
Simon criticised Jesus for allowing such an immoral woman to touch him—R. Cooper , 1990.

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immovable

is spelt without an e in the middle, and the usual meaning is ‘unyielding, unwilling to change one's mind’.

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immune

is followed by to or from. When the reference is to disease or some other form of harm or danger, to is more usual, and when from is used it is more often in the context of legal liabilities, but these distinctions are far from clear-cut and both constructions are found regardless of context, with to somewhat more common than from:
(to) Each country will be concerned to maintain the invulnerability of its submarine-based strategic missiles, which are essentially immune to attack from land-based weapons—Scientific American, 1972 /
A situation could arise where harmful bacteria, having become immune to disinfectants, survive to cause illness which cannot be treated by antibiotics—R. North , 1985 /
They came from a variety of schools and backgrounds and it is difficult to believe that their pupils are more immune to racial prejudice than those mentioned above—D. Pimm , 1988/ (from)
Those who have a commitment to the Christian faith are not thereby immune from depression—M. Batchelor , 1988 /
The laws affecting the common land were supervised by Down Drivers, themselves not immune from prosecution—M. Lister , 1988 /
Real diamonds have a quite distinctive, soapy texture to the surface and are immune from water— Forsyth , 1989.

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immunity, impunity.

In non-medical contexts immunity means ‘freedom or exemption from an obligation, penalty, or unfavourable circumstance' and like immune can be followed by to or from:
Balder was a son of the most senior god, Odin, and one version of the legend says he was blessed with the gift of immunity from harm—H. Hauxwell , 1989 /
A common question is whether people should be tested before vaccination for existing immunity to HBV and/or after inoculation to determine whether the vaccination was successful—The Embalmer, 1993. Impunity has the more limited meaning ‘exemption from punishment or from the injurious consequences of an action’, is not followed by to or from, and is used chiefly in the phrase with impunity:
In our dreams we can do with impunity things we would like to do in real life but cannot—make love with a Hollywood sex symbol or murder our boss—J. Grant , 1990.

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impact.

The literal meaning of the noun is ‘the action of one body coming forcibly into contact with another’, and refers to physical collision. The figurative meaning ‘strong effect or influence’ is justifiable when there is a corresponding figurative notion of a collision (the impact of Christianity on social justice), but it is questionable when the meaning is no more than ‘effect, impression’ (the impact of new policing methods on the crime figures). The verb, which is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, is older than the noun in its physical meaning (‘press closely into or in something’). Intransitive uses began to appear in the 20c, and in 1962 it was reported in a work called Basic Astronautics that a Soviet space rocket had impacted onto the Moon's surface. About the same time figurative uses began to proliferate, corresponding to the figurative meaning of the noun:
The Magazine … is not the place for consideration of national or international events except in so far as they impact on Oxford—Oxford Magazine, 1956. There has been continued opposition to these uses, both in Britain and in America. When there is so much hostility, it is prudent to use more familiar synonyms, such as effect, influence, and impression for the noun and affect, influence, or have an effect on for the verb.

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impassable, impassible.

Impassable means ‘that cannot be traversed’ and refers to roads, stretches of countryside, etc. Impassible means ‘incapable of feeling emotion’ or ‘incapable of suffering injury’, and is pronounced with the second syllable as in passive rather than as in pass.

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impasse,

meaning ‘a deadlock, or position from which progress is impossible’, is pronounced many different ways, but the recommended pronunciations are am-pahs and am-pas.

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impeach

in BrE means ‘to charge with a crime against the State, especially treason’, and in AmE means ‘to charge (the holder of a public office) with misconduct’. What it does not mean is ‘to dismiss from office’.

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impel

has inflected forms impelled, impelling.

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imperial, imperious.

Imperial means ‘relating to an empire or emperor’ and hence ‘characteristic of an emperor, supreme in authority’. Imperious is a more judgemental word and means ‘overbearing, domineering’.

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imperialism.

This word is first attested in the 19c, when it reflected the British politics of the time and denoted what was seen as the benevolent spirit or principle of empire. In the 20c, it came to be used disparagingly, first by the Communist bloc with reference to the US and the Western powers generally, and then conversely to refer to the imperial system or policies of the USSR in the countries over which it held sway. Imperialism now seems to be a largely historical concept, although the word is still used in political writing of the continuing or potential imperial policies of certain countries.

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imperil,

meaning ‘to put at risk, to endanger’, has inflected forms imperilled, imperilling in BrE and imperiled, imperiling in AmE.

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impersonal verb.

In current English this term is restricted to verbs used in the third person singular with indefinite it as subject, e.g. it is snowing, when it rains.

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impinge,

meaning ‘to have an effect (on)’, has a present participle impingeing, with e to preserve the soft sound of the g.

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implement,

as a verb, is a useful word used first in Scotland in the sense ‘to put (a treaty, agreement, etc.) into effect’, a meaning it still has in general usage. In the 20c its use has been greatly extended to cover any kind of idea, policy, proposal, suggestion, etc., as a general synonym for carry out, effect, fulfil, and other words. Although objections are sometimes raised to this use, it is well established and is often a better word than any of these synonyms might at first seem to be. It also has the advantage of a ready noun form implementation.

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imply

see INFER.

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import.

The noun is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and the verb with the stress on the second syllable.

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important, importantly.

Both words have a special elliptical use dating from the 1930s, in which one or other stands by itself (or qualified by more, most, etc.) as a kind of sentence adverb:
Perhaps more importantly, income not applied to exclusively charitable purposes is not exempt from taxation—Times, 1972 /
But, more important, a linked policy can be encashed—surrendered—before maturity date—Daily Telegraph, 1973 /
But most important of all, we begin by giving you the training you need—Scientific American, 1973 /
More important, Mr Deng gave China a new revolutionary vision in the decade of reform from 1978—Economist, 1991 /
The reason is twofold: he has an unassuming nature, but more importantly, his achievements are the fruits of hobbies—New Scientist, 1991. The use of (more etc.) importantly is sometimes criticized on the grounds that (more etc.) important (elliptical for what is more important) is adequate, but both words are commonly used in this way and importantly conforms more closely than important does to the regular type of sentence adverb.

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impostor

is the recommended spelling, not imposter.

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impracticable, impractical.

These two words have related meanings to do with the impossibility of doing something, and correspond to the positive forms PRACTICABLE, PRACTICAL. Impractical is a relatively recent (19c) word and means the same as unpractical, i.e. ‘not practical or realistic’; it can also be used of a person, with the meaning ‘lacking the ability to do practical things’, and usually has a general application. Impracticable means ‘not able to be carried out, not feasible’, and is more usually applied to particular cases. In practice, however, the two words are close enough in meaning to run the frequent risk of getting in each other's way:
In the end the scheme was abandoned as impracticable—J.F. Lehmann , 1960 /
As his arms were full of books it would have been impracticable for him to wave—J.I.M. Stewart , 1974 /
I have always been ridiculously impractical … I cannot repair a fuse—F. Howerd , 1974 /
Her plans were so impractical that someone like me was necessary to point this out— Brookner , 1987.

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impresario,

meaning ‘an organizer of public entertainments’, has the plural form impresarios.

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imprint

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb.

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improbable

see PROBABLE.

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impromptu,

as a noun meaning ‘an extempore speech or performance’ or ‘a short piece of instrumental music’, has the plural form impromptus.

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improvable,

meaning ‘able to be improved’, is spelt without an e in the middle.

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improvise

is spelt -ise, not -ize.

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impunity

see IMMUNITY.

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in.

1 Use of in instead of for with reference to past time (We have not spoken in more than a year) has spread from AmE to BrE. It is used in contexts that are explicitly or implicitly negative, and as such is a revival of an older English use:
To Westminster Hall, where I have not been … in some months— Pepys , 1669. More recent examples are:
Mark had never been near his house in a year— Mackenzie , 1924 /
The first bridge across the Bosphorus in 2,300 years … is now being built—Daily Telegraph, 1971.

2 In meanings to do with place, in certain contexts AmE uses on or at where BrE uses in: a store on Fifth Avenue / They are all in school now.
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3 See also the separate entries for INASMUCH AS, IN ORDER THAT, IN SO FAR AS, IN THAT.
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in- and un-.

1 Both prefixes are used to make negative forms of adjectives and nouns; in- is Latin in origin and is no longer active in making new words, whereas un- is English in origin and is a living prefix. Historically, some words have existed in both in- and un- forms, but one or other of them normally drops out in the end, so that (for example) unability gave way to inability in the 18c, although unable and not inable is the corresponding adjective. Other mismatches occur with the pairs imbalance / unbalanced, uncomprehending / incomprehensible, indigestible / undigested, indisputable / undisputed, indistinguishable / undistinguished, unseparated / inseparable, instability / unstable, and others.

2 Choice between un- and in- forms in not normally a problem for native speakers of English, with occasional exceptions such as inadvisable (= not advised) / unadvisable = (of a person) not open to advice, inarguable / unarguable (both in use), incommunicative / uncommunicative (both in use), inconsolable / unconsolable (the first now preferred), indecipherable / undecipherable (both in use), inhuman (= brutal, unfeeling) / unhuman (not human), insupportable (= intolerable) / unsupportable (= indefensible), and others.
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3 Note that in- is not used to form negative forms of verbs, whereas un- is (undo, unmask, unsettle, etc.).
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inapt, inept.

These two words are often confused because they overlap in their basic meanings ‘inappropriate, unsuitable’ and ‘unskilful’. Inapt tends to mean rather the first of these, and applies only to actions and circumstances, whereas inept means rather the second, is much more common, and applies to people as well as actions:
In this respect, the oft-quoted cathedral metaphor is not inapt—J. Richards , 1988 /
She believes it would be politically inept to cut such training programmes at a time when the jobless total is rising fast—Today, 1992 /
Nicholas was inept at all forms of promiscuity except gossip—Esquire, 1992. So if you say that a person's reply is inapt and inept, you mean that it was both inappropriate and clumsily expressed.

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inartistic

see UNARTISTIC.

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inasmuch as

is a rather formal and awkward expression meaning ‘to the extent that, in so far as’ or more simply ‘in view of the fact that, since’. The preferred style is two words (as here) rather than four, since this underlines the unity of the expression. Examples:
(first meaning) Inasmuch as she could be pleased, the idea of this marriage pleased her—C. Blackwood , 1977 /
These provisions apply only inasmuch as trade between Member States is affected—D.I. Bainbridge , 1993 /
(second meaning) Inasmuch as Gray was Perdita's father, he was to be treated with a reasonable degree of respect—B. Guest , 1985 /
He predeceased Sir Nelson, which made my task a little easier, inasmuch as it was not necessary for me to carry out complicated inquiries in India—E.V. Thomson , 1992.

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in back of

see BACK.

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inchoate

means ‘undeveloped’ or ‘just begun’ and is derived from the Latin word choare ‘to begin’:
It was obviously necessary that we should continue our still inchoate discussion over a drink—D.M. Davin , 1975 /
She is not allowed to express her real, if inchoate, feelings for Robert Marlin—T. Tanner , 1986. It should be distinguished from incoherent, which means ‘lacking logic or consistency’, and chaotic, which means ‘having no order, utterly confused’, both of which words tend to be used in similar contexts.

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incidentally

is spelt this way and not (as the pronunciation in rapid speech might suggest) incidently. Its usual role is as a sentence adverb marking a new stage in speech (or sometimes writing) and it does not always carry its full weight of meaning ‘as an unconnected remark’, the following matter often being a continuation of what went before:
The man who shot her, incidentally, is called Lord Lichfield—just one of the names dropped thuddingly at every opportunity—Daily Telegraph, 1976 /
Incidentally, thanks to Tommy Hands, I nearly became a landlord myself—A.J.P. Taylor , 1983.

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incident, incidental

adjectives. Incident has been almost entirely replaced as an adjective in the 20c by incidental, so that a sentence such as Those in the highest station have their incident cares and troubles now sounds decidedly dated. This freeing of incident from its older role as an adjective has coincided with its greatly increased use as a noun with the meaning ‘a particular episode or distinct event receiving general attention’, a use in which it can refer to a wide range of events from the most important (terrorist attacks, leakages of radiation from nuclear power stations, and so on) to the most minor or trivial (domestic arguments, demonstrations at meetings, traffic mishaps, etc.). In police use it has a special application reflected in the compound forms incident book, incident room, etc., in which incident is not an adjective but the noun used attributively.

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incise,

meaning ‘to cut into, engrave’, is spelt -ise, not -ize. The noun derivative is incisor (usually meaning a front tooth), not -er.

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incline

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (meaning ‘a slope’) and with the stress on the second sylable as a verb (as in be inclined to).

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inclose

is not the correct form: see ENCLOSE.

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include, comprise.

Like comprise, include has the whole as its subject and its parts as the object. The difference is that comprise generally denotes the whole set of parts whereas include can be selective, so that if a house comprises two living rooms, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom, there are six rooms in all, whereas if the house includes these rooms there may be others as well. Include is often used to single out a particular item or subset, in which case comprise is again inappropriate: The Serbian forces attacking Sarajevo are units of the former Federal army: they do not include regiments still stationed in Zagreb. See also COMPRISE.

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including.

There is evidence, both in BrE and in AmE, of including used with a prepositional phrase introduced by a word such as by, in, to, etc.:
Copies of this notice are being distributed on a wide scale including to overseas establishments—radio broadcast, 1990 /
We find free speech under assault throughout the United States, including on some college campuses,—International Herald Tribune, 1991 /
Pensions disappeared [when my partner died] and I faced a huge tax bill—including on a half share of our house, which we owned jointly—Independent, 1998.

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incognito,

when used as a noun meaning either ‘a secret identity’ or ‘a person with a secret identity’, has the plural form incognitos.

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incommunicado,

meaning ‘having no communication with others’, is spelt with two ms.

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incomparable,

meaning ‘matchless, without an equal’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

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in connection with

see CONNECTION.

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inconsequent, inconsequential.

The two words overlap considerably in meaning. Both are used to mean ‘not following naturally; lacking logical sequence’, but when, for example, an argument is a disconnected one it would normally be described as inconsequent, whereas inconsequential would imply that it is of no importance.

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inconsiderateness, inconsideration.

Both words mean ‘thoughtlessness towards others’, but the phrase lack of consideration is more common and less awkward than either.

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inconsolable

is now preferred to unconsolable. See IN- AND UN-.

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increase

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun, and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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incrust

see ENCRUST, which is the preferred form.

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incubator,

meaning ‘a device for keeping a baby at a constant temperature’, is spelt -or not -er.

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incubus,

meaning ‘a male demon believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women’ and hence ‘a nightmare’, has the plural form incubuses.

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inculcate

means ‘to urge or impress (an idea, fact, etc.) on someone’ and is derived from the Latin word inculcare ‘to stamp with the heel’ (Latin calx). It has the fact or idea as its object, optionally followed by in, on, or upon:
What Solzhenitsyn writes about ideological rituality, about the harmful waste of millions of people's time and efforts on this chatter that inculcates twaddle and hypocrisy, is indisputable—Times, 1974 /
I have tried to inculcate in my pupils an attitude of intelligent laziness—Guardian, 1989. Use with the person as object, on the analogy of indoctrinate, is also found but is not generally considered standard:
They will also try to inculcate you with a spurious respect for a ‘culture’ which not only fails to distinguish between what is good and what is profitable [etc.]—Punch, 1992.

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incur,

meaning ‘to suffer or experience’, has inflected forms incurred, incurring.

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indecipherable

see IN- AND UN-.

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indefinite article

see A, AN.

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indent

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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index.

In general use the plural is normally indexes, but in mathematical and scientific contexts it is indices.

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Indian.

In BrE an Indian is first and foremost a native or national of India. In the American context its use arose from the mistaken belief of Columbus and other voyagers who reached the east coast of America in the 15c and 16c that they had reached India by a new route. Indian and Red Indian are now regarded as old-fashioned and inappropriate, and more reminiscent of stereotypical images of the Wild West than of contemporary America. American Indian, or preferably Native American, should be used instead.

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indict,

meaning ‘to accuse formally’, is pronounced in-diyt, and the same pronunciation applies to its derivatives indictable and indictment.

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indigestible

is spelt in-.

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indirect object.

1 In grammar, an indirect object is a person or thing named as the recipient of the direct object of a transitive (or more strictly, DITRANSITIVE) verb. In the sentences I gave my sister a book and I gave her a book, my sister and her are the indirect objects. It will be seen that in this type the indirect object usually precedes the direct object. When both direct and indirect objects are pronouns, the reverse order is sometimes found (I gave it her back).

2 An alternative to this ditransitive construction is to use a preposition (usually to or for) before the indirect object with the indirect object then following the direct object (I gave a book to my sister /I handed the book to her / I handed it to her).
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3 Verbs other than those of giving can have indirect objects, e.g. Tell me the truth (in which me is the indirect object) / He cooks his wife a hot meal every evening (in which his wife is the indirect object). See also DIRECT OBJECT, INTRANSITIVE AND TRANSITIVE VERBS.
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indirect question.

An indirect question is a question put into reported form. For example, What do they want to do? is a direct question and its indirect form is I asked them what they wanted to do. When the direct question calls for an answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, the indirect form is introduced by if or whether: (direct) Do you want to go for a walk? / (indirect) I'll ask them whether they want to go for walk. It should be noted that indirect questions follow the word order of statements and are not followed by a question mark; it is wrong to say, for example, I asked them what did they want to do? or Tell me how old are you?

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indirect speech

see REPORTED SPEECH.

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indispensable

is spelt -able, not -ible. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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indisputable

is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable. See also IN-, UN-.

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indissoluble,

meaning ‘unable to be dissolved’, is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable.

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indistinguishable

is spelt -able, not -ible.

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individual.

When used as a noun, individual should denote a single person in contrast with a group of people or with society as a whole: the role of the individual in the community / She continues to treat them as individuals. It is less satisfactory, and can often sound quaint or affected, when used simply as a synonym for person, and in this use it is normally restricted to jocular or disparaging contexts: There was an odd individual standing by the door / Individuals arrived in their own cars.

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indivisible,

meaning ‘unable to be divided’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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indoor, indoors.

The adjective is indoor (indoor games) and is a shortening of an earlier form within-door. Indoors is an adverb (Let's go indoors now) and represents an earlier form within doors.

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induction

see DEDUCTION.

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industrial action

is an established term (first recorded as recently as 1971 in the OED) denoting various kinds of industrial protest including strikes, working to rule, overtime bans, etc. The word action, paradoxical though it may seem, refers to the activity of protest and has a precedent in the term political action (late 19c).

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inedible, uneatable.

Inedible means ‘not suitable for eating’, whereas uneatable refers to food and means ‘not fit to be eaten’ because of its condition rather than its nature.

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ineffective, ineffectual.

Ineffective means ‘not producing any effect’ and normally refers to actions or processes. Ineffectual often refers to people, and means ‘lacking the ability to produce results’. The distinctions are more fully discussed at EFFECTIVE.

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inequity, iniquity.

These two words are related in form, meaning, and derivation. Inequity is the opposite of equity and means ‘inequality, unfairness, injustice’:
The city cannot do what is most needed: join its suburban neighbours in a regional government that … evens out the huge inequities in school financing and municipal services—Economist, 1993. Iniquity means 'gross injustice, wickedness':
It is easy for a well-fed Englishwoman like myself to shake with anger about the futility of war, to protest about the iniquity of racial prejudice—M.  & L. Hoy , 1991. In some uses I suspect that iniquity has been used when inequity was meant, but it rarely happens the other way round:
I suggest this iniquity be removed as soon as possible—Daily Telegraph, 1992.

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infamous

see NOTORIOUS.

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infectious

see CONTAGIOUS.

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infer, imply.

1 The only point noted by Fowler (1926) was that the inflected forms of infer are inferred and inferring, and this is thankfully still true (but note inferable or inferrable, with one r or two, and inference with only one r). Fowler made no comment on the meaning of infer, and it was left to Gowers (1965) to add a short note to the effect that ‘the use of infer for imply is sadly common—so common that some dictionaries give imply as one of the definitions of infer without comment’. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) labels this meaning ‘disputed’ and gives as the primary meanings of the two words: (infer) ‘to deduce or conclude from facts or reasoning’, (imply) ‘to suggest the truth or existence of (something not expressly asserted), to insinuate or hint’. The problem lies in the fact that deduction and suggestion can often be seen as part of the same process. It is nearly always infer that encroaches on imply (but see paragraph 3 below for clarification of ‘nearly’), and the OED puts the issue in its historical context by giving examples dating from the 16c onwards.

2 The following examples show in three groups the correct meanings of both words and then the disputed meaning of infer: (imply correctly used)
Vast stretches of abandoned concrete underfoot imply that someone once had plans for this land—New Yorker, 1986 /
I wouldn't want to imply that lead is the most important factor in children's intelligence—radio broadcast, 1987 /
(infer correctly used) You would have been able to infer from the room alone the nature of those who lived in it—D.M. Davin , 1979 /
No reference to any living person is intended or should be inferred— Bellow , 1987 /
(infer used for imply) I can't stand fellas who infer things about good clean-living Australian sheilas—Private Eye, 1970 /
These were the ones who had made a slightly sulky entrance (inferring rebellion), and had then proceeded to sit on the floor—M. Bracewell , 1989.
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3 The only domain in which imply is used where infer might be expected is in legal language, in which the inference and the conclusion are regarded as part of the same process, as the following extract shows: When a possessory interest in property is conveyed, a court may imply from the circumstances that the parties also intended to grant or reserve an easement as well despite their failure to say so in the deed. Otherwise, it is infer that has broken the bounds of logic and is on the loose in the arena of idiom.
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inferable

see INFER (1).

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inferior

is not a true comparative (like lower, for example) and is followed by to, not than:
When we are together there's no competition; neither of us feels better than or inferior to the other—J. Dawson , 1990. When used attributively (before a noun), it means ‘of poor quality’ rather than ‘less good’.
I have had to put up with inferior accommodation, lousy food and paltry pocket money—M.L. Hoy , 1991.

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inferno

has the plural form infernos.

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infinite, infinitely

are derived from the Latin word infinitus meaning ‘without limit’ (Latin finis ‘end’), and this is the proper meaning of these words in English. In practice, however, they tend to be used in the weaker senses ‘very great’ and ‘very much’; this use is acceptable in informal English but is best replaced in more formal contexts by alternatives such as extensive, vast, substantial, considerable, immense, enormous, or in some cases even simply great or huge (or their adverbial equivalents). Examples:
The infinite variety of Chinese food, with classic dishes such as Peking duck and shark's fin soup—Country Life, 1973 /
It seems to me infinitely more absurd … not to want to see the best in this line that civilisation has to offer—Church Times, 1976. When smallness of size or number is meant, infinitesimal and infinitesimally are preferable, when one of the simpler words given above will not do:
Brailsford … judged it more harshly: ‘a blind alley which won't bring us even infinitesimally nearer to peace.’—J. Hinton , 1989 /
She worked crouching down, and the infinitesimal pace of her labours made her feel like an ant, toiling away earnestly at a microscopic task—J. Rogers , 1990.

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infinitive.

The infinitive of a verb is its simplest uninflected form, and the form that appears as the headword in dictionaries. When used in sentences, there are two basic kinds of infinitive:
(1) the bare infinitive, identical to the form just mentioned, which is used with auxiliary verbs such as can, may, shall, should, will, would, etc., with the so-called semi-modal verbs dare, help, and need, and after idiomatic expressions such as had better (I had better wait),
(2) the to-infinitive, in which the base form is preceded by the particle to, which is used with verbs such as expect, have, hope, want, etc., in expressions of purpose (To call attention, ring the bell), in idiomatic expressions such as to be honest, to put it mildly, so to speak, etc., and to form noun phrases which can be the subjects of other verbs (To err is human)

. When a second infinitive follows a to-infinitive, this is often expressed as a bare infinitive without another to: I want to go to the library and get a book.

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inflammable, inflammatory.

Inflammable has the same meaning, i.e. ‘easily set on fire’, as flammable, which is now preferred in official advisory contexts: see FLAMMABLE. Inflammatory means ‘tending to cause inflammation (of the body)’ and figuratively (especially in the context of speeches, leaflets, etc.) ‘tending to cause anger’.

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inflatable,

which since the 1950s has been used as a noun as well as an adjective, is spelt without an e in the middle.

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inflection.

1 Inflection is the process by which words change their form by the addition of suffixes or other means in accordance with their grammatical role. Inflection of nouns usually involves the addition of -s or -es to form plurals (book / books, church / churches); of verbs, the addition of -s or -es, -ed, and -ing to form third-person present-tense forms (want / wants), past tenses (wanted), past participles (wanted), and present participles (wanting); and of adjectives, to form comparative and superlative forms, the addition of -er and -est, sometimes with modification of the stem as in happier, happiest.

2 In the context of phonetics, inflection means ‘modulation (i.e. adjusting the tone or pitch) of the voice’.
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3 The alternative spelling inflexion applies to both meanings, but it is considered old-fashioned and Oxford style prefers inflection.
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inflexible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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inflict, afflict.

Both words are concerned with the suffering of unpleasant circumstances, but they have different constructions. Inflict has the unpleasantness as object, and afflict the victim:
It was he who had inflicted an appendectomy of doubtful necessity on Harry forty-two years ago—R. Goddard , 1990 /
And finally there are abstract fears which afflict a great many—the ‘might be’ fears—Woman, 1991. Afflict is often used in the passive, followed by with or by:
Most commanders would have been afflicted with convenient deafness at that moment, but Davout rounded on the speaker at once—R. Butters , 1991 /
The obvious fact that people of comfortable circumstance live peacefully together and those afflicted by poverty do not goes largely unnoticed—New Statesman, 1992.

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inform

is a formal equivalent of tell and is generally limited to official contexts. It is followed by of or a that-clause (The police informed them of their rights / An announcement informed us that the train was about to arrive), but (unlike tell) does not have the instructional meaning followed by to ( Please inform them to wait outside).

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informant, informer.

An informant is a neutral term for someone who gives information, especially about language, culture, etc. to a linguist or anthropologist. An informer is someone who gives information against another person to the authorities, and it has sinister or unfavourable overtones.

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infotainment,

first recorded in the US in the 1980s, means ‘broadcast material that seeks to inform and entertain’. It belongs to a group of media-related portmanteau words of the late 20c: see also DOCUDRAMA.

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infringe,

meaning ‘to violate (a rule or law)’, has inflected forms infringed, infringing. In current use it is used both transitively (with an object, e.g. The players were penalized for infringing the off-side rule) and intransitively followed by on or upon, with the more general meaning ‘encroach on, threaten’: The measure threatens to infringe upon and restrict our right to travel in certain countries.

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infuse.

When using the word in its physical meaning, you can infuse (a plant, herb, etc.) in a liquid in order to extract its properties, or (by a linguistic process that Fowler called ‘object-shuffling’) you can infuse (a liquid) by inserting something in it. The figurative meanings of infuse behave in corresponding ways: you can infuse (a quality or attribute) into a person or thing or you can infuse (a person or thing) with a quality or attribute. Examples:
Joanna Trollope's latest delicious novel … focuses on two men, lifelong friends of sixtysomething, whose younger women infuse them both with seemingly eternal vigour—She, 1989 /
He did his best to infuse good humour into his voice—H. Forrester , 1990. Imbue could be used in the second construction with the same meaning:
A girl imbued with such qualities would be very special and extremely dangerous—R. Hamilton , 1993.

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-ing forms.

The suffix -ing is added to verbs to form VERBAL NOUNS (Smoking damages your health) and PARTICIPLES (The house had a smoking chimney).

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ingenious, ingenuous.

These two words are distantly related and both have undergone a major shift in meaning. Ingenious came into English via French from a Latin source derived from ingenium ‘cleverness’; it originally meant ‘intellectual, talented’, but the meaning gradually weakened and its current sense is less complimentary and even depreciatory, ‘(of a person) clever, showing aptitude for devising curious devices’ and ‘(of a device or machine) cleverly contrived’:
There were the ingenious hand-made toys, the shadow-puppets manipulated on sticks—H. Trevelyan , 1971 /
I see … that some ingenious person … has videotaped my television series— Aldiss , 1980. Ingenuous, by contrast, is derived from Latin ingenuus ‘freeborn’ and originally meant ‘befitting a free man, noble in character’, eventually weakening in sense to mean ‘open, frank, candid’:
She smiled ingenuously and the openness of her face seemed to ease his bad temper a little—S. Wood , 1993 /
Mr Getty arrived half an hour late with the ingenuous excuse that he had miscalculated how long it would take him to walk from the Ritz to Boodles Club in St James's Street—Art Newspaper, 1992. The noun ingenuity was originally a derivative of ingenuous but was usurped by ingenious in the 16c, so that in current use ingenuity corresponds to ingenious, and ingenuousness corresponds to ingenuous. See also DISINGENUOUS.

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ingénue,

meaning ‘an innocent or unsophisticated young woman’, is first recorded in English in Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1848). It is still usually printed in italics (sometimes without the accent) and pronounced in a French manner.

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ingrained

is the normal spelling for the word meaning ‘deeply rooted, inveterate’ or (in physical senses) ‘deeply embedded’.

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ingratiate,

a 17c Latinate loanword, is now normally used reflexively (with oneself etc.) in the meaning ‘to render oneself agreeable to someone, to bring oneself into favour with someone’:
The child glared at me so fiercely that I tried to ingratiate myself by asking who was her favourite composer—M. Dibdin , 1991. The non-reflexive use is not standard:
He was going to pretend that his limp was cured, and that would ingratiate him with Matta, help him set his trap—R. Campbell , 1993. (A better alternative in this example would be commend him to.) Ingratiate occurs frequently in the adjectival form ingratiating:
He was a typical British Council smoothie, with a fatuous grin and an ingratiating manner— Kirkup , 1991.

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inherent

is pronounced with the second syllable as in either heron or here, with a preference for the first of these.

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inheritor,

meaning ‘a person who inherits’, is spelt -or, not -er. It can be used of both a man and a woman.

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inhuman, inhumane.

The difference in meaning between these two words corresponds to that between human and humane (see HUMAN, HUMANE). Inhuman means ‘lacking the qualities proper to human behaviour; cruel, brutal’, whereas inhumane denotes a lack of feeling or compassion as it affects treatment of other people. Both words can be used of people, actions, or attitudes. Examples:
(inhuman) The West German branch of Amnesty International … called for an investigation into … inhuman torture of political prisoners—Athens News, 1973 /
Claudia could see that locking up a Masai for a crime he did not understand was cruel and inhuman—J. Cartwright , 1993 /
(inhumane) They have, after all, been traditionally concerned with restricting the use of weapons which are considered indiscriminate or inhumane—J. Dewar , 1986 /
He was by no means an inhumane individual; he was a loving father, he was faithful to his wife for many years and to his mistress until death—E. Acton , 1992.

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initial,

as a verb meaning ‘to mark or sign with one's initials’, has inflected forms initialled, initialling in BrE and initialed, initialing in AmE.

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initialisms

see ABBREVIATIONS (3).

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initiate,

meaning ‘to instruct (a person) in some piece of knowledge’, has the person as object and not the item of knowledge. You can initiate someone in something but you cannot initiate something into someone. The correct word for the second construction is instil.

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-in-law

is added to the name of a relation to denote relationship by marriage (mother-in-law, son-in-law, etc.). Plurals are formed by adding -s to the main element, e.g. mothers-in-law. In-laws is used colloquially to refer to such relations generally; it is only idiomatic in the plural.

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innings.

In cricket, innings is both singular (the first innings) and plural (the best of his three innings). In AmE, the word used in baseball has a singular form inning and a plural form innings.

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innuendo,

meaning ‘an indirectly disparaging hint or remark’, has the plural form innuendoes. The word is derived from a Latin gerund (verbal noun) meaning ‘by nodding at’, i.e. ‘by pointing to, by meaning’. In English it was originally used in legal contexts to introduce an explanatory aside or comment, rather like i.e., meaning ‘that is to say’; then it came to be used as a noun denoting the aside itself, from which the current meaning developed.

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innumerate

see ILLITERATE.

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inoculate,

meaning ‘to inject with a vaccine’, is spelt with one n. See also VACCINATE.

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in order for.

This allows a looser construction than IN ORDER THAT and avoids attendant problems with the mood and type of the following verb:
In order for this to work, the change from symmetry to broken symmetry must have taken place very slowly inside the bubble— Hawking , 1988. This construction should be distinguished from the expression in order meaning ‘acceptable, allowable as a procedure’, which can be followed by for:
Is it in order for us to ring up your father and ask him to dine?— Marsh , 1977.

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in order that.

1 Historically, in order that has been rather more restricted in terms of the grammatical construction that follows than has the rather less formal alternative so that. Fowler , writing in 1926, regarded use of the subjunctive (in order that nothing be forgotten) as archaic, use of the modal verbs may and might as the regular construction (in order that nothing might be forgotten), the use of shall and should as permissible in some contexts (in order that nothing should be forgotten), and the use of can, could, will, and would as ‘undoubtedly wrong’ (in order that nothing can be forgotten / in order that nothing would be forgotten / etc.). It is doubtful whether Fowler was correct in terms of usage even in his own day. Today, with electronic language data available to check our intuitions about language, the facts are (1) that the subjunctive is increasingly used and is therefore by no means archaic, and (2) the modal verbs, including can and could, shall and should (though rarely will and would), as well as may and might, are freely used when the context calls for them, although the could, should, and would forms are more common in each pair, and (3) that in order to avoid these problems many people are resorting to the alternative in order for … to … (see 4 below).

2 Examples of usage over the last sixty years or so will put the grammatical range in perspective:
(may, might) Stabilisation of wages is an urgent necessity in order that the industry might enjoy continued peace—World's Paper Trade Review, 1922 /
A suitable block-and-tackle is essential in order that the boat may be hauled far enough up the shore to be safe from ‘rafting’ ice—Discovery, 1935 /
The cutting of benefits to mothers who do not give the names of their children's father … in order that they may be made financially accountable—Rouge, 1990 /
He always insisted upon a certain reserve in order that the artist might give ‘full measure’ on the stage—Dancing Times, 1990.
(can, could)
The motor should be wound up fully for each record played, in order that the turntable can rotate at its normal and even speed—P.A. Scholes , 1921 /
The Telematics Programme … looks at users' needs and requirements in order that entire networks can talk to each other ready for 1992—Practical Computing, 1990 /
In order that the oligomer could be deprotected easily, ‘PAC amidities’ were used in the synthesis—Nucleic Acids Research, 1990.
(shall, should)
What factor … must be present in order that the implicate should be dependent in being on the implicans—D.J.B. Hawkins , 1937 /
In order that he shall be said to make a moral judgement, his attitude must be ‘universalisable’—A.E. Duncan-Jones , 1952.
(do)
I can only hope that such methodology will be adopted by teachers new to media work in order that learning about the media does not become a bookcover here and a story-board there with little attempt at a coherent conceptual context—Times Educational Supplement, 1990.
(subjunctive)
It is necessary to overcome this stability in order that a chemical reaction take place—Chemical Reviews, 1952 /
In order that he be regularly scared by Authority, he should present himself every six months to the Service's Legal Adviser—J. Le Carré , 1989.
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3 Use of the subjunctive is often awkward in negative constructions because the modal verb do is not available, but negative examples are found:
Paulin vacillates in his claims in order that he not have to meet the responsibilities of arguing any of them out—London Review of Books, 1990. This use is regular in AmE.
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4 When the subject of the purpose clause is the same as that of the main clause, the alternative and simpler expression in order to is available (see IN ORDER TO). When it is not the same (as in most of the examples given above), the looser construction in order for … to … has become much more common (see IN ORDER FOR).
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In order to.

This expression of purpose, which is in origin a complex preposition, has been in use since the 16c. In current use it is formed with a to-infinitive to mean ‘with the purpose of (doing), with a view to’:
Rozanov … had taken a sharp right-hand turn in order to avoid going along the road— Murdoch , 1983 /
The SDP … wants to reform the unions in order to bring them back in—Times, 1986. Use of the simpler preposition to instead of in order to is often preferred when the rhythm and emphasis of the sentence allow it, and this is sometimes less formal in effect:
The path takes an unscheduled turn to miss a big tree—C.K. Stead , 1986 /
We both came here to get other people out of trouble— Brookner , 1986. The presence of a different kind of to-infinitive in the vicinity (as in the 1986 Times example) may sometimes be a factor in preferring the longer form in order to.

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input,

now pronounced with the stress on the first syllable both as a noun and as a verb, has defied the linguistic obsolescence that might have been apparent to the OED editors and assumed a new life in the domains of statistics, psychology, electronics, and (especially, since the late 1940s) computing. In all these, the essential meaning is (for the noun) ‘information or data put into a system’ and (for the verb) ‘to enter (information or data) in a system’. The past and past participle forms of the verb are either input or inputted, and the present participle is inputting.

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inquire, inquiry

see ENQUIRE.

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insanitary, unsanitary.

Insanitary is more usual word in BrE and means ‘not sanitary’ in the sense ‘dirty, unhealthy’; both forms are used in this meaning in AmE. Fowler (1926) proposed a more neutral meaning for unsanitary, i.e. ‘lacking and not needing provision for sanitation’ without implications for health.

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inside of,

meaning ‘in less than (a period of time)’ as in It'll be finished inside of three days, is a colloquial expression first recorded in AmE in the 1830s. It has made its way into other varieties of English, and is now heard informally in BrE, though its Americanness is still apparent. A related though now dated expression found in BrE is for the inside of, which has the somewhat different meaning ‘for the most part of’:
At first Isabel had only meant to stay away for the inside of a week—L.P. Hartley , 1955.

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insidious, invidious.

Since both words involve doing or threatening harm, their closeness of form causes them to be commonly confused. Insidious (from Latin insidiae ‘ambush’) means ‘proceeding inconspicuously but harmfully’
(An insidious form of sexism pervades most biographies of famous women, a tendency to treat women's work as peripheral to their lives—Ms, 1973), whereas invidious (from Latin invidia ‘envy’) means ‘likely to excite resentment or indignation’
(I hope it is not invidious … to single out here the museums for mention—Oxford University Gazette, 1984). So insidious has more to do with the process and invidious more to do with its effect.

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insightful,

meaning ‘showing insight or understanding’, is first recorded in a work by John Galsworthy in 1907. Since then it has become an omnipresent word of catch-all praise in many kinds of writing in which the writer, one may suppose, has no precise idea of the compliment he or she is paying:
She created a film which was memorable, intriguing and moving, a warm and insightful reconstruction of a vanished age—Listener, 1982 /
It was a wonderful insightful exhibition—Modern Painters, 1988. The problem with this overused word is that it depends so heavily on insight, which fails to support it with any corresponding force of meaning.

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insignia,

meaning ‘badges or distinguishing marks of office’, is in origin a plural of Latin insigne, although this form is rarely used in English. Insignia may be used either as a plural noun or as a singular (mass) noun, e.g. either Their insignia were worn on their coats or Their insignia was worn on their coats. It should not be used as a countable noun, i.e. preceded by an or used in the plural: They wore an insignia on their coats / They wore insignias on their coats.

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insist

takes several constructions in current English in the meaning ‘to assert as a demand’: you can insist on something (or on doing something), you can insist that something be done (subjunctive, with that optionally omitted, or with should as an alternative), or you can simply insist (with no complement). Examples:
Tony insisted that she accompany him to a meeting of the Literary Society—A.S. Byatt , 1985 /
And I, maliciously, insisted he take the most comfortable chair— Lively , 1987 /
Henry had not wanted to bring Louisa on the expedition but she had cried to go, and the adults insisted that she not be left behind—L. Clarke , 1989 /
The family received me very warmly and Signora Ugolotti insisted that I should have something to eat—W. Newby , 1991. When insist means ‘assert as a fact or truth’, it is followed by a that-clause with an ordinary indicative (i.e. not subjunctive) verb:
The girls insist that it is their fundamental right to wear their scarves at all times—Guardian, 1989.

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in so far as,

meaning ‘to the extent that’, should be written as four words, although it is also found in the form insofar as and occasionally in-so-far as; but in all forms the as is detached:
Enforcement, insofar as salaries are concerned, is costing nothing—Times, 1969 /
The exercise of reviewing his life was proving monstrous in so far as it revealed the places in which it had gone irredeemably wrong— Brookner , 1988. It is a rather formal phrase, and can often be replaced by as far as or recast with little loss of meaning in a simpler construction with since or because (as in the 1988 example just given).

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insoluble, unsolvable.

Insoluble relates to the meanings of dissolve as well as solve, and therefore refers to difficulties, questions, and problems that cannot be answered as well as to substances that cannot be absorbed in liquid. Unsolvable is more limited in range, corresponding only to the first of these meanings.

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inspector

is spelt -or, not -er.

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install

is spelt with two ls and has inflected forms installed, installing. The noun is instalment in BrE and installment in AmE.

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instantly, instantaneously.

Instantly means ‘immediately’ and refers to the point at which something happens, whereas instantaneously means ‘in an instant’ and refers to the (imperceptibly short) period of time that something takes:
He pressed the override switch and the computer came instantly to life—A. Haig , 1974 /
Her throat had been slashed viciously, and she must have died almost instantaneously—R. Long , 1990. The result can often be the same, but the difference of emphasis is worth bearing in mind.

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instigate

properly means ‘to bring about by excitement or persuasion, to foment or provoke’, and usually refers to an antisocial or discreditable action: …
a radical association that … instigated campus riots that succeeded in closing down a number of universities over a period of months in 1969—New Yorker, 1975 Because of its similarity of form to institute, it is sometimes wrongly used in the neutral meaning ‘to start, set up’:
Departments … should ensure that all staff are made aware of their obligations under the legislations, and instigate appropriate actions to ensure compliance—UK Treasury circular, 1991. With so many synonyms available, instigate is best restricted to its traditional role.

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instil

is spelt with one l in BrE and as instill in AmE. The inflected forms are instilled, instilling in both varieties. The nonphysical meaning is ‘to introduce (a feeling, idea, etc.) into a person's mind’:
They believed, quite wrongly, that to instil a sense of guilt into me would ultimately be for my good—R. Hitchcock , 1989. It should not be used with the person as object, tempting though this sometimes is in passive use:
During the war my mother and brother and I went to Norfolk, and there I was instilled with a love of the countryside—Sunday Express, 1986. In this construction, the alternatives imbue, infuse, and inspire are available. See INFUSE.

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instinct

see INTUITION.

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instinctive, instinctual.

The normal adjective from instinct in everyday use is instinctive, which can refer to people and animals or to their behaviour and actions. Instinctual is used mainly in technical contexts such as psychology and psycholinguistics, and is modelled on other forms such as conceptual and habitual, which seem to afford it an extra authority not shared by the more generalized word instinctive.

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institute, institution.

Both words are used with reference to organizations and societies set up to pursue some specific literary, scientific, legal, or social purpose, and choice usually depends on the form already used for a particular name. The earliest institute mentioned in the OED is the Mechanics' Institute (established in 1823), and the earliest institution is the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution (founded in 1798). Famous recent examples include the Women's Institute (first established in Canada in 1897 and then extended to other countries in the early 20c) and the British Standards Institution (the UK national body on standards, established in the 20c). In the generalized meaning ‘something established by law or custom’, as applied for example in the UK to the monarchy, the Grand National, the last night of the Proms, etc., (though no longer to capital punishment and the Workhouse, which featured in Fowler's 1926 list), institution is the only word used.

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instructor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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insubstantial

has ousted unsubstantial for the word meaning ‘lacking substance or solidity’.

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insufficient

is a useful word because enough has no corresponding negative form, but not enough is often more natural and usually less formal-sounding. Another alternative in some contexts is inadequate, which can refer to quantity as well as quality.

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insupportable, unsupportable

see IN- AND UN-.

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insurance

see ASSURE, ASSURANCE.

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insure

see ASSURE, ENSURE.

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intaglio,

an originally Italian word meaning ‘an engraved design or gem’, is pronounced in-tah-li-oh or in-tal-yoh and has the plural form intaglios.

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integral

is both a noun (used in mathematics) and an adjective (meaning ‘forming a whole’ or ‘necessary to the completeness of a whole’). As a noun it is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable; as an adjective it may be pronounced with the stress on the first or the second syllable, although the first is often preferred.

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integrate

essentially means ‘to make whole’ and is widely used of bringing separate or disparate elements together to form a unity. Since the late 1940s it has been used to refer to the social absorption of distinct groups, especially ethnically or culturally different peoples or disadvantaged elements. In this meaning it is used both transitively (with an object) and (less often) intransitively:
Those children who came knowing some English integrated well—New Statesman, 1966 /
Old people, sick people and isolated people need access to a telephone if they are to be fully integrated with the rest of society—Nature, 1972 /
From these beginnings developed the startling and revolutionary notion that in residential areas traffic and people should not be segregated but instead should be integrated—R. Rolley , 1990. The noun integration has developed a corresponding meaning, and those who favour it are known as integrationists:
In the work of black authors who are integrationists a tacitly separatist or ethnically independent element appears frequently— Scholar , 1971.

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intelligent, intellectual.

As adjectives, these words both refer to the capacity of people to think. A person is intelligent who has quick understanding and an ability to apply thought processes effectively. (It is sometimes contrasted with clever, which is more concerned with the manipulation of thought for its own sake than with its useful application.) A person is intellectual (or an intellectual, for it is also a noun) who thinks and acts predominantly to serve the pursuit of knowledge and the appreciation of fine things in literature and the arts, and is less concerned with the mundane and material aspects of life. However, the notion of the intellectual unable to slice bread or drive a car has to be regarded as a somewhat dated (or never valid) stereotype.

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intelligentsia

is a singular noun meaning ‘the class of intellectuals regarded as possessing culture and political initiative’. The form of the word is Russian, and it was originally applied disparagingly in pre-revolutionary Russia. In a weakened sense, it also means ‘people doing intellectual work’.

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intend.

1 Intend is followed in standard usage by a to-infinitive (We intend to go / We intended you to go), by a verbal noun (We intend going), or by a that-clause (We intended that you should go). In the passive, it is followed by for in the meaning ‘be meant or designed for’ (These are intended for children). Non-standard constructions include the type He didn't intend for Wales to lose, which should be expressed as He didn't intend that Wales should lose, and the informal AmE type Don't pick up a magazine unless you intend on buying it, which should be expressed as Don't pick up a magazine unless you intend buying [or intend to buy] it.

2 The participial form intended, meaning ‘the person one intends to marry’, now sounds a dated and precious genteelism. It may be too late for a natural word to emerge (fiancé(e) is an overt loanword, lover is too explicit and may not always be appropriate, and friend is a patent evasion) now that social attitudes have broadened the terminological base well beyond the conventions of marriage.
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intense, intensive.

In the broad meaning ‘existing in a high degree, extreme’ as applied to feelings and qualities, intense is the word to use. (It also applies to people, in the sense ‘apt to feel strong emotion’.) Intensive, which used to share aspects of the non-personal meaning of intense, is now reserved for the special meaning ‘directed to a single point or objective, thorough, vigorous’:
The country has suffered from intensive over-planning—Times, 1977. Special applications include the terms intensive care (of medical treatment, in this form from the 1960s) and labour-intensive (‘needing a large workforce’, 1950s).

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intensifier

in grammar is a class of adverbs that amplify or add emphasis to a gradable adjective (i.e. an adjective with a meaning capable of a range of force), such as extremely, greatly, highly, and very. Some adjectives are also classed as intensifiers, for example complete as in a complete fool, single as in not a single word, sure as in a sure sign, and whole as in a whole month.

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intensive

see INTENSE. It is also an older term for INTENSIFIER.

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intention

is followed either by of + verbal noun or by a to-infinitive, the first of these being somewhat more common and the second influenced by the verb intend:
I have no intention—no present intention—of standing for Parliament— Macmillan , 1979 /
He went to Cambridge to read Natural Science, with the intention of becoming a geologist—H. Carpenter , 1981 /
He has given notice of his intention to turn up this evening— Amis , 1980 /
It was probably all the worry over his unfeeling attitude, his intention to evict her, that had rekindled the dream in the first place—A. Murray , 1993.

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inter, intern.

Inter (with the stress on the second syllable) means ‘to bury (a corpse)’ and has inflected forms interred, interring. Intern means ‘to arrest and confine (an alien) in time of war’. See also INTERMENT, INTERNMENT.

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inter-, intra-.

Inter- is a combining form meaning ‘between, among’ (intercity / interlinear) or ‘mutually, reciprocally’ (interbreed / intermix), whereas intra- forms adjectives and means ‘on the inside, within’ (intramural / intravenous).

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inter alia

is Latin for ‘among other things’. Since alia is neuter plural it does not normally refer to people. The Latin equivalent would be inter alios, but this is never used. The English alternative among others does not have this restriction and is preferable in general use.

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interceptor,

meaning ‘a person or thing (especially an aircraft) that intercepts’, is spelt -or, not -er.

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interchange

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the third syllable as a verb.

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interchangeable

is spelt with an e in the middle to preserve the soft sound of the g.

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intercourse.

The use of this word as short for sexual intercourse (first recorded in 1798 but not common before the 20c) has made it difficult to use it in its general meaning ‘communication or dealings between individuals, nations, etc.’, and a sentence such as the following from Elphinstone's History of India (1841) might now be subject to misunderstanding: The intercourse between those princes was highly characteristic of Asiatic despots. Even the phrase social intercourse, unambiguous though it is in print, can cause uncertainty when heard in the run of ordinary conversation.

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interdependence, interdependency.

Both forms are in use with no difference in meaning, but interdependence is more common.

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interest

is now normally pronounced in-trist or in-trest, with the first e unpronounced. The same applies to the derivative words interested, interesting, etc.

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interestingly

is recorded as a SENTENCE ADVERB from the 1960s, and is now common:
Interestingly, what exercises Lord Chalfont is not the existence of nuclear weapons, an existence which, he says, cannot be repealed— Amis , 1987.

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interface.

The use of this word was transformed between the publication of the original OED entry in 1901 and that of the updated entry in OED2 in 1989. To the earlier editors it meant simply ‘a surface lying between two portions of matter or space, and forming their common boundary’. In the 1960s, two disciplines adopted it for their own special use and effectively rivalled each other in their efforts to propel it into vogue use: the computer industry and that special branch of sociology known as communications theory, represented especially by the Canadian critic and theorist Marshall MacLuhan (The Gutenberg Galaxy, 1962). Now, an interface was, on the one hand, ‘an apparatus designed to connect two scientific instruments, devices, etc., so that they can be operated jointly’ and, on the other, ‘a point where interaction occurs between two systems, processes, subjects, etc’. Its vogue status was assured when it was applied ever more widely to the relations between business development and marketing systems, lecturers and students, unions and management, and other areas of public life:
The issue of insanity as a defense in criminal cases … is at the interface of medicine, law and ethics—Scientific American, 1972. McLuhan was also responsible for the first use of interface as a verb, meaning ‘to come into interaction with’, first recorded in 1967, and a corresponding use in computing soon followed. There are signs that the onslaught from this word has abated somewhat in the 1990s, leaving it to be used more effectively in technical domains. This is fortunate, when more familiar (and usually more precise) alternatives, such as (for the noun) boundary, contact, link, liaison, meeting point, interaction, and (for the verb) communicate, have contact with, interact, are readily available to cater for the general meanings.

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interior, internal.

The differences in meaning and usage between these two words correspond to those between exterior and external (see EXTERIOR, EXTERNAL.). Interior is a noun as well as an adjective and refers in physical senses to the inside of things in contrast to the outside, whereas internal is primarily an adjective and is also applied in abstract or figurative meanings:
The courageous, determined and almost unique efforts of former Police Commissioner C.S. to root out internal graft backfired—Hongkong Standard, 1977 /
Politicisation of religion means the internal transformation of the faith itself—Listener, 1978. With reference to the body, internal injuries are those sustained by the inside organs, and medicine for internal use is meant to be swallowed. The word is also used occasionally as a noun in the plural to mean ‘intrinsic qualities’ and in various technical applications.

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interlocutor,

meaning ‘a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation’, is spelt -or, not -er, and is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable.

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interment, internment.

Interment means ‘the burial of a corpse’, whereas internment means ‘the confinement of aliens in time of war’. See also INTER, INTERN.

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intermezzo,

as used in the contexts of music and drama, has the plural form intermezzos.

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intermission,

meaning ‘an interval between parts of a play, film, etc.’, is American in origin but is now as widely used in BrE as the traditional word interval.

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intermittent,

meaning ‘occurring at intervals’, is spelt -ent.

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in terms of.

When John Major emerged as a possible candidate to lead the Conservative party, one was struck by his engaging artlessness in terms of class—Daily Telegraph, 1991. The Oxford philosopher Michael Dummett (1993) awarded this complex preposition the distinction of being ‘the lowest point so far in the present degradation of the English language’, when used as an all-purpose connector as in the example just given. Extreme though this opinion may be, the use it condemns is a far departure from the original (18c) use of the phrase as an expression of a precise mathematical relation. In its now predominant generalized use, in terms of should state a particular specifying relation:
The impact of Ibsen … did much to revitalize the degenerate English theatre and force it to think in terms of living ideas and contemporary realities—J. Mulgan & D.M. Davin , 1947 /
Justifying space in terms of material wealth is as ridiculous as saying that man went to the Moon merely to be able to return with velcro zips and non-stick frying-pans—New Scientist, 1991. When the meaning intended is as vague as ‘in relation to’, ‘concerning’, or even ‘of’(as in the example given at the beginning), these expressions are preferable.

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intern

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable as a verb (see INTER) and with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (also spelt interne, meaning ‘a recent graduate in medicine’ or ‘a person working as an apprentice in one of the professions’, principally American use).

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international community.

This expression has found favour in recent years with politicians and journalists, and one can see why. It is a convenient catch-all phrase invoked when international support for a policy or action is needed (or, more often, assumed), much as ‘public opinion’ is invoked in domestic politics. In neither case is any specific attribution or verification possible; yet both empty phrases sound impressive. The earliest evidence in the OED dates from the late 1950s and shows the expression to have originated in legal language:
Could the papacy … be property regarded as a member of the international community of the law of nations?—R.A. Graham , 1959. Recent examples:
Pretoria sees the Eminent Persons Group as a useful channel of communication with the ANC and the international community—Financial Times, 1986 /
The way in which Saddam Hussein still behaves is unacceptable to us, to the United Nations and to the international community, and we shall continue to keep pressure on him— Hansard , 1992.

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internecine.

Dr Johnson had a hand in changing the use of this word, which its Latin origin shows to mean ‘characterized by great slaughter’. He mistakenly understood the prefix inter- to denote reciprocal or mutual action and defined internecine as ‘endeavouring mutual destruction’, thereby setting the word on the way to its primary current meaning. Despite the objections of the more fervent purists, who invoke the word's pre-Johnsonian credentials, it is used in its later meaning with reference to physical war and killing and has developed an extended or trivialized meaning applied to the battles of the boardroom and other areas of business and public life:
The electorate … finally gagged on their traditional roughage of internecine strife—Times, 1974 /
He was on edge, engaged in flaming rows, head-blasting music mayhem and internecine squabbling with his garage band compadres Crazy Horse—New Musical Express, 1991.

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Internet

has a capital I.

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internment

see INTERMENT.

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interpersonal,

once the preserve of psychologists, has crept into the language of the curriculum vitae, in which no applicant's credentials are adequate without an endorsement of his or her interpersonal skills, i.e. the ability to deal effectively with other people. It is also widely used by sociologists to refer to the ways in which people treat each other in everyday life:
The social workers in their study appeared to be more aware than the psychiatrists of the relevance of interpersonal and family problems—K. Hawton , 1990.

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interpretative, interpretive.

The preferred form for this word meaning ‘serving to interpret or explain’ is interpretative, on the analogy of authoritative, qualitative, and quantitative:
You may be wondering why I am rabbiting on about interpretative processes when the theme of this article is how to build a bracket clock—Practical Woodworking, 1990. However, interpretive is also found, perhaps reinforced by the tendency to articulate both words in this way in rapid speech:
Chinese culture has undergone major interpretive phases in recent decades— Dædalus , 1991.

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interregnum,

meaning ‘an interval when normal government is suspended’, has the plural form interregnums.

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intestinal,

meaning ‘relating to the intestines’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable (in-tes-ti-nl, preferably) or on the third syllable (in-tes-tiy-nl, increasingly in BrE).

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in that,

which is difficult to analyse grammatically, is effectively a conjunction, but it is not easy to find in dictionaries. Shakespeare used it:
Let him die, in that he is a Fox—2 Henry VI III.i.257. Fowler (1926) regarded it as obsolescent (becoming obsolete) and warned against the misuse that idiomatic expressions are liable to on their way out of the language. But Fowler's judgement was at fault, and the examples he gave were not typical of usage, and so he was tilting at windmills. The expression still has a place at the core of everyday usage and means rather more than is conveyed by because:
They work like disks in that they can be partially erased—Management Computing, 1990 /
The vessels … are unusual in that they have no engine room—Ships Monthly, 1991.

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in the circumstances

see CIRCUMSTANCE.

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into, in to.

1 Into is written as one word when the meaning is unified in expressing motion towards or to within a destination (He walked into a tree / She put her hand into his). However, when in and to retain their separate roles, it is important to write them as separate words, usually when to is not connected with in but is part of a following to-infinitive or refers forward to a noun or phrase: People dropped in to see them / He accompanied her in to dinner / They were listening in to our conversation.

2 The recent (1960s) use of into meaning ‘involved in or knowledgeable about’ (usually as a transitory interest), is informal only:
First I was into Zen, then I was into peace, then I was into love, then I was into freedom, then I was into religion. Now I'm into money—New Yorker, 1971.
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intra-.

see INTER.

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intransitive and transitive verbs.

A verb is transitive when it ‘takes an object’, i.e. it has a following word or phrase which the action of the verb affects (They lit a fire), and is intransitive when it does not take an object (We arrived at noon). Some verbs are always or predominantly transitive (assurre, bury, deny, put); others are always or predominantly intransitive (especially verbs of motion such as arrive, come, go, etc.); and others are sometimes transitive and sometimes intransitive (for example, move is transitive in the sentence Go and move the car and intransitive in the sentence The car moved down the road, and cook is respectively intransitive and transitive in the sentences I like to cook and I'm going to cook the breakfast). Some verbs appear to have two objects, which in traditional grammar are called direct and indirect: in the sentence They gave her an apple, apple is the direct object (= what they gave) and her is the indirect object (= the person who got the apple). See also DIRECT OBJECT, DITRANSITIVE, INDIRECT OBJECT.

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intransitive past participles.

Most past participles are of transitive verbs and, when used as adjectives, denote an action performed on the noun or phrase they qualify; for example, the phrase a polished table denotes the state of the table as having been polished. However, some verbs that are intransitive nonetheless form past participles which are used as adjectives, as in an escaped prisoner (= a prisoner who has escaped), a failed writer (= a writer who has failed), fallen leaves (= leaves that have fallen), and a grown man (= a man who has grown up, not a man who has been grown). In these cases the nouns or phrases they qualify are the subjects rather than the objects of the corresponding verbs. See PARTICIPLES.

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intrigueverb.

1 The inflected forms are intrigued, intriguing.

2 The predominant current meaning is ‘to arouse the curiosity of; to fascinate’. When Fowler wrote (1926) this was a fairly new sense (first attested in the 1890s) and the need for what he regarded as an affected Gallicism puzzled him when an apparent wealth of synonyms, including fascinate, mystify, interest, and puzzle, perplex (he could also have mentioned absorb, captivate, enchant, and enthral), was already available. But none of these has quite the same element of the mildly sinster or elusive that intrigue draws from its other meanings, past and present (principally the still current one ‘to carry on an underhand plot’). Like some of the synonyms mentioned, intrigue is commonly used in its participial form intriguing. Examples:
Even more intriguing than the sociology of fashion is its psychology—Observer, 1974 /
We are in turn sympathetic, intrigued, shocked, entertained—but oh the yearning for the world she magically conjured—A. Huth , 1992.
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intrinsic

means ‘inherent, essential, belonging naturally’ and is the opposite of extrinsic:
The study of portraits on coins is … as much about the political factors that influenced them as about their intrinsic or moral interest—A. Burnett , 1991. See EXTERIOR (2). The corresponding adverb is intrinsically.

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intrusive r

is the insertion of the sound of an unwritten r between one vowel sound and another, as in draw-r-ing for drawing and umbrella-r-organization for umbrella organization. Though much criticized, it is common even in received pronunciation and follows the pattern of linking r in words ending in an r that is only sounded when a vowel follows, as in far away (see LINKING R).

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intuit,

an 18c back-formation from intuition, means ‘to know or deduce intuitively’, and is a mainly literary or technical word:
Maud decided she intuited something terrible about Cropper's imagination from all this—A.S. Byatt , 1990.

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intuition, instinct.

The two words overlap in meaning, and the OED indeed uses intuition in one of its definitions of instinct. Both refer to intellectual activity and both denote processes in which knowledge is apprehended without using any process of reasoning. An important difference, however, is that intuition is confined to humans whereas instinct is attributable to the animal world at large. In extended meanings, intuition means ‘immediate insight’ into a fact or feeling (as in the notorious phrase a woman's intuition), and instinct means ‘unconscious skill’ (an instinct for getting the best deal); these meanings too refuse to stay apart. Examples:
(intuition) A student's intuition moves far more swiftly than can an instruction manual, and I believe that self-tuition is the finest form of education—R. Smith , 1986 /
Whatever that small voice of intuition was telling her about her destiny, common-sense decreed that the Prince already had a full hand of potential suitors—A. Morton , 1993 /
(instinct) Blythswood Square, once home of the infamous poisoner Madaleine Smith, and latterly, numerous other ladies with hearts of loose change and the instincts of a blushing tarantula—E. Chisnall , 1989 /
Running out was totally unprofessional, but she had acted purely on instinct—J. Evans , 1993.

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Inuit

see ESKIMO.

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invalid

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable as an adjective (meaning ‘not valid’) and with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (meaning ‘a person affected by disease or injury’).

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inveigle.

The recommended pronunciation of this verb meaning ‘to entice or persuade by guile’ is in-vay-gl rather than the alternative in-vee-gl.

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inventor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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inventory,

meaning ‘an official list of goods etc.’, is pronounced in-vn-t-ri in BrE and in-vn-taw-ri in AmE.

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inversion.

In grammar, inversion is the process by which the normal order of words, with the subject followed by the verb and then by the object or complement (if any) as in We play football on Saturdays is broken by putting the subject after the verb (as in questions: Do you play football on Saturdays?) or by putting the complement (or part of it) first in the sentence, often for emphasis (On Saturdays, we play football). Other regular forms of inversion, usually requiring little conscious effort by native speakers, occur as follows:
1 In direct speech, the subject and the verb (say, cry, shout, etc.) that identify the spoken words are optionally inverted:
‘Hey!’ shouted Mrs. House, who sat inside with her jumpsuit around her knees—New Yorker, 1992.
2 After negatives placed in initial position for emphasis, the subject and verb are routinely inverted:
Yet never before had I seen anything so scarlet and so black—J.M. Coetzee , 1990.
3 After initially placed so followed by an adjective, the subject and verb are inverted:
He had hardly been aware, so nervous was he, of what he had been saying— Carey , 1988.
4 In a sentence in which a statement is followed by a reinforcing form of do:
She enjoyed a laugh, did Lilian— Drabble , 1987.
5 In declarations beginning with an adverb, when the subject of a following intransitive verb is a noun: Here comes the train but Here they come.
6 In condition clauses with omission of if or whether.
Were this done, we would retain a separate Bar with skill—Times, 1986 /
Statistically, afterworlds—be they Christian, Greek, Pharaonic—must be populated almost entirely by children— Lively , 1987.
7 In certain types of comparison involving a statement after than:
Poland's power structure included neither more nor fewer Jews than did the power structure in Rumania or in Hungary— Dædalus , 1987.
8 Words are placed first for special effect in poetry and rhetorical writing:
His soul proud science never taught to stray— Pope /
Trusting she had been, she who had been reared in the bosom of suspicion— Drabble , 1987. This has spilled over into more informal usage, in which the effect is awkward rather than striking and should be avoided except in conversation:
Great literature it's not, but … it's short, pithy—The Face, 1987.

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inverted commas

see QUOTATION MARKS.

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investigator

is spelt-or, not -er.

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investor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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invincible,

meaning ‘that cannot be defeated’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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invisible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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invite noun

(with the stress on the first syllable). This is a good example of a word that has been in more or less continuous use since the 17c but has not attained the acceptability afforded to its rival, invitation. Dr Johnson must have known it but did not include it in his Dictionary (1755), nor did Charles Richardson in 1863. It was admitted with a ‘colloquial’ label to the OED (1901) and its failure to gain respectability was noted by Fowler (1926), who commented that ‘it is less recognized as an English word than bike'. Seventy years on, things have hardly changed, and the general consensus seems to be that as a noun invite belongs to the informal or even comic realms of language use:
The four detectives didn't await an invite into the house—G.F. Newman , 1970 /
He scoffs, indicating the dodgier invites entreating his attendance at this or that launch—Sunday Express Magazine, 1987 /
He knows a particularly good printer who did the invites for his cousin's wedding—Precision Marketing, 1989.

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involve.

1 This heavily used word has extended its meaning from the notion of envelopment or entanglement (it is derived from the Latin word involvere meaning ‘to enwrap’) to less precise forms of connection, as in What does the work involve? and No other vehicle was involved (in police descriptions of one-vehicle accidents). Resistance to this natural development in meaning belongs to the domain of LOST CAUSES.

2 The participial form involving used as a quasi-preposition is often better replaced by a simpler word: A collision took place involving a private motor vehicle and a lorry (use between) / There was no reduction last year in the number of cases involving cruelty to horses (use of).
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inward, inwards.

The only form for the adjective is inward (the inward route), but inward and inwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for inwards in BrE:
Our instructor starts us on snowplough turns (with the tips of the skis pointing inwards)—Observer, 1978.

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iodine,

the chemical element and the antiseptic made from it, is pronounced either iy--deen or iy--din. In AmE it is also pronounced iy--diyn.

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-ion, -ment, -ness.

These three suffixes are all used to form nouns; -ion and -ment represent Latin elements via Old French and are normally added to verbs to form nouns of action (abridgement, excision) or state (contentment, vexation), whereas -ness is an Old English form, is normally added to adjectives to form nouns of state (bitterness, happiness) or instances of a state or quality (a kindness), and is the most active suffix in forming new words. Regarding -ion and -ment, the choice is largely determined by the forms already existing in Old French, although some nouns were formed on existing English verbs (e.g. acknowledgement, amazement, fulfilment). Some verbs have given rise to more than one form, usually with a difference in meaning (e.g. commission and commitment from commit, excitation and excitement from excite).

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Iranian

is pronounced i-ray-ni-n in BrE, and i-ray-ni-n, i-rah-ni-n, or iy-ray-ni-n in AmE.

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irascible,

meaning ‘irritable, hot-tempered’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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iridescent,

meaning ‘showing gleaming colours, rainbow-like’, is spelt with one r, being derived from the Latin word iris (stem irid-) meaning ‘rainbow’.

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iron curtain.

The phrase had its origin in the 18c with reference to a safety device lowered in theatres between the stage and the auditorium. Its figurative use referring to any impenetrable barrier evolved in the early 19c and it acquired its classic meaning in the 20c when used of the East-European sphere of influence exercised in the postwar years by the Soviet Union. The locus classicus (though not the first use, which was in 1920) was a speech given by Winston Churchill in the US in 1946: From Stettin, in the Baltic, to Trieste, in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Although the term has developed various allusive uses
(I don't want the United States to appear like an ‘Iron Curtain’ to the Vietnamese—Freedomways, 1967) the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union has caused it to lose its potency except as a vivid historical reminder.

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ironic, ironical, ironically.

For the adjective, choice between ironic and ironical seems to be determined largely by sentence rhythm. Both words properly mean ‘of the nature of irony’, i.e. implying the opposite of what is literally or normally meant by a word, look, etc.:
She gave an ironical laugh as she looked at Guy— Manning , 1977. In this sentence ironical shows that the laugh was marking something other than the usual humour. Both words, however, are now increasingly used to mean simply ‘odd, strange, paradoxical’, and the same is true of the corresponding adverb ironically:
It is paradoxical, ‘ironical’ as people say today, that the constitution should bestow this power on someone who laments constitutionitis in others—Observer, 1987 /
It is ironic that such a beautiful orderly house should be the setting of our messy little farce—S. Mason , 1990 /
Ironically the bombing of London was a blessing to the youthful generations that followed—I.  & P. Opie , 1969 /
Ironically enough, the Israeli role in both remains crucial—Sanity, 1991. These uses, which are surely established despite frequent criticism of them, perhaps contain an echo of the concept of dramatic irony, in which an audience is made aware of an act or circumstance that affects the action on stage (or screen) in a way that is unknown to one or more of the participants in the drama.

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iron out

is a common phrasal verb, American in origin and used informally to mean ‘to remove (difficulties etc.)’. As the physical image is still fairly near the surface, it is prudent to avoid contexts that might sound incongruous. Gowers (1965) pointed out the absurdity of ironing out bottlenecks, and to this may be added the following from the computer age:
The new computer was delivered … last week. … Ironing out the bugs will probably take until the new year—Guardian, 1971.

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irony.

In the ordinary use of language irony means primarily ‘an expression of meaning by use of words that have an opposite literal meaning or tendency’. When we look out of the window at the pouring rain and exclaim ‘What a lovely day!’, we are using a trivial form of irony. Literary forms of irony include (1)dramatic irony, in which an audience is taken into the writer's confidence and is made aware of more than the participating characters know, and (2) so-called Socratic irony (after the Greek philosopher Socrates, who used it), in which a participant in a discussion falsely purports to be ignorant of a matter in order to elicit a particular response from the other participants. A fuller historical account of irony in language will be found in the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), p. 532.

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irreducible,

meaning ‘that cannot be reduced’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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irrefutable,

meaning ‘that cannot be refuted’, should be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, although pronunciation with stress on the third syllable is gaining ground.

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irregardless

is in origin probably a blend of irrespective and regardless. It is sometimes found in humorous contexts and is non-standard.

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irrelevance, irrelevancy.

Both words are in use and there is no distinction in their meaning, but irrelevance is more common.

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irreparable, irrepairable.

Irreparable, meaning ‘that cannot be recovered or made good’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, and is used of circumstances and relationships, typically qualifying words such as consequences, loss, harm, and damage. The word used to describe physical objects, machines, etc., that cannot be repaired is irrepairable (or unrepairable, not repairable, beyond repair), pronounced with the stress on the third syllable as in repair; but irreparable damage is the normal expression whether or not the damage is physical:
These people were supposed to be making us fit and instead they were doing irreparable damage to my heart and lungs—J. Herriott , 1977./
The strikers had defied a decree … to end the strike, which he said was causing irreparable damage to the economy— Keesings , 1990.

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Irreplaceable,

meaning ‘that cannot be replaced’, is spelt -able and with an e in the middle to preserve the soft sound of the c. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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irrepressible,

meaning ‘that cannot be restrained’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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irresistible,

meaning ‘that cannot be resisted’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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irrespective of.

This expression is variously regarded by grammarians as an adjective plus a preposition, an adverbial phrase (alternative to irrespectively of, which is also found though much less often), or a complex preposition. The difficulty of classification arises because of the detached way in which the expression is used, undermining the status of irrespective as an adjective:
People sometimes judge actions to be right irrespective of their consequences—A.J. Ayer , 1972 /
The beginner in chess, who tries to follow his plans irrespective of his partner's countermoves, will soon go down in defeat— Bettelheim , 1987.

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irresponsible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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irreversible,

meaning ‘that cannot be changed or undone’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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irrevocable,

meaning ‘that cannot be changed or recalled’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

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irridescent

is an erroneous spelling of IRIDESCENT.

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is.

1 For general points of usage see BE. Some common and interesting idiomatic uses of is are given here.

2 For is after a compound subject, as in Fish and chips is my favourite meal, see AGREEMENT (3). For problems of agreement between subject and complement when one is singular and the other is plural, as in More nurses is the next item on the agenda, see AGREEMENT (5).
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3 … IS WHAT … OR … IS HOW … FOLLOWING A STATEMENT.
One never knows with these lefties, is what I always say—A. Brink , 1988 /
You step up to him and you cart him all over the park, is what you do—S. Fry , 1990. This use, as the contexts of these examples show, is highly informal.
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4 IS NOTHING TO DO WITH. This construction, as an alternative to has nothing to do with, was defended by Fowler (1926) as the more natural choice in everyday speech ‘when we … are not in the mood for weighing words in the scales of grammar’, is found in the 19c
(This is nothing to do with your life—H.S. Merriman , 1896), but is less common than the construction with have in current use to judge by the evidence in the British National Corpus and in the OED.
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5 —IS—.
Let anyone repeat, as often as he pleases, that ‘the will is the will’— Locke , 1690 /
A man's a man for a' that— Burns , 1790 /
Home is home though it is never so homely— Lamb , 1823. These older literary uses are echoed in 20c occurrences:
A job's a job, that was the thing— Gee , 1985 /
She worried about Colin's wrist in the cast but a trip out was a trip out, and the day mustn't be spoiled—N. Virtue , 1990. Occasionally the word is is repeated (echoing Gertrude Stein's
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, is a rose …—Sacred Emily, 1913)
: There is only one art form common to all sorts and conditions of people: the poster … A hoarding is a hoarding is a hoarding—Guardian, 1970.
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6 POSTPONED AND REPEATED IS. This somewhat informal use dates from the early 19c:
He's a sad pickle, is Sam!—M. Mitford , 1828 /
Yes, he is true to type, is Mr Heard— Knox , 1932.
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7 … IS ALL.
No one's interested, is all—M. Doane , 1988. This idiomatic expression, used for emphasis at the end of a sentence, sounds dialectal but is found in standard (especially American) works of fiction.
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-ise

as a verbal ending is sometimes optional as an alternative to -ize (baptise, prioritise) and is sometimes obligatory because of a word's origin (advertise, compromise, exercise). See more fully at -IZE.

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island, isle.

The two words are etymologically unconnected. Island is derived from an Old English word gland, which is a combination of g (itself meaning ‘island’) and land; isle is a reduced form of insula, the Latin word for ‘island’.

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-ism and -ity.

These noun-forming suffixes are derived via Old French from the Latin noun endings -ismus and -itas. The suffix -ism forms nouns of action based on verbs or adjectives (baptism, criticism, heroism), and has a number of special meanings:
(1) a political or religious movement or system of thought (atheism, Buddhism, realism),
(2) a pathological condition (alcoholism, Parkinsonism),
(3) a special feature or peculiarity of language (Americanism, Gallicism),
(4) a basis of prejudice or discrimination (a 20c development first apparent in racism, and more recently in sexism, ageism, speciesism, etc.)

. The suffix -ity has the special role of forming abstract nouns from comparative forms (inferiority, majority) but in general has the more limited meaning ‘a quality or condition, or an instance of it’ (authority, humility, purity). Some words have produced nouns (with different meanings) in both -ism and -ity (liberalism / liberality, modernism / modernity, realism / reality, etc.).

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issue verb.

The use reflected in the sentences They issued them with passports and (perhaps more typically) They were issued with passports is military in origin and in its general application (on the analogy of provide and supply) was disapproved of by Fowler (1926). It has nonetheless become well established during the 20c, at least in BrE although it occurs less often in AmE
(People in Russia's second city … are issued with coupons which entitle them to basic foodstuffs at subsidized state prices—Chicago Tribune, 1991).

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-ist

is a suffix forming nouns and adjectives corresponding to various kinds of noun in -ism (atheist, Buddhist, evangelist, racist, sexist), nouns denoting a person engaged in some activity or pursuit (archaeologist, balloonist, cyclist, economist). Some words have an alternative form in -alist (agriculturalist / agriculturist, educationalist / educationist) and in these cases both forms are correct.

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italics.

Italics are a style of sloping type, like this, and are used for a number of special purposes, principally:
TITLES OF BOOKS, FILMS, WORKS OF ART, ETC.: David Copperfield, Gone with the Wind, Mona Lisa.
TITLES OF LONG POEMS: Paradise Lost.
NAMES OF NEWSPAPERS ETC.: Daily Express, Radio Times.
NAMES OF SHIPS AND VEHICLES: Ark Royal, Concorde.
FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES: amour propre, ne plus ultra (see FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES).
FOR EMPHASIS: ‘Oh, come on, it can't be that bad.’
For other uses see Hart's Rules, 23–8. In writing, italics are shown by underlining.

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itch verb.

Itch is recorded with the transitive meaning ‘to cause to itch’ from the 16c, but in BrE is now usually informal only, although it is still standard in AmE. Some examples are poetic:
The thick super-salty water of the Mediterranean, which tires and itches the naked eye—R. Campbell , 1951 /
The dice already itch me in my pocket— MacNeice , 1951. Another transitive meaning, mainly down-market AmE, is ‘to scratch (a part of the body)’, as in
Don't itch your leg—Chicago Tribune, 1991.

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-ite.

The adjectival ending is derived chiefly from Latin past participles in -itus. The length of the Latin i varied, but no longer directly influences the pronunciation in English (definite with short i and recondite with long i were not so in Latin, for example). The -ite in anthracite, dynamite, Jacobite, etc., is a different form, and is always pronounced with a long i.

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it is I, it is me

see CASES 2A.

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itself

see HERSELF.

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its, it's.

Its is the possessive form of it (The cat licked its paws) and it's is a shortened form of it is (It's raining again) or occasionally it has (I don't know if it's come).

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-ize, -ise in verbs.

1 SPELLING. The primary rule is that all words of the type authorize/authorise, civilize/civilise, legalize/legalise, where there is a choice of ending, may be legitimately spelt with either -ize or -ise throughout the English-speaking world (except in America, where -ize is always used). Oxford University Press and other Publishing houses (including The Times until recently) prefer -ize; Cambridge University Press and others prefer -ise.
The reason there is a choice is that the -ize ending, which corresponds to the Greek verbal ending -izo (whether or not the particular verb existed in Greek in the same form), has come to English in many cases via Latin and French sources, and in French the spelling has been adapted to -ise. A key word showing the line of descent is baptize, which answers to Gk ßí and Latin baptizo; the French have opted for baptiser, and a large proportion of English writers and publishers have followed suit by writing the word as baptise. People are generally aware of the choice, but often mistakenly regard the -ize ending as an Americanism; and they find it especially hard to countenance in words which do not have corresponding nouns in -ation but other forms in which the letter s features, such as criticize (criticism), hypnotize (hypnosis), and emphasize (emphasis).
It is important to note that there are some words in which there is no choice: they have to be spelt with -ise because they come from words in which the relevant elements are -cise, -mise, -prise, -vise, or other forms unconnected with -izo/-iso. The most important of these words are given in the table below:

VERBS THAT MUST BE SPELT WITH -ISE

advertise

despise

improvise

advise

devise

incise

apprise

dis(en)franchise

merchandise

arise

disguise

prise (open)

chastise

enfranchise

revise

circumcise

enterprise

supervise

comprise

excise

surmise

compromise

exercise

surprise

demise

franchise

televise

The AmE spelling of analyse, catalyse etc., as analyze, catalyze, etc., is also a separate matter: see -YSE, -YZE.

2 STATUS OF SUCH VERBS. The oldest English verb in -ize is baptize (13c), mentioned above. Other examples over the centuries are authorize (14c), characterize (16c), civilize (17c), fossilize (18c), and terrorize (19c). Apart from the spelling question, there is a widespread belief that there are too many new verbs of this kind. Objections have been raised to finalize and prioritize and (with more reason) hospitalize and permanentize. Forms not attested before 1950 include, in addition to those given in the table below, a whole lot of forms beginning with re- including resensitize and retribalize, and noun derivatives such as institutionalization and privatization. However, these words represent a small proportion of new words and meanings in English, even among verbs, and it is significant that fewer than ten words in -ization or -ize are entered in each of the two editions (1991 and 1997) of the Oxford Dictionary of New Words, out of a vocabulary total of 2000 items in each. There are many opportunities for ad hoc or nonce formations, and some examples are given in the table. All have their uses on occasions and will come and go as needed without becoming part of the permanent stock of language.
Words in -ize, -ization, or -izer recorded after 1950.
Nonce and ad hoc forms are marked with an asterisk

WORD

COMMENT OR SOURCE

annualize

capsulize

computerize

condomize

Newsweek, 1987

denuclearize

disasterize

funeralize

recorded as obsolete in the 17c and now revived

invisibleize

Iris Murdoch, 1991

liquidizer

a machine

marketization

modularize

operationalize

peripheralization

privatize

psychedelicize

2 citations in the OED

rehospitalization

remobilize

ruggedize

‘to make rugged’

technologize

texturize

transistorize

common in the 50s and 60s

trivializer

a person

weaponization

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3 VERDICT. English has always been highly productive in forming new verbs to represent actions and processes related to social and material developments. Many of these have used suffixes such as -ize and -ify. Some of the 20c newcomers will drop by the wayside; others will survive into the 21c and beyond, despite the occasional creasing of brows. Together they provide significant linguistic insights into social change.
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J

jacket verb,

meaning ‘to cover with a jacket’, has inflected forms jacketed, jacketing, with one t.

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jail, jailer

is now more common than gaol, gaoler in BrE and is the dominant spelling in AmE. It is the preferred spelling, except in historical contexts in which the gaol-forms might be more appropriate.

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Jap,

a colloquial shortening of Japanese, is used as a noun and adjective with strong derogatory overtones. It is less common now than it was in the postwar period, and there are signs that it is falling into disuse.

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jargon.

1 HISTORY OF THE TERM. The OED gives several meanings for jargon, all except one mostly derogatory in connotation. The prevailing current senses of the word are (1) ‘words or expressions used by a particular group or profession’, and (2) ‘incomprehensible talk, gibberish’, with the second regarded as arising conceptually out of the first, although this is not how the meanings evolved historically. The exception just mentioned is the meaning ‘the inarticulate utterance of birds’, which is the oldest sense, is found in Chaucer, and as the OED notes ‘has been revived in modern [i.e. 19c] literature’, e.g. by Longfellow :
With beast and bird the forest rings, Each in his jargon cries or sings—Return of Spring 6. Both meanings given above developed (apart from an isolated Middle English use of the second) in the 17c; there is a good example in the notice ‘Bookseller to Reader’ published with Swift's Tale of a Tub (1704): If I should go about to tell the reader, by what accident I became master of these papers, it would, in this unbelieving age, pass for little more than the cant or jargon of the trade.

2 JARGON IN THE RIGHT PLACE. Every profession and sphere of activity develops its own jargon to enable its members or participants to communicate effectively with one another; medicine, law, gastronomy, sociology, and (most recently) computing are well-known examples. The following example is drawn from a work of literary criticism:
The view of the text … has been seriously challenged in recent years, mainly by structuralist and semiological schools of criticism. According to these, the text has no within, beneath or behind where hidden meanings might be secreted. Attention is instead focused exclusively on the processes and structures of the text and on the ways in which these produce meanings, positions of intelligibility for the reader or the specific effects of realism, defamiliarisation or whatever—T. Bennett , 1982. It will be seen from this example that jargon consists of ordinary words used in special ways as well as specially devised words (such as defamiliarisation). Jargon often arises from a need for precision, when terms that would be acceptable in general contexts are not precise enough in specialized use, combined with a need for concision in order to avoid having to repeat lengthy expressions that are likely to recur in a piece of writing. When the archaeologist Colin Renfrew calls the driving out of a people from their normal territory a constrained population displacement, he is using a term devised to summarize an argued proposition without having to repeat lengthy explanations each time.
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3 JARGON IN THE WRONG PLACE. Examples are given in the entry for GOBBLEDEGOOK of jargon misused, when it is intended to be intelligible to the public at large or to people who are not members of the profession or activity concerned. In the Plain English Guide (1995), Martin Cutts quotes the following example of jargon used by a housing association in letters to its tenants explaining why modernization work has been delayed: Find attached a draft programme for the anticipated commencement date on your property and we anticipate that the work will take three or four days to complete. Your next contact will be by the contractor … who will contact you individually about a week prior to the start at your house. If you anticipate any problems with access arrangements or require any further information, please do not hesitate to call … [etc.]. Cutts rewrites this section of the letter as follows, removing the jargon and simplifying the structure to produce a version that is not only much clearer but more reassuring to the reader when reassurance is the intention of the letter: I attach a programme which shows the likely starting date for work on your property. We expect the work will take three or four days to complete. You will hear next from the contractor … who will contact you about a week before work at your house begins. Please call … if you think the contractor will have any problems with access to your house, or if you need any more information.
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jehad

see JIHAD.

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jejune

is pronounced ji-joon. It properly means ‘meagre, scanty; dull or uninteresting’ and is used primarily of ideas or arguments. It is derived from the Latin word jejunus meaning ‘fasting’, and originally meant ‘without food’ in English. The writer Kingsley Amis has famously defended the traditional meaning of jejune against users of a newer meaning ‘puerile, childish, naïve’, which arose towards the end of the 19c by a somewhat bizarre association with juvenile:
Mother seemed jejune, at times, with her enthusiasms and her sense of mission—M. Howard , 1982. Although this use is quite common, it should be avoided in favour of readily available alternatives such as childish, infantile, or juvenile, and innocent, guileless, ingenuous, or naïve.

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jetsam

see FLOTSAM AND JETSAM.

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jettison

in current use is a verb meaning ‘to discard’ and refers to physical things as well as abstract (e.g. ideas). Its origins are as a noun in maritime law, meaning ‘the action of throwing goods overboard, especially to lighten a ship in distress’. Its verb inflections are jettisoned, jettisoning.

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jeu d'esprit,

meaning ‘a witty or humorous trifle’, is pronounced zher des-pree and is printed in italics. It has the plural form jeux d'esprit (pronounced the same).

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Jew.

The use of Jew in its opprobrious meaning ‘a person who is mean or drives a hard bargain’, and the corresponding verb to jew, are thankfully disappearing from the language, although occasional uses are found in print. These uses, first recorded in the time of Shakespeare , have caused deep offence and have been the cause of great embarrassment to historical lexicographers who have had to record them. Robert Burchfield , the OED editor, has described the problem in a study of controversial vocabulary which appeared in Unlocking the English Language (1989), 83–108.

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jewel

has inflected forms jewelled, jewelling, and the derivative form jeweller. In AmE the usual forms are jeweled, jeweling, and jeweler.

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jewellery

should be pronounced joo-l-ri, not joo-l-ri (as in foolery). The form jewelry is usual in AmE and is sometimes used in BrE.

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Jewess,

though in use since the 14c, now has derogatory overtones (for racial reasons and because of gender sensitivity) and should be avoided, although Jewish people are said to use it among themselves.

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jibe

see GIBE; GYBE.

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jihad,

meaning ‘a holy war undertaken by Muslims against unbelievers’, is pronounced jee-hahd, and is preferably spelt this way rather than jehad.

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jiu-jitsu

see JU-JITSU.

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jockey

has the plural form jockeys as a noun, and as a verb (used especially in the expression jockey for position) has inflected forms jockeys, jockeyed, jockeying.

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jollily. jolly adverbs,

Jolly is used as a colloquial substitute for very (A jolly good idea / You know jolly well). The adverb meaning ‘in a jolly manner’ is jollily, although awkwardness of articulation reduces its use when in a jolly manner (or way) is available instead.

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journalese.

Some words and uses are peculiar to the language of newspaper articles and, more especially, newspaper headlines. Examples are probe for ‘investigation’ or ‘investigate’ (Hong Kong missing millions probe), quiz for ‘interrogate’ (Police quiz councillors over expenses fraud), package for ‘deal’ (Steel bosses offer new pay package), and swap for ‘transfer’ in the medical sense (Baby heart swap drama). Combinations of nouns in headlines (as in the last example), use of the present tense, and use of a to-infinitive to denote future time, are common features:
Councillor planning action over go-go girl affair claim—Evening News (Edinburgh), 1994 /
Sex cinema blaze man pleads guilty—Independent, 1995 /
Premier to defy unions over £3.60 minimum wage—Daily Mail, 1998. Puns, as the most concise form of written humour, feature prominently in headlines, e.g.
Hirst's sheep give Britain art failure—Independent, 1998 (reporting an opinion poll which found that the ‘pickled sheep’ art of Damien Hirst was among least liked by British visitors to art galleries).

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journey

has the plural form journeys.

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judgement, judgment.

Both spellings are in use, and both are correct. Judgement is more common in general use in BrE, but judgment is dominant in legal contexts and in AmE.

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judging by, judging from.

Both forms are used with the meaning ‘if we are to judge by …’ at the head of a clause and only loosely connected grammatically to the main clause:
Untidy housewives abound, judging by all the so-called slatterns, trolly-mogs, slovens and tosspots—P. Wright , 1974 /
Judging from her voice, she had been crying—M. Nabb , 1989 /
Fen for the most part seemed absorbed in his own thoughts, which, judging by his expression, did not please him—A. Murray , 1993.

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judicial, judicious.

These two words, both derived from the Latin word judex meaning ‘judge’, are easily confused although their current meanings are distinct. Judicial means ‘relating to judges or legal processes’ (a judicial inquiry / judicial separation), whereas judicious means ‘sensible, prudent; sound in judgement’ in general contexts (judicious use of time / a judicious plan of action). A judicial decision made by a judge is one in accordance with the law, whereas a judicious decision (whether made by a judge or some other person) is one that is wise and discerning when all factors are taken into account.

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ju-jitsu,

the Japanese system of unarmed combat, is preferably spelt this way, not jiu-jitsu.

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jumbo

has the plural form jumbos.

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junction, juncture.

A junction is a point at which two or more things are joined, and usually refers to physical objects. It has the special meaning of ‘a point at which roads or railway lines meet or cross’. Juncture occurs principally in the expression at this juncture, which properly denotes a coincidence of events producing a critical or dramatic moment but in practice tends to mean simply ‘at this moment, now’:
The United States came to Vietnam at a critical juncture of Vietnamese history—F. Fitzgerald , 1972 /
At this juncture, the opposing demands of two distinct worlds were visited upon her—C.G. Wolff , 1977 /
Liz hoped that at this juncture Shirley would go to bed— Drabble , 1987.

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junta,

a Spanish loanword meaning ‘a political or military clique taking power after a coup or revolution’, is now pronounced in an anglicized way as jun-t. The plural form is juntas.

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juror,

a member of a jury, is spelt -or. A male juror is sometimes called a juryman and a female juror a jurywoman.

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just adverb.

1 When it means ‘a little time ago’, just is used differently in BrE and AmE. In BrE the usual construction is with a perfect tense formed with have: I have just arrived home, but in AmE the verb is normally a simple past form: I just arrived home. Care needs to be taken to avoid misunderstanding, since just can also mean ‘only, simply’ as in They are just good friends. So a sentence such as BrE I have just seen my brother and, even more, AmE I just saw my brother can mean either ‘I have recently seen my brother’ or ‘I have seen my brother and no one else’ (or, perhaps, ‘I have seen my brother and have done nothing else’). In speech, intonation will usually clarify the meaning, but in written English the difficulty may need to be resolved by rephrasing.

2 The phrase just now has several meanings, and the primary meaning can change from one part of the English-speaking world to another. The principal possibilities are (1) with past reference, ‘a short time ago’
(What was it you were saying just now, child?—E. Jolley , 1985 /
When I returned to the house just now I sensed that something—unusual had occured—S. Craven , 1993), (2) with a present continuous tense, ‘at this moment’
(Just now I'm going with a Catholic, who lives down in Armagh—F. Kippax , 1993), (3) with a simple present, ‘at this time, right now’, common generally with a negative
(She cannot afford to think about her mother just now—J. Neale , 1993) but characteristically Scottish in positive use
(But it's not just me, it's the whole of Scotland just now—M. Gray , 1989), (4) with a future tense in South African and Indian English, ‘very shortly, in a little while’
(The men on cell duty will do that just now—A. Sachs , 1966 (South Africa)).
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juvenile

has a neutral meaning ‘relating to or associated with young people’ (juvenile crime) and a derogatory meaning ‘immature’ (Behaving in a juvenile way).

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K

keep.

The construction keep + object + from + -ing verb is idiomatic in current English:
His hands held flat over his ears as if to keep his whole head from flying apart— Amis , 1978. The intransitive use of keep + from + -ing verb is recorded in the OED but is now mostly confined to AmE:
Maria cut the wheel to the left, to keep from hitting the cans—T. Wolfe , 1987.

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kerb

is the standard BrE spelling of the word meaning ‘stone edging to a pavement or raised path’. In AmE it is spelt curb: see CURB.

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kick.

1 The word kick has provided some powerful metaphors over the years. In recent use, the image of starting a motorcycle by the downward thrust on a pedal (a kick-start) has been vividly applied figuratively to mean ‘an impetus given to get a process started’. It is now more commonly used as a verb, ‘to get (a process) started’:
With lots of new ideas this high profile branch is an excellent place to kick-start your career—advertisement in The Grocer, 1996.

2 A rather less appealing image, taken from the macho language of American business management, is the term kick-ass, used as an adjective to mean ‘rough, aggressive, powerful’:
His point is that ‘the old kick-ass way of managing’ is counter-productive—Times. 1991. Best avoided, except in direct reference to those who get their own kick from this sort of thing.
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kid,

in its informal meaning ‘child’ (He's only a kid / He came with his wife and kids), has a long history, being first recorded in the 17c, but is still only suitable for more informal use. The verb to kid, meaning ‘to trick or tease’, is early 19c and possibly derived from this noun; it has the same level of informality.

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kidnap

has inflected forms kidnapped, kidnapping in BrE; in AmE the forms kidnaped, kidnaping are also used.

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kidnapping

see ABDUCTION.

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kidney

has the plural form kidneys.

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kilo

has the plural form kilos.

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kilometre

is spelt -metre in BrE and -meter in AmE. The word is better pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, in line with other words for measures such as kilogram and millimetre, although pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable, on the (less secure) analogy of words such as barometer and speedometer, is increasingly common and is standard in AmE and other non-British varieties.

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kimono,

meaning ‘long loose Japanese robe’, has the plural form kimonos, or occasionally (as in Japanese) kimono.

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kin

is now a rather old-fashioned term for one's relatives or family. It is mostly used in the fixed expressions next of kin and kith and kin.

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kinda

see KIND OF.

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kindly,

as used to introduce a formal request (You are kindly requested to refrain from smoking / Kindly refrain from smoking), now has a dated sound to it, and it is never quite clear who it is who is being kind (a point Fowler noticed in 1926). A modern alternative, often seen for example on notices in restaurants and taxis, uses the style Thank you for not smoking, which is thought to be more effective in its direct assumption of compliance.

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kind of, sort of.

1 These expressions mean much the same, and share the same grammatical problems. (The issues raised here seem to occur less often in practice with the third alternative, type of.) There is less of a problem when kind of is preceded by a or the, which are invariable, but difficulties arise with this, that, these, and those. When followed by a singular noun, the correct form is (e.g.) this kind [or sort] of house, not this kind [or sort] of a house. When it is followed by a plural noun, many purists insist on making kind or sort plural as well, e.g. these kinds [or sorts] of houses. To say this kind [or sort] of houses is ungrammatical, but an alternative style these kind [or sort] of houses has been in use since the 14c. Although this too is ungrammatical on a normal interpretation and was questioned by the OED, its rationale lies in regarding kind of as an adjectival phrase qualifying the following noun (in this case, houses), with the demonstrative pronoun these or those also qualifying houses rather than qualifying kind (or sort). This type is now very common in colloquial contexts:
She was used to these kind of smells in the night-time bedclothes—M. Duckworth , 1960 /
These sort of people are only interested in lining their pockets—J. Leland , 1987. Alternatives are these kinds (or sorts) of—and—of this kind (or sort):
The pressure here is to consider the … circumstances which do, in fact, coerce people in these sorts of ways—M.  1989 /
The present tax rules can in practice effectively discourage demergers of this kind—Times, 1980.

2 In AmE, kind of a is often used informally where in BrE it would be a kind of:
We're kind of a middle-aged Sonny and Cher—Washington Post, 1973.
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3 Kind of and sort of also occur as adverbial phrases in informal contexts, especially in AmE:
All these rich bastards driving up the property values have kind of made it impossible for everyone else—New Yorker, 1987 /
He just sort of glanced at the photos and then carried on talking—N. Watts , 1990.
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4 The uses shown in paragraphs 2 and 3 are characteristically American and should not be used in more formal speech or writing. An even more informal written form is kinda, which represents the sound of kind of in rapid speech:
That little chap must have been really desperate to take that kinda crap— Davis , 1989 /
There was this real weirdo in here, rifling about the desks, wearing some kinda disguise—S. James , 1993. Again the association is chiefly American, and is non-standard.
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knee-jerk

is a popularized technicality taken from the physical meaning ‘a sudden involuntary kick caused by a blow on the tendon just below the knee when the leg is hanging loose’. It is now popular among politicians, broadcasters, etc., especially in the phrase knee-jerk reaction, as an adjective meaning ‘instant and barely considered’:
The [motor] industry's … knee-jerk support for road construction and its opposition to tighter air pollution standards have not endeared it to the public—Times, 1991 /
The Braer disaster produced a knee-jerk reaction among many hoping to improve safety standards at sea— Anglian , 1993.

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kneel.

The past and past participle form knelt is now more common than kneeled in all varieties of English:
Some of the recruits knelt to pray before retiring, presumably for strength— Burgess , 1987.

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knife.

The plural form of the noun is knives, but the inflected forms of the verb are knifes, knifed, knifing.

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knit.

The past tense and past participle form of the verb in its main meaning is knitted (a knitted scarf). In figurative meanings, knitted and knit are both used (She knit/knitted her brows / a close-knit group).

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knock up.

Care needs to be taken with this phrasal verb, which in BrE means ‘to wake by knocking on the door’ and in AmE means ‘to make pregnant’.

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know.

The expression you know, inserted parenthetically in a sentence in speech, sometimes has real meaning, e.g. in introducing extra information that the hearer is likely to know already, but generally it is a meaningless sentence-filler like I mean:
People get the wrong idea, thinking we might be, you know, glamorous or brilliant or something—Sunday Times, 1974.

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know-how,

meaning ‘technical expertness or practical knowledge’, is first recorded in print in AmE in 1838, but did not come into widespread use until about a century later. It is now established in both Britain and America, and is acceptable in all but the most formal contexts.

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knowing.

We won't lunch till late, knowing her— Wesley , 1983. This use as an unattached participle is well established and unexceptionable.

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knowledgeable

is spelt with an e in the middle.

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Koran,

the sacred book of Islam, is normally spelt this way in English contexts, although the form Quran or Qur'an, a closer transliteration of the Arabic original (meaning ‘recitation’), is also found.

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kosher,

meaning ‘fulfilling the requirements of Jewish law’, is pronounced koh-sh.

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kowtow,

meaning ‘to act obsequiously’, is pronounced with each syllable to rhyme with cow, and is no longer spelt ko-tow.

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kudos,

meaning ‘glory, renown’ (usually in connection with a particular event or achievement), is a (19c) singular noun derived from a Greek noun with the same meaning. Its occasional use in the 20c as if it were plural, with even a singular back-formation kudo, is non-standard verging on the illiterate:
This did not win Mr. Eisenhower many kudos in the press—Wall Street Journal, 1963 /
A kudo to Life for a fine story on baseball's spring training—Life, 1963.

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L

lab

is an established and acceptable short form of laboratory in all but the most formal contexts.

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label verb

has inflected forms labelled, labelling in BrE and labeled, labeling in AmE.

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laboratory

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable in BrE and with the stress on the first syllable (and the final syllable like Tory) in AmE.

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labour

is the standard spelling in BrE, whereas labor is the standard form in AmE.

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lack verb.

The use with for meaning ‘to be short of something’ in negative contexts seems to have originated in the 19c:
If you are inclined to undertake the search, I have so provided that you will not lack for means— Haggard , 1887 /
Here's hoping he'll never lack for friends— Twain , 1892 /
You get a lower standard of trim, but you don't lack for much in the way of essential equipment—Which? Car Buying Guide, 1987 /
‘I can see by those here present that Samuel did not lack for friends,’ said the priest who now filled the place of Father Michael—P. Bryers , 1993.

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lackey,

meaning ‘an obsequious parasite’, has the plural form lackeys.

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lacquer verb

has inflected forms lacquered, lacquering.

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ladleful

has the plural form ladlefuls.

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lady, woman.

The division of usage between these two words is complex and is caught up in issues of social class. In George Meredith's Evan Harrington (1861), the heroine. Rose Jocelyn , is rhetorically asked, Would you rather be called a true English lady than a true English woman, Rose?, and it is still the case that lady denotes social standing and refinement and is the female equivalent of gentleman, whereas woman is the normal word that is generally neutral in tone but in some contexts can sound over-direct or discourteous (Which of you women is Mrs Jones?). As well as its use as a title, lady is used in certain fixed expressions, such as lady of the house, the Ladies (or Ladies', a women's public lavatory), a lady's man, and others, and in the form of address ladies and gentlemen. In AmE, though less in BrE, lady has developed an informal meaning rather like dame, both as a form of address (Where are you going, lady?) and in third-person reference (She's some lady). Lady is still used with words denoting a profession (lady doctor), but in this use is beginning to sound affected and is fast giving way to woman (woman doctor). See also FEMININE DESIGNATIONS. It should finally be mentioned that the feminist movement generally disfavours lady as being socially and historically loaded, and prefers the more neutral woman despite its occasional bluntness of tone. This preference is likely to influence the future of the words' usage considerably.

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laid, lain

Laid is the past and past participle of lay, whereas lain is the part participle of lie. See LAY, LIE.

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laissez-aller, -faire, -passer.

The first means ‘unconstrained freedom’, the second ‘abstention by people in authority from interference in the actions of individuals’, and the third ‘a pass or permit’. All three are normally printed in italics.

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lama, llama.

The form with one l is the Tibetan or Mongolian Buddhist monk, whereas the form with two ls is the South American animal. For obvious reasons, care should be taken in remembering which is which.

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lamentable,

meaning ‘deplorable, regrettable’, is correctly pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, not the second (though either is acceptable in AmE).

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lamprey,

the eel-like fish, has the plural form lampreys.

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landward, landwards.

As an adjective, landward is the correct form in all varieties of English (a landward breeze). As an adverb, landwards is the dominant form in BrE (sail landwards), whereas both forms are used in AmE. In Scottish use, landward as an adverb is used to mean ‘towards the country as opposed to the town’.

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large, largely.

Large is used as an adverb with the verbs bulk and loom and in the phrase by and large. Otherwise largely is the normal adverb and means ‘to a large extent’ (His failure was largely due to laziness).

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largesse

is now the dominant form for this word meaning ‘generosity’ or ‘money given freely’, not largess as recommended by Fowler in 1926.

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larva

has the plural form larvae, pronounced lah-vee.

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lasso

is pronounced la-soo in BrE and las-oh in AmE. The plural form of the noun is lassos and the verb has inflected forms lassoes, lassoed, lassoing.

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last.

1 When used with a number, last (like first) normally precedes it, as in the last three cars. See FIRST (1).

2 In listing a sequence of points or topics, lastly (or finally) is preferable to last, especially when the preceding items are introduced with numbers ending in -ly: first (or firstly) …, secondly …, thirdly …, lastly … For the choice between first and firstly, See FIRST (2).
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last but not least.

When Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (III.i.190) greets Caesar's assassins, he takes their hands in the order Brutus, Cinna, Casca, and Trebonius, and says to Trebonius:
Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius. Though used here (and elsewhere in Shakespeare ) to good effect, this phrase is now a cliché and should be avoided except in the few cases when it has real meaning.

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late, former, one-time, sometime

All these words are used occasionally (the first two a little more than that) to describe the earlier status of a person or thing. A late husband is one that is no longer alive, whereas a former husband (or ex-husband) is one that is no longer a husband (but is more likely than not still alive). Sometime is used more of the official function a person or thing has had, for example a building may be the sometime headquarters of the KGB; former and one-time are also possible here and would be more usual in everyday language. See also ERSTWHILE; FORMER, LATTER.

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later on

see EARLY ON.

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lath, lathe.

A lath, pronounced lahth, is a flat strip of wood. The plural is laths, pronounced lahths or occasionally lahdhz. A lathe, pronounced laydh, is a machine for shaping wood or metal, and has the plural form lathes, pronounced laydhz.

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Latin plurals

Plurals of Latin words used in English are formed according to the rules either of the source language (apex/apices, stratum/strata) or of the borrowing language (gymnasium/gymnasiums, arena/arenas). In some cases more than one form is in use, sometimes with a usage distinction (appendix/appendices/appendixes, formula/formulae/formulas) and sometimes with no clear distinction (cactus/cacti/cactuses). Words ending in -is usually follow the original Latin form (basis/bases, crisis/crises) for reasons of euphony, and the same rule operates in other cases (nucleus/nuclei). A more alien form is the plural -mata of words ending in -ma in the singular (lemma/lemmata, stigma/stigmata). There are occasional surprises; for example we might expect the plural of crux to be (Latin) cruces but it is in fact more often (English) cruxes. There is a trap for the unwary with Latinate nouns ending in -us which cannot form plurals in -i for formal grammatical reasons: hiatus (a fourth-declension noun in Latin with a plural hiatus), ignoramus (a first-person plural verb in Latin, not a noun), octopus (a Romanized form of a Greek word octopous), vademecum (cum being a preposition meaning ‘with’). The table below shows the types of plural that the more commonly used Latin words have in English; when there is more than one both are shown:

SINGULAR FORM

LATIN-TYPE PLURAL

ENGLISH PLURAL

addendum

addenda

alga

algae

apex

apices

apexes

appendix

appendices

appendixes

aquarium

aquaria

aquariums

arena

arenas

automaton

automata

automatons

basis

bases

cactus

cacti

cactuses

codex

codices

compendium

compendia

compendiums

corrigendum

corrigenda

crematorium

crematoria

crematoriums

crisis

crises

crux

cruces

cruxes

desideratum

desiderata

encomium

encomia

encomiums

focus

foci

focuses

formula

formulae

formulas

genus

genera

gymnasium

gymnasia

gymnasiums

helix

helices

helixes

index

indices

indexes

lemma

lemmata

lemmas

matrix

matrices

matrixes

maximum

maxima

maximums

memorandum

memoranda

memorandums

miasma

miasmata

minimum

minima

minimums

momentum

momenta

momentums

moratorium

moratoriums

nucleus

nuclei

oasis

oases

radix

radices

referendum

referenda

referendums

stigma

stigmata

stigmas

stratum

strata

thesis

theses

vortex

vortices

vortexes

Further information will be found in the separate entries for some of these words.

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latish,

meaning ‘somewhat late’, is normally spelt without an e in the middle. See MUTE E.

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latter

is now used only in the phrase the latter, which contrasts with the former to refer to the second of two previously mentioned items so as to avoid lengthy repetition. See FORMER, LATTER.

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laudable, laudatory.

The essential difference is that laudable means ‘deserving praise’ whereas laudatory means ‘expressing praise’. So an action or attitude that is laudable calls for a laudatory response.

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lavatory,

the standard word in the early part of the 20c for a receptacle for urination and defecation (and the room containing it), has tended to give way to alternatives such as loo (the usual middle-class word) and toilet (still non-U but the word mostly used in official contexts, on notices, etc.). See also U AND NON-U; TOILET.

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laver,

meaning ‘edible seaweed’, is pronounced lah-v.

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lawful

see LEGAL.

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lawman, lawyer.

Lawman is an informal lay term for a law-enforcement officer, often with historical reference, whereas a lawyer is a professional person practising law as a solicitor or barrister.

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lay, lie.

These two words cause confusion even to native speakers of English because their meanings are related and their forms overlap. Lay is a transitive verb, i.e. it takes an object, and means ‘to place on a surface, to cause to rest on something’; its past form and past participle are both laid (examples: Please lay it on the floor / The teacher laid the book on the desk / They had laid it on the floor). Lie is intransitive, and means ‘to rest or be positioned on a surface’; its past form is lay (i.e. identical with the present form of the other verb), its present participle is lying, and its past participle is lain (examples: Go and lie on the bed / She went and lay on the bed / He is lying on the bed / The body had lain in the field for several days). The principal mistakes in the use of these verbs are using lay for lie, laid for lay (past of lie), and lain for laid:
We are going to lay [read: lie] under the stars by the sea—Sun, 1990 /
Standing in a semicircle, we had lain [read: laid] all our uniforms and possessions at our feet—C. Jennings , 1990 /
He chose a place between two snoring servants and laid [read: lay] down to sleep, oblivious to the figure watching him from the shadows—P.C. Doherty , 1991.

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lay-by,

meaning in BrE ‘an area by the side of an open road where vehicles may stop’, has the plural form lay-bys.

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lb.

an abbreviation for pound (weight) is derived from Latin libra ‘pound’. The plural form is lb. or lbs.

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leadership.

The established meanings ‘the position of a leader’ and ‘the ability to lead’ have been joined in the 20c by the meaning ‘group of leaders’:
A dinner for the heads of the Senate Committees and the Leadership on both sides and their wives—L.B. Johnson , 1964 /
Following an LDP conference, the party leadership announced on Sept. 19 that it planned to break away from the coalition which had backed Aquino— Keesings , 1990.

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leading question.

In law, a leading question is one which suggests an expected answer to the witness, and the use of such questions is strictly controlled by Judges' Rules. In general use the term is often extended to mean a ‘loaded’ or ‘searching’ question, i.e. one that will lead to other matters:
Following the end of the First World War, the leading question in the mining industry was whether or not the state would return the coal mines to their pre-war owners—K. Laybourn , 1990.

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lead, led.

Lead is the present tense of the verb meaning ‘to go in front’, ‘to take charge of’, etc., and its past form is led. A common mistake is to use lead for the past form and pronounce it led in speech, probably on the false analogy of read:
His idea was the one that lead to the solution of the mascara mystery—Chicago Sun-Times, 1990.

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leaf.

The noun has the plural form leaves, and the verb has inflected forms leafs, leafed, leafing (He was leafing through a book).

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-leafed, -leaved.

Both forms are in use in combinations such as broad-leafed/-leaved and four-leafed/-leaved, but there is a preference for -leaved in current use.

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leaflet.

As a verb, meaning ‘to distribute leaflets to’, leaflet has inflected forms leafleted, leafleting.

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leak verb.

The transitive meaning ‘to disclose (secret information) intentionally’ is, apart from an isolated example of 1859, a 20c use, although the practice is doubtless a lot older. It is related to, if not a development of, the phrasal verb to leak out, which is first recorded in 1863.

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lean verb.

The past form and past participle are in BrE either leaned (pronounced leend or lent) or leant (pronounced lent) and usually leaned in AmE. Examples:
Georgia Rose … leaned forward and blew out every one of her candles— Smith , 1983 (US) /
Syl smiled back at me and leaned across and took my hand—A.T. Ellis , 1987 /
His tone was weary, and he leant his head down on one hand— Murdoch , 1993.

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leap verb.

The past form and past participle are in both BrE and AmE either leaped (pronounced leept or lept) or leapt (pronounced lept). Examples:
I can't say that wretch I leaped in after was much of a loss to the human race—P. Bailey , 1986 /
She had leapt on board the boat like a boy—New Yorker, 1994.

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learn verb.

1 The past form and past participle are in BrE either learned (pronounced lernd or lernt) or learnt (pronounced lernt); learned is more usual as the past form and, in AmE, as both past form and past participle. Examples:
So, what was learned from this experience?—Essays & Studies, 1987 /
A point that none of my bright young officers seem to have learnt at school—B.L. Barder , 1987 /
Ideally, you should treat each child as an individual, with his own list of words to be learnt—M. Torbe , 1988 /
She learned that the vessel had come, and was glad, for she said that the young man would speak for her— Dunnett , 1989.

2 The use of learn to mean ‘to teach’, though unexceptionable to writers of earlier ages such as Caxton, Spenser, Bunyan, and Johnson (1755), fell into disfavour around 1800 and appears in non-standard contexts in 19c literature:
If she knows her letters it's the most she does—and them I learned her— Dickens , 1865.
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learned

is pronounced as one syllable when it is the past and past participle of learn, and as two syllables (ler-nid) when it is an adjective meaning ‘having or showing much knowledge’.

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learning difficulties.

This term became common in the 1980s to describe a wide range of abnormalities including Down's syndrome, dyslexia, and the complaint known as attention deficit disorder. In emphasizing the difficulty experienced rather than any perceived deficiency, it is considered less discriminatory than mental handicap and related terms, and is the standard term in official contexts in the UK.

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lease on life.

In BrE the idiom is take a new lease of life, whereas in AmE it is take a new lease on life.

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least.

1 Least of all means ‘especially not’ and should only be used in negative contexts:
I am not going to try to play the role of prophet, least of all Jeremiah—Listener, 1973.

2 Use less, not least, when contrasting two things:
The latter aircraft was the less pleasant to fly—E. Brown , 1983 (an example that is exemplary with regard both to less and to latter).
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leave, let.

Leave is well on its way to forcing out let in certain idiomatic uses, especially in leave/let be (Will you leave/let me be? I'm trying to work), leave/let go (Please leave/let go of the handle), and above all in leave/let alone when it means ‘to refrain from disturbing, not interfere with’ (I'll leave/let you alone to get on with it now). Leave alone is the only possibility when the meaning is ‘not to have dealings with’ (I wish you'd leave the matter alone), and let alone is still dominant in the meaning ‘still less, not to mention’ (They never buy a newspaper, let alone read one).

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leftward, leftwards.

The only form of the adjective is leftward (a leftward glance). For the adverb, leftward and leftwards are used both in BrE and AmE (turn leftward/leftwards).

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legalese

is a fairly recent term (first recorded in 1914) for the complicated technical language used in legal documents. Legal language has become complex and difficult for the lay person to understand because of a need to be both precise and comprehensive in the points made; nonetheless, there is now a vigorous campaign in progress, led (in the UK) by the Plain English Campaign and (in the US) by the Plain English Forum and others, to simplify legal language in everyone's interests. These intentions are hardly new. Nearly 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson , third president of the US, railed against statutes ‘which from verbosity, their endless tautologies, their involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at certainty, by saids and aforesaids, by ors and ands, to make them more plain, are really rendered more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to common readers, but to the lawyers themselves’ (quoted in D. Mellinkoff . The Language of the Law, 1963). Tom McArthur , a well-known writer on language, reports in the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), 595, that ‘in 1983, an English court ordered a law firm to pay £93,000 damages for unintentionally misleading a client by using “obscure” legal language in a letter of advice’. Martin Cutts , in the Plain English Guide (1995), devotes a chapter to lucid legal language, and gives examples of complex language re-written in a simpler form. As well as indicating complexities of grammatical structure, he points to words and phrases that notoriously cause difficulty to those not versed in the law: aforesaid, be empowered to, failure to comply with, forthwith, heretofore, in the event of, pursuant to, the said—, thereto, and many others.

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legal, lawful, legitimate, licit.

1 All four words share the basic meaning ‘conforming to the law’. Something is legal when it is authorized by the law of the land, legitimate when it conforms to custom or common justice, and lawful (a more old-fashioned word) when it conforms to moral or divine law. Legal is the only choice in the neutral descriptive meaning ‘relating to the law’ (as in legal language), and legitimate alone has the meaning ‘born of married parents’. Licit, which means much the same as lawful, is the least used of all these words, although illicit is somewhat more common. See also ILLEGAL.

2 For legitimate as a verb, See LEGITIMATE, LEGITIMIZE.
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legible, readable.

In current use legible means ‘clear enough to be decipherable’ (as in legible handwriting); readable can also have this sense but more often means ‘well written and interesting to read’.

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legislation, legislature.

Both words date from the 17c. Legislation is the process of making laws, and the legislature is the body (or group of bodies) that makes them.

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legitimate, legitimize.

1 As a verb, legitimate is pronounced with the last syllable as -ayt and means ‘to make legitimate or legal’. It competes in both BrE and AmE with legitimize, which is the only form used in the meaning ‘to make (a child) legitimate’:
My companion had up his sleeve something that would legitimate his employing my Christian name—J.I.M. Stewart , 1974 /
Had the baby been a boy, he would have seriously considered legitimizing the union—E. Pizzey , 1983 /
You … forget the very people who legitimize your authority— Achebe , 1987.

2 For legitimate as an adjective, See LEGAL.
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leisure

is pronounced lezh- in BrE and leezh- in AmE.

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lend.

1 See LOAN. Use of lend for borrow (May I lend your pen?) occurs in some British dialects but is non-standard.

2 Use of lend as a noun occurs in British dialect use and colloquially in New Zealand, but is non-standard:
Could you give me the lend of a bob?— Sargeson , 1946 (New Zealand)/
Just ringing this feller to ask if I could have a lend of his gun—J. Howker , 1985 (UK).
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length

should be pronounced with the g fully articulated, not as in tenth.

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lengthways, lengthwise.

For the adjective only lengthwise is used: The driver was sleeping in a doubled-up lengthwise position. For the adverb both forms are available: a hollow tube split lengthways/lengthwise.

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lese-majesty,

meaning ‘treason’ or ‘an insult to a sovereign or ruler’, is pronounced leez maj-is-ti. The French form lèse majesté is also used in English, and its pronunciation is closer to the French. The term no longer has any legal force in English, having been replaced by treason.

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less.

1 For less and fewer, See FEWER.

2 For much less, See MUCH MORE, MUCH LESS.
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3 LESS AND LESSER. Less is a comparative form of little, and is used with singular mass nouns to mean the opposite of more; less butter / less noise. It cannot be used with plural nouns (in which case FEWER is used), nor with a preceding a or an (in which case an alternative such as lower or smaller is used: I want to pay less rent but I want to pay a lower rent). Lesser is a so-called double comparative and means ‘not so great (i.e. important or significant) as the other or others’; it is preceded by a or the (a lesser man than him / the lesser evil). It is not used to refer to physical size or number; in these cases use smaller, lower, etc.: (a smaller car / a lower price).
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-less.

1 This suffix dates back to Old English and is used to form adjectives from nouns (doubtless, endless, powerless). It has also been added to verbs with the meaning ‘not affected by the action of the verb’, although few of this type survive (countless, dauntless, numberless (possibly from the noun), tireless). As a living suffix it can now only be added to nouns.

2 A hyphen is used when the suffix is added to a noun ending in -ll (wall-less, will-less), but not when added to one ending in a single l (soulless, tailless).
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lessee, lessor.

The lessee is the person who holds a property by lease, and the lessor is the person who lets a property by lease.

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lesser

See LESS (3).

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lest,

despite its slightly archaic flavour, lives on in the language and is one of the mainstays of the subjunctive in English:
I shall say nothing about alcohol lest I be pilloried by publicans— Critchley , 1987. An alternative construction, especially after verbs of fearing or apprehension, is with should:
I can see you're in a fever lest slick Ben and his moll should get back … before you make your getaway— Marsh , 1962 /
And she also felt slightly nervous lest the large house should suddenly disgorge many other hidden residents— Drabble , 1988. Use of the indicative is already evident, and often sounds perfectly natural (the subjunctive is identifiable only in the third person singular anyway):
He would never have repeated the story lest it weakened our war effort—A.N. Wilson , 1977.

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let.

1 A pronoun that follows let in exhortations should be in the objective case (me, him, her, etc.) and not the subjective (I, he, she, etc.), since it is the object of let. Mistakes occur most often when there are two pronouns joined by and or when the pronoun is followed by a clause with who: Let you and I say a few words about this unfortunate affair (read Let you and me …) / Let he who did this be severely punished (read Let him who …).

2 The type let us (or let's) + infinitive is well established in English
(Let's hold more chat— Shakespeare , 1588). More colloquial forms occur, especially in AmE:
Let's you and me duck out of here—J. Macdonald , 1950, but these are considered non-standard. When let is used to introduce a firm request, rather than a casual suggestion, the two words should be written separately: Let us try once more.
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3 The negative form of let's is let's not or (in BrE) don't let's. In AmE, let's don't is used informally.
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letter forms.

1 Many of the more formal formulas for writing letters that were noted by Fowler (Your obedient servant, Yours respectfully, etc.) have disappeared even from business letters and the letter pages of the more traditional broadsheets newspapers. So too has the practice of addressing colleagues by their surnames only (Dear Jones). The standard forms of opening are:
(1) to individuals Dear Mr Smith / Mrs Jones / Ms Brown, or (more informally) Dear John / Jane. The corresponding conclusion is normally Yours sincerely (with capital Y), or, in the case of people the writer knows well, With kind regards, With best wishes, or some variant or combination of these;
(2) in personal correspondence more intimate forms such as My dear John, My dearest Jane, My darling Jim, etc, are used, with an appropriate conclusion such as Yours ever, All love, etc.;
(2) in business and other more formal contexts, Dear Sirs / Sir / Madam, with the conclusion Yours faithfully or (somewhat less formally) Yours truly

.

2 For forms of address in special cases such as bishops or members of the nobility, readers should consult the latest edition of a work such as Debrett's Correct Form.
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leukaemia

is the spelling for the disease in BrE, and leukemia in AmE.

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level.

1 The phrase at — level is well established and has a useful role to play:
No work is at present supported at international level on oil seeds such as sunflower, safflower and rapeseed—Nature, 1974 /
The Treasury took the lead in setting up official inter-departmental committees, some at permanent-secretary level— Wilson , 1976.

2 Level playing field is a vogue use of the 1980s and 1990s referring to a sphere of activity that offers no advantage to any particular side. It has achieved the status of cliché in record time, and the verbal plays are already being rammed down our throats, especially by journalists with column-inches to fill:
That is not a level playing field. It is not even just a home-field advantage. It is like asking their competitors to play ball in a swamp—Washington journalism Review, 1990.
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3 For the verb, the inflected forms are levelled, levelling in BrE and leveled, leveling in AmE.
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leverage.

The first syllable is pronounced leev in BrE and lev in AmE.

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liable, likely

See APT.

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liaise, liaison.

The noun liaison, pronounced li-ay-zon in BrE and in various ways in AmE, became fully anglicized early in the 20c, replacing its nasalized final syllable with a normal one. Since the early 20c, it has had the meaning ‘an illicit sexual relationship’; curiously the verb liaise has not developed a corresponding meaning but is restricted to military and business contexts and is a key word in management jargon in the sense ‘cooperate or have direct dealings’:
The coordinating nurse on each shift ‘liaises’ with the admissions office regarding bed availability—Professional Nurse, 1992.

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libel, slander.

1 Libel is a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation, whereas slander is a malicious false statement that is spoken about a person. In popular usage the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but the difference should always be borne in mind. The legal issue has become more complicated in recent years now that uncertainty exists about how far the word published can be extended to cover email, Internet websites, and other forms of electronic (as distinct from print) media of communication.

2 As a verb, libel has inflected forms libelled, libelling in BrE and usually libeled, libeling in AmE.
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licence, license.

In BrE, the noun is spelt licence and the verb license (and so licensed premises, licensing hours, etc., although licenced is occasionally seen and can be justified on the ground that it is formed from the noun rather than the verb). In AmE, both the noun and the verb are spelt license.

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lichee

See LYCHEE.

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lichen.

The dominant pronunciation of the plant name is liy-kan (as liken), although lich-n is also heard in BrE (though not in AmE).

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lich-gate,

meaning ‘a roofed gateway to a churchyard’, is spelt lich-, not lych-. It is derived from the Old English word lc meaning ‘corpse’, because the gateway was formerly used at burials for sheltering a coffin until the clergyman's arrival.

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licorice

See LIQUORICE.

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lie

See LAY, LIE.

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lie,

= tell an untruth, has inflected forms lies, lied, lying.

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lien,

meaning ‘a right over another's property to protect a debt charged on that property’, is pronounced lee-n or leen.

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lieutenant

is pronounced lef-tennt in BrE (but with the -f- sound usually omitted when referring to the navy) and loo-ten-nt in AmE. The -f- sound in BrE may be due to a (pre-19c) reading of Old French lieu as liev or lief.

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life.

The plural is lives except that the art term still life has the plural form still lifes.

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life cycle.

The term is first recorded in 1873 in its biological meaning ‘the series of changes in the life of an organism’, and this is the only meaning given in the current edition (1999) of the Concise Oxford Dictionary. During the course of the 20c, however, it has developed extended meanings, and in the 1940s the anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote of the modern man:
Here he is, only in middle age, and his life is over … no new fields to conquer … So while he is not out of a job … the very nature of the life-cycle in America is such that he feels like an old man—Male and Female, 1949. The term is now found in the context of other human activities involving origin, development, change, and eventual decline and death, such as business and economics:
In principle the task of the project manager is to plan, organize and lead a group of people to complete a project life cycle—S.A. Bergen , 1990. This is a natural development of meaning when a cycle of events is involved, but care should be taken not to use the term in contexts in which the simple word life or another word such as process would do.

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life insurance

See ASSURE, ASSURANCE.

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lifelong, livelong.

Lifelong (19c) is a combination of life and long, and means ‘lasting or continuing for a lifetime’ (his lifelong companion). Livelong, pronounced liv-long, is a much older word (15c) and is a combination of lief, meaning ‘dear beloved’, and long. It is a literary word used as an intensive or emotional form of long in describing periods of time (e.g. the livelong day).

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lifestyle.

The term will be familiar to modern readers in the meaning given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995): ‘the particular way of life of a person or group’, although it has a much older, specialized meaning introduced to the language of psychology by the neurologist Alfred Adler in the 1920s. In recent years it has been absorbed into marketing jargon to mean ‘the sum total of the behaviour patterns and likes and dislikes of particular customers or a section of the market’ and has developed an attributive or adjectival use (i.e. coming before a noun):
The latest lifestyle choice for the vibrant elderly is the ‘retirement village’—Independent, 1995. In some contexts, way of life, or even just life, seems preferable to a word that has become so bogged down in promotional hype. The derivative word lifestyler, meaning ‘someone with a special lifestyle’ has an ephemeral ring but is occasionally found:
The centre is built on a hilltop amid a broadleaf wood and is home to a community of proselytising alternative lifestylers—Holiday Which?, 1991.

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ligature,

in printing, is a pair of letters printed in a joined form, e.g. æ. See DIGRAPH.

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light.

1 The phrase in the light of, meaning ‘having regard to, considering’, is more often heard in the form in light of in AmE: In light of what you've told us, we have decided to leave earlier.

2 In BrE the past tense and past participle of the verb are usually both lit (We lit the fire when it grew dark / He had already lit his pipe / The streets are all well lit), but lighted is also used when the use is adjectival and there is no qualifying adverb (She had a lighted cigarette in her hand). In AmE, lighted is often used in contexts where lit would be normal in BrE:
She lighted a candle and turned off the lamp—New Yorker, 1987.
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lightning, lightening.

Lightning is the spelling with reference to electrical flashes in the sky (thunder and lightning), whereas lightening is a form of the verb lighten (the lightening of burdens). Lightning is originally a contracted form of lightening.

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like.

1 LIKE AS A CONJUNCTION. Like is used as a preposition in the sentence Please try to write like me and as a conjunction in the sentence Please try to write like I do. In the second sentence, like is used instead of as, and this use seems still to be one of the cardinal issues by which a person's awareness of what is correct or incorrect grammar is judged. Fowler (1926) wrote that ‘every illiterate person uses this construction daily; it is the established way of putting the thing among all who have not been taught to avoid it’; and Evelyn Waugh wrote of his close friend and fellow writer Henry Green in the 1940s that ‘only one thing disconcerted me … The proletarian grammar—the “likes” for “ases”, the “bikes” for “bicycles”’.
Nonetheless, there is plenty of good evidence for this use. The OED gives examples from Shakespeare , Southey , William Morris , and other good writers. In more recent usage, like is often used as a conjunction in three principal ways; (1) with the verb repeated or a form of do replacing it
(They didn't talk like other people talked— Amis , 1981 /
I'm afraid it might happen to my baby like it happened to Jefferson—New Yorker, 1987 /
The retsina flowed like the Arno did when it overflowed in 1966—Spectator, 1987), (2) in AmE and Australian English, though less in BrE, to mean ‘as if’ or ‘as though’
I wanted him born and now it feels like I don't want him—E. Jolley , 1985 (Australia) /
She acts like she can't help it— Smith , 1987 (US), (3) replacing as in fixed or semi-fixed expressions such as as I said:
Like you say, you're a dead woman— Wesley , 1983 /
Like I said, I haven't seen Rudi for weeks— Keneally , 1985.
Clearly, like continues to assert its right to be regarded as a conjunction, and there is little doubt that this right will be recognized in time. For the present, the advice has to be: when as (or as if or as though) can be substituted for like, use these alternatives, which are absolutely safe: They didn't talk as other people talked / Now it feels as if I didn't want him.

2 LIKE AS A PREPOSITION. There is, thank goodness, normally no problem with this use, in which like governs a noun or noun phrase and not a clause:
The Pope was confined like a prisoner in the Vatican—R. Strange , 1986. A minor difficulty arises occasionally when like is used to mean ‘such as’, since it is not always clear whether the person or thing specified is included. For example, the title of Kingsley Amis's novel Take a Girl Like You (1960) could be taken to mean ‘a girl, for example, you’ or ‘a girl resembling you’. To resolve the ambiguity, the book would have to be called Take a Girl such as You, which it understandably isn't.
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3 USE OF LIKE AS A FILLER. In this use, like is added parenthetically to a statement. This is conversational only, and even then is often disapproved of as non-standard:
Hayley was pleased. ‘That's him. He's, like, got her hypnotized.’— Gee , 1990.
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4 LIKE IN IDIOMATIC PHRASES. This category includes phrases such as like always, like anything, like fun, like mad. These again belong only in informal conversational style:
They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand— Carroll , 1872 /
Skate was with him like always—M. Doane , 1988.
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like verb.

I should like is normal in BrE and I would like in other varieties, although in practice the contracted form I'd like is common, especially in speech. These forms are followed either by a to-infinitive (I should like to come too) or by an object followed by a to-infinitive (They would like us to come too). The past form is should (or would) have liked to, and in this case the normal to-infinitive should follow, e.g. I should have liked to come too, not I should have liked to have come too (but I should like to have come too is also possible). The construction like + for + object + to-infinitive is largely confined to AmE:
I'd like very much for you to meet him—New Yorker, 1988.

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-like.

In occasional or less familiar formations, and when the first part ends in -l, a hyphen is used (cat-like, eel-like), but more established combinations are spelt as one word (childlike, lifelike, statesmanlike).

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likeable

is the preferred form, not likable.

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likely.

1 As an adverb, likely needs the support of a qualifying or intensifying word such as more, quite, or very (They've quite likely left by now / It's more likely a toadstool), whereas in AmE it often stands alone:
It is possible to predict that within a few years the microfiche likely will move into the study and home—Publishers' Weekly, 1971.

2 For use of apt, liable, and likely, See APT.
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likewise,

like also, is used as an adverb and not a conjunction in standard English: Go and do likewise / They likewise prefer reading. In uses where it might be a conjunction, it normally needs the support of a genuine conjunction such as and: A heated window, and likewise rear wipers, are essential. It is, however, permissible for likewise to stand at the head of a sentence, where its role is still mainly adverbial: St Paul's Cathedral is one of the most easily recognizable sights of London. Likewise the Eiffel Tower is one of the most easily recognizable sights of Paris.

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-lily.

Few adjectives in -ly form adverbs in -lily because they are too awkward to use. As Fowler noted (1926), ‘it is always possible to say in a masterly manner, at a timely moment, and the like, instead of masterlily, timelily’. Some adjectives in -ly retain the same form for the corresponding adverb, e.g. kindly. A few forms in -lily exist, all adjectives in which -ly is part of the stem rather than an adjectival ending: holily, jollily, sillily, wilily.

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limey, limy.

Limey is the adjective corresponding to the fruit called lime, whereas limy relates to the caustic alkaline substance. Limey (with a capital initial letter) is an AmE slang term for a person from Britain, and arose from the enforced consumption of lime-juice in the British navy.

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limit,

as a verb, has inflected forms limited, limiting. Limit means ‘to put a limit on’, i.e. ‘restrict’, whereas delimit means ‘to determine the boundaries of’, and is used with reference to territories, frontiers, etc.

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lineament, liniment.

Lineament, pronounced as four syllables with the first three like linear, means ‘a distinctive feature of the face’, and is normally used in the plural. Liniment (three syllables) is an embrocation.

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lingo,

a colloquial word for a language or the special vocabulary of a language, has the plural form lingos.

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liniment

See LINEAMENT.

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linking r

is the sounding of a normally silent r when a vowel sound follows, as in a pair of gloves and pour out the tea. This is quite correct, but See INTRUSIVE R.

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liquefy,

meaning ‘to make liquid’, is spelt -efy, not -ify. Its inflected forms are liquefies, liquefied, liquefying.

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liqueur,

the strong sweet alcoholic spirit, is spelt with two us.

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liquidate, liquidize.

Liquidate is the word used in business contexts and in the sense ‘eliminate by killing’. Liquidize is a more recent word meaning ‘to make liquid’ (in physical senses) and is now principally used in the context of the kitchen liquidizer which blends ingredients and makes purées.

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liquorice

is the BrE spelling, and licorice the AmE spelling, of the word denoting a black root extract used as a sweet.

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lira,

the chief monetary unit of Italy, has the plural form lire, which in English is pronounced in the same way as the singular.

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lit

See LIGHT.

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litany, liturgy.

A litany (from Greek lit ‘prayer’) is a prayer couched in the form of a sequence of petitions. It has a figurative use in expressions such as a litany of curses or woes. A liturgy (from Greek leitourgia ‘public service, public worship’) is a prescribed form of worship, embracing many individual prayers and petitions.

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litchi

See LYCHEE.

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literally.

Few words have the capacity to cause such mirth:
My grandfather, King George VI, who had literally been catapulted onto the throne— Edward as quoted in Private Eye, 1998. There will always be occasions when this type of hilarity is best avoided; on the other hand, a little linguistic reflection will reveal a logical rigour behind a much derided use.
1 The literal (16c) meaning of literally is ‘in a literal sense’:
This was a china warehouse indeed, truly and literally to be called so— Defoe , 1719. It is still used in this way, with reference to the meaning of individual words (with the word mean often explicitly present) and to the broader sense in which phrases and sentences are to be understood:
He … was literally too tired to move—J. Gores , 1972 /
The cracker in Georgia cracker literally means a person who still cracks corn—S.B. Flexner , 1982.
2 In the course of time, literally became caught up in the language of metaphor, in which English abounds, and we find this type of use:
Every day with me is literally another yesterday for it is exactly the same— Pope , 1708. From this it is a short step for the word to become an intensifier contained wholly within metaphor:
For the last four years … I literally coined money—F.A. Kemble , 1863. In other examples we can see the word half in and half out of the realm of metaphor:
Crabs and lobsters are literally to be found crawling round the floor waiting for an order—Good Food Guide, 1973 (the creatures are physically crawling around the floor but are, we may assume, only metaphorically waiting for an order).
3 This historical development explains how the word has apparently reversed its meaning; in fact it has done no such thing but has been absorbed into the metaphor; once understood as part of the verbal image and not as external to it, the use makes good linguistic sense. It is doubtful though whether this rationale will satisfy those who see the developed meaning of literally as sloppy and inappropriate (which it rarely is) or as ludicrous (which it sometimes appears to be):
Most of the buildings on the corniche have literally been face-lifted—Blitz, 1989 /
They [sc. supermarkets] can literally play God, even to the point of sending food back to the genetic drawing board for a redesign—Guardian, 1995.
4 In another very common type, literally introduces a fixed expression or cliché that has some particular (often punning) relevance to the context:
We have lived in a wonderful variety of houses, including … a leaking gothic horror of a Victorian rectory in deepest Sussex that was literally falling to pieces—Medau News, 1980 /
There is a catastrophic ‘implosion’ … followed by a shock-wave which literally blows the star apart in what is called a supernova outburst— Moore , 1990 /
Today, Cerezo's letter to the villagers is literally carved in stone; a six-foot-high marble and stone replica stands opposite 13 rough wooden crosses, marking the spots where the villagers fell—New Statesman, 1992.
5 The conclusion is: avoid using literally when the effect might be distracting or comic; but it can be used to good effect in cases where it reinforces a strong verbal image.

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litotes,

pronounced liy-toh-teez or li-toh-teez, is a figure of speech in which an assertion is made by means of understatement or denial of an opposite, as when St Paul declared that he was ‘a citizen of no mean city’ (Acts 21:39). Typical modern examples include not bad (= very good), not uncommon (= quite frequent), and it was nothing (as a statement dismissing one's own achievement). Litotes is therefore the opposite of HYPERBOLE or overstatement.

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litre

is the BrE spelling for the metric unit, and liter the AmE spelling.

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liturgy

See LITANY.

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liveable

is the preferred form, not livable.

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-lived

See LONG-LIVED; SHORT-LIVED.

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livid.

The meaning that is more familiar today, ‘furiously angry’, is a recent one not recorded before the 20c. The earlier (17c) meaning, still in use, is ‘of a bluish leaden colour; discoloured by bruising’:
A huge, livid, recently healed scar ran along the right side of his face—P. Abrahams , 1985.

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living-room

See SITTING-ROOM.

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llama

See LAMA.

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-l-, -ll-

Much confusion is caused by differing spelling practice in BrE and AmE in verbs of two syllables pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, e.g. enthrall/enthral and fulfil/fulfill. Practice varies even within each variety of English; the following table lists the recommended spellings:

BRE

AME

annul

annul

appal

appall

befall

befall

distil

distill

enrol

enroll

enthral

enthrall

extol

extol

fulfil

fulfill

install

install

instil

instill

The recommended spellings for nouns in -ment are:

BRE

AME

annulment

annulment

enrolment

enrollment

enthralment

enthrallment

extolment

extolment

fulfilment

fulfillment

instalment

installment

instilment

instillment

For the spelling of inflected forms of verbs in -l (appal, appalled, appalling, etc.) See DOUBLING OF FINAL CONSONANTS IN INFLECTION.

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Lloyd's, Lloyds.

The name of the London society of underwriters is spelt Lloyd's (also Lloyd's list, Lloyd's Register), whereas the name of the bank is Lloyds Bank (no apostrophe).

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loadstar, loadstone

See LODESTAR, LODESTONE.

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loaf.

The plural form of the noun is loaves; the third person singular of the verb is loafs.

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loan verb.

In 19c British English, loan was a standard alternative for lend, but by the time Fowler wrote (1926) loan had been largely driven out by lend, although it has continued in use in AmE. In current use loan is mostly confined to non-British varieties of English:
Delaney told him he could loan him $50 a week— Keneally , 1985 (Australia) /
The problem was how to stretch the small amount of money he had been loaned by Herr Pfuehl— Desai (India). But it is used in BrE too in the context of making something valuable (such as a work of art) available by a formal arrangement to an institution for a period:
It is part of the Christ Church plate in the treasury showcase, which also displays many items loaned by parishes within the diocese—Christ Church Oxford: A Pitkin Guide, 1991 (an alternative, more pleasing to some, is on loan from). In normal contexts, however, loan is a so-called ‘needless variant’ of lend.

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loanword

is a word adopted, normally with little change in form, from another language. Examples in English are blitz (from German) and locale (from French; see below).

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loath,

meaning ‘averse, reluctant’, as in loath to comment, is spelt loath, not loth, and is pronounced lohth (like both). It should be distinguished from the verb loathe meaning ‘to hate’, which is pronounced lohdh. The adjective loathsome, meaning ‘hateful, repulsive’, is derived from loathe and is pronounced lohdh-sm.

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locale,

meaning ‘a scene or locality, especially with reference to an event or occurrence taking place there’, was adopted in the 18c from French in the form local and respelt in the 19c by writers such as Walter Scott to indicate that the stress lay on the second syllable (loh-kahl).

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locate

is an 18c Americanism that still has a transatlantic flavour, especially in its intransitive use (without an object) as in Numerous industries have located in the area. In BrE, this use is more common in the form relocate, also originally an Americanism (19c):
I am advising your colleague … to relocate— McCrum , 1991. In both varieties, to be located is a synonym for ‘to be situated’ (The supermarket is located in the northern outskirts of the city), but again its American sound can cause disquiet among British language purists.

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locum tenens.

To avoid having to pronounce the second word at all (tee-nenz is the preferred option), this term for ‘a deputy standing in for a doctor or cleric’ is best shortened to locum (pronounced loh-km). The plural then is locums. The plural of the full form is the somewhat unusable locum tenentes.

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lodestar, lodestone

are the preferred spellings, not load-.

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loggia,

a word of Italian origin meaning ‘an open-sided gallery or arcade’, is pronounced loj-, and has the plural form loggias.

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lonelily,

though good enough for Matthew Arnold (The weird chipping of the woodpecker Rang lonelily and sharp, 1852), is too awkward for everyday use, and is best replaced by the type ‘in a lonely fashion’. See -LILY.

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long.

The conjunction as long as has two main meanings:
(1) ‘during the whole time that’ (You can stay as long as you like), and
(2) ‘provided that, only if’ (You can stay as long as you help me)

. In the second meaning, it is more likely to be preceded by a comma (You can stay, as long as you help me), and the shortened form long as is occasionally found in informal reported conversation:
‘It's all right,’ he said, ‘long as you are here’— Greene , 1938.

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longevity,

meaning ‘long life’, is pronounced lon-jev-i-ti, not long-gev-i-ti.

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longitude.

The recommended pronunciation is lon-ji-tyood rather than long-gi-tyood. Beware of pronouncing it, let alone spelling it, longtitude.

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long-lived

is pronounced long-livd in BrE and long-liyvd in AmE.

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look.

1 NON-STANDARD USES. There are various idiomatic uses of look that are confined to particular parts of the English-speaking world and are not part of standard English: for example look you as a way of attracting attention, found in Shakespeare
(Why, look you, how you storm!—The Merchant of Venice 1.iii.140) and still used in Wales, looky here (an AmE variant of look here), and the colloquial AmE (20c) form lookit used with the meaning ‘Look!’ or ‘Listen!’.

2 LOOK + TO-INFINITIVE.
I shall hereafter look to be treated as a person of respectability—T. Huxley , 1900. This type, meaning ‘to expect’, has been in continuous use since the 16c but is beginning to sound dated and is falling into disuse. Still in regular use is a form of this in which the continuous tense is used (am looking, etc.) and the sense is more of hope or intention than of expectation:
I am looking to the government to help to solve the problem—oral source, 1987 /
The home team will be looking to get a result against the visitors next Saturday—Times, 1988. In a third type, look + to-infinitive means ‘to look as if, to appear’:
The owl looked to be encircled by six cloaked hitmen—J.E. Maslow , 1982. Although there is a theoretical risk of ambiguity here, this does not seem to occur in practice.
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3 LOOK + ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES. The meaning we are concerned with here is ‘appear, seem’. Uses with an adverb complement (as in Shakespeare's The skies looke grimly) are now virtually extinct. A possible exception is the phrase to look well (= to appear to be in good health), but even here well is virtually an adjective. Uses with adjectives are normal, as in to look black, blue, cold, elderly, foolish, small, stupid, etc.
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4 LOOK LIKE + CLAUSE
You look to me … like you was made out of old wichetty grubs— White , 1961 (Australia) /
Looks like your child's birthday is news again this year—Guardian, 1973. For this construction, See LIKE (1).
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loom large

See LARGE, LARGELY.

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loose, loosen.

Both words involve removal of restraints, physical or otherwise. The difference is that loose releases or sets free whereas loosen only makes more loose (or less tight). To loose a prisoner from his bonds is to set him free; to loosen his bonds is to make them less tight although he remains a captive. Unwelcome things are loosed on people when people have to endure them:
Another miserable heritage of Watergate has been the bilge loosed on the public by … psychopathic jargoneers … and belly-achers—New York Law Journal, 1973. See also LOSE.

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Lord's,

the name of the London cricket ground, is spelt with an apostrophe.

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lose.

The verb lose is occasionally written as loose, especially by writers in a hurry. The verb loose has a quite different meaning, and has enough problems of its own (See LOOSE, LOOSEN).

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lose out,

meaning ‘to be unsuccessful’, is recorded in AmE from the mid-19c and is now common in BrE as well. It has various shades of meaning, and is not simply a synonym for lose. Followed by on, it means ‘not to get a fair chance in’:
Like most birds she didn't want to lose out on a nosh-up—A. Draper , 1970. Followed by to, it means ‘be defeated or worsted by’:
The popular press, thrown off balance and uncertain of its role, lost out to the heavies and the provincials—Author, 1971.

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lost causes.

Each generation has its own preoccupations about language, and the transitory nature of some of these tends to be overlooked. Some issues of current concern are listed at the entry for FETISH; these include the split infinitive, the ending of a sentence with a preposition, use of the sentence adverb hopefully, and the use of from after different. None of these concerns has any firm basis in grammar or language structure; the split infinitive, for example, is a 19c superstition. In the 18c, Dr Johnson disliked words that he classified as ‘low words’ (he did not use the term ‘slang’) such as bogus, coax, joke, flog, prim, rogue, snob, and spree; all these are now accepted items of general vocabulary. Among Fowler's strictures that we may now regard as lost causes are: agenda (use agendum for the singular), belittle (= disparage, an undesirable alien), cachet (should be ‘expelled as an alien’), data (plural only), caption (in the sense ‘title or heading’: ‘rare and might well be rarer’), category (use class), clever (= well-read or studious, ‘much misused, especially in feminine conversation’), coastal and tidal (badly formed barbarisms), conservative (= moderate, cautious in estimating), distinctly (as in distinctly interesting), malnutrition (‘a word to be avoided’), negotiate (= tackle successfully, an ‘improper’ sense), and suchlike (= the like, ‘now usually left to the uneducated’). See also IF AND WHEN. More recently, strictures on the use of decimate and involve, on the pronunciation of multi-syllable words such as controversy and formidable, and on newer words of mixed origin (such as television), have all joined the band of lost causes. To regard them in this way is a recognition of the force of language change, rather than a concession to declining standards.

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lot.

The phrases a lot of and lots of (a lot of time / lots of people) are common and highly versatile, being used freely with singular (mass) nouns and plural nouns. In positive contexts, a lot of is idiomatic (There is a lot of time) and lots of is informal; in negative contexts, much or many or a great deal of are usually better alternatives in more formal contexts (We do not have much time).

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loud, loudly.

Loud is occasionally used as an adverb, especially in semi-fixed expressions such as loud and clear (I can hear you loud and clear: loudly and clearly could also be used here, but would sound less natural). In other contexts it is used informally, but loudly is the better choice: She spoke loud enough for the whole class to hear.

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louvre,

meaning ‘(one of) a set of overlapping slats for ventilation’, is spelt in this way in BrE and louver in AmE.

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lovable

is the preferred spelling, not loveable.

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love.

In literature of the 16c to 19c, the expression to make love to means ‘to court, to be amorous towards’
(‘Who's had the impudence to make love to my sister!’ cried Harry— Meredith , 1861), whereas in modern literature it means ‘to have sexual intercourse with’. This more specific meaning arose during the 20c, and has driven out the older meaning much as the sexual sense of intercourse has driven out, or at least compromised, all its other uses. Regard for the date of writing is therefore important on encountering the expression in print.

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lovelily,

despite a long history (first recorded c.1300) and use by great writers
(So lovelily the morning shone— Byron , 1813), now seems too awkward for everyday use, and is best replaced by the type ‘in a lovely manner’. See -LILY.

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lovey,

a colloquial form of address to a loved one or (in more recent use) to a theatrical colleague, is spelt in this way, not lovy.

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low, lowly.

Low is an adjective (a low ceiling) and adverb (to aim low / to lie low). Lowly is an adjective meaning ‘humble, modest’ (of lowly station); its use as an adverb is now largely confined to poetry.

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lunch, luncheon.

Lunch is now the standard word for a midday meal, and luncheon seems affectedly formal (although it is used, perhaps not surprisingly, in the commercial term luncheon voucher).

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lunge,

meaning ‘to make a sudden movement forward’, has the participial form lunging, not lungeing, which means ‘exercising a horse with a long rope (or lunge)’.

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luxuriant, luxurious.

These two words, both connected with the word luxury (in turn derived from the Latin word luxus meaning ‘abundance’), have got in each other's way since the 17c. Nonetheless, their meanings are distinct, as R. M. Ballantyne recognized in two uses in his Coral Island (1858): The trees and bushes were very luxuriant / Altogether this was the most luxurious supper we had enjoyed for many a day. Essentially, luxurious, the more general word, means ‘rich or abundant in luxuries or comforts’ whereas luxuriant has the specific meaning ‘rich or abundant in foliage or vegetation’.

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-ly

forms adverbs (boldly, quickly; see ADVERB (2)) and adjectives (goodly, kindly). Some adjectives form adverbs in -ly in addition to being used as adverbs themselves, always with distinctions in meaning (e.g. dear / dearly, direct / directly, hard / hardly, right / rightly, tight / tightly). See the entries for these words, and for other aspects see -EDLY; -LILY.

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lychee

(pronounced liy-chee), the name of a Chinese fruit, is spelt this way rather than lichee or litchi, although these forms are dominant in AmE (and are pronounced lee-chee).

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lych-gate

See LICH-GATE.

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lyric, lyrical.

Lyric is the adjective to use when referring to a type of poetry that expresses the poet's feelings in set forms such as an ode or sonnet (lyric poet / lyric verses). A lyric is a poem of this kind, and in modern use lyrics (plural) denotes the words of a popular song. Lyrical is occasionally used for the adjective lyric (as in Wordsworth's title Lyrical Ballads, 1798), but predominantly means ‘using language appropriate to lyric poetry’, and is therefore more allusive and descriptive. It is also used in the expression wax lyrical, meaning ‘to talk in enthusiastic terms about something’.

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M

macabre

is pronounced m-kah-br, although it tends to sound like m-kah-b, with the last r lost, in rapid speech.

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Macchiavellian,

a noun and adjective denoting a politically devious schemer, is spelt with a capital initial letter and two ls.

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machination,

meaning ‘scheming, laying plots’, is pronounced mak-i-nay-shn or mash-i-nay-shn.

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machismo,

meaning ‘a show of masculinity’, is at an early stage of naturalization into English and its pronunciation varies between m-chiz-moh and m-kiz-moh.

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macho

is a shortened form of machismo, and is mostly used as an adjective meaning ‘showily masculine, virile’.

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mackintosh,

the waterproof coat, is spelt with a k, although the inventor's name was Charles Macintosh. The shortened form mac is often used instead.

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Mac-, Mc-.

In English dictionaries and lists of names, it is usual to order all names spelt with these prefixes as if they were spelt Mac-, so that a user who is unsure of the spelling does not have a lengthy search. A typical sequence is therefore Maccabees, McCarthyism, mace, macle, McNaughten rules, macramé. In American practice, however, it is more usual to place names beginning with Mc- at their literal place in the sequence, i.e. after words in mac- and any in mb-, so that McCarthy might appear more than twenty pages further on than Macdonald.

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mad.

The primary meaning of the adjective, ‘suffering from mental illness’, has been in continuous use since Old English, although it is no longer a part of medical usage. Its extended meaning ‘foolish’, as in a mad undertaking, is also Old English, the meaning ‘angry’ (common especially in AmE) is 14C, and the idiomatic uses as in like mad and mad about football both date from the 17c.

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madam, madame.

The English form madam is a now somewhat formal or affectedly courteous form of address to a woman (Dear Madam / Madam Chairman / Can I help you, madam?). When addressing royalty, the shorter form ma'am is used. Madame, pronounced m-dahm, is the right form of address to a woman from any foreign nation (not necessarily French), and is also a term (should one be needed) for a woman brothel-keeper.

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maelstrom,

an originally Dutch word meaning ‘a state of great confusion’, is pronounced mayl-strm.

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maestro,

meaning ‘a distinguished musician or artist’, is pronounced miy-stroh, and has plural forms maestri (miy-stri) or maestros.

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Mafia,

pronounced maf-i-, is spelt with a capital initial when it refers to the organized international body of criminals in Sicily, southern Italy, and the US; a member of the Mafia is a Mafioso (maf-i-oh-zoh), plural Mafiosi (maf-i-oh-zi). The form mafia, with small initial, is used in the extended meaning ‘any group exerting a sinister hidden influence’ (as in the literary mafia).

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Magdalen, Magdalene.

The names of the colleges in Oxford (Magdalen) and Cambridge (Magdalene) are pronounced maw-dlin. In the full biblical name Mary Magdalene (= of Magdala in Galilee), Magdalene is pronounced mag-d-lin or mag-d-lee-ni. The form magdalen, pronounced mag-d-lin, is used in the meanings ‘a reformed prostitute’ or ‘a home for reformed prostitutes’.

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Magi,

as in the three Magi, is pronounced may-jiy. It is the plural of magus (may-gs), which denotes a member of a priestly caste in ancient Persia.

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magic, magical.

The two words compete with one another in all the main senses, ‘relating to magic’, ‘produced by or as if by magic’, and ‘wonderful’, although magic is used exclusively in certain fixed expressions such as magic lantern and magic square. When used in its descriptive role, magic still behaves more like a noun than an adjective; otherwise, magic and magical are largely interchangeable, however close or remote the connection with magic and related phenomena: …
in the evenings, when the afterglow makes the whole valley magic—J. Ashe , 1993 /
She had not been kissed for over two years and it was magical—P. Wilson , 1993 /
The waters here are magically calm and peaceful—B. King & A. Chambers , 1993. In the second half of the 20c, magic has come to be used informally both in attributive position (before a noun) and by itself as a term of enthusiastic approval (We had a magic time / It's magic!).

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magma,

meaning ‘fluid material under the earth's surface’, has the plural form magmas (no longer magmata).

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Magna Carta

is the usual spelling now for the famous English charter of 1215, although Magna Charta, once the dominant form, is still sometimes found, especially in AmE. Gowers (1965) reported that ‘in a Bill introduced in 1946 authorizing the Trustees of the British Museum to lend a copy to the Library of Congress, Charta was the spelling used. But when the Bill reached committee stage in the House of Lords, the Lord Chancellor (Lord Jowitt ) moved to substitute Carta and produced conclusive evidence that that was the correct spelling. The amendment was carried without a division; so Carta has now unimpeachable authority.’ It should be mentioned that Charta and Carta are both valid forms in Latin.

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magneto,

a shortened form of magneto-electric machine, has the plural form magnetos.

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magus

see MAGI.

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major

is commonly used, especially in journalism, to mean ‘important, significant’, without any notion of comparison inherent in the word's origins. A political leader invariably gives a major speech, a reference book is published in a major new edition, and major accidents occur regularly on main roads and motorways. This use is too well established for it to be condemned, but major is better used when the element of comparison is present, so that a major work is important relative to other lesser works, a major road is contrasted with a minor one, and so on.

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major-general

has the plural form major-generals.

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majority

We are concerned here with three related uses, two of them relatively straightforward and one that gives rise to a difficulty:
1 MAJORITY = ‘A SUPERIORITY IN NUMBERS’, especially in political contexts, ‘the amount by which a winning vote exceeds the next’: The amendment was passed by a large majority / The labour candidate's majority was increased by 15%. The verb following this use is always singular. (Note that in AmE, majority means the amount by which the winning vote exceeds all the others, i.e. what in BrE is called an overall majority; for the meaning given above plurality is used.)
2 MAJORITY = ‘THE GREATER NUMBER OR PART’.
Any future Prime Minister to whom the donnish majority was prepared to give an honorary doctorate would be one whose policies found favour with them—Times, 1985 /
The vast majority have now come to terms with their destiny—Encounter, 1987. The verb following this use can be either singular or plural, depending on whether collectivity or individuality is the stronger notion.
3 MAJORITY OF + PLURAL NOUN.
The vast majority of Luxembourgers speak Letzeburgesch at home—Guardian, 1972 /
A majority of them come from the Scheduled Castes—Times of India, 1972 /
It is clear from opinion polls that the very large majority of people in Scotland wish to remain part of Britain—Times, 1976 /
The majority of school buildings are dilapidated and decaying—Encounter, 1987. The verb following this use is invariably plural, and the noun following majority of should always be plural; uses with singular nouns (the majority of the work / the majority of the time) are unidiomatic unless these are words such as group, population, etc. which denote a collection of individuals:
Gillray, in common with the vast majority of his public, did not want to take the Jacobin side—M. Billig , 1991 /
The majority of the working population in the 1960s, around two-thirds of the labour force, was employed in service occupations—J. Allen , 1988.

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malapropisms.

Fowler (1926) was right to point out that malapropisms, or ‘the use of a word in mistake for one sounding similar’, occur occasionally, as ‘single spies, not in battalions, one in an article, perhaps, instead of four in a sentence’, unlike the utterances of the eponymous Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan's The Rivals of 1775 in which they come thick and fast. Two modern examples:
One, a head of English, could not explain the function of an intransigent [instead of intransitive] verb and advised me to ‘forget it’—letter in Sunday Times, 1988 /
When she heard our Gloucester house was haunted, she uttered the immortal line, 'You'll have to get the vicar in to circumcise [instead of exorcise] it'—J. Cooper , 1991.

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male, masculine, manly.

1 Both male and masculine entered the language from Old French in the 14C and rapidly took on distinct roles. Male is used as an adjective and noun, contrasting with the unrelated word female, to designate the sex of humans, animals, and plants that can beget offspring by insemination or fertilization. Masculine is used only of humans and has two additional meanings:
(1) denoting characteristics or qualities associated with men, and
(2) contrasted with feminine and neuter, denoting a class of grammatical gender. Both words also have technical meanings in various domains. In broad terms male is used principally to indicate the sex of a person, animal or plant, whereas masculine is used of characteristics (once, and to some extent still) regarded as characteristic of men, especially physical strength, vigour, competitive assertiveness, etc. Manly (13C, originally referring to humans generally but now only to men) also has this meaning but is more positive and complimentary than masculine. As a noun, male does not carry the unfavourable implications of female, but is still best restricted to uses relating to the animal world. See FEMALE, FEMININE.

2 Two 20c uses of male, both largely promoted by the feminist movement, are in the terms male chauvinist (first recorded in 1970), meaning ‘a man who is prejudiced against women’, and male menopause (1949), meaning ‘a crisis of potency, confidence, etc., said to afflict men in middle life’.
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malicious, malign, malignant, malevolent.

1 All four words are connected with doing harm or evil (from Latin malus), but there are important differences. Malicious means ‘intending to do harm’ and is associated with people (or occasionally animals) and their actions:
The dog that destroys Gabriel Oak's sheep is over-enthusiastic, not malicious— Drabble , 1976. Malignant is used principally in medical contexts of life-threatening diseases and tumours; its more general meaning, ‘feeling or showing intense ill will’, is still found
(He would have a sensation of something malignant about to crush him—G. Watson , 1991) but is now overshadowed by the technical use. The shorter form malign is used mostly of things that are evil in their nature or effects
(She was no longer the victim of chance, of a malign fate—W.J. Burely , 1989); it has also been used in the medical sense as an opposite of benign but has largely given way to malignant. Malevolent means ‘wishing harm to others’ and refers rather to general disposition than to particular actions or conduct:
Trees were brooding presences, soughing incantations. Every bush hid an invisible force, frequently malevolent—W. Mcllvanney , 1975. Malevolent is often used of looks and sounds:
He had a nervous twitch which jerked at a muscle at the corner of his thin-lipped mouth and a malevolent stare—A. Granger , 1991.

2 The corresponding nouns are malice (or maliciousness, which has more specific reference), malignancy, and malevolence. The noun malignity is derived from malign and has enjoyed substantial usage over several centuries in the meaning ‘wicked ill will or hatred’, which it still has although it is used much less than formerly:
His self-sufficient malignity [is] seemingly motiveless until the last pages of the book, when a tattooed number is noticed on his arm, and a casual remark—‘I spent the war in Belsen’—G. Watson , 1991.
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mall,

in the meanings ‘a sheltered walk or promenade’ and ‘an enclosed shopping precinct’, is increasingly heard in Britain in the form mawl (already familiar in America, Australia, and elsewhere), rather than mal. But mal is still obligatory in the London place-names The Mall, Chiswick Mall, and Pall Mall.

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malnutrition

belongs firmly to the list of Fowlerian LOST CAUSES. ‘A word to be avoided,’ wrote Fowler in 1926, as often as underfeeding will do the work. Alas for Fowler , underfeeding has not done its work, although the related form underfed is still going strong as an alternative for malnourished. It is interesting, though, that we are so ready to use the technical term in general contexts.

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man

has been used for centuries in the generalized meaning ‘a human being (regardless of sex)’, and is embedded deep in idiom and verbal imagery: Man cannot live by bread alone / Every man for himself / Be one's own man / etc. It is no use protesting that the gender phenomenon represented here is linguistic and not sexual, when changing social attitudes (shared by men as well as women) see it as an unacceptable outward sign of male dominance. There are alternatives available, though none of them is quite without awkwardness: person or one for man in the countable sense (One cannot live by bread alone), and humanity or humankind for man in the uncountable sense (Humankind cannot live by bread alone). As these examples show, however, it will be many years before such contrived substitutions will sound natural, and they probably never will. But in everyday language there is no reason not to respect gender sensitivities in language. See also SEXIST LANGUAGE.

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-man,

as a suffix in occupational words such as chairman and craftsman, is normally restricted now to male contexts in accordance with changing attitudes to the word MAN. When the person concerned is a woman, forms in -woman or -person, or some other gender-neutral term such as police officer for policeman and firefighter for fireman, are now commonly used instead.

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manage

has inflected forms managed and managing, and a derivative form manageable.

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manageress

see -ESS.

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maneuver

is an AmE variant of MANOEUVRE.

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mango,

the fruit, has plural forms mangoes (preferred) or mangos.

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mangy,

meaning ‘having mange’ or ‘squalid, shabby’, is spelt this way, not mangey.

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-mania.

The rapid turnover of occasional and ephemeral words formed with this suffix was noted by the OED and has continued in the 20c with forms such as Beatlemania, Olliemania (Oliver North, central figure in the US Iran Contra scandal of the later 1980s), and technomania. Corresponding forms in -maniac also continue to be found.

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manifesto

has the plural form manifestos.

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manikin,

meaning ‘a dwarf’, ‘an artist's dummy’, or ‘an anatomical model’, is spelt this way, not mannikin or manakin. A dressmaker's model is a mannequin.

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Manila

is the spelling for the capital of the Philippine Islands. The hemp and paper are both spelt manila, although manilla is sometimes found.

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manipulate.

The adjective derivatives are manipulable (‘capable of being manipulated’; not manipulatable) and manipulative (‘inclined to exploit unscrupulously’).

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mankind

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable when the meaning is ‘the human species’ and with the stress on the first syllable when the meaning is ‘male people, as distinct from female’. In the first meaning, humankind is now often used instead. See SEXIST LANGUAGE.

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mannequin

see MANIKIN.

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manner.

The phrase to the manner born is now commonly used to mean ‘naturally at ease in a given situation’. This use is informal only; the phrase is taken from Shakespeare, Hamlet I.iv.17, where it means ‘destined by birth to follow a custom or way of life’.

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manoeuvre

has inflected forms manoeuvred, manoeuvring. The spelling in AmE is maneuver, with inflected forms maneuvered, maneuvering.

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man-of-war

has the plural form men-of-war.

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manpower

see SEXIST LANGUAGE.

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manqué.

In the meaning ‘that might have been but is not’, manqué is placed after the noun it refers to: a poet manqué.

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mantel, mantle.

Mantel is originally a variant of mantle, both forms are derived from the Latin word mantellum meaning ‘cloak’, and both have meanings to do with covering. Mantle has several uses, including ‘cloak’ (usually as worn by women) and the figurative meaning ‘responsibility or authority’ (especially regarded as passing from one person to another). Mantel has one meaning, usually in the longer form mantelpiece or mantelshelf, ‘a shelf over a fireplace’.

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many.

1 Many, like much, tends to sound more formal in positive contexts (They have many friends) than in negative ones (They do not have many friends). In conversation and less formal written English, a lot of (or, even more informally, lots of) is used instead in positive contexts.

2 The type many a, though notionally plural, always entails a singular construction:
Many a prostitute, whether she calls herself a … hostess, or a common whore, imagines that she is exploiting the male sex— Greer 1970.
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Maori

is pronounced as two syllables (mow-ri) and has the plural form Maoris in general usage, although Maoris themselves have been urging non-Maoris in New Zealand and elsewhere to use their own pronunciation of the name with three syllables (mah-aw-ri) and to adopt their plural form Maori, the same as the singular. The plural form is more likely to succeed than the pronunciation, since the two-syllable form is more natural to most speakers of English.

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marathon,

the name of the long-distance race and, by extension, a word for any lengthy or difficult task or undertaking, is derived from the name of the famous battle fought between Greeks (mainly Athenians and Plataeans) and Persians on the east coast of Attica in 490 BC. The length of the race (26 miles 385 yards or 42km 352m) is based on a relatively late tradition that the Athenian Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens after the battle with news of the Greek victory, whereas the primary source for these events, the 5C BC historian Herodotus, records that Pheidippides ran to appeal for support before the battle from Athens to Sparta (in southern Greece), a distance that represents a much more remarkable achievement.

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marchioness

see MARQUESS.

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margarine.

After a battle royal fought throughout the 20c between those who pronounce it with a ‘soft’ -j-sound (as in the shortened form marge) and those who favour a ‘hard’ -g-sound (as in Margaret), the first of these is now completely dominant, despite Fowler's objection (1926) that this was ‘clearly wrong’. He based his view partly on the authority of the OED (which in its 2nd edition of 1989 still puts the ‘hard’ form first) and partly on the fact that the only other words in which g is ‘soft’ before a vowel other than e or i are gaol (and its derivatives) and mortgagor.

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marginalize.

To the editors of the OED around the turn of the century, this meant no more than ‘to write marginal notes upon’, and they marked it ‘rare’. Since then it has been so transformed that the 1991 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of New Words described it (or, more precisely, its derivative marginalization) as ‘one of the main social buzz-words of the eighties’. Increased awareness of the rights of underprivileged groups and minorities has given the word its new lease of life in the meaning ‘to treat (a person or group of people) as marginal and therefore unimportant’. The use of marginal reflected here is itself a 20c development, first in the sociological meaning ‘partly belonging to two differing societies or cultures but not fully integrated into either’ and then in the more general meaning ‘of minor importance, insignificant’. Examples:
Society, taking its lead from the media and its politicians, begins to reject a whole class and marginalizes them in the job market—C. Phillips , 1987 /
Until recently, children's books were regarded as marginal, less than serious as literature—J. Briggs , 1989 /
It is not yet clear that the church's long years of marginalisation in our national life have been ended—Independent, 1990 /
You work with what are often called ‘marginalized’ people, such as African-Americans and people of color—Bomb, 1992.

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markedly

see -EDLY.

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marquess, marquis.

Both words are pronounced mah-kwis. A marquess is a British nobleman ranking between a duke and an earl, and a marquis is a foreign equivalent ranking between a duke and a count. A marquise, pronounced mah-keez, is the wife or widow of a marquis or a woman holding the rank of marquis in her own right. A marchioness is the wife or widow of a marquess, or a woman holding the rank of marquess in her own right.

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marriageable

is spelt with an e in the middle.

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marshal.

The verb has inflected forms marshalled, marshalling in BrE, and usually marshaled, marshaling in AmE.

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marten, martin.

A marten is an animal like a weasel, whereas a martin is a bird of the swallow family.

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marvel.

The verb has inflected forms marvelled, marvelling in BrE, and usually marveled, marveling in AmE.

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marvellous

is the spelling in BrE, but marvelous is more usual in AmE.

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Mary.

The plural form is Marys (as in the two Marys).

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masculine

see MALE.

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massacre

is spelt this way in BrE and AmE, and has inflected forms massacres, massacred, massacring.

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massage

is pronounced mas-ahzh or mas-ahj in BrE, and m-sahzh in AmE. The agent nouns masseur and masseuse are pronounced with the stress on the second syllable in both BrE and AmE.

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massive

has become an overused word in contexts that have little to do with mass:
A massive punt downfield from [goalkeeper] Parkes—Times, 1975 /
Yet another massive stage project, now previewing at the Aldwych, where it officially opens on June 19—Times, 1980. In many cases alternatives such as immense, enormous, substantial, powerful, impressive, or even huge or large, should be considered. In extended and figurative uses, massive is best reserved for contexts in which an image of vast size is appropriate:
Riot police looked on impassively… as a massive crowd of mourners… gave the clenched fist Marxist salute—Times, 1977 /
The most important area on which to concentrate was the massive amount of water required by the production of textiles—Daily Telegraph, 1992. But use one of the alternative words when the image is unreal or forced:
Women have massive amounts of love invested in fathers, lovers and sons, and many of these women despise the systems their own men may be helping to sustain—B. Cant , 1988.

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masterful, masterly.

Although both words have at some time in their history shared all the meanings involved here, they have settled down in more recent usage in such a way that masterful conveys meanings to do with dominance and power whereas masterly connotes skill and fine qualities:
His mentor was band leader Joe Loss. ‘When Loss used a stick the bounce and freedom within a beat was masterly.’—Gramophone, 1978 /
‘Oh, I do like the way you talk to the waiters, so masterful,’ sighed Esther—S. Mackay , 1984. Fowler (1926) noted with regret that masterful was too often used for masterly (though not the other way round), and this is still the case:
Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington's masterful alto saxophonist—Daily Telegraph, 1970 /
There are just enough such slippages in this generally masterful book to suggest that Fish still has room for further self-revision—Times Literary Supplement, 1990. We also find masterfully now and then doubling as an adverb for masterly, which lacks a singleword equivalent:
For over twenty years, Hugo had masterfully deployed the metaphor of the wave—A. Martin , 1991. The distinction is important since the two words are not so distinct in meaning that ambiguity can always be avoided.

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mat

see MATT.

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materialize

is first recorded in 1710 and its first meaning was transitive (with an object): to materialize an idea was to realize it and to materialize a spiriti was to make the spirit appear. Its intransitive use, now more familiar, dates from the late 19c, still in the context of spiritualism:
The … ghosts … gave dark séances and manifested and materialized—Harper's Magazine, 1884. But in current use the sense has been generalized so much that it means little more than ‘happen’ or ‘become available’:
Plans do not always materialise in the anticipated way— Pym , 1982 /
The alimony her ex-husband was supposed to pay never materialized—R. Deacon , 1988. This use is acceptable in all but the most formal contexts.

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matériel

meaning ‘material and equipment used in warfare (as distinct from personnel)’, has not been fully naturalized in English and is printed in italics with an accent (although the accent is often omitted in Services' documents).

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matey,

an informal word meaning ‘sociable’, is spelt with an e, not maty.

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math

is the AmE abbreviation for mathematics; in BrE it is maths.

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mathematics

is treated as a singular noun when it is the name of a subject (Mathematics is not my favourite activity) and as a plural noun when it means ‘the process of calculating’ (The mathematics of the problem are quite complex).

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maths

see MATH.

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matinée

literally means ‘morning’ in French, but it now invariably means ‘in the afternoon’ (in French and English) when used to distinguish an afternoon film or theatre performance from an evening performance. The accent is often dropped, especially in AmE.

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matrix,

meaning ‘a mould in which something is shaped’ (and other technical meanings), is pronounced may-triks and has the plural form matrices (may-tri-seez) or matrixes.

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matt,

meaning ‘dull, without lustre’, is spelt matt BrE and either mat or (more usually) matte in AmE.

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maty

see MATEY.

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mausoleum,

meaning ‘a grand tomb’ (after that of the 4C BC king of Caria, Mausolus), has the plural form mausoleums.

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maximum.

The plural, though not often needed, is maxima, or informally maximums.

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may, can

see CAN.

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may, might.

1 With reference to present or future possibility, may and might are both used, but with may the possibility is more open and with might it is more tentative or remote:
(may) The ACLU may have a strong case—Economist, 1980 /
The cyclists may use up to 6,000 calories during a race—Times, 1983 (might)
The news that the Met season might have to be cancelled … is an annual threat—Listener, 1980 /
Some players get a ‘buzz’ from the game [of Space Invaders] and that might explain why they become addicted—Times, 1983 /
What is a little surprising is that even the programme's adult representatives claim they don't quite know what a bonk might be—Today, 1986.

2 With reference to possibility in the past, may have leaves it open whether an event or circumstance was actually the case, whereas might have implies that it was not, and is explicit that it was not when the statement is part of an unfulfilled condition introduced by if or by inversion (as in the 1983 Daily Telegraph example below):
(may have) It may have been an awful night… but the meat and potato pies were brill—Guardian, 1983 /
Police say they're anxious to trace a car and a van which may have been used by the gang—television news broadcast, 1993 /
(might have) ‘You might have been killed yourself.’ ‘Not much chance; the raid had already gone past us.’—A.  1983 /
Had the Liberal Yellow Book been published in 1920 our history might have been different—Daily Telegraph, 1983 /
Once he might have answered differently—might have said that the two things were different in kind—but now he was not so certain—D. , 1990. It is incorrect to use may have when the possibility it expresses is clearly not an actual one:
If some of the resources squandered this morning had been used more wisely, we may have been able to take steps to save his life—Scotsman, 1989.
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3 There are a few idiomatic uses of might and might have that are worth noting: You might have said something! (= you should have said something) / Might I suggest … ? (= a polite, now somewhat old-fashioned alternative for May I …?). Might have is occasionally used with future reference, again with a suggestion of unlikely fulfilment: By tomorrow, the weather might have changed.
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maybe,

an adverb meaning ‘perhaps’, is such a familiar part of current standard English that it comes as a surprise to know that it fell out of use in the 19c to an extent that caused the OED to label it ‘archaic and dialect’. It has a somewhat informal air about it, admittedly, but it is used in a wide range of contexts, written and spoken, especially in AmE, and shares all the grammatical flexibility of perhaps:
Maybe a shotgun was all he had—A.  1987 /
If you quote the Liberal opposition saying that they did, aren't you implying that they didn't? Maybe?—London Review of Books, 1987. Note that may be is spelt as two words when it is a combination of the modal verb may and the verb be: compare Maybe she's joking (or She's maybe joking) and She may be joking.

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me.

1 For idiomatic uses of me, see I. For the types as good as I/me and better than I/me see CASES 2B.

2 Informally, me commonly replaces I at the head of clauses when linked to a noun by and:
Me and the teacher are going to race tonight from the school to the store—J. Crace , 1986. It would be awkward to say I and the teacher, and the alternative the teacher and I, though less awkward, has a formal sound that makes it less likely to occur in casual conversation. This use of me seems generally more acceptable than corresponding uses of her, him, us, and them.
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meagre

is spelt this way in BrE, and usually meager in AmE.

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mean.

1 In the meaning ‘to intend’, mean can be followed by a to-infinitive (when the speaker intends to do something: I meant to go), by an object + to-infinitive (when the speaker intends someone else to do something: I meant you to go) and, more formally, by a that-clause with should (I meant that you should go). Use of mean for + object + to-infinitive I meant for you to go) is non-standard.

2 I mean is legitimately used to introduce an explanation of what has just been said:
He was a marvellous butler. I mean, if you went there he'd welcome you in the most graceful and polite and proper way—New Yorker, 1986. In conversation it is increasingly heard as a sentence-filler, rather like you know (see KNOW):
‘Only… very nice?’ he asked woefully, ‘Oh, it's great! I mean, it's fantastic!’—Los Angeles Times, 1987. This use is informal only but, as so often, there are borderline uses that blur distinctions:
I wasn't interested in him. I mean, when you shoot juice, you lose the other thing—H.C. Rae , 1972 /
I publish, I mean I have had published, a few what we used to call slim volumes of verse, um, poetry, you know— Hampton , 1974. It is all too easy to point to extremes that no one would consider standard
(You know, like, uh, hey, man, I mean, cool, huh?—L. , 1992); the real difficulties lie in the greyer areas of usage.
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3 In the passive, to be meant has for long had the sense ‘to be destined (by providence), to have special significance’:
When I need you, you are here. You must see how meant it all is— Murdoch , 1974. This use has been joined by another passive use in which meant followed by a to-infinitive means little more than ‘supposed, thought, intended’:
For today he was meant to be having dinner with Stephanie at the Dear Friends—A.N. Wilson , 1986. This altered meaning is now so familiar that its relative newness (mostly 20c) can cause surprise.
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meaningful.

The journalist and literary critic Philip Howard wrote in 1978 that ‘ongoing situations and meaningful dialogues are two popular pieces of jargon … at present’, and they still are. Meaningful is essentially the opposite of meaningless, i.e. ‘having meaning’, as in a meaningful utterance. But meaning has other meanings, which are reflected in other uses of meaningful, especially ‘important, significant, noteworthy’, so that things such as talks, tests, results, work, and even relationships can be called meaningful. There is some justification for using the word when the notion of something having meaning is present:
Chris and Jayne turned to each other with raised eyebrows and meaningful looks—P.  1983. But alternatives such as important, significant, and effective should be considered when it is importance rather than meaning that is the issue:
If your new employer has offered to provide you with facilities for updating, make sure that this is included in your contract of employment, and that it is backed up with meaningful support and supervision—A. , 1990.

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meaningless fillers.

This is a term used to describe phrases such as um, er, I mean, and you know, which are inserted spontaneously as asides into conversation in order to fill pauses and maintain the flow of speech.

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means.

1 When the meaning is ‘financial resources’, means is treated as plural: Their means are somewhat limited. When the meaning is ‘a way or method’ it can operate as a singular noun (when preceded by a determiner such as a, any, or every) or as a plural noun (when preceded by a plural-marking word such as all, many, several, etc.):
Several means are available for indexing numbers not obtainable with standard plain indexing—L.E. Doyle , 1961 /
They remained for her a means, and not an end, a bargaining power rather than a blessing— Drabble , 1967 /
Derek and I drove down there and shut off the whole barn, preventing all means of getting in or out—J. , 1991. When means is preceded by the, the following verb can be either singular or plural, depending on the sense intended:
Throughout my boyhood the normal means of passenger transport, if something more than a bicycle was required, was the cab— Grimond , 1979 /
Moreover, the means by which this end is achieved are remarkable— Foot , 1986.

2 The dual role of means in the ‘way, method’ sense is a survival or folk memory of an earlier time, when both the singular mean and the plural means were used. The singular use has dropped out, but the construction, attached to the plural, has survived.
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meantime, meanwhile.

1 As a solitary adverb, meantime has largely given way to meanwhile, but is still occasionally found:
Meantime, melt the remaining butter in a saucepan— Smith , 1978. It is most often used in the phrase in the meantime, which is now normally written as three words instead of four:
The telephone will… redial the number you last called, even if you've hung up in the meantime—Which?, 1987. Conversely, meanwhile is most often used by itself, and only occasionally in the variant phrase in the meanwhile:
The animals Mrs Murray cares for are always returned to the wild if possible. Meanwhile, they stay at her study centre—Times, 1986 /
In the meanwhile, I'll just lie here, flat on my back, fingering my perfect bones—J. , 1992.

2 In recent use, meanwhile is commonly used in journalism and (especially) broadcasting as a means of resuming a main theme after a digression or aside:
Meanwhile, as we say in the trade, Motherwell go bottom [of the League table]— Lynam , in a television broadcast, 1987. The use may owe its origins to the catchphrase Meanwhile, back at the ranch, used originally in captions to silent Western films and later as a voice-over in films with sound. This phrase too is common allusively in a wide range of contexts:
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have been browsing through the press coverage—Guardian, 1986 /
Meanwhile back in the Commons, Mrs Thatcher tried to resist questions by saying the issues were sub judice—Today, 1987.
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measles

is normally treated as a singular noun, although occasionally it is used as a plural, sometimes preceded by the: The measles have left him feeling weak.

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medal

has derivative forms medalled, medallist in BrE, and usually medaled, medalist in AmE.

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media,

in its modern meaning ‘newspapers and broadcasting regarded collectively’, is properly treated as a plural noun:
The media … impel a Prime Minister to seek stardom at the expense of the Cabinet—New Yorker, 1977. It is increasingly used, especially by the media themselves, as a singular mass noun like agenda and data, but this use is not yet standard and should be avoided:
That's what the media's for: to be useful in positive ways—The Face, 1992. Above all, never write a media or the medias. The word is often used in attributive position (before a noun):
The shock-horror world of the media men—Times Literary Supplement, 1980.

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medicine.

The recommended pronunciation is as two syllables, i.e. med-sin, although a three-syllable form, med-i-sin, is common in Scotland and the USA and elsewhere.

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medieval

is the recommended spelling, not mediaeval. It is pronounced me-di-ee-vl with four syllables, although me-dee-vl or mi-dee-vl, with three syllables, is common in AmE.

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Mediterranean

is spelt with one d, one t, and two rs, as its derivation from the Latin words medius ‘middle’ and terra ‘land’ reminds us.

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medium.

In the spiritualist sense, the plural is mediums, and in the meaning ‘means of mass communication’ the plural is MEDIA, which has its own pattern of behaviour. In all other meanings (e.g. ‘an agency or means of doing something’), mediums and media are both used.

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mega-,

a prefix meaning ‘great’, continues to be used in scientific and technical applications, often with the specific meaning ‘denoting a factor of one million’ (as in the computing unit megabyte). In the 20c it has taken on a much more informal role in words such as megastar and megahit, and has become detached in the form mega, meaning ‘excellent’ or (as an adverb) ‘extremely’ (mega famous).

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meiosis,

pronounced miy-oh-sis, is a figure of speech involving an emphatic understatement made for effect, as when something outstanding is described as ‘rather good’. A literary example occurs in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where Mercutio refers to his mortal hurt (at the hands of Tybalt) with the words Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch (III.i.93). A special form of meiosis involving negatives is called LITOTES.

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melted, molten.

As adjectives, melted is the normal word (melted butter / melted ice / melted snow). Molten is used only of materials melted at extreme heat (molten lava / molten lead).

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membership.

Her acceptance of this role has… given enormous pleasure to the membership—B. , 1990. The use of membership to mean ‘members collectively’ (e.g. of a trade union) was noted Gowers (1965) as ‘now rife and corrupting other words’. Its use is normally restricted to official or reporting contexts, and in general use membership most commonly retains its traditional meanings ‘the status of being a member’ (I must renew my membership) or ‘the number of members in an organization’ (Membership is down by 15% this year).

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memento,

meaning ‘a souvenir’, should not be converted into the dubious formation momento. The plural form is mementoes.

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memo,

a shortening of memorandum and now the more usual form in general use, has the plural form memos.

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memorabilia,

meaning ‘souvenirs of memorable events, people, etc.’, is a plural noun, and should not be treated as singular:
We've got railway memorabilia and we're very proud of it—Best, 1991.

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memorandum

has the plural form memoranda (recommended) or memorandums. In general business use in the meaning ‘informal note or message’, MEMO is more often used.

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ménage,

a somewhat literary word meaning ‘the members of a household’, is printed in roman type with the accent retained. The pronunciation is semi-naturalized, with the final consonant retaining its French form, so may-nahzh.

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mendacity, mendicity.

Mendacity (from Latin mendax ‘lying’) means ‘habitual lying or deceiving’, whereas mendicity (from Latin mendicare ‘to beg’) means ‘the practice or habit of begging’. The words are ultimately related in having a common ancestor in the Latin word mendum meaning ‘fault’.

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-ment

see -ION, -MENT, -NESS.

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mental.

The use of mental in expressions such as mental hospital and mental patient, recorded from the end of the 19c, has been replaced in the 20c by psychiatric.

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mentality,

in its meaning ‘mental character or disposition’, is now nearly always used with unfavourable connotations, although this was not always so:
I hate the triviality of journalism, you know, the sort of fluttering mentality that fills up the page— Carpenter , 1978 /
A kind of unacknowledged underground mentality had permeated all kinds of places— Miller , 1987.

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merchandise

is spelt -ise (and normally pronounced -iyz) for both the noun and the verb. In AmE, the verb is often spelt with a final -ize.

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meretricious,

derived from Latin meretrix ‘prostitute’, means ‘showily but falsely attractive’:
She could view with contempt those of her fellow tourists who, after the Aegean, could excite themselves over the meretricious charms of Venice— Liddell , 1986. It should not be confused with meritorious and other words connected with merit.

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merit

as a verb has inflected forms merited, meriting.

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mésalliance

(non-naturalized) normally means ‘a marriage with a person of a lower social position’, by contrast with the naturalized word misalliance, which is used of any unsuitable alliance, including an unsuitable marriage. Both words entered the language in the 18c.

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Messrs.,

originally a contraction of French Messieurs ‘gentlemen’, was formerly common as a plural form of Mr in business and commercial use (e.g. Messrs. Berkeley, Stratton & Co.), but has now fallen into disuse in most parts of the English-speaking world, except in certain professions, notably law. There are certain technical limitations on its use that need to be guarded against; for example, it is not used with Limited Companies. If in doubt, consult Debrett's Correct Form or a similar manual on form.

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meta-.

In recent use this prefix has been borrowed from the term metaphysics and applied to other words with the meaning ‘of a higher or second-order kind’: a metalanguage is language used to describe language, meta-history is the study of the principles governing historical events, and meta-mathematics is concerned with the structure and formal properties of mathematics. This is a development that seems likely to continue.

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metal, mettle.

1 Both are in origin the same word. In the 16c mettle began to move apart as a separate word used only in figurative meanings, of which the dominant one still current is ‘ardent or spirited temperament; spirit, courage’, as in the expressions show one's mettle and be on one's mettle.

2 The verb metal has inflected forms metalled, metalling in BrE, and usually metaled, metaling in AmE.
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metallurgy,

the science of metals, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable in BrE, and with the stress on the first syllable in AmE.

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metaphor and simile.

1 The difference between these two figures of speech, which together constitute a major element of English idiom, is largely one of form. A simile is a fanciful comparison couched in a form introduced by as or like, for example Byron's line The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, whereas a metaphor directly equates the image with the person or thing it is compared to: Achilles was a lion in the fight. Many figurative uses of words (e.g. the mouth of a river, a blanket of fog, music to one's ears) and many idioms (e.g. get the green light, have one foot in the grave, take the rough with the smooth) can be seen as metaphors.

2 A type of metaphor that always arouses derision is the mixed metaphor, in which two incompatible images are combined: He has been made a sacrificial lamb for taking the lid off a can of worms / In coal mines, mice are used as human guinea pigs. (both examples from recent letters pages of The Times). A similar if less vivid kind of absurdity can be caused by combining figurative uses in which the corresponding physical senses merge to present an alternative picture, as in taking concrete steps (cited Gowers ) and grass-roots consumers. In the hurly-burly of rapid speech, such disasters are bound to occur, but they can be avoided in more considered or formal language use when there is time to reflect on what is being said.
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metathesis,

pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, is a term for the transposition of sounds or letters in a word, sometimes as a feature of a word's development (e.g hasp from Old English hæpse) and at other times as an erroneous process (e.g. anenome for anemone).

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meter

is the normal spelling in BrE and AmE for the measuring or recording instrument, and is the AmE spelling of the words in BrE spelt metre (unit of length and rhythm in poetry).

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meticulous

is derived from the Latin word metus ‘fear’, and in the 16c and 17c it had a corresponding meaning ‘fearful, timid’. Then the word went out of use only to reappear in the early 19c in a completely different sense, ‘over-careful about details’. This was the meaning known to the Fowler brothers when they wrote The King's English at the turn of the century, and they didn't much care for it, classing it among the ‘stiff, full-dress, literary, or out-of-the-way words’. Between then and now, it lost (almost completely, but not always quite) its connotations of excess, and settled down in the meaning it now has, ‘careful, punctilious, precise’. If it differs at all from these synonyms, it is perhaps from a vestigial shadow of this strange past rather than any real distinction in meaning:
Utz has planned his own funeral with meticulous care— Chatwin , 1988 /
Very many tedious hours were spent on the dull and routine tasks of listing, plotting on graphs, meticulously checking and classifying—I. , 1990.

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metonymy

is a figure of speech in which an attribute or property is used to refer to the person or thing that has it, e.g. the White House for the American presidency and the Crown for the British monarchy. In the proverb The pen is mightier than the sword, pen and sword, by a process of metonymy, represent the written word and warfare respectively. See also SYNECDOCHE.

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metope,

a term in architecture for a square section from a Doric frieze, is generally pronounced met-ohp (two syllables), or occasionally but increasingly rarely, met-pee (three syllables).

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mettle

see METAL.

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mews,

meaning ‘a set of buildings around an open yard’, is usually called a mews and is treated as a singular noun. (The word is originally the plural of mew meaning ‘a cage for hawks’.) It is often used attributively (before a noun) to describe a building that is part of a mews:
He intended to make the mews house his operational headquarters—M. , 1974.

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mezzanine,

a low storey between two others (usually between the ground and first floors), is pronounced met-s-neen or mez-s-neen.

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mickle, muckle.

These are merely variants of the same word meaning ‘a large amount’, and so the proverb Many a mickle makes a muckle is, in its usual form, a meaningless corruption. The correct form is Many a little (or occasionally pickle = ‘small amount’) makes a mickle, which is recorded from the 13C. The corrupted form is first attested in the works of George Washington (late 18c).

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micro-

continues to be a highly productive prefix, with the following among many forms first recorded in the 20c: microclimate, microdot, microearthquake, microevent, microfilm, micro-oven, microsurgery, microsystem, microwave. A fuller list will be found in OED2.

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mid,

meaning ‘middle of’, is normally joined by a hyphen to the following word, as in mid-century / mid-fifteenth century. Note that when the century is in attributive position (before a noun), two hyphens are needed: a mid-fifteenth-century church. Note that mid-air is spelt with a hyphen whatever its position in the sentence, despite Fowler's preference (1926) for mid air.

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middling, middlingly.

Middling has been used as an adjective in various senses since the 15c, but is now more commonly found as an adverb, a use attested from the 18c. In this role it competes with middlingly, which is recorded from the same date and was used by Dr Johnson in his definition of the word indifferently. Modern examples of each are:
He was middling tall and thin— Francis , 1981 /
Ivan llyich, who has a middlingly successful legal career and has become a judge, …—A.N. Wilson , 1988.

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midst

is now most commonly used in the phrases in the midst of or in our (etc.) midst, meaning ‘among, in the middle of’. Typical contexts are both physical and abstract:
There was … something sinister about this place, unhusbanded and yieldless in the midst of the abundant land all about—R. , 1974 /
In the midst of all the politico-religious dissension [in Ulster], one tends to overlook the general social problems—D. , 1978.

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midwifery.

The dominant pronunciation in BrE is mid-wif-ri (three syllables) or mid-wif--ri (four syllables), although mid-wiyf--ri (with the second syllable as in wife) is also heard in AmE.

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might

see MAY, MIGHT.

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migraine.

The usual pronunciation in BrE is now mee-grayn, although now miy-grayn is also heard and is standard in AmE.

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mil,

a unit of measurement equal to one-thousandth of an inch (0.00254mm), is spelt without a full point.

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mileage,

with two es, is the recommended spelling, not milage.

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milieu,

a somewhat literary word for one's environment or social surroundings, is pronounced mil-yur. The preferred plural form is milieux (pronounced mil-yurz).

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militate, mitigate.

The two words are sometimes confused (usually mitigate is used for militate) because both meanings are connected with having a reducing effect and their forms and rhythm are close. Mitigate is transitive (i.e. it takes an object) and means ‘to make less intense or severe’, whereas militate is intransitive and (followed by against) means ‘to have a contrary force or effect’. The following examples show the correct use of militate then mitigate, followed by an incorrect use of mitigate for militate:
The housing styles, narrowness of the streets and the location of the district vis-a-vis the rest of the city all militate against Neustadt becoming an environmentally attractive area overnight—R. , 1990 /
A great yellow sun like a runaway balloon shone from a deep blue sky, and a cooling breeze from the lagoon mitigated the heat—L. , 1992 /
Parents are expected to make ‘sensible arrangements’… that will not mitigate against the child's best interests—L. , 1992. Mitigate is frequently used in the form mitigating with words such as circumstance, effect, factor, etc.:
The offence with which you are charged is so serious that despite your personal mitigating factors a non-custodial sentence cannot be justified—television news broadcast, 1993.

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millenarian

see MILLENNIUM.

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millenary,

an adjective (and, less often, a noun) denoting a period of 1,000 years, is usually pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, although pronunciation with the stress on the first syllable is also heard and is the dominant form in AmE.

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millennium,

a period of 1,000 years, is spelt with two ls and two ns. The plural is millenniums (preferred) or occasionally millennia. For the problems of reckoning when a new millennium begins, see the remarks at CENTURY. Whatever the arguments put forward on the basis of strict reckoning, the natural celebratory point for a new millennium is at the end of the year 1999, 2999, and so on, and not the year following. The adjective millenarian, meaning ‘relating to the millennium’ or ‘believing in the millennium’ (in the theological sense of Christ's second coming), is paradoxically spelt with only one n, being derived not from Latin annus ‘year’ but from milleni, the distributive form (meaning ‘every thousand’) of mille ‘thousand’.

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million.

When preceded by a numeral or a quantifying word such as many or several, the plural is million (unchanged: twenty million people), but millions is used when it is followed by of (millions of times). With few, the plural is idiomatically million, not millions, even when followed by of (a few million of them).

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mimic.

The inflected forms of the verb are mimics, mimicked, mimicking.

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mind verb.

Mind you, if you think she behaved strangely, you should have seen me— Amis , 1984. This absolute use of the verb mind, calling attention to or emphasizing what the speaker is saying, is recorded in the OED from the early 19c (Coleridge, Browning, etc.), along with the shorter form mind (without you):
Well, all right, but you aren't to do anything, mind— Lessing , 1988. This use is conversational or informal only.

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mine,

historically an alternative to my in uses such as mine ease and O lady mine! and still used occasionally in this way in jocular use (mine host), is in general use limited to its role as a pronoun, either after of (a friend of mine) or after a verb (This one is not mine).

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mineralogy,

the study of minerals, is spelt -alogy, not -ology. (Compare GENEALOGY.)

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minimum.

The plural, though not often needed, is minima, or informally minimums.

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miniscule

is fast establishing itself as an adjective in its own right with the meaning ‘very small, minute’, although as a corruption (influenced by the prefix mini-) of MINUSCULE it is regarded as non-standard:
Riborg showed her a photograph album, with herself by a fjord in a miniscule bikini—J. , 1991. There is a case to be made for allowing miniscule to have its way and leaving minuscule to its own more technical devices, but since this is not the accepted procedure at present the best advice is to avoid the word altogether in this meaning and use any of several available synonyms such as minute, tiny, microscopic, diminutive, etc.

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minister,

In its ecclesiastical sense, minister is the term to use for a member of the clergy, especially in the Presbyterian and Nonconformist Churches. It also has a more hierarchical meaning, reflecting the word's origin in Latin minister meaning ‘servant’ (from minus ‘lesser’), denoting a church official who assists the higher orders (e.g. deacon or subdeacon) in discharging their duties. Care should be taken before using the term as a simple synonym for priest.

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minority.

1 Minority has meanings at the other end of the scale of magnitude from MAJORITY, and is likewise treated as a singular noun except when used with of and a plural noun, in which case it too is plural:
Only a minority of Germans (around a third of the population according to American surveys carried out in 1945) were prepared to concede that the war was lost—I. , 1989. In one respect, however, minority has gone its own way, namely in its widespread 20c use referring to any relatively small group of people who differ from others in the society of which they are a part in race, ethnic origin, language, religion, political persuasion, sexual orientation, or other matters that give rise to questions of social treatment or discrimination:
Flaubert always sides with minorities, with ‘the Bedouin, the Heretic, the philosopher, the hermit, the Poet’— Barnes , 1985 /
Among specific measures provided for in the convention were the launch of at least one radio station and a television network broadcasting in minority languages— Keesings , 1990. In this meaning minority has acquired some flexibility of use, giving rise to apparently paradoxical collocations such as growing or increasing minority (i.e. increasing in numbers and therefore becoming less rather than more truly a minority).

2 Running parallel to this, but in an opposite direction as regards meaning, has been the 20c use of minority as a quasi-adjective meaning ‘of or for a minority’, often with a favourable sense as in minority interests or minority tastes (generally = more exclusive or intellectual):
Drummond once told me that Radio 3 broadcasts to about 30 minority tastes, each of which is characterised by its intense dislike of the other 29—Daily Telegraph, 1992. An early exponent of the idea of minority culture was the Cambridge academic F. R. Leavis , whose influential book Mass Civilization and Minority Culture was published in 1930. It is noteworthy that this use of minority, in relation to culture, implies an element of superiority or privilege, whereas the other 20c use of minority, in relation to social position, implies one of inferiority or deprivation.
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minus,

in the meaning ‘lacking, without’, has been used informally since the mid-19c. The Fowler brothers, doubtless affected by their experiences at the front in the First World War, illustrated this use in the first edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary with the gruesome example He came back minus an arm; arm was changed to dog in a later edition.

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minuscule

is originally a technical term in palaeography for a type of small letter, and then the cursive script developed from it. In attributive use (before a noun) it denotes this type of writing, and in extended use it has acquired the general meaning ‘very small’ but it always seems somewhat awkward in generalized meanings:
The facilities here were minimal—a cracked wash-basin, one minuscule bar of soap, and one off-white towel— Dexter , 1992. Not surprisingly, in this meaning the word has come under the influence of the prefix mini- to produce the altered (and not yet accepted) form MINISCULE (see separate entry).

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minutiae,

meaning ‘minor details or trivia’ is pronounced mi-nyoo-shi-iy and is a plural noun. The singular from minutia is hardly ever used.

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mis-

is a prefix with the meaning ‘badly, wrongly’. Words formed with it do not need a hyphen, even when the stem begins with an s: misbehave, miscarriage, miscount, mismanage, misshapen, misspelling, misspent, etc.

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misanthrope.

A misanthrope is a hater of fellow human beings; a person who hates women is a misogynist. The corresponding concept nouns are misanthropy and misogyny; hatred of men is misandry. How significant it is that misanthrope dates from the 16c and misogynist from the early 17c, whereas misandry is recorded only from the 1940s (and misandrist is not yet recorded at all) must be left for others to determine.

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mischievous.

The erroneous pronunciation and spelling of this word as mischievious (four syllables) is one of the most commonly cited indications of poor use of language, and should be avoided.

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misdemeanour

is spelt -our in BrE and misdemeanor in AmE.

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mislead

has the form misled as its past tense and past participle.

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misogynist, misogyny

see MISANTHROPE.

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misquotations.

Many catchphrases and allusive expressions are based on altered forms of literary quotations. The proverb Every dog has his day is based on a 16c adage translated from the Dutch humanist Erasmus (1500) and was given currency by a line spoken by Shakespeare's Hamlet:
Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat shall mew, and dog will have his day —  Shakespeare , Hamlet, v.i.286. The idiom to escape by the skin of one's teeth is an altered form of the Authorized Version of Job 19:20: I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. Idiom and allusion go their own way in language; however, it is important to give the correct form when the allusion is given as a quotation. The following table lists the correct forms of some of the more common literary extracts, with the popular versions alongside:

QUOTATION

POPULAR FORM

SOURCE

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread

by the sweat of one's brow

Bible, Genesis 3:19

I am escaped with the skin of my teeth

to escape by the skin of one's teeth

Bible, Job 19:20

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily

to glid the lily

Shakespeare, King John

A goodly apple rotten at the heart

rotten at the core

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

But yet I'll make assurance double sure

doubly sure

Shakespeare, Macbeth

Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new

fresh fields and pastures new

Milton, Lycidas

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way

the even tenor

Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard

A little learning is a dangerous thing

a little knowledge

Pope, Essay on Criticism

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley

the best-laid plans

Burns, ‘To a Mouse’

Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink

And not a drop to drink

Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

I have nothing to offer but blood, toll, tears and sweat

blood, sweat, and tears

Winston Churchill, Hansard, 1940

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Miss

is used as the title of a girl or unmarried woman, or of a married woman who has retained her maiden name. The title MS (see separate entry) has since the 1950s been increasingly used as an alternative with reference to women regardless of marital status.

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misshapen, misspelling, misspent

see MIS-.

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mitigate

see MILITATE.

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mitre

is spelt in this way in BrE, and usually miter in AmE.

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mixed metaphor

see METAPHOR AND SIMILE (2).

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mnemonic,

pronounced ni-mon-ik, is a device, usually a rhyme or sequence of words, used to help remember some fact or group of facts, e.g. the initial letters of the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain give the order of the colours of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).

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mobile

see MOVABLE.

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moccasin,

a name of a snake and a type of soft leather shoe, is the recommended spelling, with two cs and one s.

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modal verbs.

Modal (or, more fully, modal auxiliary) verbs are used to express the mood (in the linguistic sense that distinguishes statements, commands, suppositions, questions, and so on) of other verbs. The principal verbs of this type are can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, will. These verbs behave in special ways, of which the most important are (1) that they can form questions and negatives without the use of do (Can I go? / You may not leave), and (2) their third-person singular forms do not add -s (She will / It must). A group of other verbs that share some of these features, such as dare and need, are sometimes called semi-modal. Note that be, do, and have, which behave somewhat differently, are not classed as modal verbs but as ordinary auxiliary verbs.

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model

as a verb has inflected forms modelled, modelling in BrE and usually modeled, modeling in AmE.

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modus operandi,

meaning ‘a plan or method of working’, is pronounced moh-ds op--ran-diy, and is printed in italic type.

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modus vivendi

means ‘a way of living or coping’, most often (in law) an arrangement by which parties to a dispute can carry on pending a settlement. It is pronounced moh-ds vi-ven-diy, and is printed in italic type.

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mogul

is the spelling in the sense ‘an important or influential person’. In its historical meaning with reference to the 16C–19C rulers of northern India, the form Mughal should be used.

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Mohammed, Mohammedan.

The preferred spellings are MUHAMMAD, MUHAMMADAN.

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mold

see MOULD.

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molt

see MOULT.

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molten

see MELTED.

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moment.

The phrase at this moment in time is a modern cliché (see CLICHÈS).

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momentarily

means ‘for a moment, briefly’ in BrE:
One MP… wondered momentarily if he had wandered into the Lords by mistake—Times, 1975. In AmE it has this meaning and also the meaning ‘at any moment, imminently’:
Miss Loren had been delayed in traffic but would arrive momentarily—New Yorker, 1970. These features of usage are comparable to PRESENTLY.

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momently

in current English has much the same meanings as those given for MOMENTARILY, although its use is confined to literary contexts:
She believes Alix will be there, and indeed momently she is— Drabble , 1987 /
You acknowledged, however, momently,… that at least what I claim is true—A.S. Byatt , 1990.

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momento

is an erroneous variant of MEMENTO.

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momentum.

The plural, though not often needed, is momenta, or informally momentums.

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Monday

see FRIDAY.

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monetarism, monetarist, monetary.

These are pronounced with the first syllable as mun-in BrE and as mon-in AmE.

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moneyed,

meaning ‘wealthy’, is spelt -eyed, not monied.

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mongol, mongolism, mongoloid,

terms formerly used for sufferers of what is now called Down's syndrome, are considered offensive and should be avoided.

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Mongoloid,

referring to peoples including those of east Asia and south-east Asia, is one of a set of terms used by 19c anthropologists to classify human races. They are now outdated and potentially offensive, and the names of specific peoples or nationalities should normally be used.

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mongoose,

the small animal like a civet, has the plural form mongooses.

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moneys.

The natural plural in the meaning ‘sums of money’ is moneys, but monies took hold in 19c accounting circles and has penetrated into ordinary usage:
Certain monies had been put aside for them— Brookner , 1988. Nonetheless, moneys is preferable.

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monk

see FRIAR.

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monkey.

The noun has the plural form monkeys, and the verb has inflected forms monkeys, monkeyed, monkeying.

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monologue, soliloquy.

Both words (the first Greek and the second Latin in origin) denote a single person's act of speaking or thinking aloud; soliloquy generally refers to dramatic utterances without consciousness of an audience, whereas monologue primarily means speech that is meant to be heard and is used especially of the discourse of a talker who monopolizes conversation, or to describe a performance or recitation by a single actor or speaker.

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month

see DAY.

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mood

is a term in grammar that identifies utterances as being statements, expressions of wish, commands, questions, etc. It is a variant of the word mode, and has nothing to do with the more familiar word mood. In English, moods are expressed by means of an auxiliary verb (can, may, etc.) called a MODAL VERB, or by the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

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moot.

A moot point or moot question is a debatable or undecided one. The word is from Old English (from a verb mtian meaning ‘converse’) and should not be confused with mute meaning ‘silent’.

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moral, morale.

When Fowler wrote in the years following the First World War, morale, in the meaning ‘mental attitude or bearing’, was a word at the forefront of consciousness, but there was uncertainty as to form between morale (an early 19c respelling preserving the sound of the French word and distinguishing it from the other meanings of moral) and the spelling moral, reintroduced towards the end of the 19c for this meaning on the grounds that morale was artificial and not the form of the word in this meaning in French. In the fullness of time, the form morale, together with its French-like pronunciation, which Fowler recommended, has prevailed, and few today will realize that there was ever a problem. However, the story affords a colourful glimpse of the interaction between two great languages.

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moratorium,

meaning ‘a temporary suspension or prohibition’, has the plural form moratoriums.

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more.

1 For more and most used in the comparison of adjectives, see ADJECTIVE 3–4. With adverbs, more and most are normally used when the adverb is formed with -ly from an adjective, e.g. more richly, more happily: see -ER AND -EST FORMS. The use of double comparatives, e.g. They are more happier now, though once a feature of English style (and used for example by Shakespeare ), has fallen out of use and is considered illiterate.

2 MORE THAN ONE. This phrase, though plural in form and meaning, conventionally takes a singular verb:
More than one doctor attends each patient. However, if the number following than is higher than one, or if the phrase is couched in the form more + plural noun + than, then the whole phrase moves into the plural:
More than two doctors attend each patient / More doctors than one attend each patient. The same happens if more than one is followed by of and a plural noun or pronoun:
More than one of the doctors attend each patient.
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3 MANY MORE. Care needs to be taken to avoid the ambiguity of constructions in which many more is followed by an adjective. In the sentence Many more important tasks had to be done, it is unclear whether more belongs with many or with important, i.e. whether all the tasks were important or only the additional ones. In speech, intonation usually clarifies the intended sense, but confusion can be caused when this kind of construction appears in written form.
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4 THE MORE. More is preceded by the in certain idiomatic uses. The is optional in the type She is the more intelligent of the two, and obligatory in the set type The more, the merrier, and when preceded by all (It is all the more interesting for being new).
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5 For more important and more importantly, see IMPORTANT, IMPORTANTLY.
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mores,

pronounced maw-reez and meaning ‘characteristic customs of a place or people’, is the plural of the Latin word mos ‘custom’. It is treated as a plural noun in English:
It is in the context of specific family strategies and patterns that sexual mores developed and were transformed—J. , 1992.

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Mormon

is the popular name for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a millenary religion founded in 1830 at Manchester. It is spelt with a capital initial letter.

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morphology

is the study of the structure and form of words. It includes both inflection (how words change their forms according to grammatical function, e.g. come, comes, came, etc.) and derivation (how one word is formed from another, e.g. unhelpful from helpful and helpful in turn from help).

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mortgage.

Note the spelling with -t-. The lender in a mortgage contract is called the mortgagee, and the borrower the mortgager (or in legal work, mortgagor).

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Moslem.

The preferred and more usual spelling is MUSLIM.

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mosquito

has the plural form mosquitoes.

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most.

1 For more and most used in the comparison of adjectives, see ADJECTIVE 3–4. With adverbs, more and most are normally used when the adverb is formed with -ly from an adjective, e.g. most richly, most happily: see -ER AND -EST FORMS. The use of most with an already superlative form of adjective, e.g. She is the most cleverest, though once a feature of English style (occurring in Shakespeare and elsewhere), is considered illiterate in current usage. When the comparison is between two people or things, more, not most, should be used:
This is certainly the more interesting of your two proposals.

2 As a noun, most + of is treated as singular or plural according to the number of the following noun or pronoun: Most of his story is true / Most of them have nothing to say.
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3 The combination most + adjective often has an intensifying rather than superlative role: She is a most remarkable woman. / This was the most wicked crime.
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4 For most important and most importantly, see IMPORTANT, IMPORTANTLY.
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5
Dewey knew no fear, would just roar on into most any species of difficulty—T.R. Pearson , 1991. In this meaning, in use since the 16c first in Scotland and now chiefly in UK dialects and in AmE, most is a shortening of almost and therefore a distinct word, though often treated together with the main meanings of most in dictionaries.
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mother-in-law

means one's wife's or husband's mother. The plural is mothers-in-law.

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Mother's Day.

In Britain, this is another name for Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent, traditionally a day for honouring mothers with gifts. In America, Mother's Day is on the second Sunday in May.

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motif

is a mid-19c loanword from French with special meanings that distinguish it from motive, an earlier (14c) loanword from French. A motif is chiefly used to mean a dominant theme or distinctive feature in a literary work, and in music a melodic or rhythmic figure from which a longer passage is developed.

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motivate, motivation.

Motivation has a special meaning in psychology which the OED defines as ‘the conscious or unconscious stimulus for action towards a desired goal provided by psychological or social factors; that which gives purpose or direction to behaviour’. Both it and the corresponding verb motivate have entered the language of business and industrial personnel management to denote the factors that induce employees to work well:
The really crucial skills, to the head-teacher charged with the responsibility of taking a school into this new territory, will be those of motivation, leadership and team-building—T. , 1991. From here it is a short step to over-generalized uses in which both words are little more than synonyms for cause (verb and noun) or reason:
The principal motivation for this comparison is to help decisions about the allocation of health care resources—British Medical journal, 1975 /
The farming achievements of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were also motivated by the need for more food—J. , 1989.

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motto

has the plural form mottoes.

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mould.

There are three separate words spelt this way in BrE: a hollow container for making a shape, a fungous growth, and loose friable earth. All three have corresponding verbs. In AmE the spelling in all meanings is mold.

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moult

is the spelling in BrE for the verb meaning ‘to shed feathers or hair etc.’ and for the corresponding noun. In AmE the spelling is molt.

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mouse.

The plural in the traditional meaning is mice, but mouses is commonly heard in the computing world for the hand-held device which controls the movement of the cursor on the screen. The verb mouse meaning ‘to hunt mice’, used with reference to cats, is sometimes pronounced mowz.

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moustache

(with stress on the second syllable) is the normal spelling in BrE, but mustache (with stress on the first syllable) is more usual in AmE.

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mouth

is pronounced mowth as a noun (but plural mowdhz), and mowdh as a verb (also -mowdhd in combinations such as foul-mouthed).

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mouthful

has the plural form mouthfuls. See -FUL.

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movable, mobile.

Movable generally denotes that something can be moved by applying an external force to it, whereas mobile means that it has the ability to move or be moved as a special characteristic. A mobile phone is designed to be carried about, and a mobile shop is built into a vehicle so that it can be transported. Mobile is also used with special meanings as a noun (a decorative hanging structure, and = mobile phone). Movable has a special meaning in law to denote property that is regarded as personal to the owner rather than as a permanent fixture. Note that movable is normally spelt in this way, although moveable is the form often used in legal contexts.

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mow.

The past of the verb is mowed. The past participle is mowed or mown (He has mowed / mown the grass), but when used as an adjective mown is the only form used (Mown grass).

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MP

(= Member of Parliament) is now normally used without full points. The plural is MPs (no apostrophe) and the possessive forms are MP's (singular) and MPs' (plural).

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Mr, Mrs

are now normally used without a full point: Mr and Mrs J. Smith.

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Ms,

despite the derision that greeted its early uses in the 1950s (at first in America and soon after in Britain), is now established as a useful and practical title applied to a woman irrespective of marital status (Ms J. Smith). It is normally used without a full point. Although it was originally devised out of concern for social equality and promoted especially by the feminist movement, it has proved a blessing to everyone, men and women alike, in avoiding the need to research into or divine the personal circumstances of female addressees. There is, however, a snag: it is awkward to pronounce, mz and miz being the normal forms, neither of them satisfactory.

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much.

For the complementary uses of much and very, see VERY.

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much more, much less, still more, still less.

The principles, much more the practice, need a good deal of scrutiny. I didn't even see him, still less talk to him. Much more (or still more) is used when the grammatical form of the sentence is positive, and much less (or still less) when it is negative. Uncertainty arises when the form is positive but the sense is negative, as with adjectives in un- and words like difficult. In the sentence It is difficult to establish all the facts, much less to reach a conclusion, much more is strictly needed, not much less, but the result is awkward and an alternative such as let alone is often preferred.

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muchly,

once a serious adverb, is now only used humorously:
She stepped away from him as though evading her share in the pleasure. ‘Thank you muchly,’ he said.—M. , 1988.

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mucus, mucous.

Mucus is the noun for a slimy substance secreted by a gland, and mucous is the corresponding adjective (as in mucous membrane).

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Muhammad, Muhammadan.

The name of the founder of Islam is now spelt Muhammad in English, not Mohammed. The word for a follower of Islam (and the corresponding adjective) is Muslim; Muhammadan (a term often used in the past) is now considered offensive by Muslims themselves in suggesting that Muhammad and not Allah is the object of worship.

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mulatto,

meaning ‘a person of mixed white and black parentage’, has the plural form mulattos. The word is no longer actively used but is found in the works of earlier writers such as Defoe, Thackeray, and Stevenson. Half-caste still survives but is often regarded as depreciatory if not offensive; person of mixed descent, though more unwieldy, is usually preferred.

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mullah,

meaning ‘a Muslim learned in Islamic law’, is spelt in this way.

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mumps,

the illness, is usually treated as a singular noun (Mumps is common in young children), and is sometimes used informally or locally with the
(When I was sick with the mumps,…— Atwood 1989).

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municipal

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

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muscle, mussel.

Muscle is the fibrous body tissue, mussel the bivalve mollusc.

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Muslim,

pronounced muhz-lim, is the preferred spelling for a follower of Islam (and the corresponding adjective), not Moslem or other older forms. Note that MUHAMMADAN is no longer acceptable in this meaning.

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mussel

see MUSCLE.

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must.

The use of must informally as a noun meaning ‘something that must be done or had, or that should not be missed’, dates from the 1890s in American use. In the earlier part of the 20c, it was often written in inverted commas as being not quite pukka in serious or supposedly serious contexts, and this practice still sometimes occurs:
A film and a song made the Trevi Fountain a ‘must’ for tourists—Guardian, 1973. Now, the idiom has moved a stage further in being used attributively (before a noun: This is a ‘must’ book), and in the phrasal adjective must-have (in which must is a verb, not a noun: The latest must-have fashion accessory).

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mute e.

The letter e is mute or silent at the end of words such as excite, move, sale, and rare. In adding suffixes to these words, the question arises whether the final e should be retained (as it is in changeable) or dropped (as it is more usually, e.g. in excitable and latish). Choice is partly a matter of convention from word to word and partly determined by principles, the most important of which are that final -e is retained when a suffix is added (1) when e preserves the soft sound of a preceding consonant (as in change), (2) when the presence of the e distinguishes the root from another word (e.g. route (= to send by a particular route) gives routeing to distinguish it from forms of the verb rout), and (3) when the suffix begins with a consonant (as in judge / judgement (although judgment is also used) and change / changeling). The following table illustrates the commonest types, and some of the examples represent others (in some cases many others) of the same type:

acknowledge

acknowledgement (occasionally acknowledgment)

age

ageing

blue

bluey

change

changeable, changeling, changing

dye

dyeing

excite

excitable

gauge

gaugeable

glue

gluey

hinge

hingeing

hire

hireling

judge

judgement (occasionally judgment)

late

latish

like

likeable, likely

love

lovable, loving

mouse

mousy

move

movable

notice

noticeable

rare

rarer

rate

rateable

route

routeing

sale

saleable

whole

wholly

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mutual.

1
That done, our day of marriage shall be yours, One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.— Shakespeare , Two Gentlemen of Verona, v.iv.170–1. Until the 19c, mutual was used with little difficulty in two main meanings:
(1) that reflected in Valentine's words just quoted from Two Gentlemen, i.e. ‘common, shared by several’, and
(2) another, slightly older, meaning defined as ‘experienced or done by each of two or more parties with reference to each other’

, i.e. more or less equivalent to the much more awkward word reciprocal; this meaning is also found in Shakespeare :
A contract of eternal bond of love, Confirmed by mutual joinder [= joining] of your hands—Twelfth Night, v.i.154–5. Although the OED gives copious evidence for phrases of the type our mutual friend (first recorded in 1658, i.e. long before Dickens used it as a title), our mutual acquaintance, our mutual opinion, etc., the 19c grammarians decided on the basis largely of their Latin view of grammar and meaning that while ‘the mutual love of husband and wife’ is correct enough, ‘a mutual friend of both husband and wife’ is ‘sheer nonsense’ (Henry Alford , Dean of Canterbury, 1864). (How ‘sheer nonsense’ can be used of something that is readily understood itself makes no sense.)

2 The state of affairs now, at the turn of the 21c, is that most usage guides warn against the use of mutual to mean ‘common, shared’ when there is no element of reciprocal action or feeling, i.e. not just shared but acting in both directions (and usually involving no more than two parties). But meaning is not that containable, and is not always obligingly resident in individual words. Mutual is the kind of word that draws its meaning from its surroundings:
On the whole even Marwan was pretty laissez-faire about a girl and a boy talking about subjects of mutual interest— Williams , 1993 (the interest may not be two-way but the talking is.) Furthermore, anyone who insists on using common instead of mutual is not living in the real world: common has acquired so much ancillary meaning from the other work it has to do that it will almost invariably change or weaken the sense. So the recommendation must be twofold: (1) use common or joint (or, often better, in common or jointly) if it fits without any of its other meanings getting in the way and has the force of meaning needed, especially in cases where it may be significant that the action is not two-way (They all had problems in common), (2) otherwise use mutual, whether there is explicit reciprocal action or not:
Wilde and Yeats reviewed each other's work with mutual regard—R. Ellmann , 1986 /
No camaraderie exists between mother and daughter, no sympathy born out of mutual suffering—J. Berman , 1987.
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3 The difference in usage between mutual and reciprocal was succinctly summed up by Fowler as follows: ‘Mutual regards the relation from both sides at once: the mutual hatred of A and B; never from one side only: not B's mutual hatred of A. Where mutual is correct, reciprocal would be so too: the reciprocal hatred of A and B; but mutual is usually preferred when it is possible. Reciprocal can also be applied to the second party's share alone: B's reciprocal hatred of A. Reciprocal is therefore often useful to supply the deficiencies of mutual.’
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myriad,

a somewhat literary word meaning ‘an indefinitely great number’ (from a Greek word meaning ‘ten thousand’), is treated like billion and million in relation to a following noun, i.e. you can say either a myriad stars or myriads of stars. A third construction, a myriad of stars, is also found. Examples:
Acting as a walking/talking A-Z, directing traffic, dealing with accident victims and domestic disputes are several of the myriad activities that absorb police personnel—M. Brogden , 1991 /
Crystals are made of myriads of layers of atoms (or equivalent), and each layer builds upon the layer below— Dawkins , 1991 /
The conditions are made up of a myriad of separate agreements, some going back to the 1920s—A. Ferner , 1988.

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myself

has two main roles:
(1) as a reflexive pronoun in which the object of the action is the same as the speaker (I managed to restrain myself / I was put in a room by myself),
(2) as an emphatic pronoun reinforcing the simple pronoun I (I began to feel guilty myself)

. It should not be used as the subject of a verb, although this is sometimes found especially in compound subjects joined by and:
It wasn't that Peter and myself [read: Peter and I] were being singled out— Weldon , 1988. Nor should it be used as the object of a verb when the action is not reflexive and me would do as well:
Palme Dutt's nervousness communicated itself to Isaac and myself [read: to Isaac and me]— Williams , 1985.

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N

naff.

The phrasal verb naff off, a euphemistic substitute for fuck off, first appeared in print in Keith Waterhouse's novel Billy Liar (1959), and Waterhouse himself insists that it was originally conscript service slang as an acronym of ‘nasty, awful, fuck it’. It was brought into prominence in 1982 when Princess Anne used it to get rid of bothersome photographers. The adjective naff, which has a range of meanings roughly corresponding to ‘unfashionable, tasteless, inept’, is unrelated to the verb.

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naïve,

also written naive (without accent), is originally the feminine of the French word naïf, which is no longer used in English. It has never been fully naturalized in English and is generally pronounced in a quasi-French way nah-eev or niy-eev. The corresponding noun is naïvety or naïveté.

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name.

1 The elliptical construction name of, short for by the name of, is now common informally:
Keep your eyes peeled for a customer on his own, name of Sheldrake— Lodge , 1991.

2 The idiom you name it, used informally as a colourful equivalent of ‘etc.’, is first found in print in the 1960s, and is now well established:
Whatever they choose to say, Directors, DG, Higher Command, War Cabinet, Prime Minister, you name it, I'm not sending my units back into Europe— Fitzgerald , 1980.
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3 The idiom to name someone or something after (or for) someone or something else has settled down in the 20c as name after in BrE and name for in AmE:
Wellington, who, as we all know, has a boot named after him—Printing world, 1976 /
Each chapter is named for the element it recalls—New Yorker, 1987. The American use occasionally creeps into British contexts, but one is always aware that it is not entirely natural there:
In a city [sc. Melbourne] named for a British prime minister, in a state named for a British queen,…—Sunday Times Magazine, 1988.
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napkin

is preferred by Fowler (1926), Nancy Mitford , and others to serviette, which they judged to be a genteelism or ‘non-U’.

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nappy,

a shortening of napkin, is the BrE term for what in AmE is called a diaper (pronounced diy--p).

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narcissus.

The plural form of the plant name is narcissi, pronounced nah-sis-iy, rather than the more awkward narcissuses.

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nary.

The colloquial or dialect expression nary a (= not a) was exclusively American until the 20c, when it began to appear in British works:
You can wander around the cavernous vaults of the Law Courts in the Strand these days and come across nary a person—New Society, 1973.

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nasal

in phonetics denotes a sound produced with the breath passing through the nose, e.g. m, n, ng, or French en, un.

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nationalize, naturalize.

These two words are close enough in form and meaning to cause occasional bother. Nationalize means ‘to take (an industry etc.) into state ownership’, whereas naturalize means ‘to admit (a foreign person) into citizenship of a country’ and also ‘to adopt (a foreign word or custom)’. The respective nouns are nationalization and naturalization.

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native.

1 In many of its meanings, native is uncontroversial: native speaker, native of Liverpool, native oak are typical examples of uneventful usage. The danger signals start to sound when the word is used to mean ‘an original inhabitant of a country’, because of the notions of cultural inferiority that the word conveys. A writer called J. C. Furnan , writing in 1950 and quoted in the OED, typified the stereotype implicit in native usually as follows:
greedy for beads … and alcoholic drinks. Suspect of cannibalism. Addicted to drumbeating and lewd dancing. More or less naked. Sporadically treacherous. Probably polygamous and simultaneously promiscuous. Picturesque. Comic when trying to speak English or otherwise ape white ways. In uses that are clearly humorous, there is less objection to native:
New York in the summer was too hot even for the natives. Otherwise, it is better to use more neutral terms such as aboriginal or original inhabitant.

2 The adjective is less pejorative. The indigenous peoples of North America have been called Native Americans since the 1950s without causing offence, although American Indians is also used.
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natter,

meaning ‘to chatter idly’, is largely confined to BrE. It seems to be an alteration of an earlier dialectal word gnatter, which is of uncertain origin but like natter bore the meaning ‘grumble’.

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nature.

The phrase of a … nature, with an adjective before nature, should be used sparingly and only when the adjective by itself will not serve for some reason. For example, a theologian of an enigmatic nature could easily be rephrased as an enigmatic theologian. In other cases, kind or type could be used more effectively than nature:
These results, minor as they are, are of a nature that has not been achieved in any other use of the computer for style analysis in music—Computer & Humanities, 1970.

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naught, nought.

Naught is an archaic or literary word meaning ‘nothing’ and it survives chiefly in phrases such as come to naught or set at naught. In BrE nought is the term for the digit o (zero in AmE). The game called noughts and crosses in BrE is known as tick-tack-toe in AmE.

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nausea.

The recommended pronunciation is naw-zi-.

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nauseated, nauseating, nauseous.

1 In Britain nauseated and nauseating (as parts of the verb nauseate) occasionally mean respectively ‘affected by nausea’ and ‘causing nausea’ in the physical sense but more often mean ‘disgusted’ and (especially) ‘disgusting’:
(nauseated) Aung San was nauseated by his persisting with the corrupt practices which had disfigured pre-war parliamentary politics—H. Tinker , 1987 /
She had some brightly coloured blouses and dresses hanging in the cupboard, and the mere sight of them made her feel shaky and nauseated—C.F. Roe , 1990 / (nauseating)
He opined that Band Aid was diabolical and that Geldof was a ‘nauseating character’—M. Middles , 1988 /
He woke up to the nauseating smell of burning skin and a roaring sound—FlyPast, 1991 /
What a nauseating little Miss Perfect you are—R. Goddard , 1993. Nauseous is used (1) to describe things that cause physical revulsion or feelings of disgust
(But that doesn't mean I have to be involved in this kind of nauseous business—R. Harrison , 1991) and (2) to mean ‘suffering from nausea’
(She suddenly felt nauseous, and went to the sink and heaved uncontrollably—Q. Wilder , 1993).

2 In America, nauseated until recently only meant ‘physically suffering from nausea’, and nauseous strictly meant ‘causing nausea’. However, this distinction has become blurred, and nauseous is now commonly used in the same way as the physical meaning of nauseated:
The water isn't as cold as I figured, but when the bottom of my pajama-leg gets wet, I get a little nauseous—Transatlantic Review, 1977 /
Was the President nauseous when he slumped to the floor, or was there any vomiting?—New York Times, 1992. Meanwhile the ‘causing nausea’ sense of nauseous is being replaced by nauseating.
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naval, navel.

Naval is the adjective relating to navy, and navel is the rounded knotty depression in the centre of the belly (also in navel orange etc.). The two words are unrelated.

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nay

is still in use as a somewhat rhetorical (and often affected) way of expressing the meaning ‘and more than that …’:
One could not but notice how theatrical, nay operatic, the whole adornment of the church was—Oxford Magazine, 1991. As a noun, nay means principally ‘a no vote’ in parliamentary divisions.

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né

see NÉE.

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near, nearly.

Near has almost fallen out of use as an adverb meaning ‘almost’, and nearly serves this purpose: He was nearly dead with fright. An exception is near-perfect:
Gunnell, captain of the British women's team, showed exactly how it should be done with what turned into a near-perfect performance—Daily Mirror, 1992.

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nearby, near by.

When used as an adjective before a noun, it should be written as one word (at a nearby hotel), but as an adverb normally as two (at a hotel near by).

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necessarily.

The dominant pronunciation in BrE, which has been influenced by American practice, is with the stress on the third syllable; a first-syllable stress is often advocated by older speakers but whether they always use it themselves is questionable.

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necessaries, necessities.

Both words are well attested in the meaning ‘the basic physical requirements of life, including food, warmth, and shelter’:
I gathered up what few necessaries I could quickly lay my hands on—tobacco and papers, coffee, a can to cook in, and a couple of tin cups—R.J. Conley , 1986 /
He needed to do some shopping for cleaning materials and other basic necessities and decided to go—B.M. Gill , 1989.

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née, né.

Née is the feminine form of the French adjective meaning ‘born’ and is traditionally used to identify the maiden name of a married woman: Mrs Ann Smith, née Jones. In other cases it is used to denote the original name of a woman who has changed her name; in this use it also appears in the masculine form né to refer to a man who has done this and even to non-human name changes: Diana Dors, née Diana Mary Fluck / Norman Charles, né Charles Norman Diggs / The Morning Star, né Daily Worker.

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need verb.

1 Like dare, need can behave in two ways: as an ordinary verb and as a modal auxiliary verb sharing some of the characteristics of the main modals including can, may, might, should, etc. As an ordinary verb, need is regular and can be followed by a simple object (We need more bread), a verbal noun (The cupboard needs cleaning), or a to-infinitive (They need to see for themselves). As a modal verb, it has certain grammatical restrictions:
(1) it is only used with a so-called ‘bare’ infinitive without to (I'm not sure you need answer),
(2) it is only used in the negative and in questions without do (You need not answer / Need I answer?),
(3) the third person singular form is need without addition of s (He says she need not answer). Note that in many cases the modal use can alternatively be expressed by need as an ordinary verb, e.g. He says she does not need to answer, but the sense is then more one of neutrally stating a fact whereas the modal use normally expects a type of response (i.e. he does not want her to answer).

2 Some contextual examples follow:
(modal use) The Landlady need never know—J. Frame , 1985 /
But need she lie? Was he just a boy?—M. Leland , 1985 /
It need not only be children who can enjoy guessing games—Spectator, 1988 /
(ordinary use) The K_2 tragedy shows that much more needs to be done to bring home the lesson—Times, 1986 /
She acted as if Strawberry needed to be cuddled—New Yorker, 1988.
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3 In its use as an ordinary verb in the meaning ‘stand in want of’, need can be followed by either a verbal noun (which is more common in speech) or a passive to-infinitive (The car needs washing / The car needs to be washed). A third type, The car needs washed, is primarily Scottish:
I walked round the cottage to see what needed done—C. Burns , 1989.
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needs,

originally an adverb meaning ‘of necessity, necessarily’, survives in the somewhat literary phrase needs must:
If needs must, I'll spin them a yarn about you being one of my long-lost sons—P. Bailey , 1986. The phrase alludes to the old proverb Needs must when the devil drives (and its variants).

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ne'er

is a literary (chiefly poetical) shortening of never, in regular use since the 13C but now rarely used except in the compound ne'er-do-well meaning ‘a good-for-nothing’.

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negative,

an emphatic form of no used for clarity, has been extended since about the 1950s from the language of radio communication into general use:
‘Any result of my application for the return of my typist?’ ‘Negative,’ said Mr Oates— Waugh , 1961.

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négligé, négligée.

Both spellings are in use in English, and the accents are sometimes dropped. In the meaning ‘a woman's light dressing-gown’, the preferred form is négligée. The pronunciation of both forms is neg-li-zhay.

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negligible

is spelt -ible, not negligeable.

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negotiate

is one of Fowler's LOST CAUSES. In 1926 he strongly attacked its use in what he called ‘its improper sense’ of ‘tackle successfully’ as in negotiating bends, obstacles, etc., a use that is now well established.

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Negro, Negress.

Negro needs to be used with great caution, and Negress is no longer in favour at all (except among American Blacks themselves). The standard terms are now black (or Black) and (in America) African-American. The plural of Negro is Negroes.

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Negroid,

referring to the peoples of central and southern Africa, is one of a set of terms used by 19c anthropologists to classify human races. They are now outdated and potentially offensive, and the names of specific peoples or nationalities should normally be used.

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neighbourhood.

It is inadvisable to use the clumsy expression in the neighbourhood of (a sum or figure) when roughly or about would serve as well.

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neither,

1 PRONUNCIATION. Both pronunciations, niy-dh and nee-dh, are about equally common.

2 PARTS OF SPEECH. Neither functions in two ways: as an adjective or pronoun, and as an adverb or conjunction.
a ADJECTIVE AND PRONOUN. Neither means ‘not the one nor the other (of two things)’: Neither child knew the answer / Neither wanted to stay / Neither of them is right. When more than two items are involved, no is preferable for the adjective and none for the pronoun, although neither tends to be used informally especially for the pronoun. Normally neither governs a singular verb, but with the type neither of (+ plural) a plural construction is sometimes used to emphasize the plurality of the statement as a whole: Neither of them are suitable.
b ADVERB AND CONJUNCTION. Neither is regularly paired with nor, linking two subjects. If both subjects are singular and in the third person, the verb should normally be singular:
Neither its chairman, Sir Frederick Dainton, nor its chief executive, Kenneth Cooper, is planning any dramatic gestures—Times, 1985. But a plural verb is also attested historically and is still often found, especially when the essential plurality that is always present in neither comes to the fore:
Neither search nor labour are necessary— Johnson , 1759 /
But neither Baker nor Bush are needed for that—Newsweek, 1991. As an adverb, neither can be used with nor to link more than two items:
Buildings made of some translucent and subtly incandescent material, neither glass nor stone nor steel— Lively , 1991. Neither is used as a quasi-conjunction in constructions of the informal type He's had no breakfast. Neither did he want any, in which it is a substitute for nor.
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3 CHANGE OF NUMBER AND PERSON WITH NEITHER … NOR … Complications occur when the number (singular or plural) of the two subjects is different. If either of the subjects (especially the second) is plural, the verb is normally plural:
Neither the Conservative figures nor the evidence of Labour's recovery since 1983 produce any sense of inexorable movement in political fortunes—Times, 1985. A mixture of persons is more difficult, and can normally only be resolved by rephrasing, so that (e.g.) Neither you nor I am/are/is the right person becomes You are not the right person, and neither [or nor] am I.
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4 POSITION OF NEITHER AND NOR. The position of neither and nor should be such that the grammatical structures are correctly balanced, as in This suits neither one purpose nor the other but not in This neither suits one purpose nor the other.
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5 NEITHER FOLLOWED BY OR. Although the OED gives plenty of literary evidence for neither followed by or rather than nor (e.g. /
can neither tell how many we kill'd, or how many we wounded— Defoe , 1719), in current usage this is considered incorrect and should be avoided.
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6 NEITHER REPLACING NOR. When nor follows a negative statement (not necessarily one with neither) and introduces a different grammatical subject, it can be replaced by neither:
Becky is killed accidentally. The police don't care much; neither does Henry's wife—Publishers Weekly, 1974.
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nem. con.,

short for Latin nemine contradicente, means ‘with no one dissenting’ (from a vote or decision). It does not mean the same as unanimously since it can also include abstentions, which unanimously does not.

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neologisms

see NEW WORDS.

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nerve-racking

is the preferred spelling in BrE, although AmE also allows nerve-wracking.

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-ness

see -ION, -MENT, -NESS.

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net.

In the commercial meaning ‘not subject to deduction’, the spelling is net, not nett.

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Netherlands, Low Countries, Holland, Dutch.

The Netherlands is the official name for the Kingdom of Holland; Holland (strictly only a part of the Netherlands) is used informally. The term Low Countries includes Belgium and Luxembourg as well as the Netherlands. Dutch is used as a noun and adjective for the language and people of the Netherlands, and in certain familiar phrases such as Dutch courage (= false courage got from alcohol) and go Dutch (= pay individually).

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neurosis

has the plural form neuroses, pronounced nyoo-roh-seez.

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never.

As a negative adverb, never refers primarily to repeated or continuous non-occurrence over a period of time: They never answer letters / It never rained at all last month. It should only be used informally to refer to one occasion, when a simple negative would be equally appropriate: I phoned you but you never rang back [better, you didn't ring back]; it is used with similar meaning in a number of fixed expressions such as never fear and well I never. It is also used idiomatically as an emphatic negative with reference to future time: You'll never catch the train now. The emphatic form never ever (sometimes with a comma between them) is also restricted to informal contexts:
She continued, a little too vehemently, ‘I've never, ever been bored’— Gee , 1985.

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nevertheless, nonetheless.

Both words mean ‘in spite of that’ and are interchangeable. They are both now normally written as one word.

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news.

News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read— Waugh , 1938. News, though earlier a singular or plural noun, has been treated since the early 19c as singular: Here is [not are] the news.

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new words

(also called neologisms). It is always tempting, as much in the history of the language as in political and social history, to identify tendencies with centuries, but language change is a continuous process, and what is significant is the social and technological factors that have produced change. In the later part of the 20c, the most significant social and historical developments that have given rise to new words and meanings are as follows (necessarily a selective list with fairly crude divisions in which some items belong in more than one category):
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: airglow, astrochemistry, cardphone, cash machine, cellphone, chaos theory, dark matter, digital compression, electronic banking (and many other electronic phenomena), genetic engineering, home shopping, meme, mobile phone, smart card, Switch (method of payment), tone dialling, voicemail
COMPUTING: access (verb, as in accessing data; this has spread into general use), boot (verb, noun), browser, bulletin board, bundle, CD-ROM, chipset, cut and paste, cyberspace, dataglove, dialogue box, directory, download, e-mail (= electronic mail), flaming, -friendly (as a suffix as in user-friendly), hacking, helpdesk, home page (on the World Wide Web), hypertext, information superhighway, Internet, laptop, logon, millennium bug, motherboard, the Net, newsgroup, plug-and-play, scroll bar, search engine, shareware, software, standalone, surfing, upgradeability, virtual reality, virus, (World-Wide) Web, zip. [It will be noticed that most of these words are extended uses of modifications of basic items of core vocabulary.]
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: biodiversity, CFC (= chlorofluorocarbon), global warming, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gas, ozone depletion, ozone-friendly, zero-emission vehicle
POPULAR CULTURE: babe (= attractive young woman), bad hair day (= day when everything goes wrong), body piercing, crack (= cocaine), Ecstasy, lifestyle (first recorded in the 1930s and adopted in marketing jargon in the 1980s), lipstick Lesbian, recreational drug, smart drug
POLITICS AND SOCIETY: abuse (as in child abuse, narcotics abuse), acquaintance rape, cardboard city (area of homeless people), cash for questions, challenged (PC term for a disability, as in mentally challenged, physically challenged, etc.), change management, charisma, charm offensive, dependency culture, differently abled, double whammy, downshifting, downsizing, empowerment, Essex man, feel-good (factor), feminism (a 19c word that has exploded in use in the 20c), feng shui, fundholder, gap year (between school and university), gesture politics, glass ceiling (barrier to personal advancement), granny dumping, home shopping (by means of a telecommunications link), homophobia, human resources (= personnel), jobseeker, leaderene (coined by the satirical magazine Private Eye to refer to Mrs Thatcher), league table (of schools' performance), living will, loyalty card, mission statement (= statement of a company's business principles), nanny state, narcoterrorism, National Lottery, negative equity, New Age, New Labour, New Lad, outsourcing, pindown (treatment of children in care), pink pound, political correctness, power dressing, pro-active, ram-raiding, Reaganomics, reskilling, road rage, safe haven, serial monogamy, sexism (and other words in -ism, e.g. ableism, fattism, sizeism), sleaze, social chapter, speed bump, spin doctor (= senior public relations officer to a politician), stakeholder economy, stressed out, subsidiarity, surrogate mother, teleworking, Thatcherism
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS: collateral damage, ethnic cleansing, Euroscepticism (and other Euro- words), fatwa, friendly fire, intifada, killing field (= place of mass slaughter), peace dividend, peace process, safe haven, velvet revolution
HEALTH AND MEDICINE: Aids (and Aids-related), attention deficit disorder, BSE (= bovine spongiform encephalitis), CJD (= Creutzfeld–Jakob disease), community care, dyspraxia, frozen embryo, functional food, interleukin (proteins), keyhole surgery, kinesiology, mad cow disease, ME (= myalgic encephalomyelitis), post-traumatic stress disorder, Prozac (antidepressant drug), RSI (= repetitive strain injury), SAD (= seasonal affective disorder), safe sex, sick building syndrome, trans-fatty acid, water birth
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS: DAT (= digital audio tape), electronic publishing, infotainment, miniseries, multimedia, soundbite, supermodel
FOOD AND DRINK: alcopop (= alcoholic soft drink), ciabatta, decaf (= decaffeinated coffee), fajitas, foodie, functional food, nacho, tiramisu, tortilla
LEISURE: adventure game, Aga saga (= type of novel concerned with middle-class rural characters), arcade game, bungee jumping, CD (compact disc), edutainment, fantasy football, gangsta (dancing), golden goal, grunge (rock music), home cinema, jungle (music), karaoke, performance poetry, quality time, rollover, scratch card, snowboarding
GENERAL SLANG AND INFORMAL USES: anorak, attitude (= idiosyncratic attitude or outlook), dweeb, geek, gobsmacked, item (= romantic relationship), nerd, oick, saddo, spazz out, techie, wannabe (= someone with an ambition). It will be noticed how many of these are terms of personal abuse addressed to or used of people
CATCHPHRASES: back to basics (misconceived slogan for a return to honest principles), been there, done that (assertion of experience), economical with the truth, get a life, level playing field, move the goalposts, you name it.

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next.

As an adjective meaning ‘immediately following’, next normally precedes the noun it is governing (next time / the next three), but in denoting time it can follow the noun (on Friday next / in July next). Care needs to be taken in referring to a future day of the week, since usage differs. Generally, next Friday means the coming Friday of the same week, but if this is being said on a Thursday it might mean the Friday of the following week, since the immediately following Friday would then be referred to as tomorrow. In Scotland and parts of northern England, next Friday always means the Friday of the coming week, and to denote Friday of the same week this Friday would be used. If there is likely to be any doubt, it is better to be specific in some way, e.g. by adding the date or by saying, for example, Friday of this week or Friday week as appropriate.

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nice.

The word nice is the great cause célèbre of meaning change in English. In medieval and Renaissance literature, nice (derived from Latin nescius meaning ‘ignorant’) has a wide range of generally unfavourable meanings such as ‘foolish, stupid’ and ‘wanton, loose-mannered’, and in some cases it is not possible to be sure which meaning was intended. The meanings to do with precision and fine distinctions (as in a nice point) arose in the 16c, and are still in use, but they are now swamped by the generalized favourable use of nice to mean ‘agreeable, pleasant’:
Talk to her in your best, professorial manner, make her think how nice and kind you are— Bawden , 1989 /
All her furniture is second-hand and rather nice—J. Rose , 1990 /
I have three children of my own now and I thought it would be nice to surprise them with the sugar mice on the tree, and also the chocolate cat— Cookson , 1990. There is no doubt that nice is greatly overused in this meaning, and critics have some reason to call it a ‘lazy word’ (i.e. inducing laziness in its users). Many synonyms, often more apposite and stronger in meaning, are available (good, pleasant, enjoyable, fine, agreeable, satisfying, etc.) and it is often better to use them, but in conversation nice has established itself too well and too idiomatically for cautionary advice to have any real point:
I thought the shoulder of lamb would be much nicer and it looked nice and fresh!—conversation recorded in British National Corpus, 1992.

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nicety

is pronounced niy-st-ti, as three syllables. Its primary meaning is ‘a subtle distinction or detail’ whereas niceness corresponds more generally to the meanings of nice.

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niche.

The usual pronunciation is neesh, in the French manner, although the anglicized form nich is also heard. In business jargon, niche (always pronounced neesh, of course) means ‘a special section of the market’ to which the marketing effort for goods or services may be specifically directed, and in this use the word has developed a range of attributive uses (i.e. before another noun) such as niche market, niche product, and niche player (= a firm which exploits a niche):
The move completes the group's strategy of becoming a niche player in the new securities market after the big bang—Times, 1986.

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niece

is one of the most commonly misspelt words in English.

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nigger.

The word is highly offensive when used by a white person with reference to a black, but it can apparently be used without offence (along with a respelt version nigga) by one black person referring to another, perhaps as a deliberate reclamation of the term by those who have suffered from it. Various phrases based on it, such as nigger in the woodpile and work like a nigger, have largely fallen out of use in ordinary language except in historical contexts.

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-nik,

a suffix derived from Yiddish and Russian and added to words to denote a person or thing associated with that word, has made some headway since it was given an initial boost by the Russian sputniks in the 1950s. First there was beatnik (1958, still the most celebrated and substantial of these words), then no-good-nik (1960), protestnik (1965) and peacenik (1965), both arising from opposition to the war in Vietnam, computernik (1966), and refusenik (1975, = a Jew refused permission to leave the Soviet Union). Apart from beatnik, they all have an ad hoc flavour about them.

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nimby,

an acronym for ‘not in my back yard’, was first used in the 1980s to refer to people who objected to the siting of something unpleasant in their own neighbourhood, without being opposed to its introduction in principle (as long as it was located somewhere else). The word, unlike others of the same kind, has endured.

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nineties

see EIGHTIES.

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no.

1 No is used (1) as an adjective or (in the terminology of some linguists) negative determiner, with both singular and plural nouns, as in no house / no children / and no food, (2) as an adverb, as in They were no wiser, (3) as an interjection, as in ‘Did you hear that?’ 'No, I didn't‘, and (4) as a noun (with plural noes), meaning ‘a denial’ or ‘a vote of no’, as in We won't take no for an answer and The noes have it (meaning a parliamentary motion has been defeated). It is not often realized that there are two words involved here: the first meaning comes from a Middle English word related to none, while the other meanings are of Old English origin.

2 In the first meaning, no can be used to form a negative statement instead of not, e.g. There are no wasps at this time of year instead of There aren't any wasps at this time of year. But note the difference in implication between He is not a teacher (= he is something other than a teacher) and He is no teacher (= he is not suited to be a teacher).
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3 The idiom whether or no is an established though now somewhat dated alternative for whether or not, and tends to be found in the pages of romantic fiction:
For whether or no she had been instrumental in the making of that despicable will, it was her presence here that had caused it to be made—E. Bailey , 1993.
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nobody, no one.

Like anybody and anyone, these are largely interchangeable, but no one is written as two words because noone would be too awkward. In a use such as No one person was responsible, no and one retain their separate meanings instead of jointly forming a pronoun. Note that a possessive word referring back to no one (pronoun) is often a plural one: No one likes to have their word doubted: see GENDER-NEUTRALITY.

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noisome

means ‘harmful, noxious’ and has nothing to do with the word noise. It comes from a Middle English word nay, related to annoy.

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nominative

is a grammatical term denoting a noun or pronoun that is the subject of a verb or sentence, e.g. house in The house stood on a hill. See CASES.

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nom de plume, pseudonym.

A nom de plume (also in translated form pen-name) is a name assumed by an author to appear on the title-page of a book; a pseudonym is an name assumed more generally although this too is normally applied in authorial contexts.

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non-

is a prefix that makes negative forms (usually with a hyphen) of nouns and adjectives (mainly), e.g. non-aggression, non-alcoholic, non-event, and non-union. In another more recent type non- is added to a verb to form a word meaning ‘that does not —’, e.g. non-iron, non-skid. Non- is regularly used to form adjectives that are neutral in meaning when a form in un- or in- also exists with a special (normally unfavourable) meaning, as with non-professional (= not professional in status) as distinct from unprofessional (= not conforming to professional standards); others of this type include non-effective, non-essential, non-human, non-natural, and non-scientific.

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nonchalance, nonchalant.

These are pronounced as English words, i.e. non-ch-lns and non-ch-lnt.

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non-count nouns

see COUNTABLE NOUNS.

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none,

which is not a shortening of no one but a descendant of an Old English pronoun, may be followed by a singular or a plural verb, depending on the sense. When individuality is being emphasized, or when none refers to something that cannot be plural, a singular form is used:
A fear which we cannot know, which we cannot face, which none understands—T.S. Eliot , 1935 /
She is rather difficult to describe physically, for none of her features is particularly striking— Lodge , 1962 /
None of this was a matter of treachery—P. Wright , 1987. When collectivity is the dominant notion, a plural form is used:
None of our fundamental problems have been solved—London Review of Books, 1987 /
Though she had many affairs, none were lighthearted romances—New Yorker, 1987.

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nonesuch

see NONSUCH.

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nonetheless

see NEVERTHELESS.

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non-flammable

see FLAMMABLE.

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nonpareil,

meaning ‘something or someone unrivalled or unique’, is most commonly pronounced non-p-rayl, although other pronunciations are also heard.

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nonplus,

meaning ‘to perplex’, has inflected forms nonplussed, nonplussing, and in AmE also nonplused, nonplusing. In a recent development, nonplussed has come to mean ‘unperturbed’
(‘Out of power?’ asked McCoy, trying to appear nonplussed—D. Kramer-Rolls , 1990 (US), the very opposite of the accepted meaning, probably by association with the prefix non-, which implies a negative meaning.

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nonsense.

Uses of nonsense as a countable noun (i.e. preceded by a or in the plural) have become common in the 20c, especially in BrE:
I knew you'd make a nonsense of it so I told Wallis to be ready to take over—L. Cooper , 1960. /
I could only pray that the pathologist wouldn't come up with a time of death that made a nonsense of the alibi I was handing him—V. McDermid , 1992.

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non sequitur,

meaning ‘a conclusion that does not logically follow from the stated premiss or argument’, is now normally printed in roman type.

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nonsuch, nonesuch.

Nonsuch (pronounced nun-such) is now the more usual form in both its main meanings, ‘a person or thing that is unrivalled’ and ‘a plant with black pods’.

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non-U

see U AND NON-U.

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non-white.

Despite objections of cultural bias in assuming that ‘white’ is somehow normal and ‘non-white’ a departure from it, this is a standard term when general reference is needed.

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no one

see NOBODY.

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no place,

meaning ‘nowhere’, is still largely confined to AmE:
You're going no place until Herb gets here—M. Pugh , 1969. It is sometimes written as one word.

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no problem

is recorded from the 1960s as an informal reply of assurance. The English playwright John Osborne missed the point (perhaps deliberately) when he wrote a few years ago:
Last week, on doctor's orders, I telephoned a pathology factory to organise a blood test. ‘No problem.’ How can they possibly know until I've had it? But I do hope they're right—Spectator, 1992. It was the organization of the blood test, and not its outcome, that (at that stage at least) presented no problem, idiomatically if not actually.

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nor.

1 For the use of nor after neither, see NEITHER. Note that nor can be repeated to introduce a third or further item:
The comment that receives the heartiest agreement concerns neither the war, nor the earthquake, nor the crime rate—Observer Magazine, 1992.

2 Nor is sometimes used when there is no negative present or implied in the preceding clause:
Horned head-dresses have been found but they belonged to an earlier period. Nor did Viking warriors have decorated shields—Independent, 1998.
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normality, normalcy.

In BrE normality is the usual word, and normalcy is regarded with disfavour although both words date from about the same time (mid-19c):
The morning passed slowly, uneventfully, and with a beguiling normality— Brookner , 1989. In AmE and in some other varieties, both words are used with about equal frequency: …
partly in order to tidy up, tidy the room and return it to normalcy— Desai , 1988 (India).

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north, northern, northerly

see EAST.

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northward, northwards.

The only form for the adjective is northward (in a northward direction), but northward and northwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for northwards in BrE:
The advancing Allied armies…forced themselves northwards from the toe of italy—R. Perry , 1979.

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nosy,

meaning ‘inquisitive’, is spelt this way in preference to nosey.

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not.

1 Not is used to form negative statements and questions, and is attached both to individual words and to whole clauses by means of their verbs, normally requiring the use of an auxiliary verb such as do or have: We do not want to go / not usually / Not another one!. For the use of not with so-called ‘modal’ verbs such as can, may, and ‘semi-modals’ such as dare and need, see MODAL VERB.

2 NOT WITH ONLY. Fowler (1926), in one of his more colourful images, wrote that ‘not only out of its place is like a tintack loose on the floor; it might have been most serviceable somewhere else, and is capable of giving acute pain where it is’. It is important to keep not only attached to the item to which it relates, so that in the sentence Katherine's marriage not only kept her away, but at least two of Mr. March's cousins (C. P. Snow ), a stress on her will clarify the meaning in speech, but in writing the sentence needs to be rewritten as Katherine's marriage kept not only her away, but… When not only is followed by but also (or sometimes just but), the placing of the two elements again needs to be correctly balanced:
Those who can not only read and count, but can operate data processing machines as well… are said to be ‘computerate’—Times, 1981 /
On January 25, 1959, [Pope] John announced not only the convening of the Council but also a synod for the diocese of Rome—P. Hebblethwaite , 1984. In the following example, the positioning is so seriously awry as to be distracting:
At present, businessmen are allowed to pass along to customers not only their increases in costs, but also to tack on their standard profit margins—Time, 1972 (the correct order is … are allowed not only to pass along to customers …).
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3 NOT WITH AN INFINITIVE. The usual position of not when attached to a to-infinitive is before the to: He promised not to do it again / She tried not to think about it any more. Occasionally, and usually for a strong negative effect, not splits the infinitive, but this should be regarded as a literary device best avoided in normal writing and speech where the effect is more awkward:
My advice to any woman who earns the reputation of being capable, is to not demonstrate her ability too much— Spark , 1988.
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4 NOT IN THE TYPE NOT UNGRATEFUL, NOT UNNOTICED, ETC. This device, known as meiosis, is very common in English and even Fowler (1926), though he disliked it, recognized that it is well established:
The presence of one of the …vans in the area had not passed unnoticed by the alert crew of a Berkshire County Police wireless prowl car—N. Lucas , 1967. Note that this type, with the second word positive in form and only negative in implication, is not the same as an explicit double negative, such as They didn't notice nothing, which is more generally condemned in current usage.
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5 NOT REPEATED IN A SUBORDINATE CLAUSE. I shouldn't wonder if it didn't turn to snow. This type, in which not is wrongly placed in a subordinate clause as a mere echo of a negative in the main clause, should be avoided, although it is sometimes heard in informal speech. The correct form is I shouldn't wonder if it turned to snow.
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noticeable

is spelt with an e in the middle.

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notorious, infamous.

Both words refer to fame achieved by means that are disapproved of, but notorious stresses the fame achieved whereas infamous is more concerned with the nature of the act:
A notorious property developer … was spooning sago pudding into his face—D. Jordan , 1973 /
The scene of one of Drachenfels' most infamous atrocities, this chamber has been shunned by most of the few who have penetrated the Castle—C. Sargent , 1992.

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nought

see NAUGHT. In expressing the figure nought out loud in a sequence of digits, BrE normally uses ‘o’ (as if it were the letter) whereas in AmE ‘zero’ is more usual.

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noun.

A noun is a word that names a person or thing. Common nouns name persons or things which are not peculiar to one example, i.e. are of a general nature (bridge, girl, sugar, unhappiness), whereas proper nouns name persons or things of which there is only one example (Asia, Concorde, Dickens). Concrete nouns refer to physical things (bread, woman), and abstract nouns to concepts (greed, unhelpfulness). Some nouns are concrete and abstract in different meanings, e.g. cheek is concrete when it refers to part of the face and abstract when it means ‘impertinece’.

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noun and verb differences.

The following table lists differences of stress, pronunciation, and spelling when the same word is used as a noun and a verb, for example compound, escort, practice / practise, record, and use. Differences are marked by the letters s (= difference of stress, normally first syllable for the noun and second for the verb), p (= pronunciation, e.g. between yoos and yooz for the noun and verb use), and sp (= spelling, e.g. between belief and believe).

NOUN

VERB

DIFFERENCE

abuse

abuse

p

accent

accent

s

advice

advise

sp

bath

bathe

sp

belief

believe

sp

breath

breathe

sp

calf

calve

sp

close

close

p

cloth

clothe

sp

commune

commune

s

compound

compound

s

concert

concert

s

conduct

conduct

s

conflict

conflict

s

conscript

conscript

s

consort

consort

s

contest

contest

s

contract

contract

s

contrast

contrast

s

convert

convert

s

convict

convict

s

decrease

decrease

s

defect

defect

s

dictate

dictate

s

digest

digest

s

discord

discord

s

discount

discount

s

discourse

discourse

s

escort

escort

s

excuse

excuse

p

export

export

s

extract

extract

s

ferment

ferment

s

grief

grieve

sp

half

halve

sp

house

house

p

import

import

s

imprint

imprint

s

incline

incline

s

increase

increase

s

indent

indent

s

inlay

inlay

s

insert

insert

s

insult

insult

s

licence

license

sp

life

live

sp

loss

lose

sp

misuse

misuse

p

mouth

mouth

p

practice

practise

sp

produce

produce

s

proof

prove

sp

record

record

s

reject

reject

s

relief

relieve

sp

sheath

sheathe

sp

shelf

shelve

sp

strife

strive

sp

suspect

suspect

s

teeth

teethe

sp

thief

thieve

sp

transfer

transfer

s

use

use

p

wreath

wreathe

sp

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no way.

He said he wouldn't start up a gang today—no way.—New Yorker, 1975. This 20c Americanism is now common in casual BrE speech, although its transatlantic origin is always near the surface:
I wrote back and said no way did I think that she ought to go into the unit—D. Coulby , 1987. An intermediate stage can be seen in the expression there is no way (that)…:
The Doctor realises that there is no way the two teachers could have achieved all this—J. Bentham , 1986.

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nth.

The popularized extension of the expression to the nth degree from the language of mathematics to general usage in the meaning ‘to the utmost’ has continued despite Fowler's disapproval of it (1926):
Leonard could be fastidious to the nth degree in completing his own work—he has always said that he works ‘one word at a time’—L.S. Dorman , 1990.

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nubile.

The original Latin meaning of nubilis, ‘(of females) of an age suitable for marriage’, has given way in the 20c to the meaning ‘sexually attractive’, making the earlier sense somewhat awkward to use, except with intentional ambiguity.

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nuclear

should be pronounced nyook-li-, and not as if it were spelt nucular, although this is occasionally heard, in AmE (famously by President Eisenhower in the 1950s) rather more than in BrE.

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nucleus

has the plural form nuclei, pronounced nyook-li-iy.

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number

is a grammatical term denoting the status of words as singular or plural. See AGREEMENT.

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number of.

The expression a number of + plural noun, as in a number of people, normally takes a plural verb in both BrE and AmE, because the plural noun is regarded as the ‘head’ of the noun phrase and therefore as the real subject:
A number of books by ballerinas have been published lately—New Yorker, 1987. By contrast, the expression the number of + plural noun, in which the head of the phrase is number and not the noun, takes a singular verb:
The number of MPs has increased—Daily Telegraph, 1987.

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numeracy,

a term denoting competence with basic mathematical concepts, was coined in 1959 on the analogy of literacy by a UK committee on education reporting in that year. The corresponding adjective is numerate.

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numerals.

In general, numerals are used in more factual or statistical contexts and words are used (especially with numbers under a hundred) in more descriptive material: I have lived in the same house for twelve years / The survey covers a period of 12 years. Words are used in idiomatic expressions such as I must have told you a hundred times / Thousands of people swarmed through the gates. Separate objects, animals, ships, persons, etc., are not units of measurement unless they are treated statistically: The peasant had only four cows / A farm with 40 head of cattle. With numerals consisting of four or more figures, commas should be used to divide off the thousands, e.g. 3,096 / 10,731. In specifying ranges of numbers, use the least number of figures possible, e.g. 13–14 / 31–4 / 1923–6. But dates BC should be written in full: 432–431 BC (since 432–31 BC and 432–1 BC represent different ranges). More detailed information will be found in Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers.

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nursling

is the preferred spelling, not nurseling.

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O

-o.

1 Plurals of nouns ending in -o cause difficulty in English because there are few convenient rules for choosing between -os (as in ratios) and -oes (as in heroes). What rules there are can be briefly summarized:
a When a vowel (usually i or e) precedes the final -o, the plural is normally -os (trios, videos), probably because of the bizarre look of -ioes etc.
b Names of animals and plants normally form plurals in -oes (buffaloes, tomatoes).
c Words that are shortenings of other words invariably form plurals in -os (demos, hippos).
d Alien-looking words and comparatively recent loanwords form plurals in -os (boleros, placebos).
e Multi-syllable words tend to form plurals in -os (generalissimos, manifestos).
f Proper names form plurals (used allusively) in -os (Neros, Romeos).

2 In other cases, practice varies from one house style to another, and the table below gives a consensus of informed usage.

SINGULAR

PLURAL

alto

altos

banjo

banjos

buffalo

buffaloes

cargo

cargoes

casino

casinos

concerto

concertos or concerti

contralto

contraltos

do

dos or do's

dodo

dodos

domino

dominoes

dynamo

dynamos

echo

echoes

ego

egos

embargo

embargoes

fiasco

fiascos

flamingo

flamingos

fresco

frescos

gigolo

gigolos

go

goes

grotto

grottoes

hairdo

hairdos

halo

haloes

hero

heroes

hippo

hippos

innuendo

innuendoes

kilo

kilos

libretto

librettos

mango

mangoes

manifesto

manifestos

memento

mementoes

memo

memos

mosquito

mosquitoes

motto

mottoes

Negro

Negroes

no

noes

peccadillo

peccadilloes

photo

photos

piano

pianos

piccolo

piccolos

potato

potatoes

proviso

provisos

radio

radios

rhino

rhinos, or (collective) rhino

salvo (= firing of guns)

salvoes

silo

silos

solo

solos

soprano

sopranos

stiletto

stilettos

tiro

tiros

tobacco

tobaccos

tomato

tomatoes

torpedo

torpedoes

verso

versos

veto

vetoes

volcano

volcanoes

zero

zeros

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O, Oh.

The recommended practice is to use O when a name being addressed or invoked follows (O Death, where is thy sting?) and Oh as an independent exclamation (Oh, how do you know that?).

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oaf

has the plural form oafs.

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oasis,

pronounced oh-ay-sis, has the plural form oases, pronounced oh-ay-seez.

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obeisance

means ‘homage, submission’, and is pronounced oh-bay-sns.

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object verb.

The stress is on the second syllable (b-jekt), and the word is often followed by to + noun (which can also be a verbal noun):
Would the lady object to my lighting a pair of candles?— Dickens , 1865 /
He also objected strongly to what he called your jack-boot methods when you interviewed Mrs Hurd—R. Simons , 1968 /
I have never smoked and I object to being poisoned by other people's indulgence—Liverpool Echo, 1993. The same construction is used with the noun objection:
We have no objection at all to helping in what she calls her ‘psychological warfare’—M. Babson , 1974.

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objective genitive.

An example of this is the boy's murder, in which the genitive form boy's denotes not possession (as in the boy's dog, which is the usual function of a genitive) but the object of the noun murder.

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object, objective nouns.

Both words have the meaning ‘something sought or aimed at’ and in practice they are often interchangeable, although object is more common when followed by a qualifying construction, e.g. one with in or of (and is exclusively used in the expression object of the exercise):
Its report is a living document which … will gradually influence public opinion. That was the object of the exercise—Spectator, 1958 /
His main objective was to pile up a huge personal fortune— Bellow , 1987.

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objector

is the preferred spelling for ‘someone who objects’, not objecter.

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oblivious.

The historical meaning of oblivious is ‘forgetful, unmindful’, followed by of:
Never before … has a great painter been completely oblivious of the style, or styles, of his time— Clark , 1949. This meaning survives, but another meaning, ‘unaware of, unconscious of’, which evolved during the 19c, is now more common, despite objections to it raised by the OED editors (who labelled it ‘erroneous’, changed to ‘formerly regarded as erroneous’ in OED2) and by Fowler (1926). In this meaning it is followed by of or (more often) to:
I stayed indoors all day for several days, oblivious to the damp heat of Falmouth—C. Lewis , 1960.

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oboe

has the plural form oboes, and the player is an oboist, pronounced oh-boh-ist.

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obscene.

In a century that has tried repeatedly to define the meaning and implications of obscenity in relation to literature, the performing arts, and (above all) the cinema, the word obscene has gathered strength in its other main meaning, ‘highly offensive or repugnant’ as a moral condemnation of social circumstances such as poverty and wealth, violence, human exploitation, etc. Some examples follow:
Something in the very robustness of Germany's economy seemed to the terrorists and their sympathizers profoundly obscene—Time, 1977 /
The idea of these old women being walled up and told what to do by a superstitious parson was (Tibba allowed herself the modernism) obscene—A.N. Wilson , 1982 /
His pay was branded ‘utterly obscene’ amid calls for him to quit and drop his name from the company—Daily Mirror, 1992.

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observance, observation.

These two words correspond to different branches in meaning of the verb observe (‘to see or notice’ and ‘to follow or adhere to’). Observance is the word normally used in connection with respecting rules, carrying out duties and obligations, and performing formal customs and rituals, whereas observation is the equivalent in the more physical senses of seeing and perceiving, has the special countable meaning ‘a remark or comment’, and is used in special combinations such as observation car (on a train, chiefly AmE) and (military) observation post. Examples:
To act on or defy a socially established rule has effects on all who benefit or suffer by its observance—A.C. Graham , 1985 /
Edinburgh can offer ethnically-based social facilities and opportunities for meetings for several forms of non-Christian religious observance—undergraduate prospectus, 1993 /
I didn't try to go into details on the phone, but said that we were going to need some police observation—J.R.L. Anderson , 1980 /
The playgroup leader will usually offer her observations as part of the parents' contribution to the Statement—W. , 1992.

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obsess

has been used since the 16c as a transitive verb, often in the passive with obsessed as a quasi-adjective:
Modern society is obsessed with romanticizing ancient societies—Times, 1980. In the later part of the 20c a new intransitive use has emerged, first in AmE and more recently in BrE, in which obsess means ‘to be preoccupied or unduly worried (about something)’ and is usually followed by about or over:
The only way to go about judging your work is not to obsess too much over it—Times, 1998.

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obsolete, obsolescent.

Both words are derived from Latin obsolescere meaning ‘to fall into disuse’. Something (either physical, such as a piece of machinery, or conceptual, such as a custom or idea) is obsolete when it is outdated and no longer used. It is obsolescent when it is falling out of use, i.e. is becoming obsolete but is not yet actually so.

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obtain

is a formal and often pretentious word, and no one should be afraid of using the perfectly respectable word get in most contexts.

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occasion.

When it means ‘reason, grounds’, the usual construction is with for + noun (or verbal noun) or with a to-infinitive:
Yesterday was Schubert's birthday … suitable occasion for a Schubertiad—Times, 1977. When the meaning is ‘opportunity’, it is followed by a to-infinitive:
I have had occasion recently to re-read Goethe's Theory of Colours—Nature, 1971. However, it will be seen from these examples that the two strands of meaning are not always distinct.

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occur

has inflected forms occurred, occurring, and the noun derivative is occurrence (with two rs, often misspelt).

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octopus

has the plural form octopuses. The pseudo-Latin form octopi, except when used jocularly, is misconceived, since the Greek stem is octopod- (giving the rightly rejected form octopodes in English).

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-odd.

The hyphen is important in uses such as twenty-odd people (= roughly twenty), to avoid ambiguity.

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odour,

a slightly genteel word for ‘smell’, is spelt -our in BrE and odor in AmE. The corresponding adjective is odorous in both varieties.

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oe-, e-.

There is a tendency to simplify spellings with -oe- in BrE to -e- in AmE, e.g. estrogen for oestrogen and ameba for amoeba, but both types are used.

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-oes

(forming plurals of nouns) see -o.

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of.

1 The preposition of is one of the key words in structuring phrases and sentences in English, and it is sometimes possible to make a slip in usage that can give the wrong meaning. Fowler (1926) devoted a long article to this topic and gave citations from newspapers which illustrated various problems associated with its use. These usually occur in extended sentences and consist of either adding an of where it is not wanted (or where another preposition is called for) or leaving out an of where it is needed to clarify the sense. This entry deals with these topics in more summary form, with examples taken from a wide range of sources.

2 The most usual context in which of is wrongly inserted is at a point in a long sentence in which it is meant to refer back to an earlier part of the sentence but is in fact the wrong choice, influenced by the occurrence of another of close by which has nothing to do with it: He will be in the best possible position for getting the most out of the land and of using it to the best possible advantage (the preposition wanted is for not of) / It could be done without unduly raising the price of coal, or of jeopardizing new trade (the second of is redundant). In other cases, a repeated of is not incorrect but is unnecessary: A series of problem contracts and of bad debts does not explain the situation / On the one hand there are the conventional rules of good manners and of correct behaviour.
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3 In other cases, however, of must be repeated to avoid misunderstanding: He has mapped the development of the animal's nervous system and of its behaviour (of repeated to establish a link with development). It should also be repeated in constructions with both when the position of both requires a balanced sequence: There are teachers with low standards who think a mere pass at whatever grade is a feather in the cap both of themselves and of their pupils (alternatively, one could put … a feather in the cap of both themselves and their pupils, but in this case the result would be awkward).
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4 The other principal error lies in omitting an of where this is called for to clarify the meaning: The banning of meetings and the printing and distribution of leaflets stopped the agitation (of should be put in before the printing to show that the part after the first and is still governed by the word banning).
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5 The informal type of an evening, of a Sunday afternoon, etc.
(All the intellect of the place assembled of an evening— Carlyle , 1831), is beginning to sound literary or archaic, except in dialect use. In AmE, this type is often expressed in the form evenings, Sunday afternoons, etc., without any preposition (She plays cards Thursdays).
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of course

has a useful role as a term of insistence meaning ‘as was to be expected’, in which the hearer's or reader's prior knowledge or agreement can reasonably be assumed. Fowler (1926) rightly urged caution in the use of the phrase ‘as the herald of an out-of-the-way fact that one has just unearthed’, e.g. Milton of course had the idea from Tacitus. Some modern examples are:
Of course, there are a number of other phenomena, such as lightning and reflections of sunlight off tumbling satellites and orbiting debris, that can also give flashes in the sky— Hawking , 1988 /
We were approached by Tom Lloyd, a young solicitor from Carmarthen with a passion for historic buildings—particularly, of course, those of Wales—M. , 1991.

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offence.

This is spelt -ence in BrE, and offense in AmE.

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offer.

The verb has inflected forms offered, offering.

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official, officious.

The main meanings of official are ‘in the nature of an office’ (Their official duties) and ‘authorized or confirmed by someone in authority’ (The official attendance was over 10,000). By contrast, officious is a judgemental word meaning ‘asserting authority aggressively or intrusively’, and is most commonly used of a person or the actions of a person:
Officious meter maids checking overparked cars—L. Egan , 1977.

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officialese.

The term is first recorded in 1884 and was used by Sir Ernest Gowers (1965) as the heading of an article that explored the ‘style of writing marked by peculiarities supposed to be characteristic of officials’, i.e. pompous and opaque bureaucratic language. (Fowler had no entry on this topic in 1926.) An example given by Gowers concerned Anglo-American talks on the development of folding-wing aircraft, and was taken from a London evening newspaper: The object of this visit is a pooling of knowledge to explore further the possibility of a joint research effort to discover the practicability of making use of this principle to meet a possible future NATO requirement, and should be viewed in the general context of interdependence. Gowers distinguished this kind of language, characterized by verbosity and circumlocution, from legalese, which though sometimes equally difficult to understand is characterized by concision and is dictated by the need to ensure that what is said will stand up to challenge and scrutiny in courts of law. See further at LEGALESE; PLAIN ENGLISH

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officious

see OFFICIAL.

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off of.

This complex preposition is found in Shakespeare
(A [= I] fall off of a tree—2 Henry VI II.i.98), and occurs in colloquial speech in AmE:
The night Wayne came at Randolph with a hammer to pull him off of Mary—M. Golden . 1989. It is, however, non-standard in current British English.

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offspring,

meaning ‘a person's or animal's child or young’ has the same form in the plural:
A person is a Jew if he or she is the offspring of a Jewish mother or has been converted to the Jewish faith—J.R. Baker , 1974 /
So these offspring shared in the eventually growing prosperity … of the region—E. Gellner , 1983.

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often.

In current English this is more usually pronounced with the t silent. The comparative forms oftener and oftenest are permissible, although more often and most often are more commonly used.

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OK.

Although its origin is still the subject of much scholarly discussion, the most likely explanation is that it was derived in the 1830s from the initial letters of the American dialect form orl korrect (= all correct) and rapidly acquired historical associations that gave it wider currency but do not constitute its true origin (e.g. as an election slogan of ‘Old Kinderhook’ (Martin Van Buren ), the Democratic presidential candidate in 1840). No longer regarded as an Americanism, it is possibly the only English word that is universally recognized by speakers of other languages throughout the world. The alternative form okay is especially useful as a verb (= to say OK to, to authorize), allowing more comfortable inflected forms (okays, okayed, okaying) than OK does.

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older, oldest

see ELDER, ELDEST.

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Olympiad, Olympian, Olympic.

An Olympiad is an old term for a period of four years between Olympic Games (used principally in ancient dating), and a particular celebration of the ancient Olympic Games (and is occasionally also applied in the same sense to the modern games). Olympian in current use refers to Mount Olympus and to the gods of Olympus. Olympic is used principally of the games of ancient times and their modern revival; these are called Olympic Games or (for the modern games) Olympics.

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omelette

is the usual spelling in BrE, whereas omelet is more common in AmE.

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omit

has inflected forms omitted, omitting.

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on.

In AmE, on is idiomatic in two uses in which BrE uses a different preposition:
My father … had a dry-goods store on Gesia Street—I.B. Singer , 1983 (BrE in) /
On weekends she would play disk jockey like that for hours—New Yorker, 1987 (BrE at).

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on account of

see ACCOUNT.

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-on-demand.

On demand has been in use for many years to denote something that is available to those who want it when they want it, and in recent years has been used notably in the context of abortion
(He proved himself out of touch over the economy and by opposing abortion on demand—Today, 1992). Its consolidation into a combining form has burgeoned in the context of the telecommunications industry, where we have video-on-demand, fax-on-demand, news-on-demand, etc.:
Clever and savvy use of telecommunications, such as toll-free 800 numbers and fax-on-demand, can give your company a cutting-edge image—CompuServe Magazine, 1995.

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one.

1 When the phrase one of those who … is used, it is normally preferable to follow it with a plural verb (regarding those rather than one as the antecedent), except when particular emphasis is being placed on the individuality of one, in which case a singular verb is called for:
(plural verb) She was one of those women who make an enchanted garden of their childhood memories— Brookner , 1990 / (singular verb)
‘Don't you think,’ said Bernard, ‘that Hawaii is one of those places that was always better in the past?’— Lodge , 1991.

2 The use of one to mean ‘any person’, ‘I’, or ‘me’ is often regarded as an affectation, although English does not always have a ready alternative. It is probably true to say that the more one is associated with ‘I’ or ‘me’, the greater the affectation:
This performance commanded attention; at times … it brought one's blood to a boil—Chicago Tribune, 1988. When it genuinely means ‘any person’ (including only incidentally the speaker), it seems a good deal more natural:
You must realize that there are risks that one doesn't take— Gordimer , 1987. When one is used in this way there is a difference of usage between BrE and AmE when the sentence is continued with a further pronoun having the same reference. In AmE one is followed either by another one (or one's) or by a third-person pronoun he or she (or, to avoid gender problems, occasionally they), or by his or her or their, whereas in BrE another one (or one's) always follows:
(AmE) I like to believe one can be honest and sincere and committed in what he's doing—Chicago Sun-Times, 1988 /
(BrE) If one has no base on which to formulate probing questions, can one actually give informed consent?—Dædalus, 1986.
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one another

see EACH (3).

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ongoing.

First recorded in 1877, this adjective gained such widespread currency in the 1950s and later that it quickly attracted criticism as a vogue word, and, especially in the phrase ongoing situation, as a cliché on a par with at the end of the day and in this day and age. Other combinations, such as ongoing operation, ongoing process, and ongoing relationship, are more acceptable:
He says he wouldn't have got anywhere without Move On, who helped him secure a flat and are now giving vital, ongoing support—Big Issue, 1998.

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only.

The position of only is one of the major unresolved topics of discussion in English usage. The upshot is that logical position, i.e. association with the word to which only most closely refers, is not always consistent with naturalness, which generally favours a position between the subject and the verb. Fowler (1926), in a long article on the subject, made a case for allowing ‘illogical’ positioning in a sentence such as He only died a week ago, which is a great deal more natural and stylistically satisfactory than He died only a week ago. Equally acceptable are the following examples of actual usage:
I was … made to attend a Catholic businessmans luncheon (where I only got wine by roaring for it)— Waugh , 1958 /
Those days, you only applied to one college—New Yorker, 1986 /
He says he only took the job because the neon sign always cheered him up— Barnes , 1991. In written English, the logical position of only should be respected when serious (rather than notional or theoretical) ambiguity would otherwise result, especially in contexts such as legal language in which precision is more important than a pleasing style:
The public interest is properly served only where companies pursue the traditional goal of profit maximisation—J.E. Parkinson , 1993. In general usage, the most natural position of only is where it always has been, between the subject and its verb, and invariable insistence on logical position sacrifices naturalness to pedantry.

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on to, onto.

On to is recorded in continuous use as a complex preposition from the late 16c, and the one-word form onto from the early 18c. In modern use both forms are found; onto has become more common in recent years but has still not achieved the dominance enjoyed by into (which goes back to Old English):
French windows opened from the breakfast-room on to the terrace and large walled garden— Lively , 1981 /
The blue sky threw its light down onto the fields below—L. Norfolk , 1991. Note that in some uses on is used as a full adverb and needs to be spelt separately: They drove onto the beach means ‘they parked the car on the beach’, whereas They drove on to the beach (with the sentence falling into two parts between on and to) means ‘they continued their journey until they reached the beach’. Care also needs to be taken to retain the identity of on in phrasal verbs when these are followed by to: It was some time before she cottoned on to what he meant.

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onward, onwards.

The only form for the adjective is onward (resuming their onward journey), but onward and onwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for onwards in BrE:
He'd subscribed to all sorts of causes, from the Spanish Civil War onwards—A. Price , 1981.

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op. cit.

is a shortening of the Latin phrase opere citato meaning ‘in the work already cited’. It is used in text to refer back to earlier references, normally preceded by the name of the author in the form ‘Bloomfield, op. cit., pp. 54–5’.

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operate

has derivative forms operable (‘able to be operated on’, especially in medical contexts) and operator.

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opportunity.

The expressions have (or take, etc.) the (or an, every, etc.) opportunity are followed either by a to-infinitive or by of + verbal noun:
I was eager to snatch at every opportunity to get myself established as a writer, film-maker, what-have-you, in an effort to find a clearly defined career— Bonington , 1973 /
He takes the opportunity to castigate the creeping hypocrisy and social climbing which had always called forth his most bitter satire—Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, 1978 /
The primary school kids have the opportunity of working with micros in their normal classroom activities—Listener, 1983. For is normally used when an ordinary noun follows:
Happily there was no opportunity for soddishness about whom I should go with—D. Craig , 1970.

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opposite.

As an adjective denoting position, opposite is followed by to (Two people directly opposite to each other); it is also used with the same meaning as a preposition without to (Two people directly opposite each other). As a noun, opposite is followed by of (The effect was the opposite of what they intended).

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optimal, optimum.

Both words entered the language in the late 19c and are used in the meaning ‘best or most favourable (in given circumstances)’ and therefore mean rather more than simply ‘best’:
He positioned himself so that he had optimum sight lines down the side street—I. Melchior , 1975 /
Pursuing policies that would be optimal in a first-class world when one actually lives in a … third-best world can be highly inefficient—Dædalus, 1979.

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opus.

When denoting a musical composition and in the phrase magnum opus, the recommended pronunciation is oh-ps, with a long . The plural is either opera (op--r) or opuses (oh-p-siz).

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or.

1 When or separates two singular nouns, the following verb should be in the singular:
A paint or steel company or a salt or coal mine was no place for the later Herr Baumgartner's widow— Desai , 1988. (When both nouns are plural the verb is of course also plural.) The following example is acceptable informally, but strictly or should be replaced by and, or the plural complement replaced by a singular one (… is a typical method):
A cassette recorder or disk system are typical methods—Choosing and using Your Home Computer, 1984. When one of the nouns is singular and the other plural, the verb normally agrees with the one nearer to it, and the same applies to mixes of person as in she or we, you or your brother, etc.: The child or its parents sign the form / Were you or your brother there?.

2 For or after either see EITHER 2B, and after neither see NEITHER (5).
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oral

see AURAL.

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orator

is spelt -or, not orater.

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oratorio

has the plural form oratorios.

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orbit.

The verb has inflected forms orbited, orbiting.

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order

see IN ORDER FOR; IN ORDER THAT; IN ORDER TO.

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orderly

is used only as an adjective (They behaved in an orderly fashion), not as an adverb. Since the notional adverb orderlily is too awkward to use, in an orderly way is the only alternative.

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ordinance, ordnance, ordonnance.

An ordinance is ‘an authoritative order’, ordnance is 'a branch of government service dealing with military stores and materials, and ordonnance is ‘a plan or method of literary or artistic competition’ or ‘an order of architecture’. Ordnance Survey is an official UK survey organization, originally under the Master of Ordnance, that produces largescale detailed maps of each region of the country.

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orient, oriental.

Both words now sound dated and have an exotic 18c or 19c aura more associated with the world of empire and romantic adventure than with factual description. In ordinary writing it is often better to use more neutral terms such as eastern or (East) Asian (or terms that specify particular counties). The noun orient is traditionally spelt Orient with a capital initial letter when referring geographically or politically to countries, whereas practice varies between orient and Orient when it is used in general (often literary) reference to the east. That is the rule normally stated, but it is often difficult to be sure of the distinction:
She was a blonde. They have a great time in the Orient, scarcity value—G. Black , 1972 /
Flaubert left Europe a Romantic, and returned from the Orient a Realist— Barnes , 1985 /
The need to give punters the opportunity to additionally sample delights from the orient hardly seems necessary—Guardian, 1989 /
The orient has three species of tarsiers—C. Willock , 1991. The adjective oriental, meaning ‘eastern’ with reference to a part of the world, is normally spelt with a small o.

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orient, orientate, verbs.

Both words are used (especially in the adjectival forms oriented and orientated) with the same meaning ‘to place in a particular way in relation to the points of the compass’ and ‘to establish one's bearings’:
(orient) Man needs relations with other people in order to orient himself—R. May , 1953 /
In a youth-oriented society for a woman to grow old means to run the risk of being ignored—A. Hutschnecker , 1981. / (orientate)
It was very much a London orientated magazine—N. Sherry , 1987 /
Kant's own philosophy was undeniably orientated towards problems that lay at the heart of the philosophical enterprise—P. Gardiner , 1988. These examples show how commonly the words are used in abstract or figurative contexts, and as the second element in combinations preceded by a noun (youth-oriented, London orientated). There is no meaningful criterion for choosing between them, except that orient is shorter and therefore less cumbersome in some contexts.

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originator

is spelt -or, not originater.

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ornament.

The noun is pronounced aw-n-mnt, whereas the verb has a more distinct -ment sound in the third syllable.

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orthopaedic,

denoting the branch of medicine concerned with treating deformities of the bones and muscles, is spelt -paedic in BrE and -pedic in AmE. The corresponding noun orthopaedics (AmE orthopedics) is normally treated as singular.

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-os

(forming plurals of nouns) see -o.

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ostensible, ostensive.

Ostensible means ‘apparent but not necessarily real’ or ‘professed’:
Despite their ostensible commitment to revolution, they played an ambivalent and ultimately counter-revolutionary role—E. Acton , 1992. It is often used in the adverbial form ostensibly:
Ostensibly the visit was designed to mark the 20th anniversary of the normalization of relations between China and Japan—Keesings, 1990. Ostensive, a much rarer word, means ‘directly demonstrative’ and is normally used in technical contexts with words such as definition (meaning a definition that shows what it describes, e.g. a definition of the term italics printed in italics):
If one attempts to teach a dog by way of ostensive definition, it invariably responds by sniffing one's finger—A.F. Chalmers , 1992. To complete the picture, ostentatious, which is less likely to be confused with the other two, means ‘pretentious and showy’.

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other.

1 For each other, see EACH (3).

2 OTHER THAN. When other is used as a pronoun or adjective, use of other than is straightforward and causes no comment:
I'd never known anything other than hard times—D. Dears , 1974. Objections are raised when other in this phrase is forced into the role of adverb (which it does not otherwise have), and Fowler (1926) regarded it as ‘ungrammatical and needless’ when a genuine adverb, otherwise, is available; so in the following example he would have urged use of otherwise than in place of other than:
Other than at football matches or on coach journeys, people sing less spontaneously than in previous generations—T. Portsmouth , 1992. However, the grammar of other than is not always so clear-cut, as the following example shows:
I married her … but it never even occurred to me that our marriage would be other than a marriage in name only—A. Roudybush , 1972. Is other here an adjective linked to marriage or an adverb linked to be? (The answer is a bit of both.) In AmE, this use goes unnoticed; in BrE it is increasingly common and generally unexceptionable, and often more idiomatic than the awkward alternative otherwise than, but readers should be aware of the caveat attached to it in more pedantic circles.
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otherwise.

Professor Southern gave us some stimulating reflections about the aims, development, and achievements (or otherwise) of the Honour School of Modern History—W.A. Pantin , 1972 /
It's the balance of foods you eat that is healthy or otherwise—Which?, 1989. Fowler (1926) castigated this use of or otherwise to mean ‘or the opposite (of a given noun, adjective, or adverb)’ and urged rephrasing (e.g. achievements or failures, healthy or unhealthy), but these alternatives clearly do not convey the same sense of antithesis. In any case, the language has moved on, and the type condemned by Fowler is now in standard use.

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ought.

In current use the verb ought is followed by a to-infinitive:
You ought to have a cooked breakfast, these cold mornings— Lodge , 1988. Since it is a modal verb, it forms a negative directly with not and forms a question by plain inversion:
Things are being permitted that ought not to be permitted—Guardian, 1972 /
If Canada should disintegrate … what ought the U.S. to do?—Wall Street Journal, 1990. In the past, ought does not inflect, and the tense is expressed by the verb following it:
I remembered … that I ought to have put Sal out. … She barks rather a lot— Crispin , 1977. See also DIDN'T OUGHT.

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our, ours.

1 A difficulty arises when our is used in conjunction with another qualifying word as in The Italian and our troops or Our and the Italian troops. Here a better alternative is The Italian troops and ours, but not Ours and the Italian troops.

2 In clauses introduced by which of us, a following pronoun should normally be in the third person, relating to which rather than to us: Which of us would wish to be ill in his kitchen, especially when it is also the family livingroom?. If gender-neutrality is required, his or her (or informally their) has to be used.
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ourself.

The standard reflexive form of we and us is ourselves (as in We are going to enjoy ourselves), but a form ourself is recorded from the 14c onwards in uses corresponding to we used of a single person
(I loved your father, and we love ourself— Shakespeare , Hamlet, iv.vii.40) and is occasionally found in modern English in contexts in which we stands for people in general or a group regarded collectively:
She tells us things about ourself— Amis , 1991 /
We see ourself as the biggest club in Britain, with a stadium to match—Today, 1992. However, this use is not regarded as standard. See also THEMSELF.

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out.

1 In current use out, unlike in, is primarily an adverb (We went out), and to form a preposition it normally needs the addition of of (We went out of the house). Use of out as a direct preposition without of is non-standard in BrE, although it is found in AmE and some other varieties:
Now he looked past Bacon, out the bay window behind him—T. Wolfe , 1987 (US) /
I drove out the gates and left them open behind me, swinging in the wind—S. Koea , 1994 (New Zealand).

2 As a verb, out goes back to Old English in various meanings, ‘to drive out or expel’, ‘to disable’, ‘(of news or information) to become known’, ‘to disclose or speak out’, and others. In the 1990s, the last meaning developed a new application in the context of the gay rights movement, namely ‘to reveal the homosexuality of (a prominent or famous person)’:
She ‘outs’ dozens as bi [= bisexual]—instead of exclusively straight or gay—The Face, 1996. The process is called outing, and a person who does it is sometimes known as an outer or outist. These uses are likely to develop meanings in other contexts to do with exposing the private circumstances of individuals when this suits those with a particular cause to promote.
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outdoor, outdoors.

Outdoor is an adjective (outdoor games), whereas outdoors is an adverb (The concert was held outdoors) or noun (the great outdoors).

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outfit.

The verb has inflected forms outfitted, oufitting, and a derivative form outfitter, in both BrE and AmE.

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output.

The past tense and past participle of the verb are either output (preferably) or outputted (occasionally). The present participle is outputting.

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outside of.

Outside, unlike out, functions equally well as an adverb and preposition. Nonetheless, outside of is used, especially in AmE, in two main meanings: (1) ‘exterior to, outside’:
People in show business refer to those outside of it as ‘civilians’— MacLaine , 1987, and (2) ‘with the exception of’:
Outside of an unfortunate sermon in which he confused the words for charity and diarrhea … he never put a foot wrong with his hosts—W. Sheed , 1985.

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outstanding

has two primary meanings which are open to ambiguity:
(1) ‘remarkable or conspicuous (among others of its kind)’ (the outstanding performance of the evening), and
(2) ‘not yet settled or completed’ (three outstanding matters to discuss). In practice, however, context and (in speech) intonation are likely to render ambiguity theoretical rather than actual.

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outta

is a representation of a slang (especially Black AmE) use of out of, and is found in non-standard language such as descriptions of rock music:
Well-formed soul-with added beats—straight outta South London—New Musical Express, 1995.

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outward, outwards.

The only form for the adjective is outward (the outward journey), but outward and outwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for outwards in BrE:
The small circles of desert around waterholes and settlements join up and spread outwards, until a new desert has been created—Observer, 1977.

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outwit

has inflected forms outwitted, outwitting.

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outwith

is a Scottish preposition meaning ‘outside, beyond’, and along with wee (for ‘small’) is the first non-English English word that visitors to Scotland notice (and sometimes adopt): Do you live outwith the city? / We can discuss that outwith the meeting. It is a transposition of without, corresponding to its physical meanings (see WITHOUT (1)).

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over.

The national view is a graphic composite of local reports across the country from over 50 (Oops! Make that ‘more than’ 50) reporting stations—Chicago Sun-Times, 1989. Objection to the use of over to mean ‘more than’ followed by a numeral arises only in America and mainly in newspapers, and it does not seem to apply to designations of age, so that an American can say I am over 50 without fear of censure. In BrE all these uses go unchallenged.

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overall.

1 PRONUNCIATION. When the word is a noun (singular overall or plural overalls) the stress is on the first syllable; when an adjective it normally falls on the first syllable and when an adverb on the third, but the stress is variable in context.

2 PARTS OF SPEECH. As a noun, an overall (in BrE) is a coat-like piece of clothing worn over ordinary clothes to protect them against stains etc., and overalls (plural) are protective trousers or dungarees or a combination suit worn by people doing manual work. As an adjective, overall is always used in attributive position (i.e. before a noun), as in the overall effect. As a adverb, overall normally qualifies a whole sentence, as in Overall, the performance was excellent.
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3 OVERALL MAJORITY. An overall majority is the amount by which the largest number of votes, parliamentary seats, etc., exceeds all the others added together.
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overflow,

as a verb, has the past form and past participle overflowed.

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overlay, overlie.

1 The addition of the prefix over- makes both verbs transitive (i.e. take an object) and therefore they do not entirely correspond to the grammatical functions of lay and lie. The past tense and past participle of overlay is overlaid, and of overlie are (past) overlay and (participle) overlain. The primary meaning of overlay is ‘to cover (one thing) with another’ as in overlaying a surface with a coating or in smothering a child by lying on top of it (overlie is also used in this meaning and is somewhat more common). Both words are used in geology to mean ‘(of a stratum) to lie over (another)’.

2 Overlay (with stress on the first syllable) is also a noun, whereas overlie is only a verb.
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overly.

The use of overly in place of the prefix over-, e.g. overly confident instead of over-confident, is still regarded as an Americanism although it is well established in British usage:
That same novel is now with Macmillan. I am not ‘overly’ hopeful— Pym 1977 /
Fitzpatrick's male adversary is an impassioned, overly emotional man—Times, 1985 /
She is not overly cheerful about the future of British drama—M. Geare , 1993. It is interesting to note how frequently overly is used in the context of feelings or emotions.

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overseas

is now the usual word for the adverb (He was sent overseas) and the adjective (overseas postage rates). Oversea, formerly used as an adjective, has largely fallen out of use.

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oversight.

Care needs to be taken to distinguish the two primary meanings, (1) ‘supervision’:
There must be a representative of Scotland in the United Kingdom Cabinet—with a general oversight over the economy and the framing of Scotland's budget— Home , 1976, and (2) ‘a failure to notice or do something’ (the more common meaning, corresponding to overlook rather than oversee):
‘By a quite exceptional oversight,’ said Rufus, ‘I don't just happen to have any picture postcards of the Acropolis about me at present’— Vine , 1987 /
This procedure avoids possible oversight, and is a record that the answers have been considered—R.M. Coates , 1991. In some cases the meaning may not be so clear, e.g.
Congressional oversight has proliferated—Time, 1977. Normally, however, the context will clarify which meaning is intended.

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overtone, undertone.

Both words denote an extra layer of meaning or significance seen in a word or statement. An overtone, which is also commonly used in the plural overtones, suggests subtle additional meaning (and corresponds roughly to the meaning it has in music, i.e. ‘a tone above the lowest in a harmonic scale’):
The prevailing tone of the book is highly satirical, with strong overtones of slapstick force—R.L. Wolff , 1977. An undertone is rather an unexpressed or underlying feeling (and again roughly matches the musical meaning ‘a subdued tone of sound’):
Earlier this month it was announced that Loch Morar, too, would be screened for a monster, already christened with suitably Tolkienesque undertones, as Morag—Nature, 1970.

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ovum,

meaning ‘an egg cell’, is pronounced oh-vm and has the plural form ova.

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owing to

see DUE TO.

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ox

has the plural form oxen.

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oxymoron

is a figure of speech which brings together words of opposite meaning for special effect, e.g. a cheerful pessimist and harmonious discord. The word is derived from Greek words for ‘sharp’ and ‘dull’.

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P

pace,

from the Latin word pax ‘peace’, means ‘by the leave of’ and is used in more formal (especially academic) writing to refer to someone whose opinion has been considered and rejected:
Tolstoy … is not, pace Albert Sorrel and Vogüé in any sense a mystic— Berlin , 1978. It is pronounced pah-chay or pay-si, and to avoid momentary confusion with the English word pace, is normally printed in italics.

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package.

The figurative meaning ‘a set of proposals or arrangements considered as a whole’, common in combinations such as package deal and package holiday, is a 20c development first in AmE and more recently in BrE:
The mass audience … is … merely given packages of passive entertainment— McLuhan , 1967 /
Reassured, the package tourists sink into their seats— Symons , 1973.

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paid

see PAY.

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pair.

1 Used as a collective noun, pair is treated as a plural when it denotes two separate items and as a singular when it denotes a unit: so a pair of gloves, scissors, scales, shoes, trousers, etc. are singular whereas a pair of bachelors, dogs, idiots, rock-climbers, etc. (all taken from collocations occurring in OED2) would normally be plural. Examples:
(singular) On the front of the radiator grille was mounted a pair of very large Cibie spotlights that dwarfed the standard headlamps—M. Booth , 1980 /
To draw a heavy plough through wet clay soil, a pair of oxen yoked together was used—M. Graham-Cameron , 1984 /
In addition to the various gripping wrenches, a pair of general-purpose pliers is always useful—D. Holloway , 1992 /
(plural) The next pair of readings are concerned with what has perhaps been the single most salient political issue in British education in the twentieth century—M. Fude , 1989 /
A pair of Pyracantha coccinea are placed strategically, one on either side of a cottage front door—Gardener, 1992.

2 However, the rule is not altogether rigid, and contrary examples can be found which do not seem ungrammatical:
When you've lived on subsistence for two years what do you do when your shoes wear out, when you get a £100 fuel bill, when the washing machine breaks down, when a pair of children's shoes cost you more than you'd spend on your own?—B. Campbell , 1985 /
One pair of ruby earrings are especially important—television news script, 1993. In referring back to a ‘singular’pair, the plural is normally used because it refers not to pair but to the following (plural) noun:
She … handed me a pair of Japanese thongs. I slipped them on and felt the skin between my first two toes protest—H. Engel , 1981. The standard plural form for more than one pair is (for example) two pairs of shoes, although two pair of shoes is used informally and in dialect use.
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3 The phrase pair of twins is generally understood to mean a single set (the more usual word in the context of twins), not two sets:
She gave birth to a pair of male twins, one of which was a stillborn with no malformations—Lancet, 1977.
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pajamas

see PYJAMAS.

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palaeo-.

Words of the type palaeography, palaeolithic, etc., are normally spelt with -ae- in BrE, although the AmE form paleo- is beginning to influence British practice.

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palindrome,

from a Greek word meaning ‘running back again’, means a word or group of words that reads the same when the letters are reversed. Noon, level, and radar are all palindromes, as is the often quoted sentence Able was I ere I saw Elba (fancifully attributed to Napoleon). A word palindrome is a sentence which reads the same when the words in it are reversed, e.g. Stout and bitter porter drinks porter, bitter, and stout.

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pallor,

meaning ‘paleness’, is spelt -or in both BrE and AmE.

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palpable.

The literal meaning, ‘that can be touched or felt’, is encountered in medical contexts (a palpable swelling), and is familiar from Shakespeare's line in the duel scene at the end of Hamlet: A hit, a very palpable hit. The figurative use, conveying the idea of something so strongly present to the mind or senses that it can almost be physically felt, is the dominant one nowadays:
The tension—friendly tension—in the room was palpable—Atlantic, 1991. Because palpable has a strong literary tone and can sound affected or pretentious, in everyday language alternatives such as clear, glaring, and obvious are often better choices.

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panacea,

from Greek words meaning ‘all-healing’, denotes not just a remedy but a universal remedy and is therefore not appropriate in the context of particular illnesses, e.g. a panacea for measles. It is most commonly used in negative or ironic ways and in social rather than medical contexts:
Better communication is no panacea for every industrial dispute—Times, 1974.

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panel

has inflected forms panelling, panelled, and in AmE also paneled, paneling.

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panic

has inflected forms panicked, panicking, panicky.

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pants.

In BrE pants (plural noun) means ‘underpants’, whereas in AmE it means ‘trousers or slacks’. The distinction can cause problems:
I heard an American student at Cambridge University telling some English friends how he climbed over a locked gate to get into his college and tore his pants, and one of them asked in confusion, ‘But how could you tear your pants without tearing your trousers?’—N. Moss , 1973. In attributive use (i.e. before another noun), pants tends to be used in general contexts in both BrE and AmE, and pant or pants in fixed combinations such as pant suit:
I took a jackknife out of my pants pocket—R.B. Parker , 1974 /
Then we went downtown and bought pant suits—L. Ellmann , 1988.

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paparazzo,

a freelance photographer who pursues celebrities to get photographs of them, is spelt with one p and two zs. The plural (more often used) is paparazzi.

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papier mâché,

a kind of paper pulp, should be spelt with the two accents as shown, but is otherwise regarded as naturalized.

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papyrus,

is pronounced p-piyrs, and in the meaning ‘a document written on papyrus’ has the plural form papyri, pronounced p-piy-riy.

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paradigm.

1 is pronounced with the last syllable as in dime. In technical use it denotes a model or pattern of some kind; in linguistics, it means ‘a representative set of inflections of a noun or verb’, and so the paradigm of come is come (base form), comes (third person singular present), came (past tense), come (past participle), coming (present participle). In general use it has acquired the status of a vogue word in contexts where example or pattern might be more straightforward choices:
The television set … is the paradigm of consumer culture, with its disarming passivity prone to desires divorced from action—F. Zweig , 1976.

2 The corresponding adjective paradigmatic is pronounced -dig-mat-ik, with the g fully articulated.
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paradise.

Of the many adjective forms that have developed from this word, the most common in current use are paradisal and paradisiacal. Not surprisingly, paradise itself is often found to be less awkward in this role, and is used in certain fixed compounds such as paradise crane and paradise duck.

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paraffin

is spelt with one r and two fs. The equivalent term in AmE is kerosene.

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parallel

has inflected and derivative forms paralleled, paralleling, parallelism, parallelogram. The final -l is not doubled.

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parameter.

In technical use, a parameter is a measurable factor that contributes to determining a system or event. In the 20c it has developed rapidly into the kind of word that Fowler (1926) described as a ‘popularized technicality’, many instances of which he deplored, especially when simpler alternatives are available. In popular use, a parameter is ‘a constant element or factor, especially serving as a limit or boundary’, and is best demonstrated by examples:
There are parameters to these recollections which may not be immediately apparent: the world of learning … and the war—D.M. Davin , 1975 /
Lewis's refusal to accept her standards, her parameters, she regarded as threatening— Brookner , 1989. A wide choice of alternatives is available to those who feel uneasy about using parameter in this way: for example criterion, factor, element, scope, boundary, limit, term, term of reference.

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paraphernalia

originally denoted the personal property (Greek parapherna ‘things set apart [from a dowry]’) that a married woman was legally entitled to regard as her own. Over several centuries of use in English it has acquired the general meaning ‘miscellaneous belongings’; it is still normally treated as a plural noun although occasional singular use is attested from the 18c (a whole paraphernalia of plums, 1845). Some modern examples follow:
Paraphernalia in his flat included Indian clubs and an adapted table to which boys were tied—Independent, 1989 /
Painting paraphernalia … abound—Observer Magazine, 1993.

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parasitic, parasitical.

Both forms are in use as adjectives derived from parasite (normally in its figurative meaning):
This parasitic castle life had left my funds comparatively intact— Fermor , 1986 /
These works hold a parasitical relationship to existing courses of culture—Oxford Art Journal, 1988.

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paratroops,

meaning ‘troops equipped to be dropped by parachute’, is a plural noun. The force is called a paratroop regiment, and a member of this is a paratrooper.

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parcel.

The verb has inflected forms parcelled, parcelling in BrE, and in AmE usually parceled, parceling.

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parenthesis.

1 Parenthesis is a term denoting an aside or extra remark that is added to a sentence; it is normally marked off by brackets, commas, or dashes, and the rest of the sentence is grammatically complete without it. Parentheses can be single words, phrases, or whole clauses:
In Italian, a language he had been told was the same as Rumanian, he asked to be directed to the British Legation— Manning , 1960 /
He and Moira (then a milkman's pretty daughter) grovelled together long and effectively enough to cause the eventual birth of their son Rick— Winton , Shallows, 1985 /
On Thursday I come back from work to an empty house—Kate is spending the night at a girlfriend's house again—and the stillness and solitude calm me down— Lambert , 1989.

2 Parentheses (plural) are, in printing terminology, round brackets. See BRACKETS.
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pariah,

meaning ‘a social outcast’, is pronounced p-riy- to rhyme with Isaiah.

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parley,

meaning ‘a discussion of peace terms’, has the plural form parleys, and as a verb has inflected forms parleys, parleyed, parleying.

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parliament, parliamentary.

Both words are spelt with an a in the middle, but are pronounced with the -ia- as a single syllable.

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parlour

is spelt -our in BrE and parlor in AmE.

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parlous

was described by Fowler (1926) as ‘a word that wise men leave alone’, and the current edition (1999) of the Concise Oxford Dictionary marks it as ‘archaic or humorous’. This is a sad fate for a long-serving word, originally formed as a variant of perilous and for many centuries used side by side with it in the same range of meaning. It can be safely used in the expression in a parlous state (or condition) even in only moderately formal English:
He was altogether in a parlous state: the weather was bad, there was no water in the flat; he did not care to go out at nights and was seeing fewer people—P. Ackroyd , 1988.

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parricide, patricide.

Both words come from the Latin word pater meaning ‘father’, but in current use parricide is the killing of a parent or other near relative whereas patricide is more specifically the killing of one's father. They are used to denote the crime or the person who commits it.

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parson

has a general informal meaning in current English, denoting a member of the clergy up to the level of rector. It was once a more formal term for a holder of a parochial benefice but the meaning broadened considerably from the 16c onward.

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partake

is followed by in or (especially with reference to food) of, and the notion of sharing should always be present. To speak of partaking of a boiled egg if one is eating it all is to take the word beyond its proper limits.

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part and parcel.

This expression, meaning ‘an essential part of something’, retains an older meaning of parcel that has otherwise not survived, namely ‘a constituent or component part’ (as in Swinburne's Till the soul of man be parcel of the sunlight).

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Parthian shot.

A Parthian shot is the same as a parting shot, i.e. a final remark or glance made on leaving. The allusion is to the supposed custom of the ancient Parthian horsemen of confusing their enemy by hurling spears into their ranks while in (real or feigned) flight. The earliest citation for Parthian shot in the OED is as late as 1902, although there is one for Parthian glance from 1875 and the allusive use is dated back to the 16c in less fixed expressions. The first example of parting shot is from the end of the 19c:
With this parting shot … Nancy flung into the house— Caine , 1894.

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partially, partly.

1 The meanings of these two words overlap in ways that make it difficult to decide between them in any principled way, although certain patterns in their use can be identified. Partially (15c) is somewhat older than partly (16c) but their meanings have run in parallel except that for some of its history partially has meant ‘in a partial or biased way’, i.e. the opposite of impartially.

2 Fowler (1926) attempted to make a distinction in principle between partially and partly by defining partially as contrasted with completely (i.e. = to a limited degree) and partly as contrasted with wholly (i.e. = as regards a part and not the whole). His illustrations based on this criterion were It is partly wood / This was partly due to cowardice and a partially drunken sailor / his partially re-established health, which in all cases show idiomatic uses that are not readily replaced by the alternative word. So if we say, for example, The room is partly panelled, we mean that only part of the room is meant to be panelled, whereas if we say The room is partially panelled, we mean that the panelling has still to be completed.
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3 Fowler's rubric still works up to a point, but the meanings shade into each other and current usage reflects this:
(partially) I partially solved my money problems by being paid ten shillings to play regularly at the Black Horse— Burgess , 1987 /
A partially built shopping centre, for instance, will adversely affect the tenant's business—R. Walker , 1993/(partly)
Her untidy blonde fringe partly covered her eyes—J.G. Ballard , 1988 /
The door to Suzy's bedroom was wide open and her partly clothed body was spreadeagled on the bed—T. Barnes , 1991.
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4 Further observations can be made from observations of current usage:
a Partly is used when it is balanced by a further partly or is followed by some other link phrase such as but also, and many instances of its occurrence fall in this category:
She was shaking all over, partly because she was so angry with Oliver and partly because she was so afraid— Bawden , 1989 /
Maria jeered caustically, driven partly by masochism but also by a need to lash out—J. Bauling , 1993. But partially occurs occasionally in this role:
In practice there were innovations, partially because of the perceived need to reduce the influence of headmen, and partially because British officials naturally governed on the basis of their own training and inclinations—J.D. Rogers , 1987.
b Partly is more often the choice when it qualifies an adjective or participial adjective that is also qualified in some other way:
Her dislike of him was of course … partly based upon a sense that he disliked her— Murdoch , 1980
This is partly attributable to the increased opportunity for away travel which has increased the contact between rival groups of supporters—D. Waddington , 1992.
c Partially, rather than partly, is normally used to qualify words describing physical deficiencies such as blind and deaf:
Any generally available additional provision for deaf or partially blind or disturbed children, and others such as dyslexic children, was not special educational provision—S. Johnstone , 1992.
d Both words are used to qualify key words such as because, due to, explain, on account of, responsible, true, etc.
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5 In sum, Fowler's rule and the other observations will serve if a rule is needed; but usage is inconsistent and the alleged distinctions in meaning do not always work in practice.
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participles.

1 There are two kinds of participle in English: the present participle ending in -ing as in We are going, and the past participle ending in -d or -ed for many verbs and in -t or -en or some other form for others, as in Have you decided? / New houses are being built / It's not broken.

2 Participles are often used to introduce subordinate clauses that are attached to other words in a sentence, e.g. Her mother, opening the door quietly, came into the room / Hearing a noise I went out to look / Born in Rochdale, he spent most of his life in the area. Participles in initial position, as in the last two examples, are acceptable grammatically but when overdone can produce a poor style, especially when the participial clause bears little relation to the main one: Being blind from birth, she became a teacher and travelled widely.
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3 A worse stylistic flaw occurs with so-called ‘unattached’, ‘misrelated’, or ‘dangling’ participles, when the participle does not refer to the noun to which it is grammatically attached, normally the subject of the sentence: Recently converted into apartments, I passed by the house where I grew up. (No one will imagine that the speaker had been converted into apartments, but that is what the grammatical structure suggests, producing poor style.) Some examples of unattached participles follow:
Being a vegan bisexual who's into Nicaraguan coffee picking and boiler suits, you could safely assume that I vote Labour—Private Eye, 1988 /
Driving near home recently, a thick pall of smoke turned out to be a bungalow well alight—Oxford Times, 1990. In sum, unattached participles seldom cause real ambiguity, but they jar and can distract the reader, and are to be avoided.
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4 Certain participles, such as considering, assuming, excepting, given, provided, seeing, speaking (of), etc., have acquired the status of prepositions or conjunctions, and their use in a grammatically free role is well established:
‘Speaking of money,’ said Beryl, ‘do you mind my asking what you did with yours?’—A. Munro , 1987.
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particular.

In its meaning ‘considered as distinct from others’, particular plays a useful identifying or emphasizing role:
For this particular show there is an audience … and they arrive at 7.30 p.m.—Guardian, 1970. In other cases, it can be superfluous:
It is entirely up to you to find these faults, if they exist, and to report them before the particular guarantee periods expire—G. Collard , 1990.

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particularly.

It is particularly important to pronounce this as five syllables, and not as if it were spelt par-tic-u-ly.

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partisan,

meaning ‘a zealous supporter of a cause’ or ‘a guerrilla in wartime’, is normally pronounced in BrE with a -z- sound and with the stress on the last syllable, but in AmE a first-syllable stress is often preferred. It is also used as an adjective meaning ‘loyal to a cause, biased’.

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partly

see PARTIALLY.

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parts of speech.

The traditional parts of speech (also called word-classes) that have been in use for English since the 16c are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Some of these are subdivided; for example pronouns can be demonstrative (this, those, etc.), personal (he, she, we, etc.), possessive (his, theirs), or relative (who, which). These categories were taken over from those used to describe Latin grammar and often barely suit the word functions and sentence structure of English. The concept of ‘adverb’, for example, embraces words that are far apart in both function and meaning (ever, fast, only, safely, thankfully, well, etc). Other words are often described in special ways, such as a and an (indefinite article, determiner), the (definite article, determiner), much (quantifier). For general purposes, however, the traditional names remain in use despite their inadequacies, and they are used in this book rather than the more specialized terms that have been adopted in modern linguistics. The main parts of speech listed above have separate entries, to which the reader is referred for further information.

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party

as a synonym for ‘person’ occurs in informal contexts as a kind of extension of the legal use (the injured party / the party of the first part), but should not be used in more formal usage:
June had taken Imogen from her—‘What a stout little party’—and settled down for the interview with Imogen on her knee— Trollope , 1990.

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passed, past.

Passed is the past tense and past participle of the verb pass: We passed a police car / The time has passed. The related adjective, preposition, and adverb are all past: for the past three hours / We drove past a police car / She hurried past. The form past is also a noun: living in the past.

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passer-by

has the plural form passers-by.

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passive.

1 The passive voice is illustrated by the sentence Brazil were beaten by France in the final, in which the object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb and the subject is expressed as an agent introduced by the preposition by. Passive verbs are formed with the verb be, and other verbs are used to form so-called ‘semi-passives’ in which the past participle of the verb is at least partly adjectival (e.g. He got changed / They seem bothered).

2 Other forms of the passive include:
a IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS WITH IT. It is believed that no action should be taken / It is felt that your complaint arises from a misunderstanding. Sir Ernest Gowers , who as a senior civil servant no doubt saw many such examples in correspondence that came his way, wrote (1965) that ‘the impersonal passive … is a construction dear to those who write official and business letters’. ‘It is reasonable enough in statements made at large,’ he continued, giving the example It is understood that the wanted man is wearing a raincoat and a cloth cap, ‘but when one person is addressing another it often amounts to a pusillanimous shrinking from responsibility’ (as in the examples given at the beginning of this paragraph).
b DOUBLE PASSIVE. This occurs with verbs such as attempt, begin, desire, endeavour, propose, threaten, and others involving constructions with a passive infinitive, as in The order was attempted to be carried out / No greater thrill can be hoped to be enjoyed. Clearly these types are often extremely awkward in not corresponding to a comparable active form ( They attempted the order to be carried out / We hope no greater thrill to be enjoyed), and a fully active construction should be used whenever possible: They attempted to carry out the order / We can hope to enjoy no greater thrill; in some cases the sentence can be rephrased, e.g. There was an attempt to carry out the order. Other verbs, such as expect, intend, and order, which are grammatically more versatile, will allow a double passive construction; we can say, for example, They ordered the deserters to be shot, and therefore the double passive form The deserters were ordered to be shot is acceptable.
c THE TYPE SHE WAS GIVEN A WATCH. This use was once questioned on the grounds that the subject of the passive verb should correspond to the object of the active verb, whereas in this case she corresponds to an indirect object (They gave her a watch); but it is now a part of the language and beyond such objection.
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pastel, pastille.

A pastel is an artist's crayon or a light shade of a colour, whereas a pastille is a small sweet or lozenge.

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past master,

meaning ‘a person having special skill in an activity’, is spelt with past, not (as formerly) with passed, although the allusion is to someone who has ‘passed’ the necessary training and qualification to achieve that status (originally in the context of freemasonry).

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pastor

is used, especially in AmE, as the term for or title of a member of the clergy in charge of a nonconformist church.

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past tense.

Three noteworthy special uses of the past tense of verbs are:
1 A continued action or state in indirect speech can be expressed either by the past or by the present: Did you say you had [or have] a house to let? / How did you find out that I was [or am] the owner?
2 A past is used in forms of enquiry about another's wish or attitude: Did [or do] you want to come in? (The time reference arguably differs here according to the tense: either ‘Did you want to come in a moment ago, when you knocked?’ or 'You knocked, so do you now want to come in?)
3 The hypothetical past tense is used in sentences of the type It's time we left for the station, and in unfulfilled conditions of the type If you tried harder, you'd probably succeed.

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pâté,

meaning ‘a rich meat or fish paste’, is pronounced pat-ay, and is spelt with the two accents to distinguish it from pate (pronounced payt, = head) and pâte (pronounced paht, = the paste of which porcelain is made).

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patent.

In the meaning ‘a government authority giving a right or title’, the normal pronunciation is pat-nt, although pay-tnt is sometimes used. For the adjective meaning ‘clear, obvious’ (and in the corresponding adverb patently), and in the compound patent leather, pay-tnt is used. In AmE, pat-nt is more usual in these meanings as well.

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pathetic,

in its modern informal meaning ‘inadequate, feeble’, has compromised the primary (and by no means derogatory) meaning ‘arousing pity or sadness’ to the extent that a statement such as The play opens with a pathetic speech is likely to be understood the wrong way. Regard for context needs to be borne in mind when using or encountering this word.

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patio,

meaning ‘a paved area adjoining a house’, has the plural form patios.

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patricide

see PARRICIDE.

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patriot.

The pronunciations pat-ri-t and pay-tri-t are about equally common in BrE. In the derivative words patriotic and patriotism, pat- is more common. In AmE, pay- is the usual form for all these words.

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patrol

as a verb has inflected forms patrolled, patrolling in both BrE and AmE.

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patron

is pronounced pay-trn, but the derivative words patronage and patronize both have initial pat-. In AmE, initial pay- is usual for all three words.

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pavement

means ‘a paved way for pedestrians’ in BrE (corresponding to AmE sidewalk) and in parts of the American east coast, and the hard surface of a paved road elsewhere in America.

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pay.

The past tense and past participle of the verb are both paid.

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PC, pc

is now as likely to stand for political correctness as police constable, Privy Counsellor, or personal computer.

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peaceable, peaceful.

In general, peaceable means ‘disposed to peace, not quarrelsome’ and refers primarily to people or activities:
The visitor from beyond the planets would obtain the impression that the Earth is a very peaceable place—New Scientist, 1991. The adverb peaceably occurs almost as often as the adjective:
On the whole they lived peaceably and had lots of fellowship together—W. Green , 1988. The more common word peaceful means ‘characterized by peace, tranquil’ and the notion is more actual than potential:
The meal was peaceful, but when it was over the doors burst open and in surged a crowd of painters and models who hadn't been invited—J. Rose , 1990. The meanings overlap rather more with the adverb peacefully:
The siege ended peacefully and Yacoub was later charged with taking hostages and with illegal possession of a firearm—Keesings, 1990.

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peccadillo,

meaning ‘a trifling offence’, has the plural form peccadilloes (preferred) or peccadillos.

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pedagogy,

meaning ‘the science of teaching’, is pronounced ped--gog-i (with a hard second g) or ped--goj-i (with a soft second g). The soft sound is used in the adjective pedagogical. In pedagogue, however (now mainly used disparagingly of a pedantic or dogmatic teacher), the g is hard, ped--gog.

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pedal

as a verb has inflected forms pedalled, pedalling in BrE, but usually pedaled, pedaling in AmE.

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pedantry.

Fowler (1926) observed that the term ‘is obviously a relative one; my pedantry is your scholarship, his reasonable accuracy, her irreducible minimum of education, and someone else's ignorance’. He referred to articles in his book and left the reader to decide where on the scale of pedantry his work belonged. Fowler was rarely pedantic but his readers often were, and read into his statements things that Fowler never intended. Some examples of pedantic attitudes to usage will be found in the following entries (not an exhaustive list, and the reader may be able to add others): ALSO (2) (position of also), BARBARISMS (objections to mixed forms such as television), CIRCUMSTANCE (objection to under the circumstances), CURRICULUM (plural form curricula vitarum), DATA (data as invariable plural), EX- (Fowler's objection to the type ex-Prime Minister), FEWER, LESS (the type 12 items or fewer), FRACTION (a fraction not necessarily a small quantity), HOI POLLOI (use of the hoi polloi), ONLY (position of only), OTHER (2) (use of other than for otherwise than), PER CAPITA (use of per caput), TARGET (doubled targets are easier, not harder, to hit).

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pedlar, peddler.

The dominant BrE spelling has changed, along with a change in principal meaning, from pedlar, the traditional form for the itinerant seller of small items, to the AmE spelling peddler, associated especially with the selling of drugs and influenced by the verb peddle (itself a back-formation from pedlar). The development is somewhat circular but the result is that pedlar is falling out of use as the itinerant seller that the word used to denote disappears from the streets.

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pee.

Since the introduction of decimal currency in Britain in 1971 the spelling pee has come into use to represent the pronunciation of the initial letter of penny:
May I trouble you for forty-two pee?— Rendell , 1974. Lack of precedent is the only argument available to those who condemn this pronunciation and insist on the traditional (but partly anachronistic) forms penny and pence.

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peewit

is the preferred spelling for the name of the bird, not pewit.

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penchant,

meaning ‘an inclination or liking’, is pronounced pã-shã, in a French manner with nasalized vowels.

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pencil

as a verb has inflected forms pencilled, pencilling in BrE, and usually penciled, penciling in AmE.

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pendant, pendent, pennant.

The noun pendant means ‘a hanging jewel or ornament’ or in nautical use ‘a short rope hanging from the head of a mast’; the adjective pendent means ‘hanging or overhanging’ and has a few technical uses. A pennant is a tapering flag, especially one flown at the masthead of a ship.

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pending

is used (1) as an adjective meaning ‘awaiting a decision or completion’ (A new edition of the book is pending), and (2) as a preposition meaning ‘during, throughout the process of’ (A final decision cannot be taken pending his trial).

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peninsula

is a noun meaning ‘a piece of land almost surrounded by water’ (The Spanish peninsula) and peninsular is the corresponding adjective (The Peninsular War).

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pen-name

see NOM DE PLUME.

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pennant

see PENDANT.

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penny.

The plural for separate coins is pennies (He had four pennies in his pocket), and for a sum of money is pence (an increase of 50 pence). See also PEE. In North America a one-cent coin is often called a penny (with plural pennies).

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pension,

meaning ‘a French or European boarding house’, is pronounced pã-syã, in a French manner with nasalized vowels, and is normally printed in italic type to distinguish it from the naturalized word pension.

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people, persons.

Both words have been in use for several centuries to denote the plural of person, the difference usually being explained in terms of people referring to a group of which the exact number cannot be determined or is irrelevant and persons to a number of individuals who are countable or regarded separately:
A great many people feel that a hug can make their day—Chicago Tribune, 1991 /
It is morally certain that a number of persons signed confessions to crimes of which they were innocent—K. Lindsay , 1980. However, this distinction is not watertight, as the following examples show:
Persons may squat in buildings by reason of inability to find other accommodation—Oxford Companion to Law, 1980 /
It now numbers some 40 people, as well as the jersey cows, the Aberdeen Angus bull, the horse, three ponies, and a handful of fecund goats and breeding sows—Country Living, 1991. To judge from the recent evidence, the distinction is based as much on context as on meaning, with people used as the general word and persons used in more formal contexts (e.g. law). It may not be a red herring to note that the plural persons also occurs in compound forms such as barpersons and chairpersons.

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per.

It is a sound general rule not to use this Latin word when an English equivalent exists and is idiomatic: it is better, for example, to say The salary is £25,000 a year rather than The salary is £25,000 per year, and We will send the goods by parcel post rather than We will send the goods per parcel post. Per is best reserved for use in official contexts, in Latin phrases such as per annum, and in formulaic expressions such as miles per hour and kilometres per gallon. For as per, see AS (9).

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per capita

means ‘by heads’ and has largely replaced the more strictly correct form per caput (‘for each head’) as the normal way of saying ‘for each person or head (of population)’. Fowler (1926) regarded this use of per capita as ‘a modern blunder, encouraged in some recent dictionaries’, but its use is now standard:
During the same period, per capita consumption rose 15 percent in terms of constant prices— Dædalus 1990. Per caput is also still found, but is much less common and often has a pedantic tone:
It may be argued that per-caput cigarette consumption is not a good measure of cigarette consumption in young women—Lancet, 1976.

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per cent

is normally written as two words in BrE but as one word (percent) in AmE. In attributive use (i.e. before a noun), it is normally written with a hyphen in BrE: a 12 per-cent increase. The type —per cent of is normally treated as singular if the noun is a collective or mass noun and as plural if the noun is an ordinary plural:
Fifteen per cent of the electorate has yet to make up its mind—Daily Telegraph, 1987 /
Some 90% of children belong to the Pioneers in East Berlin—Encounter, 1987. In AmE, but not in BrE, percent is also used as a noun, an alternative to percentage (a large percent of the population).

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percentage.

Since a percentage can be a quantity of any size, and even (unlike part) more than the whole, it is best to qualify it with adjectives such as small, tiny, or large, or by the adverb only, as appropriate: a large percentage of books published in the USA … / all but a small percentage …. See also FRACTION.

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peremptory

means ‘admitting no denial or refusal’ and not (perhaps by confusion with perfunctory) ‘abrupt, sudden’. A peremptory decision is not one that has been hastily reached but one that is definitive. The word is normally pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, although an older first-syllable stress survives in legal usage.

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perennial,

with reference to plants, means ‘lasting several years’ by contrast with annual which means ‘lasting for one growing season’.

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perfect.

1 In its primary meaning ‘complete, not deficient’, perfect is an absolute and cannot logically be qualified by words such as more, most, and very. (This is a philosophical point, not a matter of grammatical correctness.) As the OED notes, however, perfect is ‘often used of a near approach to such a state [of complete excellence], and hence is capable of comparison’. Such uses are found in literature from the 14c onward, including Shakespeare's Our men more perfect in the use of arms—2 Henry IV ,iv.i.153. In modern use, perfect is used more often than not in weakened meanings and is therefore amenable to qualification:
What figure is more perfect than the sphere— William , 1965 /
Maybe not purity but he seemed so perfect and so unreal, in a way— Chinua , 1987.

2 Perfect is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as an adjective and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.
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perfectible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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perfect infinitive.

This is the type to have been, to have said, etc., and occurs most commonly after the verbs appear and seem: She appeared to have encouraged him / That seemed to have been an isolated incident. In each case the reported event occurred before the time of the statement itself. If the event and the reporting occur at the same time, a present (or present continuous) infinitive is used instead: She appeared to be encouraging him / That seemed to be an isolated incident. For the type would have liked (or preferred) to have been, see HAVE; LIKE (verb).

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perimeter,

unlike parameter, is rarely used in figurative meanings, but occasional uses are found, usually in the context of broader metaphors:
The perimeter of her own life was shrinking—J. Urquhart , 1986 (Canada).

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period.

For the meaning with reference to time, see EPOCH. For the punctuation mark, see FULL STOP.

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periodic, periodical.

Periodic is an adjective only, and is largely restricted to technical and scientific contexts, especially in the expressions periodic acid, periodic decimal, periodic function, and periodic table. In non-technical language periodical is the commoner choice for the meaning ‘appearing or occurring at regular intervals’ (A periodical oil change is recommended), and is also used as a noun (= a newspaper or magazine issued at regular intervals).

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permanence, permanency.

The more usual choice in current use for the meaning ‘a state of being permanent’ is permanence, but permanency is also occasionally used in this meaning and more especially in the meaning ‘something that is permanent’:
A stranger is not a permanency. One can easily shed a stranger.— Greene , 1988.

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permissible, permissive, permitted.

Permissible is spelt -ible and means ‘allowable’, having potential force rather than the actual force conveyed by permitted. Permissive means ‘tolerant or liberal in morals’ as in the phrase the permissive society.

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permit

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb. The verb has inflected forms permitted, permitting.

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pernickety,

meaning ‘fussy, fastidious’, is a 19c word of Scottish origin which has spread to all English-speaking areas. In AmE, the form persnickety is also used.

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per pro

see P.P.

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perquisite, prerequisite.

A perquisite is an incidental benefit attached to a person's job or employment, and is more often used in the shortened form perk. A prerequisite is something required as a condition before something else can be done:
Sponsorship is not a prerequisite for any of our courses but we are happy for students to arrange sponsorship if they wish to do so—university prospectus, 1993.

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persistence, persistency.

Both words came into English in the 16c and they remain largely interchangeable, although in current use persistence is commoner:
Agelessly silent, with a reptile's persistency—D.H. Lawrence , 1921 /
By sheer persistence he'd achieved what at first seemed inaccessible—E. North , 1987.

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person.

For the plural persons, see PEOPLE.

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-person.

1 The use of -person as a gender-neutral suffix denoting occupations instead of -man began in the 1970s with chairperson (see CHAIRMAN), and has spread rather more slowly than might have been expected, possibly because of a reluctance to adopt forms that are more socially acceptable but are linguistically more awkward or cumbersome. The table below lists some typical formations, some having an ephemeral appearance and others likely to achieve some permanence:

WORD

DATE

anchorperson

1976

barperson

1976

chairperson

1971

craftsperson

1976

draughtsperson

1976

Englishperson

1977

everyperson

1978

henchperson

1973

newspaper person

1976

salesperson

1971

spokesperson

1972

waitperson

1980

2 The substitution of person for man in other ways, e.g. in personhandle and personpower, and in gingerbread person, is at present showing no sign of being taken seriously, although this may change.
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persona.

In 20c usage, persona (in origin the Latin word for an actor's mask) has acquired two special meanings and a generalized one that draws on both: (1) a character deliberately assumed by an author in his or her writing, (2) in Jungian psychology, the set of attitudes adopted by an individual to fit himself or herself for an appropriate social role, (3) an aspect of the personality as shown to or perceived by others:
James Spicer, his military persona now well to the fore, ignored the question and picked up the phone—M. Hamer , 1991 /
Writer Brian Clark gave me the persona of a middle-class, middle-aged professional with a wife problem and for a time it became my trademark—Today, 1991. The psychological resonance of these uses makes persona a more powerful word than (say) identity, and the development is a useful one.

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personage, personality.

A personage is ‘a person of distinction or high rank’, and is sometimes applied with irony or humour to someone who is self-important rather than important:
No longer was I a nondescript of the slums; now I was a personage of the theatre— Chaplin , 1964 /
Royal personages officially come of age at eighteen—S. Weintraub , 1987. A personality is ‘a celebrity or other person who is a focus of attention’, and is used especially with reference to stars of the television and film world:
Tell us about some of the overseas personalities you have met—J.M. Coetzee , 1990. The term personality cult has been used since the 1950s to mean ‘the extreme adulation of an individual, especially a leader or celebrity, in terms of his or her personal characteristics’:
Hollywood was devising the ‘star system’, the big solo buildup, the personality cult of the silent screen—Guardian, 1971.

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personally.

The uses of personally illustrated by The decision was made by the president personally (= by the president and no one else) and He took the criticism personally (= in a personal manner) are unexceptionable. Doubts arise when personally is used to mean ‘for myself, for my part’, as in Personally, I don't approve of such behaviour. This use is best restricted to informal contexts. In many cases it can be simply omitted, or replaced by for my part.

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personnel.

The word is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable, and refers to the human resources of an organization or institution, originally in the armed forces and later in the business world. It is often used attributively (i.e. before a noun), e.g. personnel carrier (in military contexts), personnel officer (in business contexts), or is qualified in some way, e.g. military personnel and trained personnel. Used by itself it also means ‘a personnel department’ (I'd better check with Personnel), and it occasionally occurs with a preceding numeral to denote a number of personnel: one copy to every 25 personnel.

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persons

see PEOPLE.

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perspective.

The 17c meaning ‘mental point of view or way of regarding something’, perspective has developed a special use with on followed by the name of a subject or intellectual domain: Perspectives on Thomas Hobbes (book title, 1989).

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perspicacious, perspicuous.

Fowler (1926) snootily urged the use of simpler alternatives by ‘those who are neither learned nor pretentious’. Perspicacious means ‘having mental penetration or discernment, discerning’, and its corresponding noun is perspicacity. Perspicuous, on the other hand, means ‘clear to understand’ (with reference to people and statements), and its noun is perspicuity. It is the nouns that are confused rather than the adjectives, and the following examples of correct uses may help to distinguish them in the reader's mind:
He went through the photographs. But it didn't take much perspicacity to tell that some … were missing— Rendell , 1983 /
Wagner's theory had gained in complexity, but not, perhaps, in perspicuity, from its new influences—S.M. Silk , 1981. Suitable alternative words are (for perspicacity) perception, perceptiveness, acuteness, and shrewdness, and (for perspicuity) clarity, lucidity, and lucidness.

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persuade

see CONVINCE.

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persuasion.

The meaning ‘belief or conviction’, as in a person of no particular persuasion, has developed into a much weaker sense ‘kind or sort’, as in no one of the male persuasion. The OED labels these uses as ‘slang or burlesque’, and in current use the intention is still usually humorous or jocular.

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peruse

is a formal word meaning ‘to read thoroughly’, and is often mistakenly used to mean ‘to read cursorily, to glance over’:
For me, it had all the wearisome unfunniness of back numbers of Punch perused in the dentist's waiting-room—Times Literary Supplement, 1980.

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perverse, pervert, perverted.

1 Perverse and perverted, both derived from the Latin root pervertere ‘to turn away’ (from what is normal or correct), are easily confused. Perverse means ‘stubbornly unreasonable’ (usually of people but also of circumstances):
No doubt I am perverse, but I found the film sensationalist, spurious and totally unbelievable—A. Walker , 1988 /
Amazingly, perversely, and rather to her regret (a flat battery would have been a cast-iron excuse to abort the visit) the engine fired— Lodge , 1988. Perverted means ‘departing from right opinion or conduct’ and is commonly used with reference to abnormal or deviant sexual behaviour:
I've seen blokes in hot countries go clean round the oojar because of the perverted practices of native women— Aldiss , 1971.

2 Pervert is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (= a person who is sexually perverted) and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb (= to corrupt, lead astray).
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petal

has a derived form petalled in BrE, but petaled is also used in AmE.

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petite,

meaning ‘attractively small’ (usually with reference to a woman), is now usually spelt in roman type as a naturalized word.

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petitio principii

means ‘begging of a principle’ and denotes a logical fallacy in which a conclusion is taken for granted in the premiss. See BEG THE QUESTION.

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petrel, petrol.

The first is a bird, the second a fuel (AmE gasoline). They are both pronounced the same way, pet-rl.

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pewit

see PEEWIT.

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phantasm, phantom,

In current usage phantom primarily means ‘a ghost’ or ‘a mental illusion’, whereas phantasm means ‘a visual illusion’ or ‘a vision of an absent person’.

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phantasy

see FANTASY.

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pharaoh,

an ancient Egyptian king, is spelt -aoh, not -oah.

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pharmacopoeia,

meaning ‘an official directory of drugs’, is spelt -poeia in BrE and -poeia or -peia in AmE. The pronunciation in both cases is fah-m-k-pee-.

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phenomenal.

The modern generalized meaning ‘extraordinary, remarkable’
(A spokeswoman … said the response from members yesterday was ‘phenomenal’—Guardian, 1979) is now the dominant one, although it retains little of the notion of its meaning in technical (especially philosophical) contexts, in which the meaning is ‘perceived by the senses’.

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phenomenon.

The primary meaning now is ‘an extraordinary or remarkable person or thing’ rather than ‘a fact or occurrence that is perceived’, although this meaning runs it a close second. The plural form is phenomena, which is sometimes treated erroneously as a singular noun:
Footsteps are heard all over the building causing surprise and apprehension and expectancy in those visitors who have heard about the phenomena but haven't experienced it [correct to … haven't experienced them]—W.B. Herbert , 1992.

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Philippines,

the chain of islands in south-east Asia, is spelt in this way, with one l and two ps. The inhabitants are called Filipinos.

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Philistine.

A Philistine (with a capital initial letter) is a member of an ancient Semitic people of Palestine. A philistine (with a small initial letter, usually) is a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture.

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-phile

is more common than -phil in current usage in words (usually nouns and adjectives) denoting a fondness for something or someone, such as bibliophile, Francophile, etc.

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phlegm,

meaning ‘a viscous substance discharged by coughing’, is pronounced flem. The g is also silent in the adjective phlegmy, but is pronounced in phlegmatic (fleg-mat-ik), meaning ‘stolidly calm and unemotional’.

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phone

is a well-established shortening of telephone, used chiefly in spoken English.

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phoney,

an informal word meaning ‘sham, fake’ (adjective and noun), is of uncertain origin and not traced in print before 1900. Its currency was greatly boosted by the use of the term phoney war to refer to the relative inaction in the early months of the Second World War. Phoney is the preferred spelling, although phony is also used.

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phonograph

is now disused in BrE as a term for a type of gramophone, but is still used in AmE for any type of gramophone or record player (before the development of the compact disc).

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phosphorus, phosphorous.

Phosphorus is the noun for the chemical element, and phosphorous is the adjective meaning ‘containing phosphorus’.

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photo

is a well-established shortening of photograph, used chiefly in spoken English. Its plural form is photos, and it is commonly used in attributive position (i.e. before a noun), as in photo call, photo finish, and photo opportunity.

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phrasal verbs.

1 A phrasal verb is a combination of verb and adverb or preposition (or both) such as come about, draw up, put up with, and work out. Phrasal verbs formed with adverbs can be either transitive (i.e. take an object, as in He drew up a chair) or intransitive (as in A taxi drew up). Phrasal verbs formed with prepositions are of course transitive (I must go through some papers). Phrasal verbs of all types have meanings that cannot be directly deduced from the individual words, and in some cases they have several meanings and grammatical patterns. For example, run up has four distinct meanings in the sentences She ran up the road, She ran up to meet them, She ran up debts, and She ran up the flag. In the first example, up is a preposition (governing road), whereas in the other three examples it is an adverb, and in the last two the objects debts and flag are governed by the verb ran.

2 When the object of a phrasal verb is a pronoun, it normally comes between the verb and a following adverb, e.g. He took up my references but He took them up. This separability can occur with nouns as well, though not in all cases: I'll get down the book can be converted to I'll get the book down, whereas She heads up a team, cannot be converted to She heads a team up, although down and up are both being used as adverbs in these cases. Whether or not more transparent combinations such as They came down the stairs or She went into the house should be classed as phrasal verbs as distinct from verbs with routine complementation is still the subject of disagreement among grammarians, and this applies also to the extended type The witch turned him into a toad, in which both the verb and the following preposition have their distinct grammatical objects.
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3 Phrasal verbs range from the informal to the neutral but are hardly ever formal in register. They form a highly productive area of current English, with recent new formations including dumb down (= make simpler), factor in (= include in an assessment or survey), freak out (= lose one's temper), and scroll up (on a computer screen). All these are informal in use.
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4 Some phrasal verbs produce noun derivatives of the type breakdown, copout, feedback, and tie-in, the reversed form typified by backdrop and outcome, or both (breakout and outbreak). These also vary in register from the neutral (breakdown, breakout, feedback, outbreak) to the informal (copout, tie-in).
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5 For a fuller discussion of this topic see Tom McArthur in The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), 772–6.
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physician, doctor, surgeon.

The normal word for a medical practitioner in general contexts is doctor (abbreviated as a title to Dr). Physician is familiar from the proverb Physician, heal thyself (Luke 4:23) and has the same range of meaning as doctor but is not in general use. In current British use, a doctor in general practice is distinguished as a general practioner (or GP). In AmE, Doctor is also used for a qualified dentist or veterinary surgeon; and in all English-speaking countries Doctor and Dr are used (as titles only) to refer to a person who has a doctorate in a non-medical subject (e.g. Doctor of Philosophy). A surgeon is a person who is qualified to practise surgery, and in Britain (except Scotland) is addressed as Mr, not Dr.

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physiognomy, physiology.

Physiognomy (pronounced with the g silent) is ‘the cast or form of a person's features’, whereas physiology is ‘the science of the functions of living organisms and their parts’.

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pianist

is normally pronounced pee--nist with the stress on the first syllable in BrE and pi-ah-nist with the stress on the second syllable in AmE.

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piano.

The plural form of the noun is pianos.

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piazza,

meaning ‘an open square or market place’, is normally pronounced in the Italian manner, pi-at-s, and in English contexts has the plural form piazzas. In AmE the pronunciation is more often pi-az-, and it has the special meaning ‘the veranda of a house’.

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picaresque

is used to describe a type of fiction concerned with the adventures of a rogue (from Spanish picaro meaning ‘rogue’). The type is represented in 18c English literature by Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722), Fielding's Tom Jones (1749), and other classic works, but the first record of the use of the term in English is by Sir Walter Scott in 1829.

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piccolo,

the smallest flute, has the plural form piccolos.

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picket.

The verb has inflected forms picketed, picketing.

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picnic.

The verb has inflected forms picnicked, picnicking.

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pidgin.

A pidgin is a simplified language containing vocabulary and grammatical elements from two or more languages, and is used mainly by traders who do not have a language in common. It differs from a CREOLE in being improvised for a special purpose as distinct from being the mother tongue of a speech community. The word pidgin is probably a Chinese corruption of the English word business, which is reflected also in the idiom that's your pigeon (= that's your affair or business).

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pie.

What is the difference between a pie and a tart? On both sides of the Atlantic, a pie can contain meat, fish, or fruit, with the filling entirely enclosed by pastry, whereas a tart is more likely to be open on top and with a sweet filling such as jam or custard. In Britain a mince pie is a small individual pie filled with mincemeat (a mixture of dried fruit and spices). It is worth remembering that in earlier writing pies and tarts could be much more varied in kind, e.g. jam tart, strawberry tart, eel tart, veal tart, etc., besides goose pie, pigeon pie, eel pie, pumpkin pie, etc.

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piebald, skewbald.

A piebald horse or other animal is one having irregular patches of two colours, especially black and white. A skewbald animal has irregular patches of white and another colour (other than black).

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pièce de résistance,

meaning ‘the most important or remarkable item’, is printed in italic type with the accents as shown. The plural form (not often needed) is pièces de résistance, pronounced in the same way as the singular form.

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pied-à-terre,

meaning ‘a small house or apartment kept for occasional use’, is pronounced pyaydah-tair and is normally printed in italic type with the accent as shown. The plural form is pieds-à-terre (with the same pronunciation).

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pietà,

a representation of the dead Christ held by his mother, is pronounced pi-ay-tah and printed in italic type with an accent on the a.

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pigmy

see PYGMY.

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pilau,

a type of Middle Eastern or Indian spiced dish of rice, is normally spelt in this way in BrE, but pilaf or pilaff in AmE. These forms also occur, however, in BrE.

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pilfer,

meaning ‘to steal (something trivial)’, has inflected forms pilfered, pilfering.

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pilot.

The verb has inflected forms piloted, piloting.

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pinch.

The idiom at a pinch, meaning ‘if absolutely necessary’, is the BrE form; in AmE it has the form in a pinch.

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piquant,

meaning ‘agreeably pungent’ or ‘pleasantly stimulating’, is pronounced pee-knt.

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pis aller,

meaning ‘a course of action followed as a last resort’, is pronounced peez al-ay and is printed in italic type.

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pistachio,

a type of nut, has the plural form pistachios.

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piteous, pitiable, pitiful.

All three words are recorded from Middle English and share the basic meaning ‘arousing pity’ and are to some extent interchangeable (as in The abandoned children were a piteous sight), although pitiful is the most versatile and piteous is the least common. Piteous and pitiable can both convey the meaning ‘deserving pity’, and pitiable and pitiful convey the meaning ‘evoking mingled pity and contempt’. Pitiful alone is used in the meaning ‘absurdly small or insignificant’, as in The state pension has been reduced to a pitiful sum. Examples:
A pitiful tube squirts water to a height of a couple of feet—J.D.R. McConnell , 1970 /
How she had suffered for him, for her poor pitiable ridiculous father— Drabble , 1987 /
‘What did I do this time?’ Helen looked piteous— Binchy , 1988 /
His blindness now struck her as utterly pitiful—M. Forster , 1988.

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pity.

The type Pity you can't come tomorrow is an acceptable conversational shortening of it is a pity that….

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pizazz,

a slang term meaning ‘verve, sparkle’, has many variant spellings, of which the one given seems the most common.

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placebo,

meaning ‘a pill or medicine given for psychological effect’, is pronounced pla-see-boh and has the plural form placebos.

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plaid,

pronounced plad, is a length of fabric worn over the shoulder as part of the ceremonial dress of members of the pipe bands of Scottish regiments. It should be distinguished from tartan, which is a woollen cloth with a pattern of different coloured stripes crossing at right angles, each pattern being associated with a particular clan. A plaid can be made from tartan cloth.

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Plain English.

1 The expression plain English, meaning ‘English that is clear and easy to understand’, goes back to the 15c, and was the term often used in the titles of the first dictionaries that appeared during the 17c; Robert Cawdrey , for example, described the contents of his 1604 Table Alphabeticall as listing hard words ‘with the interpretation thereof by plaine English words’. The current UK Plain English campaign was started in the 1970s and grew out of the consumer movement and the demand for fair dealing. It may be seen as belonging to the tradition of the work done by Sir Ernest Gowers in publications such as Plain Words (1948, later The Complete Plain Words, 1954 and later editions) and in the material he added to the second edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965). A similar movement exists in the US, including the Plain English Forum set up in the 1980s.

2 Plain English insists on clarity as well as accuracy and wages war on convoluted, obfuscating language typified by the use of such words as aforesaid, in the event of, incumbent on, and thereto. It argues that inflated statements such as Encashment of a foreign currency may incur a processing fee may be stated more effectively as We may charge you for changing your foreign money. In some contexts, however, the need for precision can require the use of special terminology; this aspect is discussed in the entries for LEGALESE and OFFICIALESE. See also Martin Cutts, The Plain English Guide (1995).
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plain sailing,

meaning ‘a straightforward situation or course of action’, is an early 19c alteration of the original (late 17c) phrase plane sailing, which denoted a system of measuring short nautical distances by assuming that the earth's surface is a plane and not spherical.

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plait.

The noun and verb are both pronounced plat.

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plan.

The verb is followed either by to or (especially in AmE) by on:
The government plan to close them and redeploy their workers—Times, 1986 /
Do you plan on staying with Muriel forever?—A. Tyler , 1985.

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planetarium

has the plural form planetariums, or occasionally planetaria.

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plaster.

The verb has inflected forms plastered, plastering.

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plastic

is now normally pronounced with the first syllable as in plan. The adjectival form is plasticky.

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plateau

has the plural form plateaux, pronounced in the same way as the singular.

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plateful

has the plural form platefuls.

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platonic,

referring to spiritual as distinct from erotic love, is spelt with a small initial p. When the reference is directly to Plato (as in Platonic dialogue), it is spelt Platonic with a capital initial letter.

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platypus

has the plural form platypuses.

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player

has extended its meaning from being a participant in a game of sport or fun to being a participant in a different type of game, namely commercial politics. This use originated in the US and has spread rapidly into BrE, although it is largely restricted to the domain of business journalism:
Other players include the Ford Motor company, which … has been talking about selling its mortgages through car showrooms—Economist, 1986.

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plc, PLC.

Both forms are used for the abbreviation of Public Limited Company, a status introduced in the UK in 1980.

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plead.

The past tense and past participle in standard BrE are both pleaded, but pled and plead (pronounced pled) are used as well as pleaded in America, Scotland, and some dialects in the UK. In legal usage, an accused person can plead guilty or not guilty, but cannot plead innocent, which is an informal expression only.

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please.

The use of please by itself, as in Will you come in, please?, is a reduced form of may it (so) please you. It was first recorded in the 17c, but was not used by Shakespeare , whose shortest form isplease you.

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plebiscite, referendum.

Plebiscite is pronounced pleb-i-sit in BrE and usually pleb-i-siyt in AmE. The term is most commonly used of a direct vote of a State's electors on a fundamental matter, and is not used with reference to the UK. A referendum is the referral of an important specific issue to the electorate for a general vote, and is used in the UK.

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plectrum

has the plural form plectrums or (in technical use) plectra.

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plenteous, plentiful.

The normal word in current English is plentiful, but plenteous will be found especially in literary works of the 19c and earlier.

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plenty

is essentially a noun, and is used either by itself or with of + following noun (plural, or singular mass noun): We have plenty / You will find plenty of books / There is plenty of time. Use of plenty as an adjective without of is found in regional forms of English but is not standard:
Although there are plenty other ideals that I should prefer— Stevenson /
Leopard Society in Sierra Leone. They kill plenty people— Greene , 1969. Use of plenty as an adverb meaning ‘very, clearly, more than usually’ is restricted to non-standard AmE:
He seems plenty dead to me—R. Silverberg , 1985 /
I frowned at my mother plenty—New Yorker, 1990.

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pleonasm

is a term meaning ‘the use of more words than are necessary to give the sense’. An example in ordinary (as distinct from literary) usage is to see with one's eyes.

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plethora,

meaning ‘an oversupply, an excess’, is pronounced pleth--r and is a singular noun.

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plough

is the normal BrE spelling, but plow is used in AmE.

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plunder

as a verb has inflected forms plundered, plundering.

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plurals of nouns.

English nouns normally form their plurals by adding -s, or -es if the singular form ends in -s, -x, -z, -sh, or soft -ch (as in church but not loch). Words in -y form plurals in -ies (policies) unless the ending is -ey in which case the plural form is normally -eys (monkeys); but see MONEYS. Difficulties occur mainly when the singular form is unusual and does not allow ready application of the normal rules or when the word is of foreign origin (or both). Nouns in -f and -fe are given in the entry -FS, -VES, nouns of the type cupful at the entry -FUL, and nouns in -o in the entry -o; plurals of some Latin nouns in English are given in the entry LATIN PLURALS. For plurals of abbreviated forms (such as MP) see ABBREVIATIONS (3). The following table lists other plural forms that cause difficulties of various kinds.

IRREGULAR PLURALS

child

children

foot

feet

goose

geese

louse

lice

man

men

mouse

mice

tooth

teeth

woman

women

ANIMAL NAMES THE SAME IN THE PLURAL

bison

bison

cod

cod

deer

deer

grouse

grouse

salmon

salmon

sheep

sheep

squid

squid

swine

swine

NOUNS IN PLURAL FORM ONLY: TOOLS

bellows

binoculars

clippers

forceps

gallows

glasses

goggles

pincers

pliers

scissors

shears

spectacles (= glasses)

tongs

tweezers

NOUNS IN PLURAL FORM ONLY: ARTICLES OF CLOTHING

braces

breeches

briefs

flannels

jeans

knickers

leggings

pants

pyjamas (US pajamas)

shorts

slacks

suspenders

tights

trousers

COMPOUND NOUNS

Attorney-General

Attorneys-General

brother-in-law

brothers-in-law

commander-in-chief

commanders-in-chief

court martial

courts martial

daughter-in-law

daughters-in-law

father-in-law

fathers-in-law

Governor-General

Governors-General

lay-by

lay-bys

man-of war

men-of-war

mother-in-law

mothers-in-law

passer-by

passers-by

Poet Laureate

Poets Laureate

sister-in-law

sisters-in-law

son-in-law

sons-in-law

stand-by

stand-bys

The forms Attorney-Generals, Governor-Generals, and Poet Laureates are also used

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plus

is used primarily as the oral equivalent of the arithmetical sign + (Three plus four is seven). In the 20c it has gone from strength to strength as a quasi-preposition with the meaning ‘with the addition of, and also’ (e.g.
A cup of Epp's cocoa and a shakedown for the night plus the use of a rug and overcoat doubled into a pillow— Joyce , 1922). A more controversial use from the 1960s (first in America) makes plus a conjunction or adverb (with a comma following) meaning ‘and furthermore, and in addition’:
(conjunction) You can fly an aeroplane … and command a ship. Plus you ride horses—New Yorker, 1987 /
‘It's certainly a challenge. Plus it's a little overwhelming, but it's exciting,’ says Nicole—Daily Mail, 1998 / (adverb)
I'll quit romanticizing him. Plus, he never got to go on any road trips—B. Ripley , 1987. These uses occur frequently in advertisements (e.g. 20% off everything—plus no deposit) but should not be adopted in more formal writing.

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p.m.

As an abbreviation of Latin post meridiem ‘after noon’, p.m. is pronounced as two letters and written in the form 8.15 p.m. (or pm; in AmE 8:15 p.m.). The abbreviation is sometimes used informally as a noun: We arrived here this p.m. See also A.M.

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pocket

as a verb has inflected forms pocketed, pocketing.

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pocketful

has the plural form pocketfuls. See -FUL.

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podium,

meaning ‘a raised platform or base’ (e.g. for a speaker or orchestral conductor), has the plural form podiums or (occasionally) podia.

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poetess

is now rarely used except with historical reference, as for example to the Greek lyricist Sappho (6c BC). Occasionally it is used when the sex of the poet is in some way significant and when the noun is already qualified by an adjective, making ‘woman poet’ unwieldy:
He paused in his writing only to listen to a rather attractive Finnish poetess reading a sequence about her marital problems—D.M. Thomas , 1990. In general, poet is now regularly used of both female and male writers of poetry. See -ESS.

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poetic, poetical.

In general, poetic is the more common word, but choice is often dependent on personal preference or on sentence rhythm. There are, however, a few fixed expressions, e.g. the poetical works of, poetic justice, poetic licence.

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Poet Laureate.

The plural is Poets Laureate, although Poet Laureates is often used.

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pogrom,

meaning ‘an organized massacre’, is pronounced pog-rm. It is of Russian origin, first applied to the massacre of Jews and later applied more generally.

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point in time.

The expression at this point (or moment) in time, meaning ‘currently, now’, is a modern cliché that is more often heard in speech, or in reported speech, than seen in print. See CLICHÉS.

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point of view

is largely interchangeable with standpoint and viewpoint. The reference of all three is general; when the use refers to an opinion on a specific matter view (alone) or opinion is often a better choice: Their point of view is largely traditional but They take a largely traditional view on this question.

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polemic, polemical.

Polemic is a noun meaning ‘a controversial discussion’ or ‘a verbal or written political attack’; the corresponding noun is either polemic or (more usually) polemical.

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policeman, policewoman.

Both terms are tending to be replaced by the gender-neutral term police officer. In the UK, an officer holding the rank of constable is a police constable (PC) or woman police constable (WPC).

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policy.

There are two separate words with this spelling:
(1) meaning ‘a course or principle of action’ derived ultimately from the Greek word polis ‘city’, and
(2) meaning ‘a contract of insurance’ derived ultimately from the Greek word apodeixis ‘evidence, proof’.

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political correctness.

The term political correctness (often abbreviated to PC) arose in the 1980s, first in America and soon afterwards elsewhere. It deals with many areas of social interaction; in language it is concerned with avoiding or replacing words and uses that cause offence or are seen as discriminating against certain sections of society, e.g. by being racist or sexist or in other ways, and extends to the avoidance of terms that may be regarded even coincidentally as offensive, such as black in black economy and blind (to) meaning ‘unwilling to recognize (a fact)’, and to other words that offend various groups, e.g. deaf people, homosexuals, racial groups, women, and old people. The political correctness movement is also devoted to promoting an alternative terminology that seeks to assert a more positive aspect to negative or undesirable qualities, such as deficiency achievement for failure, differently abled for disabled, non-waged for unemployed, and many compounds formed with -challenged (intellectually challenged, vertically challenged, etc.: see CHALLENGED). Although the basic intentions of political correctness have attracted widespread sympathy, its more extreme forms have been met with derision or even hostility. A Sunday Times leader of 1991, for example, warned that ‘American politics is being corrupted and diminished by the doctrine of Political Correctness which demands rigid adherence to the political attitudes and social mores of the liberal-left, and which exhibits a malevolent intolerance to anybody who dares not comply with them’. See also SEXIST LANGUAGE.

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politic, political.

The normal adjective in general meanings is political. Apart from its use in the fixed expression body politic, politic is confined to the meaning ‘judicious, expedient’ (with reference to an action) and ‘prudent, sagacious’ (with reference to a person) and is normally used after a verb (such as be) rather than attributively (before a noun). The corresponding adverbs are politicly (from politic, but not often needed) and politically (from political). Politic is also found as a verb meaning ‘to engage in politics’ (usually with disparaging overtones), and its inflected forms are politicked, politicking.

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politics

is treated as a singular noun when it means ‘the art or science of government’ (Politics is a popular subject at many universities) and normally as a plural noun when it means ‘a particular set of ideas, principles, etc.’ (What are your politics?).

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polity

means (1) ‘a form or process of civil government or constitution’, and (2) ‘a society or country as a political entity’. It should not be confused with policy, in its meaning ‘a course or principle of action’.

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polytechnic,

a term for an institution of further education, has largely fallen out of use in the UK since 1992, when polytechnics were legally entitled to call themselves universities.

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pond

is used jocularly to mean the sea, especially the Atlantic as separating Britain and America:
Jackie Collins, born British, wrote … huge, earnest tomes which even started to feature safe-sex warnings when she took up residence across the pond—J. Burchill , 1993.

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poof,

a derogatory slang term for a homosexual or effeminate man, is also written poove (and pronounced accordingly). The plural forms are poofs and pooves.

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poorly

is both an adverb (They all performed poorly) and an adjective (= unwell, Her husband had been poorly for months). As in this example, the adjective is normally used after a verb (such as be), rather than in attributive position (before a noun).

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popularized technicalities.

This was Fowler's term (1926) for technical terms that are adopted into general use, and the one he named as being then most in vogue was ACID TEST. Some popularizations (e.g. leading question) involve a change in meaning and are therefore usually more controversial. A range of examples from various domains, some known to Fowler and others more recent, are given in the table below.

WORD

TECHNICAL DOMAIN

DATE OF POPULARIZED USE

allergy

medicine

mid-20c

asset

law

17c

chain reaction

chemistry

mid-20c

chronic

medicine

19c

clone

genetics

late 20c

complex

psychology

early 20c

devil's advocate

religion

19c

feedback

physics

mid-20c

fixation

psychology

early 20c

function

mathematics

18c

leading question

law

20c

nth degree

mathematics

19c

parameter

mathematics

early 20c

persona

literary criticism

early 20c

protagonist

drama

mid-20c

quantum leap or jump

physics

mid-20c

syndrome

medicine

mid-20c

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popular music, pop music.

The two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for music of all ages that appeals to popular tastes (e.g. one can refer to nineteenth-century popular music, the popular music of Greece, etc). Pop music is a more specific term for the commercialized popular music of the later half of the 20c, especially the 1950s and 1960s, and has in turn largely given way to the phenomenon of rock music and other special forms.

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pore, pour.

The verb pore means ‘to think closely about (a subject)’ and is chiefly used in the phrasal verb to pore over (a book etc.). It is sometimes mistakenly written as pour, perhaps by false analogy with ‘pouring attention’ over something.

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porpoise

is pronounced paw-ps, not with the second syllable as in poise.

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portfolio

has the plural form portfolios.

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portico

has the plural form porticoes (preferred) or porticos.

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portmanteau words

are words formed by merging or blending two or more other words, e.g. brunch (breakfast + lunch), motel (motor + hotel), and smog (smoke + fog). Modern formations of this type are often used for items of social concern or popular culture, e.g. blaxploitation (black + exploitation), docudrama (documentary + drama), edutainment (education + entertainment), ginormous (giant + enormous), sexcapade (sex + escapade).

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Portuguese

(with two us) is the singular and plural form for the noun meaning a native or national of Portugal, and also the corresponding adjective.

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position verb.

Uniformed constables had been positioned to re-direct traffic—J. Wainwright , 1979. The use of position as a verb, meaning ‘to place in position’, has met with some criticism, usually from those who object to any verb made relatively recently from a noun (in this case early 19c). But position has a useful role (in physical and abstract contexts) that is not fulfilled by place, put, or pose.

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position of adverbs

see ADVERB (3). Fowler's classic article on this subject in Modern English Usage (1926) was originally published in SPE [Society for Pure English] Tract xv (1923), and is now mainly of historical interest.

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possessive

see APOSTROPHE.

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possessive pronouns and determiners.

For various points concerning these, see GENDER-NEUTRALITY; HIS; OUR, OURS; THEY, THEM, THEIR.

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possessive with gerund.

For the type She does not like my (or me) smoking in bed, see VERBAL NOUN.

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POSSLQ,

a shortening of ‘person of the opposite sex sharing living quarters’, is a coy term for a live-in partner that is surprisingly common, and it is often heard as an acronym in the form pos-lk.

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postdeterminer

see DETERMINER.

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post hoc, ergo propter hoc

means ‘after it and therefore because of it’, and refers to the fallacy of assuming that if event A is followed by event B, event B is caused by event A. (On Sunday we prayed for rain, and on Monday it rained. Therefore our prayers were answered.)

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posthumous,

meaning ‘occurring after death’, is pronounced pos-tyuh-ms, i.e. with the h silent.

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postmaster general.

The customary plural is postmasters general. The use is now often historical, the office having been abolished in the UK in 1969.

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potato

has the plural form potatoes.

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potence, potency.

For the meaning ‘power, the quality or state of being potent’, potency is the usual word, and this is also used in the context of the male ability to achieve sexual erection or orgasm. Potence is used in a number of technical applications but not in general contexts.

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potter,

meaning ‘to occupy oneself in a desultory but pleasurable way’, is normally used with about or around. Its inflected forms are pottered, pottering. In AmE the usual spelling is putter.

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poverty, poorness.

Poverty is the usual noun corresponding to poor in its meanings to do with lack of wealth or lack of things regarded like wealth (e.g. poverty of inspiration). Poorness is more usual in meanings to do with quality or evaluation (e.g. the poorness of his performance).

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p.p.

The formula traditionally stands for per procurationem meaning ‘through the agency (of)’, and is used in business correspondence when one person is signing on behalf of another: A p.p. B. In this case, A is the person writing the letter and B is the person signing it on behalf of A. However, p.p. is also understood to mean per pro, i.e. ‘for and on behalf of’, and in this case the formula is often used in reverse order, with A as the signatory and B the writer. American usage wisely avoids this ambiguous convention altogether, preferring a more explicit annotation such as ‘signed by A in B's absence’, and this practice has begun to influence British use.

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-p-, -pp-.

For the inflection of words such as trap, gallop and kidnap, see DOUBLING OF FINAL CONSONANTS IN INFLECTION.

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practicable, practical.

Practical usually has a general application, denoting what is possible in practice as distinct from theory, and can also describe a person (‘inclined to action rather than speculation, able to make things work well’), whereas practicable means ‘able to be carried out, feasible’, is more usually applied to a particular instance under consideration, and occurs much less often in attributive position (before a noun):
Where it makes sense and is practicable, the pupil may be moved up or down a key stage for the subject in question—W. Swann , 1992 /
I need to be practical but would like to look feminine as well—Clothes Show, 1991 /
Woodblock has been used for a beautiful, yet practical, floor covering—Ideal Home, 1991 /
He said that the American system, where the debtor pays the advice agency which then deducts a levy before paying the creditor, was the most practical—Credit Management, 1992. The negative forms are discussed at the entry for IMPRACTICABLE, IMPRACTICAL.

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practically.

The earlier (17c) meaning ‘in a practical way’ (try to deal with the problem as practically as possible) has been overwhelmed since the 18c by the meaning that is now the dominant one, ‘virtually, almost’:
… sitting through exams with practically nothing to show for them afterwards— Sutcliff , 1983.

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practice, practise.

In standard BrE, practice is used for the noun and practise for the verb, whereas in AmE practice is the dominant spelling of both noun and verb.

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pre-.

This prefix is often joined to the word it qualifies without a hyphen, e.g. prearrange, predetermine, preoccupy. But when the word begins with e or i, or when the formation coincides with another word, it is usual to insert a hyphen, e.g. pre-eminent, preignition, pre-position (to distinguish it from preposition).

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precede, proceed.

Note that precede, meaning ‘to go before’, is spelt -cede, whereas proceed, meaning ‘to go ahead’, is spelt -ceed.

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precedence, precedent.

In BrE, both words are pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, but in AmE the stress is sometimes put on the second, as it is in precede. Precedence means ‘priority in time, order, or importance’, whereas a precedent (countable) is ‘a decision that may be taken as a model for future action’. The use of precedent as an adjective meaning ‘preceding in time or order’ is now rare.

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preciosity, preciousness.

Preciosity is now virtually restricted to the meaning ‘over-refinement in art or language, especially in the choice of words’, leaving preciousness as the noun corresponding to the general meanings of precious.

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precipitate, precipitous.

1 The two words overlap in meaning and were used interchangeably from the 17c to the 19c. Precipitous has a physical meaning ‘sheer like a precipice’:
There was a precipitous wooden stair to the ground floor—A. Craig , 1990. In its abstract sense it is concerned with the over-rapid progress of an action and retains the notion of steep descent, and is therefore often found in the company of words such as decline
(A number of factors might be responsible for such a precipitous decline—A. Wilentz , 1989), whereas precipitate is concerned rather with the inception of an action and means rather ‘hasty, rash, inconsiderate’ or ‘headlong, violently hurried’:
His precipitate action was clearly calculated to make life harder rather than easier for the PLO as he abandoned responsibility for civil servants in the West Bank.—D. McDowell , 1990. It is in this second set of meanings that the two words come closest, since any action that is precipitate in its inception is likely to be precipitous in its performance or consequences.

2 Of the corresponding adverbs, precipitously encroaches on precipitately, especially in AmE:
I left precipitously because I didn't want to work there any longer—A. Cross , 1986 (US) (precipitately is wanted) /
Angus had precipitately fled on learning that the king was loose and in vengeful mood—J. Burke , 1990.
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précis

(= summary). The accent of the French original should be retained in the English form of the word.

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preciseness, precision.

Both words have the same general meaning ‘the condition of being precise, accuracy’, but precision is the more natural choice and is used in attributive position (before other nouns) as in precision bombing, precision timing, etc.

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predeterminer

see DETERMINER.

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predicate.

Predicate and predict are distantly related but their meanings are distinct. The primary meaning of predict is ‘to foretell’, whereas the primary use of predicate is followed by on in the meaning ‘to found or base (on a principle or assumption)’:
Crime predicated on sexual disorder I distrust—Listener, 1977. When base or found would do as well (as in the example given) it is better to use one of them:
The emotion was predicated on one particular hope: that one day the high purposes would be recognized, and the actors Justified—A. Wroe , 1991.

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predominantly, predominately.

The huts are predominantly in valleys near rivers, and invariably the local area was swarming with mosquitoes—R. Sale , 1991 /
The music was predominately '60s and '70s pop, but that didn't seem to bother the inimitable  Bookseller , 1993. Both words mean ‘as the most important factor or element, mostly, largely’ and both have long histories, although predominately was rare before the 19c and predominantly remains the more common of the two.

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preface

see FOREWORD.

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prefer.

1 The inflected forms of the verb are preferred, preferring, but other derivatives have a single -r- (preferable, preferably, preference, preferential, preferment).

2 When the subject of prefer is the same as that of a following subordinate verb, the normal construction is with a to-infinitive or with a verbal noun: I prefer to stand or I prefer standing. When the following verb is in the negative, the to-infinitive is the usual option:
I prefer not to live and work in the same room—C.K. Stead , 1986. When a second person or thing intervenes as subject of the subordinate verb, the normal construction in BrE is with noun (or pronoun) + to-infinitive: I'd prefer you to stay. An alternative is that + clause, which is the more usual choice in AmE: I'd prefer that you stay. (A further, less formal, alternative is the type I'd prefer it if you stayed.)
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3 When prefer is followed by a pair of alternatives, these are separated by to:
I prefer whisky to brandy / I prefer swimming to jogging. Clearly in these cases a construction with a to-infinitive would lead to a clash of to's and is not possible: I prefer to swim to to jog, but an alternative is to use rather than: I prefer to swim rather than to jog (but not I prefer to swim than to jog).
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preferable

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. Because it is already a comparative form, it should not be preceded by more, although it may be followed by far, greatly, or much:
Since it was fed with steaks served in goldplated bowls, the creature presumably regarded a dog's life in Romania as greatly preferable to its existence in Britain—M. Almond , 1992.

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prefix.

In grammar, a prefix is a word or element added at the beginning of another word to adjust or qualify its meaning, such as ex- (ex-husband), non- (non-smoking), and super- (supermodel).

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prejudice,

in the meaning ‘bias’ or ‘partiality’, is followed by against or in favour of, but not (on the analogy of hostility, objection, etc.) to: a prejudice against eating late, not a prejudice to eating late. In its meaning ‘irrational dislike’, it can be followed by towards: the hostility and prejudice that exists towards homosexuality.

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premature.

In BrE this is pronounced prem--tyuh- or prem--tyuh-. In AmE the first syllable is often pronounced pree-.

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premier.

1 In BrE the normal pronunciation is prem-i-, with the first syllable short. In AmE the dominant pronunciation is pr-mee-, with the stress on the i.

2 The main meaning of the noun is ‘a prime minister or other head of government’; in Canada it denotes the chief executive officer of a provincial government (with a capital initial letter when used as a title, e.g. Premier Robert Bourassa).
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3 As an adjective premier is enjoying a period of great popularity on both sides of the Atlantic in the meaning ‘first in order of importance, order, or time’:
Hypersonic flight has become the premier area for aerospace research in the United States—Mechanical Engineering, 1991. In football, Premier Leagues have emerged in England, in Scotland, and now (conceptually) in Europe.
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première

is now fully established as a noun meaning ‘the first performance or showing of a play or film’, and as a verb meaning 'to give a première of (The film will be premièred next week). The BrE pronunciation is prem-i-air, with the first syllable short, and in AmE it is normally pr-mee-, with the stress on the i.

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premise, premiss.

A premiss (usually pronounced prem-is) or (rarely) premise is a previous statement from which another is inferred; the plural is premisses or premises. In the plural, premises also means ‘a house or building with its grounds’. As a verb, premise (pronounced like the noun or to rhyme with surmise) means either ‘to say or write by way of introduction’ or ‘to assume from a premiss’.

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prepared to.

In its generalized meaning ‘willing to’, prepared to has gone the same way as ready to; in neither case is any element of preparedness or readiness necessarily involved, especially when it is used in the negative: I am not prepared to wait any longer. Sir Ernest Gowers , in The Complete Plain Words, warned that ‘such phrases as these are no doubt dictated by politeness, and therefore deserve respect. But they must be used with discretion’, and in the second edition of Modern English Usage (1965) condemned such examples as I am prepared to overlook the mistake as ‘wantonly blurring the meaning of prepare’. But his argument that the expression should be reserved for cases in which there is some element of preparation, as in I have read the papers and am prepared to hear you state your case, was based on an unworkable distinction which ignored the role of idiom in such matters. Whatever influence Gowers may have had in Whitehall, it has not touched the rest of the world, where prepared to and not prepared to are regularly used in the simple meanings ‘willing to’ and ‘unwilling to’: e.g.
If non-executives are to carry out their duties properly, they must be prepared to blow the whistle—Independent, 1991.

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preposition.

1 A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, and with, which usually stands before a noun or pronoun and establishes its relation to what goes before (the man on the platform / came after dinner / What did you do it for?). The superstition that a preposition should always precede the word it governs and should not end a sentence (as in the last example given) seems to have developed from an observation of the 17c poet John Dryden , although Dryden himself did not always follow the rule in his own prose. It is not based on a real appreciation of the structure of English, which regularly separates words that are grammatically related.

2 There are cases when it is either impossible or not natural to organize the sentence in a way that avoids a final preposition:
a In relative clauses and questions featuring phrasal verbs:
What did Marion think she was up to?— Barnes , 1980 /
They must be entirely reliable and convinced of the commitment they are taking on—Times Educational Supplement, 1987 /
Budget cuts themselves are not damaging: the damage depends on where the cuts are coming from—Spectator, 1993.
b In passive constructions:
Even the dentist was paid for—New Yorker, 1987.
c In short sentences with a to-infinitive or verbal noun:
There are a couple of things I want to talk to you about—F. Knebel , 1972 /
Hand-turned treen are a joy to look at—Daily Telegraph, 1980.
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3 CONCLUSION. In many cases, especially in more formal writing, it is preferable to avoid placing a preposition at the end of a sentence where it might look stranded. In many other cases, and in conversational English generally, it is impossible to contrive the sentence in such a way as to avoid a final preposition without producing awkwardness or unnaturalness, and it is inadvisable to try.
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prerequisite

see PERQUISITE.

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presage.

The noun is pronounced pres-ij, with the stress on the first syllable, and means ‘a portent or presentiment’. The verb can be pronounced the same or as pri-sayj, with the stress on the second syllable, and means ‘portend’ or ‘give a warning of’.

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prescience, prescient.

The usual pronunciations are pres-i-ns and pres-i-nt, with the first and second syllables both short.

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prescribe, proscribe.

A single letter distinguishes two words of very different meaning. A prescribed book (for example) is one that is chosen for a course of study, whereas a proscribed book is one that is forbidden or banned. Prescribe also has an important meaning used in medicine and more widely: ‘to recommend or provide (a remedy or course of action)’: He prescribed a change of air and a long rest.

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prescriptive.

The term is fairly recent (1930s) with reference to language, and denotes a concept of grammar as laying down (or ‘prescribing’) rules rather than observing and describing the language in use (this latter concept being called descriptive).

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present

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun, and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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presenter

see ANNOUNCER.

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presently.

There are two meanings which serve well to illustrate the interactions of British and American English. The older meaning ‘at the present time, now’ dates from the 15c, is still the dominant meaning in AmE, but has been largely overtaken in BrE by the second sense ‘in a while, soon’. These two meanings are shown by the examples that follow:
Dr Otto von Habsburg abandoned claims to the monarchy in 1961 … and is presently a member of the European Parliament—Times, 1989 /
Her feet hurt and she was thirsty. Presently she set off to walk back to her lodgings— Mantel , 1986. In recent usage, the older meaning has started to reappear more significantly in BrE, doubtless under continued American influence. Although this use is often criticized, it has excellent historical credentials and the context usually makes the choice of meaning clear. See also MOMENTARILY.

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present tense.

The natural and most frequent use of the present tense is in contexts of present time, whether actual (The door is open) or habitual (The door is always open / Paris is the capital of France). It is also used of past events in certain contexts, such as newspaper headlines (Clinton says he is sorry) and in narrative (see HISTORIC PRESENT).

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prestige.

1 The word originally meant ‘illusion, conjuring trick’ and hence ‘deception’, and acquired its current favourable meaning ‘reputation derived from status or achievements’ in the 19c, the link being the element of magic common to both meanings. It is still pronounced pres-teezh in an only partly naturalized way; the OED (1909) recorded an anglicized form (pres-tij) but this has not survived.

2 Prestige occurs frequently in attributive position (i.e. before another noun) in such combinations as prestige car, prestige suite (in a hotel), prestige location, etc., to denote something of superior quality, especially in the jargon of advertising.
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prestigious.

This older meaning ‘deceptive, illusory’, relating to the older sense of PRESTIGE, has given way to its current meaning ‘having a great reputation or influence’ to the extent that the earlier use has been largely forgotten. The newer meaning is first recorded in a novel by Joseph Conrad : ‘
You have had all these immense sums … What have I had out of them?’ It was perfectly true. He had had nothing out of them nothing of the prestigious or the desirable things of the earth—Chance, 1913.

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presume

see ASSUME.

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presumptuous.

The form presumptious, though formerly (15c–19c) valid, is now erroneous.

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pretence.

The usual AmE spelling is pretense.

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pretty.

1 Pretty is used as an adverb with the meaning ‘fairly, moderately’, as in The performance was pretty good / He did pretty much as he liked. The adverb corresponding to the usual meaning of pretty is prettily: She always dresses so prettily.

2 It is also used ironically (i.e. with a meaning opposite to the normal) as an adjective in such uses as A pretty mess you have made of it and Things have come to a pretty pass.
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prevaricate, procrastinate.

Because their meanings, or at least the implications of their meanings, overlap, these two words are often confused. To prevaricate (derived from Latin praevaricari meaning literally ‘to walk crookedly’) is ‘to speak or act evasively’, whereas to procrastinate (derived from Latin cras meaning ‘tomorrow’) is ‘to put off or delay’. You might prevaricate in order to procrastinate, but the senses should be carefully distinguished. Examples:
She prevaricated, wanting the story verified or denied before sharing it with him—L. Grant-Adamson , 1989 /
Coleridge never arrived, and early in January the now beleaguered Southey decided that his endlessly procrastinating friend must be brought back from London—T. Mayberry , 1992.

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prevent.

When prevent is followed by an object + verbal noun, the usual construction now is (for example) prevent him going or prevent him from going, rather than prevent his going, which (though considered formally more correct by some) is falling out of use. Examples of each type:
Two women climb up the iron bars, which are meant to prevent people or animals falling under the tram—J. Berger , 1972 /
Cushla was only just quick enough to grab Colin's arms to prevent him from belting Restel across the head—N. Virtue , 1990 /
His shoes were locked up to prevent his running away— Fitzgerald , 1986. When prevent is used in the passive, the construction with from is the normal option:
Tanks are being prevented from entering the center of the city—New Yorker, 1989.

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preventable

is the preferred spelling, not -ible. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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preventive, preventative.

Both words are in use as adjectives meaning ‘serving to prevent’, especially in medicine, and also as nouns denoting a substance or procedure that does this. Preventive is the commoner by a long way, understandably in view of its more comfortable form:
Preventive medicine may be more effective if problem-based learning programmes are established in place of the traditional methods of education—Physiotherapy, 1990 /
Ask about … ivermectin—the heartworm disease preventive you give your dog once a month—Outdoor Life, 1990 (US). When preventative occurs it is more usually in generalized contexts qualifying words such as action and measure rather than (for example) medicine:
When we hear talk of a ‘preventative strike’ we must translate that term into what it really means: a surprise attack—V. Mollenkott , 1987 (US).

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priest.

In its Christian context a priest is an ordained minister of the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church, or of the Anglican Church (above a deacon and below a bishop), authorized to perform certain rites and administer certain sacraments. Women who are ordained ministers of the Anglican Church are also called priests. The term priestess is used only of a female priest in non-Christian religions.

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prima donna,

meaning ‘chief female singer’ of a company or ‘a temperamentally self-important person’, has the plural form prima donnas.

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prima facie,

meaning ‘based on a first impression’ (as in prima facie evidence), is usually pronounced priy-m fay-shi in BrE, although there are several alternative forms in AmE.

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primarily.

In BrE, under American influence, the stress is increasingly heard on the second syllable, rather than (more awkwardly) on the first.

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primeval

is now the dominant spelling, not primaeval.

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principal, principle.

The spellings are occasionally confused even by the wariest users of English. (The usual mistake is to use principle for the adjective principal.) Principal is an adjective and noun and essentially means ‘chief’ (my principal objection / Meet the principal of my college), whereas principle is a noun only and means ‘a fundamental law or truth’ (Is there a principle behind your argument?) or (in the plural) ‘rules of conduct’ (They seem to have no moral principles).

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prioritize,

meaning ‘to establish priorities for (a list of items)’, is first recorded in 1968, and is often cited as an example of unwelcome verb formations in -ize. It is nonetheless a generally useful word, despite its associations with the world of business and management jargon:
Government resources have been constantly diminished by the need to prioritize defence—The State of Prisons, 1991 /
Butlins offered a comfortable exoticism, prioritizing pleasure for all—S. Ewen , 1991.

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prior to

is an alternative for before that is normally appropriate only in formal contexts, where it conveys the extra meaning ‘as a necessary preliminary to’: Candidates must deposit security prior to the ballot. In general use it is often pretentious and unnecessary.

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prise,

meaning ‘to remove or open gently or with difficulty’, is the normal form in BrE, but in AmE pry (a 19c shortening) and prize (probably arising from confusion with the third-person form pries) are more often found:
The hoard of money was prised out of Blue Rabbit and hidden at the back of his football-boot locker— Trollope , 1990 /
The girl pried the lid from the showbox— Drury , 1992 (US).

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pristine.

1 The usual pronunciation now is pris-teen, although the stress varies between the two syllables (and is often placed on the second in AmE).

2 The primary meaning of pristine is that present in Latin pristinus which meant ‘ancient, original’ in a favourable sense:
The translators … have happily preserved for us the pristine simplicity of our Saxon-English— Disraeli , 1841. It is a short step from the notion of ‘in its original newness’ to ‘new as if original’ and hence simply ‘pure or clean as new’, the meaning acquired by the word in the 20c. Although objected to by language purists, the developed meaning is well established alongside the original meaning:
Thinking of the sour blackened brick of the place (scoured clean to a pristine rust once more)— Lively , 1991 /
The living room was as pristine as I'd ever seen it—F. Cooper , 1993.
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privacy.

In BrE, the pronunciation priv--si, with a short first syllable, has largely replaced priy-v-si, although the second is still heard and is the usual one in AmE and in other parts of the English-speaking world.

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privation

see DEPRIVATION.

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privilege.

Note the spelling with two is, not privelege.

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prize

see PRISE.

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proactive

is a vogue word, formed on the analogy of reactive, that came into prominence in the 1970s, and is used to mean ‘creating or controlling a situation by taking the initiative’, usually in the context of business administration:
a new kind of management able to take risks,… manage change, and be more proactive—Financial Times, 1984. The back-formation (or parallel formation, perhaps) pro-act may raise eyebrows:
This versatility is allowing us to proact rather than react to changing market conditions—Industry Week, 1986.

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probe noun.

The meaning that has come to the fore in the 20c, especially in the language of newspapers, is the one given first in the 1995 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, i.e. ‘a penetrating investigation’. Its appeal to journalists lies largely in its brevity and consequent suitability for use in headlines. In older editions of the Concise Oxford, which listed meanings in historical or logical order rather than in order of current frequency, the first meaning given was ‘a blunt-edged surgical instrument used for exploring wounds etc.’, and from this developed the use with reference to devices used in space exploration.

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problematic, problematical.

Both forms are used in BrE and AmE with no discernible difference in meaning, but problematic is slightly commoner.

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proceed

see PRECEDE. Note that procedure is spelt with only one e in its second syllable.

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process.

The familiar noun and verb are both pronounced proh-ses. The other verb process, meaning ‘to walk in procession’, is a back-formation from the noun procession and is pronounced proh-ses.

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pro-choice

see PRO-LIFE.

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procrastinate

see PREVARICATE.

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produce

is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable as a verb, and with the stress on the first syllable (prod-yoos) as a noun (meaning ‘goods produced, especially in agriculture’).

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proffer,

meaning ‘to offer (a gift or service)’, has inflected forms proffered, proffering.

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program, programme.

The standard spelling in BrE, except in computer language, is programme, and in AmE it is program. In the context of computing, program is used in both AmE and BrE, and as a verb has inflected forms programmed, programming in BrE (with the variants programed, programing also available in AmE). Historically, the spelling program is better established in BrE, but it was replaced in the 19c by the French form programme, which however did not establish itself in the US.

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progress.

In BrE the noun is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and the verb (= make progress) with the stress on the second syllable. In the transitive meaning ‘to cause (work etc.) to make progress’, however, the word is usually pronounced with the stress pattern of the noun. In AmE the stresses are normally the same, but the word is pronounced with a shorter first syllable, prog- rather than prohg-.

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progressive tenses

see CONTINUOUS TENSES.

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prohibit.

In current usage, prohibit can be followed either by a noun or pronoun denoting the thing prohibited (The law prohibits the export of livestock without a licence) or by a noun or pronoun denoting the person prohibited, followed by from + verbal noun (A new law will prohibit you from exporting livestock…) It is no longer possible to use a to-infinitive (as it is with forbid): A new law will prohibit you to export livestock….

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project.

In BrE the normal pattern is proj-ekt with the stress on the first syllable for the noun, and pr-jekt with the stress on the second syllable for the verb. In other English-speaking countries (though not in AmE) a pronunciation with long first syllable (proh-) is also found.

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pro-life, pro-choice

are used as adjectives, primarily in AmE but increasingly in BrE, to denote respectively those who are opposed to the practice of abortion and those who think mothers should be left to make a choice in the matter. The terms are also applied in other areas of medical practice involving matters of life and death, such as sustaining life-support systems for those who are severely handicapped or unlikely to make a recovery.

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prolific

is derived from the Latin word proles meaning ‘offspring’, and is properly applied to someone or something that produces either offspring or something compared to offspring such as writings, works of art, etc. Like many adjectives in English (e.g. generous, thoughtful), it is often transferred from the producer to the thing produced (e.g. a prolific output as well as a prolific writer), and objections to this use that are sometimes made are hard to justify, although alternatives such as abundant and numerous are available to those who are inclined to be cautious in such matters:
McGonagall…had just had his prolific collection of bizarre poems translated into Russian, Chinese, Japanese and… Thai—Times, 1977.

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promiscuous.

The sense relating to sexual behaviour is now so dominant that we need to be reminded of an older meaning ‘casual, random’ in more general contexts that is found in Dickens and other literary contexts:
I walked in … just to say good mornin', and went, in a promiscuous manner, up-stairs, and into the back room—Pickwick Papers, 1837.

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prone.

1 for prone to see APT.

2 In its meaning ‘lying face down’, prone contrasts with supine, which means ‘lying face up’.
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pronounceable

is spelt with an e in the middle.

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pronouns.

1 A pronoun is a word used to refer to (and instead of) a noun or noun phrase that has already been mentioned or is known, especially in order to avoid repetition, e.g. We invited the Jones family to our party because we like them and When Jane saw what had happened she laughed. Pronouns include the familiar forms I, we, he, she, it, they, you (plus their object forms me, us, him, her, it, them, you); the possessive pronouns (also now called possessive adjectives or possessive determiners) my, your, his, her, its, our, their (and the group mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, which are normally used predicatively, i.e. after a verb as in The responsibility is ours); the reflexive pronouns myself, yourself, etc.; the demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those; the relative pronouns that, which, who, whom, whose; the interrogative pronouns what, which, who, whom, whose; the indefinite pronouns all, any, both, each, either, none, one, everybody, everyone, nobody, no one, somebody, someone; and the so-called ‘extended’ pronouns whatever, whichever, whoever, whosoever, each other, one another.

2 When a pronoun refers back to a person or thing previously named, it is important that the gap is not so large that the reader (or hearer) might have difficulty relating the two, and that ambiguity is avoided when more than one person might be the antecedent, as in the following exchange in a play (where the ambiguity is deliberate): Septimus:
Geometry, Hobbes assures us in the Leviathan, is the only science God has been pleased to bestow on mankind. Lady Croom: And what does he mean by it? Septimus: Mr Hobbes or God?— Stoppard , 1993.
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pronunciation.

1 Note that the correct spelling of this word is pronunciation, not pronounciation, and it is pronounced accordingly.

2 The British pronunciations given in this book follow the so-called ‘received standard’ based on the forms used by educated speakers in southern England, although it is recognized that other forms of pronunciation are equally valid. American pronunciations, when given, follow the pattern identified as ‘General American’, i.e. ‘the range of United States accents that have neither an eastern nor a southern colouring’ (J. C. Wells , Accents of English (1982) Vol. I, p.10).
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3 For disputed or controversial aspects of pronunciation (many to do with the placing of the main stress), see the entries at APARTHEID, CONTRIBUTE, CENTRIFUGAL, CONTROVERSY, DECADE, DESPICABLE, DISTRIBUTE, FOREHEAD, FORMIDABLE, HARASS, KILOMETRE, MUNICIPAL, PRIVACY, SUBSIDENCE. See also ACCENT, NOUN AND VERB DIFFERENCES.
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4 Significant systematic changes in pronunciation that have occurred in the 20c include (under AmE influence) the placing of the stress in adverbs ending in -arily on the -ar instead of earlier in the word (as in necessarily, primarily, etc.), the simplification of the final syllable of nouns in -ein and -ies (e.g. protein, rabies, scabies) to a single sound (-een and -eez instead of -ee-in and -i-eez as formerly), and a change from -ee- i-ti to -ay-i-ti in words of the type deity, homogeneity, spontaneity, etc.
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propaganda,

meaning ‘an organized programme of information in support of a cause or political policy’, is not (despite its appearance) plural in origin but a singular noun taken from the modern Latin title Congregatio de propaganda fide ‘congregation for propagating the faith’ (originally a committee of Catholic cardinals), in which propaganda is a form of a verbal adjective. In current use, the sense is always derogatory.

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propel

has inflected forms propelled, propelling.

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propellant, propellent.

The noun propellant, meaning ‘a thing that propels’ (especially a rocket fuel or the agent in aerosol sprays), is the more familiar word. Propellent is an adjective meaning ‘capable of driving or pushing forward’.

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propeller

is the only spelling in BrE for the revolving set of blades on a ship or aeroplane; in AmE propellor is also used.

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proper noun

see NOUN.

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proper terms.

This is the technical name for terms denoting groups of animals and birds, such as flight (of swallows) and pride (of lions), and occasionally people. Some, such as herd, have more general application (e.g. to cows, sheep, and elephants), while others are peculiar to one context and are largely fanciful inventions that have been passed from one antiquarian writer to another without any real authority in usage (e.g. a siege of herons and a knob of waterfowl). The table below lists these in alphabetical order of the animal or bird concerned. Those marked with an asterisk () are recorded in special lists of proper terms that were popular in the 15c, notably, the Book of St Albans attributed to Juliana Barnes (1486).

ITEM

TERM

apes

shrewdness

asses

herd or pace

badgers

cete

bears

sloth or sleuth

bees

hive, swarm, drift, or bike

birds

flock or flight

boar

sounder

boys

blush

buffalo

herd or gang

cats

clowder or glaring

cattle

herd or drove

chickens

brood or peep

colts

rag or rake

cooks

hastiness

coots

covert

cranes

herd

curlew

herd

deer

herd or mob

dogs

pack or kennel

doves

flight, dole, or piteousness

ducks

(on water) raft, bunch, or paddling; (in flight) team

elephants

herd

elk

herd or (AmE) gang

ferrets

business

finches

charm or chirm

fish

shoal

flies

cloud

foresters

stalk

foxes

skulk

geese

gaggle or (in the air) skein, team, or wedge

giraffes

herd

goats

flock, herd, or (dialect) trip

grouse

pack or covey

hares

husk or down

hawks

cast

hermits

observance

herons

siege

horses

team; (breeding) stud or haras

hounds

kennel, pack, cry, or mute

insects

flight or swarm

kangaroos

mob or troop

kittens

kindle

ladies

bevy

lapwing

desert

larks

exaltation or bevy

leopards

leap

lions

pride

magpies

tiding

mallard

sord or sute (= suit)

martens

richesse

merchants

faith

moles

labour

monkeys

troop

mules

barren

nightingales

watch

nuns

superfluity

partridges

covey

peacocks

muster

pedlars

malapertness (= impertinence)

penguins

rookery

pheasants

head or (dialect) nye

pigeons

kit (flying together)

pigs

herd

plovers

stand, wing, or congregation

porpoises

herd, pod, or school

prisoners

pity

pups

litter

quail

bevy or drift

racehorses

string

ravens

unkindness

roes

bevy

rooks

parliament or building

seals

herd or rockery; pod (= small herd)

sheep

flock or herd; (dialect) drift or trip

sheldrake

dropping

snipe

wise or walk

sparrows

host

starlings

murmuration

swallows

flight

swans

game or herd; wedge (in the air)

swine

herd; sounder (tame), drift (wild)

waterfowl

bunch or knob

whales

school, herd, or gam; pod (= small school)

widgeon

company or trip

wildfowl

bunch, trip, or plump; knob (less than 30)

wolves

pack or rout

women

gaggle (derisive)

woodcock

fall

wrens

herd

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prophecy, prophesy.

Prophecy, pronounced profi-si, is the noun, and prophesy, pronounced profi-siy, is the verb.

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proportional, proportionate.

Both words mean ‘in due proportion, comparable’, and are used almost interchangeably, except in certain fixed expressions such as proportional parts and proportional representation. Otherwise, when proportional occurs it tends to be in more formal and technical contexts:
By 1979 all the beds and hospital places, which were provided up to the prescribed national levels proportional to the catchment population, had been opened—D. Tomlinson , 1991 /
Clinton needed 270 electoral votes from among the 50 states to secure victory—each state carries a number of votes proportionate to its population—Today, 1992.

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proposition.

1 The noun proposition has various well-established meanings arising from its basic sense of ‘something proposed’, e.g. a scheme or proposal, a statement in logic that is subject to proof or disproof, and a formal statement of a theorem or problem in mathematics. A more generalized meaning, ‘an enterprise or undertaking’, was regarded by Fowler (1926) as an intrusive Americanism which he wanted to see abandoned in favour of alternatives such as proposal, task, undertaking, enterprise, etc. Clearly this advice has not been heeded, and it would be difficult to sustain such an objection now in the face of the overwhelming evidence of usage. Note that proposition is normally used with reference to the viability or likely success of the thing in question:
‘Call this a store?’ he would say. ‘Call this a paying proposition?’—A. Tyler , 1980 /
Tinkering with the possibilities becomes an enticing proposition—D. Shekerjian , 1990.

2 The use of proposition as a verb arose in America in the 1920s in two main meanings:
(1) to present (someone) with a proposition, and
(2) to request sexual favours from

. The second meaning is now usually the one that comes first to mind:
In Hyde Park, that black whore had propositioned him as he walked from work toward the Tube—New Yorker, 1975.
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proprietor

is the standard spelling, not -er.

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proscribe

see PRESCRIBE.

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prosecutor,

a person who prosecutes, especially in a criminal court, is spelt -or, not -er.

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prospect

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun, and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb (as in prospecting for gold, etc.).

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prospectus.

The plural form is prospectuses. The form prospecti is not only pedantic but ignorantly pedantic, since in Latin prospectus is a fourth-declension noun with a plural form prospectus (which is not used in English).

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prostate, prostrate.

The prostate (or prostate gland) is a gland surrounding the neck of the bladder in male animals. Prostrate is an adjective and verb: the adjective is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable and means ‘lying horizontally’, especially in the figurative sense of being overcome by grief or some other strong feeling, and the verb is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable and means ‘to throw (oneself) on the ground in submission’.

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protagonist.

1 This is a good example of what Fowler (1926) called a ‘popularized technicality’, i.e. a term used in a special domain (in this case, ancient Greek drama) and extended into general use with consequent (and controversial) shifts in meaning. In its literary use, protagonist meant ‘first actor’, i.e. the chief character in a play (often also the name by which the play is known, as with Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Euripides' Orestes). The protagonist was accompanied by a deuteragonist and sometimes by a tritagonist, representing dramatic roles of second and third importance.

2 One consequence of all this for the use of protagonist in English is that there is strictly only one protagonist in any given situation. Another is that to speak of a chief protagonist or leading protagonist is tautological, since a protagonist is by definition the leading personage. The second point is cogent, but the first has little validity outside the context of ancient drama, beyond which the word had already progressed by the 19c:
If social equity is not a chimera, Marie Antoinette was the protagonist of the most … execrable of causes—J. Morley , 1877. The objection sometimes heard, that only one person can truly be ‘first’, belongs to the realm of philosophy, not language. We may therefore refer to the protagonists, the chief characters in a piece of literary fiction or the leading figures in various walks of life, as well as to the protagonist:
The two protagonists, the cuckoo and the nightingale, present a series of antithetical statements about the power of love, in which the cuckoo finally gains the edge—Dictionary of National Biography, 1993 /
Many commentators believe that the superpower divide has its source in ideology, thus making impossible any long-term co-operation or peace between the protagonists—S. Smith , 1991.
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3 A further development in meaning represents a more serious departure from the word's origins, and is illustrated by this example:
There is a tendency of protagonists of the computational theory of mind to boast that they are restoring the Aristotelian emphasis on cognition and thought—R. Tallis , 1991. Here, protagonist (perhaps influenced by the coincidence of the word's form with the common prefix pro-) has come to mean ‘advocate or proponent’ rather than ‘leading figure’ (one may involve the other, but we are concerned here with meaning and not implication). In this meaning, alternatives such as advocate, proponent, or supporter are normally preferable, although it is true that they do not convey quite the same sense of innovation and personal involvement. Whatever warnings are uttered now, the new meaning, given its genuine overlap with the older one, will undoubtedly become dominant in the end. For now, however, the advice must be one of caution.
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protean,

meaning ‘able to change form, versatile’ (after the ancient mythical figure Proteus), is normally pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and is spelt with a small initial p.

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protector

is spelt -or, not -er.

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protégé

meaning ‘a person under the patronage or tutelage of another’, should be printed with the two accents in place.

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protest.

1 The noun is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and the verb with the stress on the second syllable.

2
Anatoly Karyagin, who has been imprisoned for protesting the use of psychiatry for political purposes—New Yorker, 1987. This transitive use of the verb, with the object of the protest as the grammatical object, is a 20c development that is widely accepted in AmE but has not yet become established in BrE, although it is beginning to appear:
The ruin of Belfast's Black Mountain protested by the local community—Independent, 1991.
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protester

is spelt -er, not -or.

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protractor,

the instrument used in geometry, is spelt -or, not -er.

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provable

is spelt without an e in the middle.

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proved, proven.

The two forms relate to two different verbs derived from Old French prover (ultimately from Latin probare). In standard BrE, proved is the normal past tense and past participle of the verb prove (They proved their point / Their point was proved). Proven survived as a past participle in dialect use and is current in the Scottish legal term not proven (usually pronounced proh-vn) and occasionally in general use in Britain generally (pronounced proo-vn), especially in attributive position (i.e. before a noun):
His love of precise dates and proven facts— Shakespeare , 1989. In AmE, proven is at least as common as proved both as a past tense and as a past participle.

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provenance, provenience.

Provenance (pronounced with the stress on the first syllable) is the BrE word, and provenience (pronounced pro-vee-ni-ns) its AmE equivalent, meaning ‘place of origin of a manuscript, work of art, etc.’ and in more general applications.

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provided that, providing that.

The form provided is often preferred, and that may be omitted in both cases:
In summer he will show visitors around the chapel provided he likes their faces and they are not wearing shorts—Linguist, 1992 /
It works well enough providing I keep my blanket around me— Winterson , 1987.

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proviso

has the plural form provisos.

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prox.

is an abbreviation of Latin proximo (mense) meaning ‘of the following month’ and is still used occasionally in more formal commercial correspondence following a day (e.g. the 7th prox.) to denote a date in the month following.

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prudent, prudential, prudish.

While prudent is a judgemental word meaning ‘circumspect, judicious’, prudential is merely descriptive in identifying actions and attitudes that have to do with prudence, e.g. prudential motives are motives determined by considerations of prudence. To complete the picture, prudish is an entirely distinct word and means ‘affecting extreme modesty or propriety in sexual matters’.

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pry

see PRISE.

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PS

is an abbreviation of postscript and is used to add an additional point at the end of a letter, after the signature. Further additions are preceded by PPS, PPPS, and so on, although no one normally writes more than two except in jest.

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pseudonym

see NOM DE PLUME.

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psychic, psychical.

Although psychical is the older word (attested in 1642 in the OED), psychic (1836) is now more common and has a wider range of meaning, most notably ‘connected with or having occult powers’. In more neutral senses to do with the mind or the soul, psychical is sometimes used to avoid these occult associations, e.g. in the expression psychical research.

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psychosis

has the plural form psychoses.

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ptomaine,

denoting a kind of compound formerly associated with food poisoning, is pronounced toh-mayn, with the initial p silent.

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publicly

is the correct form of the adverb from public, not publically.

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pucka

see PUKKA.

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pucker,

meaning ‘to gather into folds’, has inflected forms puckered, puckering. See also PUKKA.

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pudenda, pudendum.

Both forms are used to refer to the female genitals; the first is plural and the second singular in construction.

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puisne

is pronounced like puny and is derived from French puis né meaning ‘born afterwards’, hence ‘inferior’. A puisne judge is a judge of a superior court inferior in rank to chief justices.

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pukka,

meaning ‘genuine’, is derived from a Hindi word pakk meaning ‘ripe, substantial’. This spelling is preferred to pucka.

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pulley.

The noun has the plural form pulleys, and the verb (meaning ‘to work with a pulley’) has inflected forms pulleys, pulleyed, pulleying.

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pun.

Punning, ‘the humorous use of words to suggest different meanings’, has been a feature of language at least since the time of Aristotle, who approved of them in some kinds of writing. Some famous historical examples include the description by Pope Gregory I (6c) of English slaves as Non Angli, sed angeli (‘not Angles, but angels’) and, from a much later date (1843) the reputed message of Sir Charles Napier to the British War Office reporting his conquest of the Indian province of Sind with the single Latin word peccavi (‘I have sinned’). About 3,000 puns occur in the works of Shakespeare , among them Mercutio's dying words in Romeo and Juliet (III.i.98; modernized spelling): Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. An intentionally dreadful pun can be found in a mock epitaph of Byron, dated 1807, for John Adams , a carrier of Southwell, who died of drunkenness: For the liquor he drank, being too much for one, He could not carry off,—so he's now carri-on. In modern usage, puns occur frequently in casual conversation and are much loved by writers of newspaper headlines: see JOURNALESE.

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punctuation

see the individual entries for APOSTROPHE, BRACKETS, COLON, COMMA, DASH, EXCLAMATION MARK, FULL STOP, HYPHEN, QUESTION MARK, QUOTATION MARKS, SEMICOLON.

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pundit

is a general term meaning ‘a learned expert or teacher’ (often slightly disparaging in tone and giving way to guru in more favourable contexts), but Pandit is the form used when prefixed to the name of a learned Hindu (e.g. Pandit Nehru). Both forms are derived from a Sanskrit word meaning ‘a learned man’.

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punter.

Our choice of venue is usually the Mermaid Restaurant, where punters can dine al fresco at white plastic tables, rain or shine, in season or out—Daily Telegraph, 1992. This meaning of punter, ‘a customer or client’, developed in the 1960s from an older meaning ‘a gambler; a backer of horses’, i.e. a customer of a bookmaker, by way of several underworld slang meanings including ‘an accomplice in a crime’, ‘a victim of a swindle’, and then ‘a client of a prostitute’. In the 1980s it became a more salubrious vogue word, and it is still going strong, having attained enough respectability to be used in more highbrow contexts:
For the punters, it may not be all bad: alternative bookings [at Covent Garden] could include leading foreign dance and opera companies—BBC Music Magazine, 1999. The older meanings continue to be used, as do two other words having the form punter: ‘someone who propels a punt on a river’ and ‘someone who punts a football’.

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purchase,

both as a noun and as a verb, is a formal word not normally used in general contexts (especially conversation). By contrast buy as a noun is somewhat informal (a good buy), and so English lacks a word of neutral register for the meaning ‘the act of buying’ or ‘something bought’, and has to resort either to rephrasing or to circumlocutions such as acquisition or investment.

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purée,

meaning ‘a smooth cream of fruit or vegetables’, is spelt with two es and with an accent on the first e.

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purple

has a derived form purplish, with no e.

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purport.

1 The word is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

2 The verb's most common construction in current English is with a to-infinitive, as in
He had seen ‘what purported to be a saucer phenomenon’—R. Ferguson , 1991 /
Almost all the conditions and diseases that over-the-counter drugs of the past century were purported to relieve are still prevalent today—Addictive Diseases, 1977 /
The Family Court of Australia held in contempt a layman who falsely purported to be a lawyer—D. Pannick , 1992. The use of purport followed by a that-clause, though recorded in the OED, has been largely superseded by a construction with an intervening verb, of the type purport to show (or confirm) that:
She accepts without question research which purported to show that most women despised each other—M. Whitford , 1989.
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3 In the 1977 example above, purport is used in the passive, and in the 1992 example it is used with a person as the subject. Both these uses were frowned on by Fowler (1926), who regarded suppose (… were supposed to relieve …) as a more suitable choice in the first case and claim (… falsely claimed to be …) in the second; in other cases allege and profess are also possible. Despite Fowler's objections, these uses have become established and cause little adverse comment today.
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purposely, purposefully.

Purposely is the older word (15c) and means ‘on purpose, intentionally’
((Lindsey straightened her shoulders, purposely avoiding his gaze—J. Evans , 1993), whereas the more recent word purposefully (19c) corresponds to the adjective purposeful and means ‘with a strong purpose, resolutely’:
Beatrix was carrying a wicker basket over one arm and as he watched she set off purposefully down the drive—D. Simpson , 1987. A third word, purposively (20c), means ‘for a particular purpose’, and is more usual in technical contexts:
Socialism … would have to be built by active human beings working purposively and creatively—J. Dignan , 1992. Occasionally purposively is used when purposefully is probably meant:
‘Gerrart-of-it!’ said the larger of the two, moving purposively towards me— Self , 1993.

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purveyor,

meaning ‘a supplier’ (normally in commercial contexts), is spelt -or, not purveyer.

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put, putt.

Put (pronounced like the verb) is used in athletics (shot-put), whereas putt (pronounced like gut) is the term used in golf.

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putrefy,

meaning ‘to go rotten’, is spelt -efy, not putrify.

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pygmy

is derived from a Greek word pygmê meaning ‘the length of the forearm’ and largely for this reason the spelling with y is preferable to the form pigmy.

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pyjamas

is the standard spelling in BrE, but in AmE it is pajamas. It is a plural noun in ordinary use (Where are my pyjamas?), but takes a singular form when used attributively (i.e. before a noun, as in pyjama jacket and pyjama suit).

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pyramidal,

meaning ‘having the form of a pyramid’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

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Pyrrhic,

used of a victory won at too great cost to be of use to the victor, is named after Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus who defeated a Roman army at Asculum in 279 BC but sustained heavy losses and was unable to exploit his success.

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Q

qua

pronounced kway or kwah, is a somewhat formal word, with the air of philosophy and logic about it, derived from the Latin relative pronoun qui, and is used in English with the meaning ‘considered as’ or ‘in the capacity of’ when a person or thing can be regarded in different ways or from different aspects, normally in the sequence ‘A qua B’ where B defines A more closely:
Dressed in an Armani suit … and espadrilles, he plays a cop qua existential hero—Literary Review, 1989. In practice qua is used more flexibly, for example in the form ‘A qua A’ (with the same noun repeated) and in sentences lacking the first noun altogether, as the following 20c examples show:
Look at the sky … What is there so extraordinary about it? Qua sky— Beckett , 1956 /
I don't think that ‘Hard Times’ is a particularly good novel qua novel, whatever it may be as a social document—Broadcast, 1977.

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quadrennium

meaning ‘a period of four years’, has the plural form quadrenniums. The Latin word from which it is derived is quadriennium, but the first i has been lost under the influence of other words of this type such as decennium and millennium.

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qualm

meaning ‘a misgiving or uneasy doubt’, is pronounced kwahm, not any longer kwawm.

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quantum leap

and the older form quantum jump, meaning ‘a sudden large increase’, are one of the more striking examples of 20c POPULARIZED TECHNICALITIES.

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quarrel.

The verb has inflected forms quarrelled, quarrelling in BrE, and usually quarreled, quarreling in AmE.

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quarter.

1 Practice varies in the hyphenation of quarter in compounds, and the following forms are recommended: quarter day, quarterdeck, quarter-final, quarter-hour (but a quarter of an hour), quarter-light, quartermaster, quarter sessions.

2 The BrE designation of time as a quarter to ten is normally expressed in AmE as a quarter of ten, and BrE a quarter past ten in AmE as a quarter after ten.
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3 The word of is optional in expressions of the type for a quarter (of) the price.
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4 The inflected forms of the verb are quartered, quartering.
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quarto

has the plural form quartos.

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quasi-

is used in combination with a following noun to denote things that are seemingly or only partly entitled to the name, e.g. a quasi-conjunction, quasi-independent. The recommended pronunciation is kway-ziy rather than kwah-zi.

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quatercentenary

pronounced kwat-, means ‘a four-hundredth anniversary’ and is derived from the Latin word quarter meaning ‘four times’. It is a common error to treat the word as if it began with quarter-.

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quattrocento

pronounced kwatroh-chen-toh, denotes the style of Italian art of the 15c, i.e. 1400–99.

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queer.

The word was first used as an adjective and noun meaning ‘homosexual’ in the 1920s. Although it is still generally regarded as derogatory or offensive when used by heterosexual people, it has been adopted in recent years by homosexuals refering to themselves, especially in terms such as queer-bashing and queer rights. See GAY.

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question

see BEG THE QUESTION, INDIRECT QUESTION.

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question mark.

1 The principal use of the question mark (?) is to indicate a direct question: Are they leaving tomorrow? / What time is it? It is also used when the question is put in the form of a statement: They told you that? / Surely it's the same one? / I wonder if you can help me? It should not be used in indirect questions in which the question is reported rather than expressed (He asked what time it was), but should be used in tag questions of the kind She's much taller now, isn't she?.

2 A question that makes a formal or polite request does not always have a question mark: Would passengers on platform 2 please proceed to platform 5.
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3 A question mark is conventionally placed before a word about which there is some doubt, e.g. uncertain locations on maps and uncertain dates (Thomas Tallis , ?1505–85).
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questionnaire

is spelt with two ns and is normally pronounced with an initial syllable kwest-rather than kest-.

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queue.

The verb has inflected forms queues, queued, queuing.

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quiet, quieten.

As a verb, quiet has been used transitively (with an object) since the 16c in the meaning ‘to make (someone or something) quiet’, and is still in use in this sense:
The unexpectedness of this departure from the routine at first disquieted but then quieted us all—M. Lindvall , 1991. Since the 18c, and especially in North America, it has also been used intransitively:
When I switched to opiates at least I quieted down—New Yorker, 1992. The alternative verb quieten appeared (often with down) in the 19c in both transitive and intransitive uses; because quiet was available, it was regarded by Fowler (1926) as a ‘superfluous word’, but in more recent usage the stigma has mostly disappeared, leaving quieten now the more common choice than quiet:
The youth … revved the engine, then quietened it down to the soft ticking-over—J. Wainwright , 1973 /
Arnica also helps to calm and quieten the upset child—Health Shopper, 1990 /
Her travelling companions had quietened, as if someone in authority had arrived—K. Newman , 1990.

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quiet, quietness, quietude.

The most commonly used of these nouns is quiet, which denotes a state of silence or tranquillity (the quiet that precedes a storm / a period of peace and quiet). Quietness is more the condition of being quiet as applied in a particular instance (the quietness of a congregation at prayer), and quietude is a literary alternative for quietness
(Their two and one-half acres retain a bucolic quietude—Angeles (US), 1991).

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quincentenary

see ANNIVERSARIES.

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quit

has the past tense and past participle quitted or (especially in AmE) quit.

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quite.

1 Quite is a highly mobile word with a wide range of uses qualifying adjectives and adverbs (quite heavy / quite often), singular nouns (quite a lot), and verbs (We quite understand / I'd quite like to). It causes difficulty because it has two branches of meaning which are not always distinguishable, especially in print which lacks the support of voice intonation. In idiomatic uses, the sense intended is not always clearly one or the other but varies on a scale between them. The two meanings are (1) the older ‘stronger’ meaning ‘completely, entirely’
(You are a humourist … Quite a humourist— Austen , 1816), which remains the dominant sense in AmE but tends to be restricted to set expressions in BrE (e.g. / I quite agree), and (2) the ‘weaker’ meaning ‘rather, fairly’ which emerged in the 19c and is now the dominant meaning in BrE (The music was at times quite loud / We quite like what you have done).

2 When quite qualifies adjectives and adverbs, there is a broad distinction in usage in that the weaker meaning normally occurs with so-called ‘gradeable’ adjectives (those that can be qualified by more, very, somewhat, etc.) such as cheap, good, bad, heavy, interesting, large, small (and where appropriate the corresponding adverbs cheaply, well, badly, interestingly, etc.), whereas the stronger meaning occurs with non-gradeable or ‘absolute’ adjectives that denote all-or-nothing concepts such as different, enough, excellent, impossible (and the adverbs differently, enough, excellently, impossibly). So quite good will normally mean ‘fairly good’ whereas quite different will normally mean ‘entirely different’. However, this distinction is not watertight, and examples can readily be found (especially with adverbs) which either leave the choice of meaning unclear or suggest a meaning somewhere between the two extremes (as more idiomatic uses often tend to):
I can get by quite happily in Navajo—T. Allbeury , 1973 /
The actual writing style of agony columns has changed quite noticeably over the years—P. Makins , 1975.
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3 The use of quite with a verb is much more common in BrE than in AmE, and can have either the stronger meaning (I quite agree = I agree entirely / We quite understand = we understand completely) or the weaker meaning (They'd quite like to come = they'd rather like to come). The choice of meaning is entirely dependent on the type of verb being used.
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4 When preceded by a negative (not, never, etc.), quite has the stronger meaning:
jazzed up drinks aren't quite our style—advertisement in Country Life, 1972 /
A bona fide kook who is never quite able to get in gear till he finally dies paddling his canoe across the Atlantic—Publishers Weekly, 1973 /
Who hadn't quite made up their minds about what should be done with Hitler and Mussolini and the Nips—Islander (Victoria, B.C.), 1973 /
We should not be quite so narrow-minded, blinkered and xenophobic about the rest of the world—Hansard, 1992.
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5 The combination quite a (or an) followed by a noun (without an adjective between) is an Americanism that has extended into BrE and can refer to quantity or quality (or both):
The Eiffel Tower … is quite a piece of Meccano: there are more than 18,000 structural components in the 985 ft high tower—Guardian, 1972 /
Occasionally he collects quite a crowd as he sits there cross-legged and expounds his philosophy— Jhabvala , 1975. When an adjective or adverb comes between quite a (or an) and the noun, quite tends more towards the weaker meaning:
The death of Wyatt's father in 1818 left him quite a wealthy man—Dictionary of National Biography, 1993. But compare the following, in which the order a quite + adjective (or adverb) suggests a stronger, more positive meaning:
The items are programmed in a quite interesting way—Gramophone, 1977.
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6 The use of quite as a reply expressing agreement or confirmation is a characteristic of BrE:
‘No takers,’ I said. ‘Quite. By the way, I'm sorry to say “quite” all the time but … my work lies amongst Americans and they expect Englishmen to say it.’—K. Bonfiglioli , 1976.
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7 It is clearly better to regard quite as operating in the realm of idiom rather than of distinct word sense, and as drawing on a range of meaning that varies subtly between the extremes of the traditionally distinguished ‘stronger’ and ‘weaker’ meanings.
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quota

has the plural form quotas.

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quotation marks.

1 The main use of quotation marks (also called inverted commas) is to indicate direct speech and quotations. In writing it is common to use double quotation marks (“ ”), and in printing practice varies between the double and single style (‘’). Single marks are commonly associated with British practice (as in the Oxford and Cambridge styles) and double marks with American practice (as in the Chicago style), but the distinction in usage is not always so clear-cut.

2 The main rules of practice in BrE follow, with indications of any variant practice in AmE:
a In direct speech and quotations, the closing quotation mark normally comes after a final full stop: She said, ‘I have something to ask you.’ It should come after any other punctuation mark (such as an exclamation mark) which is part of the matter being quoted: They shouted, ‘Watch out!’ (the final full stop is omitted after an exclamation mark in this position) / Did I hear you say ‘Go away!’?.
b When the quoted speech is interrupted by a reporting verb such as say, shout, etc., the punctuation that divides the sentence is put inside the quotation marks: ‘Go away,’ he said, ‘and don't ever come back.’
c If a quoted word or phrase comes at the end of a sentence or coincides with a comma, the punctuation that belongs to the sentence as a whole is placed outside the quotation marks: What is a ‘gigabyte’? / No one should ‘follow a multitude to do evil’, as the Scripture says. In AmE, however, it is usual to place quotation marks outside the sentence punctuation (and note the more characteristic double quotation marks): No one should “follow a multitude to do evil,” as the Scripture says.
d When a quotation occurs within a quotation, the inner quotation is put in double quotations marks if the main quotation is in single marks (or vice versa, especially in American practice): BrE ‘Have you any idea,’ he asked, ‘what a “gigabyte” is?’ / AmE “Have you any idea,” he asked, “what a ‘gigabyte’ is?”.
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quote

has a derived form quotable.

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Qur'an

is now a frequent spelling in English of KORAN.

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q.v.

is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase quod vide (= which see) and is used to indicate a reference incorporated into running text, e.g. Events of the following year were dominated by the General Strike (q.v.).

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R

rabbit.

The verb (= hunt rabbits or, usually as rabbit on = talk excessively) has inflected forms rabbited, rabbiting.

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race.

In its meaning relating to divisions of humankind, race is used imprecisely, and should be restricted to the major divisions characterized by distinct physical features. For other groupings, more appropriate alternatives are nation, people, and community.

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racism, racialism.

These two 20c words are used interchangeably in the meaning ‘belief in the superiority of a particular race’; racialism is somewhat older, and is closer in form to nationalism (on which it was modelled), but in current usage racism is far more common.

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rack

in the phrase rack and ruin means ‘destruction’ and is normally spelt in this way in BrE, although it is originally a variant of the older form wrack (which is still sometimes used). Rack is one of nine nouns and seven verbs with this spelling, and has no historical connection with the more familiar forms, e.g. ‘a framework for holding things’. The verb rack as used in to rack one's brains and racked with guilt is also sometimes spelt wrack.

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radiator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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radio.

The noun has the plural form radios, and the verb has inflected forms radioes, radioed, radioing.

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radius.

The recommended plural is radii (pronounced ray-di-iy), not radiuses.

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rage.

The word has been in use as a noun since the 14c, but it is perhaps a sign of the times that a special use has developed in the 1980s and 1990s relating to random violent behaviour by frustrated individuals, especially on public roads and motorways. Some of the reported incidents of road rage have led to severe injury and even death. In a more sinister development, we find references to rage in other contexts, such as cycle rage, golf rage, lane rage (in swimming pools), trolley rage (in supermarkets), and air rage (in aircraft). This is certainly one to keep an eye on.

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railway, railroad.

The usual word in BrE is railway, and in AmE railroad. Railroad is used in both varieties as a verb meaning ‘to coerce into a premature decision’.

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raise, rise nouns

An increase of salary is called a rise in BrE and a raise in AmE.

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raison d'être

means ‘a purpose or reason that accounts for or justifies or originally causes a thing's existence’. As a loanword it is normally printed in italic type in English contexts. The plural form is raisons d'être.

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rancour

meaning ‘malignant dislike’, is spelt -our in BrE and rancor in AmE.

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rapport

meaning ‘harmonious relationship’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable and the final t silent, despite having been fully naturalized by the beginning of the 20c.

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rarefy

meaning ‘to make or become less dense or solid’, is spelt -efy, not rarify.

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rarely, seldom.

It is acceptable to say rarely if ever or seldom if ever but not (except informally) rarely ever or seldom ever; We rarely if ever go out / We rarely ever go out. In the second example, hardly ever or scarcely ever could be substituted.

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rateable

is the preferred spelling, not ratable.

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rather

1 Rather is common in BrE as a so-called ‘downtoner’, i.e. an adverb that reduces the effect of the following adjective, adverb, or noun, as in It is rather expensive, You were driving rather fast, and He's rather a fool. With nouns, the sequence is rather + a + singular noun, and the construction is not possible in the plural, so instead of They're rather fools you have to say They're rather foolish. When rather qualifies an adjective followed by a noun, two sequences are possible: rather a large glass or a rather large glass; the plural construction is rather large glasses.

2 The phrase rather than has two main meanings which shade into each other:
(1) ‘in preference to’, and
(2) ‘instead of’.

When a noun follows there is little difficulty: I suggested beer rather than wine. With other parts of speech certain difficulties arise:
a With pronouns, the case of the pronoun following rather than is normally the same as the word preceding rather than: I wanted to see her rather than him / She, rather than he, decided to come.
b With verbs, an -ing form is used after rather than when the meaning tends towards ‘instead of’:
When she voiced her grievances quietly and calmly, rather than screaming them, her family paid attention to her for the first time—M. Herbert , 1989. When the balance is between individual words and not phrases or clauses. the forms used before and after rather than tend to match:
This is the first time during a downturn in the economy when training by companies has increased rather than decreased— Hansard , 1992 /
In the video Jones is, in the main, observing rather than advocating the ruthless antics of the hard men—Daily Mirror, 1992.
c When the meaning is more to do with preference and rejection than with parallel alternatives, and so especially after the verb prefer itself, an infinitive (with or without to) is more natural after rather than:
Better to part with what they must now, rather than lose more later—M. Shadbolt , 1986 /
Many Vietnamese soldiers preferred to kill themselves rather than be captured—Independent, 1989 /
He began to realize, too, what hardship she had suffered rather than ask his family for money—C. West , 1989. (For prefer see also PREFER (3).)
d A mixed style, with an infinitive before and a verbal noun after rather than, is less natural in contexts based clearly on preference rather than alternatives:
What they are saying is that … it is better to give way and let them have what they want rather than standing up for the rule of law.—R. Muldoon , 1986.
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3 After a comparative form such as better, more, etc., than and not rather than is the preferred construction, although rather than is sometimes more natural when the two parts of the construction are far apart in the sentence:
It is better to give way and let them have what they want rather than standing up for the rule of law—R. Muldoon , 1986.
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4 The expression would rather (and its contracted form as in I'd rather etc.) is complemented by than + infinitive (without to):
A college would rather fall below its intake targets and lose revenue than take in sociology students—R. Holland , 1977. For had rather, see had (3).
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ratio

has the plural form ratios.

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ravel.

The verb has inflected forms ravelled, ravelling in BrE and usually raveled, raveling in AmE. The usual meaning is ‘to entangle or become entangled’, but ravel out has the opposite meaning, the same as disentangle or unravel.

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raze

is now the standard spelling for the verb meaning ‘to destroy or tear down’ (as in The building was razed to the ground), not rase.

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re

meaning ‘with regard to, concerning’, is a piece of commercialese that is best suited to business language. In everyday writing it is a convenient abbreviation that is less troubling when it stands at the beginning of a statement, especially in the rapidturnover world of faxes and e-mails where it fits nicely: Re your invitation, yes I'd like to come. The strictures of Fowler (1926) and A. P. Herbert (1935) were not of the real world.

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re-.

Words formed with the prefix re- are generally unhyphened (rearrange, regroup, reopen, reuse, etc.) except when the second element begins with an e (re-enter, re-evaluation, etc.) or when the combination needs to be distinguished from another word with the same spelling, e.g. re-collect = collect again (recollect = to remember) and re-sign = sign again (resign = give up one's job). Other words in this last category include re-count, re-cover, re-creation, re-form (and re-formation), re-serve, re-soluble, re-solve, re-sort.

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reaction.

In the later part of the 20c reaction has been used to mean little more than ‘first impression’ or ‘initial response’:
Most people's reaction to the Oz trial and sentences has been what one might call a gut-reaction—Listener, 1971. To do the word justice, it should involve some element of reacting to something that affects the person having (or asked to have) the reaction, rather than simply to passive hearing or reading of information. But the weakened meaning is well established, especially in the world of radio and television interviews: What is your reaction to the extension of VAT to domestic fuel?

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readable

see LEGIBLE.

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real.

1 As an intensifying adverb real is a characteristic Americanism and even in AmE is informal:
You look real nice today, Carla—New Yorker, 1987. The standard adverb in most contexts is really.

2 As an adjective real tends to be overused in an intensifying role equivalent to adjectives such as ‘significant, important, strong’:
It may be too late to halt the brain drain and decline in morale unless the Government shows a real commitment to research—Daily Telegraph, 1992 /
The Clinton team had no real defence plans when it took office, beyond a vague determination to cut spending—Economist, 1993. In such contexts a more exact word, such as strong in the first example and significant in the second, can be more effective.
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-re and -er.

1 One of the great dividers separating the spelling of BrE and AmE is that many nouns are spelt with a final -re in BrE but with a final -er in AmE (in many cases preserving an earlier English spelling from which BrE has since departed): calibre / caliber, centre / center, fibre / fiber, litre / liter, louvre / louver, manoeuvre / maneuver, mitre / miter, ochre / ocher, reconnoitre / reconnoiter, spectre / specter, theatre / theater. In BrE metre (= a metric measure) is distinguished from meter (= a measuring device) whereas in AmE both words are spelt meter.

2 In other cases, however, the AmE spellings are the same as the BrE, usually because an -er form might affect the pronunciation, e.g. acre, lucre, massacre, mediocre, nacre, and ogre.
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reason.

1 The construction after the reason is can be with that or because:
One reason was that the Kuwaitis wouldn't give anyone a visa, except female print journalists—Photography, 1991 /
The reason I like the Beatles is because they remind me of Chuck Berry—Q, 1991. See the longer review of this question at BECAUSE (3).

2 The combination reason why followed by a clause is recorded from the 13C and is a standard construction:
Is there any good reason why we should have news bulletins, local and national, every hour on the hour, chat shows … and wall-to-wall discussion programmes?—Listener, 1984. Objections occasionally heard are based on a spurious view of logic in language (i.e. why is already contained in reason) and cannot be regarded as sound. However, when reason, why, and because all occur in succession, the borderline into redundancy is crossed and the result is patently poor style:
The reason why First Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev is the first Soviet leader to promote such close cooperation with the U.S. is because [use that] he bears the map of the U.S. on his forehead—letter in Chicago Times, 1989.
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rebel

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb. The verb has inflected forms rebelled, rebelling in BrE and AmE.

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rebound, redound.

1 Rebound is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

2 The image with the verb rebound is of something bouncing back, and with redound it is of a tide or wave flooding back (from Latin unda ‘wave’). When circumstances rebound on someone they have a harmful effect on the person or people responsible for them:
The allegation may rebound on the party making it—J. Kendall , 1992. In some uses, however, the rebounding can be directed elsewhere:
The strategy of encouraging, supporting and protecting deliberate non-payers is deeply flawed, as it will rebound on the most vulnerable—Marxism Today, 1990. When a circumstance redounds to someone's advantage or credit, it contributes to it:
Each piece of field research aims at achieving a ‘scoop’ which will redound to the anthropologist's credit, and the more interesting and exciting the raw data the better—I.M. Lewis , 1992. Although contrary examples of redound occur occasionally, the distinction between the notions of harm (rebound on) and advantage (redound to) generally holds good and is worth observing.
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rebut

has inflected forms rebutted, rebutting.

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receipt, recipe.

In current English the meanings of these two words are distinct and cause no difficulty, but readers of Victorian or earlier literature should bear in mind that a receipt could then be what we now know as recipe (‘a formula and method for preparing food’), while both a receipt and a recipe could mean what we now call a prescription (in the medical sense).

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receive

is a key word supporting the rule of spelling ‘i before e except after c’. See I BEFORE E.

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received pronunciation (RP), received standard

are names given to the form of speech associated with educated speakers in the southern counties of England and used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners. This system is the basis of the guidance given on pronunciation in this book, while it is recognized that other speech patterns and types exist. The American equivalent is called General American. See PRONUNCIATION.

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recess.

The dominant pronunciation of both the noun and the verb is with the stress on the second syllable, but the noun is increasingly heard with the stress on the first syllable.

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recherché

meaning ‘rare or exotic’, is partly naturalized and is normally printed in roman type with the French accent retained.

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recipe

see RECEIPT.

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reciprocal.

The reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another. See EACH (3).

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reciprocal, mutual.

see MUTUAL.

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reckon.

1 The inflected forms are reckoned, reckoning.

2 The use of reckon without any element of calculation or consideration as in I reckon it's time to go now has a tinge of the American south about it, although it was a standard use in literary English as recently as the 19c
(I reckon, said Socrates, that no one … could accuse me of idle talking—Jowett translating Plato, 1875). It is noteworthy that a word considered not so long ago as satisfactory for translating the conversation of Socrates should now be regarded as unacceptably informal for normal use, and one is left wondering whether the fortunes of the word in this meaning will change again and for the better. See also CALCULATE.
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recognize, recognition.

Both words should be pronounced with the g fully articulated.

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recommend.

In addition to its familiar constructions with a direct object + to-infinitive (I recommend you to control your temper) and with a that-clause (We recommend that you stay at the local hotel), recommend is one of a class of verbs, once dwindling but now showing signs of recovery, that allows the subjunctive to be used, the effect being one of formality rather than archaism:
One of the observers from the International Commission of Jurists … had recommended she be approached— Gordimer , 1990.

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reconnaissance

is now full naturalized and is pronounced ri-kon-i-sns.

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reconnoitre

is the BrE spelling, and reconnoiter the spelling in AmE.

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record

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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recount, re-count.

The verb recount (with the stress on the second syllable) means ‘to tell in detail, narrate’. Re-count (with hyphen) is both a verb (with the stress on the second syllable) meaning ‘to count again’ and a noun (with the stress on the first syllable) meaning ‘a fresh count’.

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recourse

see RESOURCE.

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recrudescence

means in medical use ‘the breaking out again of a disease’, and in generalized use should be restricted to contexts in which something harmful or unwelcome recurs. Fowler (1926) noted that the word was becoming fashionable as a simple synonym for ‘revival’ or ‘reappearance’ among journalists in his day. He called this a ‘disgusting use’ and we can see what he means when we come across such absurd uses as the following:
Both works, however, may be thought to share a secret, and a set of clues, which bear witness to the recrudescence of a hippy magic—K. Miller , 1989.

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recto

meaning ‘the right-hand page of a book’, has the plural form rectos. The left-hand page is called the verso.

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rector.

In the Church of England, the title is used of an incumbent of a parish where all tithes were formerly paid to the incumbent, as distinct from a parish with a vicar as incumbent, where the tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house. The word has a different meaning in some other churches, and is also used for the head of some schools (especially in Scotland), universities, and colleges.

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recur

has inflected forms recurred, recurring.

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Red Indian, redskin.

These terms are now considered offensive and have fallen out of use in favour of American Indian and (preferably) Native American.

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reducible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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reductio ad absurdum

is a method of proving the falsity of a premise by showing that the logical consequence is absurd. An example is that if eating less makes one healthier, the logical conclusion is to eat nothing.

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redundancy.

‘She is lively and vital enough to be a member of a terrorist gang.’ ‘Lively and vital,’ said Harvey, ‘lively and vital—one of these words is redundant.’— Spark , 1984. English idiom is characterized by redundancy, or apparent redundancy, and it is misguidedly pedantic to pick holes in discourse that includes it. Examples of idiomatic repetition of words or ideas include HIV virus (the V in HIV already means ‘virus’), the hoi polloi (hoi = ‘the’), LCD display (the D in LCD already means ‘display’), safe haven (a haven is by definition safe), and armed gunman (a gunman is by definition armed).

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refectory.

The recommended pronunciation is with the stress on the second syllable, although in some religious houses the stress is placed on the first.

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refer.

The inflected forms are referred, referring. The derivative adjective is spelt either referable (one r; pronounced with the stress on the first syllable) or referrable (two rs; pronounced with the stress on the second syllable).

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referendum.

The recommended plural is referendums, although referenda is common.

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refill

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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reflection

is now the dominant form, although reflexion is the older.

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reflector

is spelt -or, not -er.

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reflexive verbs

are the type constructed with myself, herself, ourselves, etc., in which the subject of the verb and the object are the same person or thing, as in We enjoyed ourselves and Make yourself at home.

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reform.

The verb reform (with the stress on the second syllable) means ‘to improve by removing faults’. Re-form (with hyphen) means ‘to form again’.

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refrigerator

is spelt -or and without a d in the middle, although the popular shortening of the word is fridge.

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refuse.

The noun, meaning ‘waste material’, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, whereas the verb, meaning ‘to withhold consent for’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

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refutable

should be pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, although a second-syllable stress is increasingly common.

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refute

means ‘to prove (something) false by argument’, and the element ‘by argument’ is important; it should not be used simply as an alternative for deny or repudiate, which imply straightforward rejection without argument. In the first of the following examples refute is used appropriately, whereas in the second it is not:
The criticisms … that Ruskin saw architecture only twodimensionally, and that he never seems to have looked at a building structurally, are refuted with ample quotations—Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1979 /
I refute Mr Bodey's allegation that it is our policy not to observe publication dates—Bookseller, 1980.

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regalia

meaning ‘the insignia of royalty’ has become extended in use to non-royal contexts such as that of civic dignitaries. In both cases it is a plural noun.

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regard.

1 Regard is used in a number of complex prepositions, as regards, in regard to, with regard to, as well as the form regarding; all have more or less the same meaning, although the first three are more common at the beginning of sentences.

2 In its meaning ‘to consider, judge’, regard is regularly followed by as + noun or adjective, with regard itself either active or passive:
We regard recording as an essential element in the actual teaching process—Language for Life, 1975 /
job security is more generally regarded as unquantifiable—Financial Times, 1975 /
Canon Watson was regarded by many as the leader of the charismatic movement in the Church—Daily Telegraph, 1984. This construction differs from that for consider, which is normally followed by a direct complement without as or by the infinitive to be: see CONSIDER.
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regime

is fully naturalized in terms of spelling, but is still pronounced in a French manner.

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register office

is the official form in the UK of the term for a State office for conducting civil ceremonies and recording births and deaths. Registry office is also widely used, but it is unofficial only.

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regress

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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regret

has inflected forms regretted, regretting, and a derivative form regrettable.

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regretful, regrettable.

Regretful means ‘feeling regret’ and applies to a person, whereas regrettable means ‘causing regret’ and applies to an action:
He did not crave recognition, but was understandably regretful about his lack of it—E. , 1982 /
Now let us come to the point: are you willing to overlook this-this regrettable incident and try again?—M. Forster , 1990. The corresponding adverb regretfully (= in a regretful way) is commonly misused for regrettably (= as is to be regretted): Regretfully, that is no ground for leniency towards him-New Statesman, 1976.

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regularly

should be pronounced with all four syllables articulated, not as if it were spelt reguly.

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reign, rein.

The simple nouns are not often confused, but the idiom give free rein to (= allow full scope to) is sometimes used in the form give free reign to (as if it meant ‘give free rule to’?), especially in AmE:
They say that if they are given free reign to invest and produce they will grow richer—New Yorker, 1987.

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reject

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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rejoin, re-join.

The verb rejoin (with the stress on the second syllable) means ‘to say in answer’. Re-join (with hyphen) means ‘to join again’.

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relate.

The verb has a long history, being first recorded in Caxton. In the 20c it has acquired a jargon-based meaning ‘to have an attitude of personal sympathy towards’:
Group formation such as takes place in the classroom tends to be adult-centred and dependent upon the varying ways children relate to the teacher—Childhood Education, 1950 /
Married people can still relate [sc. to people outside the marriage]—Guardian, 1971.

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relation, relationship, relatives.

As nouns, relation and relative both mean ‘a person related by blood or by marriage’, and both are idiomatic in the plural. (For some reason, however, relation is the normal choice in the explicit context of wealth:
He resented … the mother who had inconsiderately died and left him a poor relation— Symons , 1978.) The state of a person's connection with relations or relatives is his or her relationship, which is also used in the wider context of people's dealings with one another:
How difficult and unnatural are in-law relationships!—Daily Telegraph, 1970 /
You need to consider the quality of the relationship which exists between your son and the teachers, your son and his peers, and between you and the teachers—Where, 1972. In modern use, relationship has a sexual connotation which should always be borne in mind when using this word:
She can't forgive me for leaving and I've had to accept that our relationship's finally over—Woman, 1991. Relation is often preferred to denote the way things (especially concepts and ideas) relate to each other
(There seemed to be little relation between charge and geographical location, except in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the cost of water was low—A.H. Little , 1975), is the normal choice in meanings to do with activities and procedures, as in the expression business relations, and is the only choice in fixed expressions such as in relation to and bear some (or no etc.) relation to.

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relative clauses.

1 A relative clause is a clause that is connected to a main clause by means of a relative pronoun such as who, which, whose, or that. In the preceding sentence, the part from that to the end is a relative clause with the word clause as its antecedent. There are two types of relative clause, called ‘restrictive’ and ‘non-restrictive’. A restrictive clause gives essential information about the noun or noun phrase that comes before, as in She held out the hand that was hurt, in which ‘the hand’ is defined or identified as ‘the one that was hurt’. By contrast, in the sentence She held out her hand, which I clasped in both of mine, the information in the relative clause introduced by which is additional information that could be left out without affecting the core structure or meaning of the sentence, and this type is called a non-restrictive clause.

2 The relative pronoun that or which can be omitted when it introduces a restrictive clause, especially when it is the object of the verb in the relative clause and occasionally (but more informally) when it is the subject:
It reminded him of the Exhibition he was going back to— Fitzgerald , 1977 /
It was your geography caused the doubt— Stoppard , 1993. Choice between that and which in clauses of these types is discussed at the entry for THAT (3).
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relatively

like COMPARATIVELY, is widely used as a ‘downtoning’ adverb meaning ‘fairly, somewhat’, without any real notion of relativity or comparison:
The natural question to pursue is whether the Chinese state has been able to maintain control in this relatively open geopolitical region—Dædalus, 1993.

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relevance

first recorded in the 18c, has almost completely ousted the alternative form relevancy.

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reliable

has, surprisingly, been in common use only since about 1850, and was once objected to on the ground that it ought to mean ‘able to rely’ and not, as it does, ‘able to be relied on’, since rely cannot by itself take an object, as most verbs forming passive adjectives in -able can (bearable, believable, curable, etc.; but note dependable, recorded from the 18c). See also UNACCOUNTABLE.

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remit.

The noun, meaning ‘terms of reference’, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable or (less often) on the second, and the verb, meaning ‘to send (money)’, is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. The inflected forms of the verb are remitted, remitting.

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Renaissance

is spelt with a capital initial letter when it refers to the period of revival in classical forms of art and literature in the 14c to 16c. In this meaning it is commonly used in attributive position (before another noun:
A whitestone Italian Renaissance mansion on Sixty-third Street—R. Doliner , 1978). In the general context of any ‘revival’, it is spelt with a small initial letter:
A renaissance occurred in 1969 when Adler proved that bacteria have specific chemoreceptors—Nature, 1975. The anglicized form renascence is an unnecessary affectation.

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rendezvous.

The plural is spelt the same, but is pronounced with the final syllable as -vooz.

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repairable, reparable.

Repairable is the normal choice with reference to physical repair
(There is a reasonable chance that the tyre will be repairable—Police Review, 1972), whereas reparable (pronounced with the stress on the first syllable), refers to abstract things, especially losses, and except in the negative form irreparable has an archaic flavour, as intentionally in the following example:
The loss is reparable, but your lives are greater worth— Peters , 1993.

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repeat, repetition.

The 20c use of repeat in broadcasting, meaning ‘a radio or television programme that has been transmitted before’, with its attributive use as in repeat showing, repeat fee, etc., has tended to put repetition in the shade even in the meaning ‘the act of repeating’ (as distinct from ‘a thing repeated’), which is the meaning historically more closely associated with repetition than with repeat:
Members of the powerful 1922 Committee executive told Mrs Thatcher there must be no repeat of the dispute between Downing Street and Mr Lawson over the Exchange Rate Mechanism—Times, 1989. Repeat is also common in attributive position in medical contexts, with the meaning ‘further or repeated’:
Strangely, it was decided that a repeat investigation was not required and I was allowed to go on caring for the patient throughout her stay—A. Morton-Cooper , 1990.

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repel

has inflected forms repelled, repelling.

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repellent, repulsive.

Repulsive is the stronger of the two words, implying physical recoiling rather than just a feeling of disgust:
I was given some repulsive food which, by the end of the second day, I trained myself to eat— Aldiss , 1991 /
He had a genuine liking for Lehmann, whose exacting, aristocratic and somewhat dictatorial manner some found repellent—F. Spalding , 1991. For repellent the spelling -ent is preferable to -ant for both the adjective and the noun.

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repertoire, repertory.

These are essentially the same word, being the French and English equivalents of Latin repertorium meaning ‘an inventory or catalogue’. A repertoire is a stock of dramatic or musical pieces which a player or company regularly performs; repertory also has this meaning and in addition denotes a type of theatre involving regular changes in the choice of plays performed during a season. In this meaning it is often used attributively, as in repertory theatre, repertory actor, etc., and is common in the shortened form rep.

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replace, substitute.

1 The typical construction is to replace A with B (or, in the passive, B is replaced by A), or B can simply replace A, whereas with substitute it is to substitute B for A or to substitute B without any continuation (more usually in the passive: B is substituted). (In all cases, A is the person or thing ‘going out’ and B the one ‘coming in’.) Examples: (replace)
The credit card holder can be replaced with a document holder or a roll of paper tape, for other data capture purposes—New Scientist, 1972 /
It is nice to see ‘stewardess’ and ‘steward’ gradually being replaced by the general term ‘flight attendant’—Scientific American, 1982 /
Rugby nightmares replaced nightmares about witches, which had been the basis of my bad dreams for several years—C. Jennings , 1990 (substitute)/
Visibility on the course, however, was too poor to permit the senior relay and a three-mile race was substituted—Liverpool Echo, 1976 /
As land becomes scarce, farmers rely more on additional fertilizer to expand output, in effect substituting energy in the form of fertilizer for land in the production process—D. Adamson , 1990.

2 The use of substitute for replace is a more usual error than the reverse:
During this period of contraction, both passenger and freight services were withdrawn at an alarming rate, being substituted by short-lived bus services and road freight transport—Bishop's Castle Railway Society Journal, 1990. When a football commentator reports that a player is being substituted, he is referring to the outgoing player and means replaced, but the choice is determined by the dominant influence of the noun substitute by which the incoming player is known.
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replaceable

is spelt with an e in the middle to preserve the soft sound of the preceding c.

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replicate.

The 20c use in the meaning ‘to reproduce, imitate, or copy exactly’, orginally in technical contexts but spreading into general use, is an extension of a word that has been in use since the 16c in other meanings. It is best avoided when more straightforward alternatives are available, such as duplicate, be modelled on, imitate, etc.

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reportage

pronounced rep-aw-tahzh in a semi-French way, now usually means ‘the reporting of events for the press or broadcasting’:
His study of the Hyde Park orators might have been taken as a masterly piece of reportage—London Review of Books, 1979. Its older meanings ‘repute’ and ‘gossip’ have fallen out of use.

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reported speech

or indirect speech, is the reporting of what someone has said with a ‘reporting’ verb such as said, replied, cried, etc. In reported speech, the actual words spoken are usually changed with regard to the subject and tense of the verb to suit the viewpoint of the person now reporting, and quotation marks are not used, so that what appears in direct speech as (for example) ‘They have a few points to add,’ she remarked, in reported or indirect speech becomes She remarked that they had a few points to add. See also INDIRECT QUESTION.

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reprehensible

meaning ‘deserving censure’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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reprieve

both verb and noun, is spelt -ie-, not -ei-.

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reproducible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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reputable

meaning ‘of good repute’, is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.

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request.

The noun is commonly followed by for (a request for more time). The verb, unlike ask, cannot be used in constructions of the type We requested them for more time; the correct sequence is either We requested more time from them or We requested them to give us more time.

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require.

The construction with a to-infinitive, as in I require to know your names, is not idiomatic in BrE but is known in other varieties of English. The type Do you require tea? is chiefly confined to BrE.

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research.

In BrE the noun and verb are both traditionally pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, but first-syllable stressing of the noun (ree-serch), influenced by American practice, is increasingly heard, especially on radio and television.

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resistible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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resoluble, resolvable.

Both words are in use in the meaning ‘able to be resolved’, but resolvable is commoner.

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resort, re-sort.

The verb and noun resort (pronounced ri-zawt) has a wide range of meanings. Re-sort (with hyphen and pronounced ree-sawt) is a verb meaning ‘to sort again or differently’.

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resource, resort, recourse.

1 The three words all have to do with finding help or support and are chiefly distinguished from one another by the typical phrase patterns in which they operate. These are given in the table below.

resource

a simple resource, at the end of one's resources, a person of many resources, to fall back on one's own resources

resort

as a last resort, in the last resort; (verb) to resort to, without resorting to

recourse

to have recourse to, without recourse to, one's usual recourse

2 In general, resource denotes what one adopts for help or support whereas recourse denotes a process or avenue of finding support. There is an area of possible confusion in the overlap between to resort to (especially in the past, to have resorted to) and to have recourse to:
More than 100 governments had resorted to torture or the maltreatment of prisoners —Keesings, 1990 /
How many times has one ever had recourse to a term like anadiplosis?—J. Culpepper , 1992. One normally resorts to things in extreme circumstances and has recourse to them more routinely.
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resource

is pronounced either ri-zaws or ree-saws, the first being more usual in BrE and both being used in AmE. The same patterns apply in the plural form.

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respect.

As well as respecting, there are several complex prepositions all meaning ‘regarding, as concerns’: in respect of, in respect to, with respect to. The first two are more formal in character, and are normally found in business correspondence.

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respective, respectively

are useful words when two or more items need to be distinguished (in the order in which they occur, when they are named separately) in relation to what follows in the sentence:
MEPs are paid the same as national MPs in their respective countries—Which?, 1984 /
Iraq and Syria have been ruled by small minorities (Sunni Arabs and Alawite officers respectively)—International Affairs, 1991. In the first of these examples, the presence of respective shows that the national MPs are paid at different levels depending on their countries, and in the second the presence of respectively shows that the Sunni Arabs ruled in Iraq and the Alawite officers in Syria (and not a combination of both in both countries). In other cases, respective (in particular) is redundant or replaceable by a simpler word such as own or various:
The parade dispersed, the Commandos returning to their respective units, and soon the village green was quiet—B. Millin , 1991.

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respite

is pronounced either res-pity or res-pit.

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responsible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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restaurateur

meaning ‘a restaurant owner’, is spelt -ateur with no n.

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restive, restless.

Despite its form, restive is close in meaning to restless, but conveys a stronger implication of disruptive consequences:
The picket's mood turned restive, apprehensive—New Society, 1977. It is also used in the special context of a horse that refuses to move forwards.

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result.

They tried hard to get a result but rain stopped play and the game ended in a draw—television news broadcast, 1993. The use of the noun to mean not just an outcome but a favourable outcome, familiar now in the language of sports commentators, seems to have its origin in plural uses going back to the 1920s:
Take some of those pamphlets with you to distribute aboard ship. They may bring results.— O'Neill , 1922.

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résumé

pronounced rez-yuh-may, means ‘a summary’ in BrE, and in AmE (often with the first accent or both accents omitted) has the additional meaning ‘a curriculum vitae’.

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reticent

is developing the meaning ‘reluctant to act’, which is somewhat more developed than its standard meaning ‘reserved, reluctant to speak’:
Not everyone is as reticent as London's civil servants about moving to Docklands—Times, 1992. This meaning is likely to become established, although at present it is non-standard.

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retiral

meaning ‘retirement from office’, is largely confined to Scottish use:
Young person required for civil engineering stores to fill vacancy due to retiral—advertisement in Lochaber News, 1978.

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retrieve

is spelt -ie-, not -ei-.

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rev verb.

The inflected forms are revved, revving.

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reveille

pronounced ri-val-i, is the current spelling for the word meaning ‘a morning awakening’ (especially in service life).

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revel.

The verb has inflected forms revelled, revelling in BrE and in AmE also reveled, reveling.

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revenge verb

see AVENGE.

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reverend, reverent, reverential.

1 In its general meaning, reverend means ‘deserving reverence’, and is most often found in clerical contexts even when it is not a formal title, whereas reverent means ‘showing reverence’ in wider contexts:
He also formed close links with the network of local Puritan ministers … whom he described in his will as ‘my reverend and pious friends’—Dictionary of National Biography, 1993 /
There was a reverent silence, broken only by the hissing of the gas-jets in the wall-brackets—P. Ling , 1993. Reverential means ‘characterized by reverence’, and the main difference in meaning between it and reverent is that reverent describes a feeling or attitude and is judgemental whereas reverential denotes a connection with reverence and is informational:
When she walked into a village the Africans would often clap their hands in a reverential way—W. Green , 1988.

2 Reverend, abbreviated Revd (no full stop) or Rev., is most commonly found as a title applied to certain members of the clergy.
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reversal, reversion.

Reversal is the noun corresponding to the verb reverse, and means primarily ‘the changing (of a decision)’, whereas reversion corresponds to the verb revert, as in The style represents a reversion to classical Japanese tradition.

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reversible

is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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review, revue.

A review is ‘a general survey or assessment of something’ and has many special applications, including a published criticism of a book, play, etc. A revue is a theatrical entertainment consisting of a series of short acts or sketches. In this meaning the word is sometimes spelt review, but since this form coincides too closely with the meaning mentioned above and can cause confusion, this spelling is not recommended.

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rhetorical question

is an assertion put in the form of a question without expecting an answer, e.g. Who do they think they are?

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rhino

has the plural form rhino (collective) or rhinos (individual).

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rhyming slang

is a type of slang of cockney origin in which a word is replaced by words or phrases which rhyme with it, e.g. apples and pears (= stairs), plates of meat (= feet), and trouble and strife (= wife). The rhyming words are sometimes arbitrary (as in the first example) and sometimes significant (as in the other examples).

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rhythmic, rhythmical.

The two forms are virtually interchangeable, choice normally being determined by personal preference or the flow of the sentence. However, it is usually preferable to be consistent within a single piece of writing.

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ribbon, riband.

Ribbon was originally a variant of the older form riband (pronounced like ribbon with a d at the end) and is now overwhelmingly the dominant form. In general use riband is normally confined to heraldry and to sports prizes, notably the Blue Riband for the fastest sea crossing between Southampton and New York in the 1920s and 1930s.

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rick

meaning ‘a sprain’ or (as a verb) ‘to sprain’, is spelt rick rather than wrick. Both forms seem to have their origin in dialect.

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rickety

meaning ‘insecure or shaky’, is spelt -ety, not -etty.

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ricochet.

The inflected forms of the verb are ricocheted (pronounced rik--shayd) and ricocheting (pronounced rik--shay-ing).

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rid.

The past tense and past participle are now normally rid rather than ridded, but ridded occurs occasionally in active constructions such as He ridded the stable of flies. Rid must be used in constructions of the type I thought myself well rid of him.

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right, rightly.

1 Right is used as an adverb meaning ‘in the right way, in a proper manner’ with a number of verbs, notably do right, go right (as in Nothing went right), guess right, spell something right, treat someone right. In general, however, and especially when the adverb precedes the verb or qualifies an adjective, rightly is the more natural choice:
One of them was rightly furious as the escaper had whipped … his overcoat—A. Miller , 1976 /
Frayn has not forgotten the underdog … The shrinking violet (as he rightly recognizes) is the most dangerous plant in the glades of privilege—Listener, 1976 /
Many a skate park, rightly, refuses admittance unless skaters wear protective helmets and pads—Times, 1977. Rightly is commonly used with so to express approval for something described by a preceding word or clause: She was angry, and rightly so.

2 Right is also idiomatic in the meanings ‘directly, immediately’ or ‘completely’ in phrases such as right away and right now, and in uses such as I'll be right with you and Turn it right off.
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3 In an older use now considered archaic in BrE (but still in use in regional AmE), right means ‘very, extremely’ without any notion of rightness in the judgemental sense:
I was right glad … to see your writing again— Coleridge , 1800 /
Miz Wilkes is right sensible, for a woman— Mitchell , 1936. In BrE it remains in standard use only in certain titles and forms of address, such as Right Honourable and Right Reverend.
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rightward, rightwards.

The only form of the adjective is rightward (a rightward glance). For the adverb, rightward and rightwards are used both in BrE and in AmE (turn rightward / rightwards).

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rigour

is spelt -our in BrE and rigor in AmE. The corresponding adjective is rigorous in both varieties. Note also the spelling rigor in the medical sense (‘a sudden feeling of cold and shivering’) and in the Latin phrase rigor mortis, the stiffening of the body after death.

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ring.

There are two unrelated verbs with different inflections. The one to do with bells has a past form rang and past participle rung, whereas the one to do with circles and bands has ringed in both forms.

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riot.

The verb has inflected forms rioted, rioting.

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rise

see ARISE.

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risky, risqué.

Risky is the general word meaning ‘involving risk’, whereas the French loanword risqué means ‘slightly indecent’ (especially with reference to humour) and therefore risking shock.

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rival.

The verb has inflected forms rivalled, rivalling, and in AmE usually rivaled, rivaling.

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rivet.

The verb has inflected forms riveted, riveting.

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road, street.

1 According to a law of Henry I of England (1100–35), a street ‘was to be sufficiently broad for two loaded carts to meet and for sixteen armed knights to ride abreast’ (Ekwall, Street-Names of the City of London, 1954). The history of road and street and of other terms such as lane, avenue, crescent, gate, place, row, terrace, rise, and vale, is extremely complicated, with fine distinctions between (for example) a wide lane and a narrow street. In current usage, a street is normally a paved way in a town or city, whereas a road is a way (paved or not) in a village or in open country. In certain fixed expressions there is inconsistency of choice, since one-way street follows the distinction just given but no through road does not (necessarily).

2 Names attached to particular roads and streets are established by custom, although it is possible to refer to something called ‘Street’ generically as a road and something called ‘Road’ as a street. Note also that a division of the carriageway of a major road (especially a motorway) is called a lane, as the frequent instruction on road signs to ‘keep in lane’ reminds us.
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roast, roasted.

Meats and things associated with them are normally described as roast: roast beef, roast lamb, roast meat, roast potatoes, etc. (but a roasted chicken and a well-roasted joint are also possible), whereas nuts are normally called roasted: roasted chestnuts, roasted peanuts, etc. (roast chestnuts is also possible but less often roast peanuts). The past participle used as a verb is always roasted: They had roasted a chicken for lunch / pork roasted in a lemon sauce.

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rob

is used chiefly to mean ‘to steal from’; its object is either a place (rob a bank) or a person, optionally with of followed by the thing stolen (robbed her of her jewels). An older use with the thing stolen as the object of rob (He robbed money from the till) is no longer standard.

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rodeo

has the plural form rodeos.

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roguish

meaning ‘like a rogue’, is spelt this way.

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role

meaning ‘an actor's part’ and related senses, is normally spelt without an accent, although rôle is also valid.

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romance

should be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Pronunciation with first-syllable stress is non-standard.

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Romania

is the official spelling of the country name. Other forms such as Roumania and Rumania will be found in older writing.

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Roman numerals.

are used less often than formerly, but still appear on older clock faces, on the preliminary pages of books, and following the copyright symbol in the credits of cinema films and television productions. In January 1990, the Oxford Dictionary department received many queries about how the new year should be written in Roman numerals, as the answer (MCMXC, as everyone now knows) needed some thought. The main principle is that a sequence of letters having the same value or decreasing in value represents positive values, whereas a smaller value preceding a larger is subtracted from the larger (i.e. M = 1,000 + CM = 900 (1,000–100) + XC = 90 (100–10) = 1990). (1999 is MCMXCIX, not MCMIC and still less MIM, as has been suggested, because a smaller value is followed by a higher value at the next available level; for those who reject the subtraction principle altogether as a late and inauthentic compromise, 1999 must be written MDCCCCLXXXXVIIII.) With the turn of the millennium, things get easier (MM). The table below gives the main values for each of the letters used (lower case and capitals).

units

i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX

tens (up to 40)

x, xx, xxx, xl (occasionally xxxx)

X, XX, XXX, XL (occasionally XXXX)

50

l

L

tens (60 to 90)

lx, lxx, lxxx, xc (occasionally lxxxx)

LX, LXX, LXXX, XC (occasionally LXXXX)

hundreds (up to 400)

c, cc, ccc, cd (occasionally cccc)

C, CC, CCC, CD (occasionally CCCC)

500

d

D

hundreds (600 to 900)

dc, dcc, dccc, cm (occasionally dcccc)

DC, DCC, DCCC, CM (occasionally DCCCC)

1,000

m

M

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rondo

a term in music, has the plural form rondos.

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roof.

The standard plural form is roofs, but rooves is often found, causing dismay in some circles
(Almost daily now I am troubled by the sound of ‘rooves’. Is there no hope of a cure?—letter in Times, 1986). Rooves, with its softer sound, may well win out in the end, but for now it is better to use roofs.

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room

is pronounced with either a long or a short vowel sound, but the longer is more common.

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roomful

has the plural form roomfuls. See -FUL.

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root, rout.

The OED records two verbs spelt root (and pronounced like boot), and no fewer than ten verbs spelt rout (and pronounced like bout). An overlap occurs in the meaning ‘to poke about’, which can be either root about or rout about, each pronounced in its own way. Choice depends largely on regional identity. Of the many other meanings of these words, root for (= encourage by applause) is mainly confined to American slang but is occasionally heard in Britain.

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rosary, rosery.

A rosary is a set of prayer beads, and is also used to mean a rose-garden alongside the newer (19c) form rosery, although rose-garden is now the usual term.

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rotary, rotatory.

Both are 18c formations and each has a wide range of uses, but in current use rotary is much commoner.

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rottenness

is spelt with two ns.

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rough, roughen.

Rough is used as a verb chiefly in the expressions to rough it (= do without basic comforts), to rough out (= to make a sketch of), to rough up (= to attack). Otherwise the verb from rough, meaning ‘to make or become rough’ is roughen:
‘Yes,’ she agreed, her voice roughening—E. Richmond , 1991 /
A faint stubble roughened his chin and just beneath his jawline was a small crescent-shaped scar—L. Wilkinson , 1992.

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round

see AROUND.

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rout

see ROOT.

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rout, route verbs.

The -ing forms of these two verbs are respectively routing and routeing.

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rowing boat

is the normal term in BrE, and row-boat (or rowboat) in AmE.

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rowlock

meaning ‘a device on a boat for holding an oar’, is pronounced rol-k. The equivalent term in North America is oarlock.

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royal we

see WE 2B.

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RP

see RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION.

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-r-, -rr-.

Words of one syllable containing a single vowel a, e, i, o, or u double a final r when a suffix is added (bar, barred, barring; fur, furry; stir, stirred, stirring; but pour, poured, pouring). Words of more than one syllable double the r when the stress is on the final syllable (confer, conferred, conferring; incur, incurred, incurring) but retain a single r when the stress is earlier in the word (enter, entered, entering; offer, offered, offering). Verbs in -fer form adjectives in -ferable (with one r) with the stress on the first syllable (preferable; but transferable has the stress on the first or the second syllable) or in -ferrable (with two rs) with the stress on the second syllable (conferrable), or both (referable, referrable).

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rubbish

is used in BrE to mean ‘household refuse’. The corresponding term in AmE, and in some other non-British varieties, is garbage or (in some contexts) trash, and a dustbin outside Britain is a garbage can or trash can.

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rucksack

a pack for carrying on the back, should be pronounced ruk-sak, although its use is diminishing in favour of the more home-grown form backpack.

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rule the roost

meaning ‘to have full control or authority’, is first recorded in about 1400 in the unexplained form rule the roast, which lasted until the 19c when roast was replaced by roost, thereby at least producing a clear image.

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Rumania

see ROMANIA.

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rumbustious

a chiefly BrE word meaning ‘lively or noisy’, is spelt -ious, not -uous.

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rumour

is spelt -our in BrE and rumor in AmE.

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runner-up

has the plural form runners-up.

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Russian.

In its ethnic and political reference, Russian (noun and adjective) has become even more complex to define since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The 1995 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary gives the following options for the noun:
(1) a native or national of Russia, the Russian Federation, or the former Soviet Union,
(2) a person of Russian descent.

(In the 1999 edition, the references to the Federation and the Soviet Union have been dropped.) When the term is found in print, the historical context is all-important.

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S

's.

For the possessive forms 's and s', see 'S AND S' AND ‘OF’ POSSESSIVES.

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sabre

is spelt this way in BrE, and saber in AmE.

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sac

a French loanword, is used in English in medical and biological contexts to denote a bag-like cavity, enclosed by a membrane, in an animal or plant.

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saccharin, saccharine.

Saccharin is a noun denoting a sugar-substitute, and saccharine is an adjective meaning (literally) ‘sugary’ or (figuratively) ‘unpleasantly over-polite or sentimental’.

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sack.

The expressions to sack (someone) or to give (someone) the sack, meaning ‘to dismiss’ and to get the sack, meaning ‘to be dismissed’, are all still informal only despite a history of use since the 19c, possibly as a loan translation of the French phrase donner son sac.

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sacrilegious

meaning ‘violating what is regarded as sacred’, is formed from the noun sacrilege and is spelt with the first i and the e in the order shown, not (by confusion with religious) the other way round.

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sad

has developed a new meaning ‘pathetically inadequate or unfashionable’ and is applied to people or their actions. It is easy to see how this arose from the traditional meanings of the word, but it is informal only, and the derivative form saddo for ‘a pathetic person’ is confined to BrE.

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sadly

is a somewhat overused alternative to the sentence adverb unfortunately, and has lost some of its force:
The Headmaster of Winchester College asks: ‘Is there any other ancient cathedral city in Western Europe with so much fast, heavy, long-distance traffic planned to run so near?’ Sadly, the answer is ‘Yes, York’—Times, 1973 /
Sadly, his collection was sold and dispersed throughout the world after his death—Lancashire Life, 1978.

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saga.

The traditional use of the term saga to refer to medieval Norse narrative poems, especially those written in Iceland, dates from the early 18c and continues untroubled by more recent extensions of meaning, first to long novels or series of novels that recount family histories over several generations (for example, Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga) and then, in the 20c, to any long or complicated sequence of events, real or imaginary:
‘Found her! Where?’ ‘In Marseilles. Told me about it for two hours over dinner. It's a saga.’—H. Wouk , 1978.

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said.

1 Said is used as an adjective in legal contexts to refer to something mentioned earlier:
And you ceased to be the tenant and occupant of the said premises in the summer of 1915, did you not?—P. Ling , 1993, 1972. Its extension into ordinary usage is normally jocular:
Marks are awarded for wiggling one's chiffon-clad bottom to the said music—Punch, 1992.

2 Inversion of the normal order he said, they said, etc., is a standard stylistic device in reporting direct speech, especially when the speaker is identified by name rather than by a pronoun:
‘I shall go directly,’ said Judd. ‘I should not like to be marked out in any way.’— Mantel , 1989. More debatable, however, is the journalistic convention of using inversion as an eye-catching feature at the beginning of a sentence, e.g. Said a Minister: ‘American interests are not large enough in Morocco to induce us to …’. See INVERSION (1).
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sailor, sailer.

The spelling is sailor when referring to a person, and sailer when referring to a ship in relation to its performance, e.g. a slow sailer.

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Saint

when preceding a name, is spelt with a capital initial letter, and is shortened to St (no full stop in BrE though one is normal in AmE). The plural is SS or Sts, as in SS / Sts Peter and Paul.

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sake.

The standard forms are for appearances' sake, for Christ's (or God's etc.) sake, for old times' sake, with a singular or plural possessive form for the preceding noun. Practice varies in for conscience' (or conscience's) sake and for goodness' (or goodness) sake. In AmE, sake is sometimes used in the plural form sakes:
‘Shush, for God's sakes!’ warned my mother—L.S. Schwartz , 1989.

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saleable

is the recommended form, although salable is used by some printers and publishers.

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salubrious, salutary.

Both words are derived from the Latin word salus meaning ‘health’. Salubrious essentially means ‘giving health’ and hence also ‘pleasant, agreeable’
(The Prince of Wales bestowed a polite eye upon her, then turned to the rather more salubrious prospect of his favourite savoury—A. Myers , 1992), whereas salutary means ‘producing healthy effects’ and hence ‘beneficial’, usually in an admonitory context in association with words such as effect, lesson, and reminder
(Those incidents are a salutary reminder of the dedication of police officers to protecting the public— Hansard , 1992).

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salvo.

There are two words,
(1) ‘a firing of guns together’, plural salvoes (preferred) or salvos, and
(2) ‘a reservation or excuse’, plural salvos.

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same.

1 Same (or the same) was once commonly used as a pronoun in literary English
(But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved— Matthew 24:13 (Authorized Version, 1611)), but is now largely confined to legal and business contexts:
The cross motion for an order for renewal of plaintiff's motion for alimony pendente lite is denied, no sufficiently persuasive ground in support of same having been demonstrated—New York Law Journal, 1973. In general use the effect is usually jocular or pseudolegalistic, except in uses of the type My wife ordered lemon sole and I had the same.

2 When same is connected to a following word or phrase, the usual link word is as: Your car is the same make as mine. When a clause follows, as may be replaced by that: I've bought the same make of car as you have got or I've bought the same make of car that you have got, and as a relative pronoun that may even be omitted in the normal way: I've bought the same make of car you have got. In more formal contexts, however, as should be used.
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sanatorium

is the customary word in BrE for an institution for treating invalids, but in AmE it alternates with sanitarium (but the variant sanatarium is erroneous).

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sanction.

1 The dominant current meaning of the noun is ‘a penalty for disobeying a law or rule’ and is usually found in the plural, as in the phrase economic sanctions. This older meaning goes back to legal terminology of the 16c and 17c. A second, more recent (18c), meaning is ‘approval or encouragement given to an action’, and it sits happily beside the other one despite being virtually opposite in sense.

2 In the case of the verb, the historical order of senses is the other way round, with ‘authorize, approve’ as the earlier and ‘impose sanctions on’ as the later, although this second meaning is not often used:
Georgina Dufoix, the only politician so far sanctioned for allowing the Palestinian guerrilla chief … into France—Independent, 1992.
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's and s' and ‘of’ possessives.

1 The use of 's and s' to form respectively singular and plural possessive forms of nouns (a woman's hat / their friends' house / the dog's dinner) is a survival in an altered form of Anglo-Saxon inflections (normally -es) that have otherwise disappeared from English. (For rules see APOSTROPHE (1), (2).) Their use is commoner with nouns that represent humans or animals, as in the examples just given; in other cases the alternative construction with of is more usual: the petals of the flower / the windows of the house. There are, however, notable exceptions to this general rule:
a nouns denoting time or space: a day's journey / a stone's throw / at arm's length.
b in a number of fixed expressions (in which the possessive noun is often in effect personified): at death's door / out of harm's way / in his mind's eye / for heaven's sake.
c nouns denoting vessels or vehicles: the car's wheels / the ships' masts / the plane's engines.
d names (or common nouns) for countries and large places: Russia's tourist industry / London's homeless / the region's wildlife. In all these cases there is probably an element of personification, making the nouns concerned ‘honorary’ living things.

2 Apparent exceptions also occur in uses that are not really possessives at all but denote a looser relationship: the soil's productivity / the painting's disappearance. (Compare uses in relation to people, such as Napoleon's defeat / John's concentration.)
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3 Conversely, the type of construction with of known as a ‘partitive genitive’, e.g. a glass of water / a dose of salts, cannot be expressed with a form in 's a water's glass / a salts' dose).
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4 It should be noted that some ‘s and s’ forms with human or animal nouns cannot be converted into of forms, usually because the relationship is not simply possessive: the man's reward / the writer's criticism / the boys' explanation / Sophie's revelation.
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5 For the type a friend of my father's, see DOUBLE POSSESSIVE.
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sanguine, sanguinary.

Both words are derived from the Latin word sanguis (stem sanguin-) meaning ‘blood’. Sanguine originally meant ‘blood-coloured’ but now primarily means ‘optimistic, confident’ from an earlier association of blood (one of the four bodily ‘humours’) with this type of temperament. By contrast, sanguinary has retained its more physical meanings ‘accompanied by blood’ and ‘bloodthirsty’.

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sari

is the dominant spelling for the traditional item of dress worn by Indian women, rather than saree. The plural form is saris.

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sat

used for sitting, is largely associated with local or dialect usage, but evidence of its use is more widespread than this might suggest:
I can't help thinking of that Tim sat there juddering his leg up and down— Amis , 1988 /
Now, I'm sat in a nice car, my husband at my side—A. Duff , 1990 (New Zealand). This use remains marginally non-standard nonetheless.

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Saturday

see FRIDAY.

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sauté

meaning ‘lightly fried’, is spelt in this way. The verb has inflected forms sautéd (one e only), sautéing.

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savannah

a grazing plain in subtropical regions, is spelt in this way in BrE but more often as savanna in AmE.

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save

as a conjunction (in combination with that) or preposition equivalent to except or but has a more formal or literary ring to it:
There was little chance of seeing her … save as a sari-shrouded figure on the occasion of her marriage—M.M. Kaye , 1978 /
He had no answer—save that British scientists had been reorganised so often in recent years that it was time for stability—New Scientist, 1991.

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saw

meaning ‘to cut with a saw’, has the past form sawed and past participle sawn or (occasionally) sawed. As an adjective referring to a shotgun, sawn-off is the only form used.

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Saxonism

is a semi-technical term for a word of Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin origin, e.g. hundred as distinct from century. Over the centuries since the Norman Conquest the Latinate stock of vocabulary has increased greatly, and recent years have seen a special recourse to words of Latin and Greek origin to give what is regarded as an appropriate importance to great new discoveries such as television (of mixed Latin and Greek origin) and computers. At various times there have been movements to encourage the use of Anglo-Saxon words, typified in the 19c by the efforts of the English poet William Barnes to promote words such as bodeword instead of commandment and gleecraft instead of music. Fowler , however, was not among these Saxonizers, noting (1926) that ‘the wisdom of this nationalism in language—at least in so thoroughly composite a language as English—is very questionable’.

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say.

1 In ordinary use say occurs as a noun only in the expression have a say (or variants of it such as have a bigger say).

2 The use of say as an imperative in uses such as Let's meet soon—say next Friday is an established idiom.
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sc.

is short for Latin scilicet (= scire licet, ‘one may understand or know’) and is used with the meaning ‘that is to say’ to introduce an explanation of a difficult or unclear term, e.g. the policy of the NUT (sc. National Union of Teachers).

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scallop

pronounced skol-p, is the preferred spelling for the name of the mollusc, not scollop. The verb (meaning e.g. ‘to decorate with scallop designs’) has inflected forms scalloped, scalloping.

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scallywag

a word of unknown origin, is normally spelt in this way in BrE, but in AmE other forms such as scalawag and scallawag are also used.

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scaly

meaning ‘covered in scales’, is spelt in this way, not scaley.

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scampi

meaning ‘large prawns’, is a plural noun (of Italian origin), but is sometimes treated as singular in the sense ‘a dish of scampi’.

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scant, scanty.

Both words have meanings to do with smallness or insufficiency. Scant is of Norse origin and came into English as several parts of speech including noun and verb as well as adjective. In current use it is only an adjective and even then its use is largely confined to certain set combinations such as scant attention and scant regard. It is only used in attributive position (i.e. before a noun), whereas the related adjective scanty can also be used after a verb and has more general scope, although it tends to be used with reference to concrete rather than abstract nouns (e.g. a scanty lunch / scanty clothing / property in London is scanty).

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scarcely.

1 The standard construction is scarcely … when …:
Scarcely had he begun when Claver-house ordered him to rise—A. Boyle , 1990. The construction with than, though increasingly common and perhaps suggested by the analogy of no sooner … than …, is non-standard:
But scarcely had he begun to investigate these new, if somewhat less adventurous, hunting-grounds, than the entire party was ‘summoned back to Hobarton by Sir John’—I. Tree , 1991. A construction with a following comparative adjective or adverb is however acceptable:
There could scarcely be a less promising environment for an amphibian than the desert of central Australia— Attenborough , 1988 /
In Wilson's eyes the condition of the British seaman was scarcely better than it had been half a century earlier—A. Marsh , 1989.

2 Scarcely, like barely and hardly, has a negative force without being grammatically negative, and another negative should be avoided in the same sentence unless it is in a following subordinate clause:
There is scarcely an aspect of the race that is not rife with meaning—New Yorker, 1989.
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scarf.

The word for a piece of outdoor clothing has the plural form scarves, whereas for the unrelated word meaning ‘a joint or notch in timber, metal, etc.’ it is scarfs.

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scarify

pronounced with the first syllable as in scab, is a semi-technical word meaning ‘to scratch or make incisions in’, and has nothing to do with the verb scare. A verb scarify, pronounced like scare and formed on the analogy of terrify, meaning ‘to scare or frighten’, has been in existence since the 18c but is regarded as colloquial or even non-standard.

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scenario.

1 The pronunciation is normally si-nah-ri-oh in BrE and si-nai-ri-oh in AmE. The plural form is scenarios.

2 The word came into English from Italian in the late 19c as a term for the outline plot of a play, ballet, novel, etc., and was extended to the world of film in the early 20c. From the 1960s a new meaning exploded into use, and the word now commonly refers to any supposed or imagined series of events, or even to a static situation:
How then do we decide which class to assign a couple to where he is a builder and she is a secretary (not that uncommon a scenario)?—R. Symonds , 1988 /
But in the worst-case scenario, if the heir to the throne cannot hold his marriage together, there could be no throne left for him, or his eldest son, to inherit—Today, 1992. This use of scenario is often regarded with suspicion, but it is hard to see why when so many other comparable figurative uses (such as scene) pass without comment. In its right place, when the imagined events or circumstances form a related sequence and are therefore comparable to the elements of a story-line, the word is a useful one.
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scene

used figuratively in expressions such as a scene of mayhem, is part of the standard language. More informal are uses of the type not my scene and the jazz scene, originally associated with youth slang but now used more generally.

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sceptic, sceptical.

A sceptic (pronounced skep-tik) is someone who doubts accepted opinions or judgements and differs from a cynic, whose doubts concern human values and motives. Sceptic is also an adjective, but the more common adjectival form is sceptical. In AmE the words are spelt skeptic and skeptical.

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sceptre

is spelt -re in BrE and scepter in AmE.

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schedule.

The dominant pronunciation in BrE is shed-yool, but the American form sked-yool is beginning to exert an influence, especially among younger speakers.

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schism

meaning ‘the division of a group into opposing sections’, is now commonly heard as skizm in place of the older form sizm recognized by the OED (1910).

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schist

a term in geology for a type of layered rock, is pronounced shist.

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scholar

should be used to mean a learned person or the holder of a scholarship (at a school or university), not as a substitute term for a school pupil.

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school, shoal.

The two words are of the same Middle Dutch origin and are used with the same meaning of large numbers of fish and other sea animals swimming together. They are unrelated to the more familiar word school, which is derived from Latin schola.

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scion

meaning ‘a descendant of a (noble) family’, is pronounced siy-n.

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scissors

is treated as a plural noun in its basic meaning (The scissors are in the drawer), but has a singular use in certain sports, where it is usually elliptical for a longer phrase such as scissors movement or scissors pass (The ordinary scissors is the least effective of the four styles).

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scone

is mostly pronounced skon in BrE, but skohn is also heard, especially in southern England, and is the dominant pronunciation in AmE. Scone, a village in central Scotland which was the site of a palace where the kings of Scotland were crowned, is pronounced skoon.

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score

= 20. A score of + plural noun is normally treated as a plural, the plural noun being regarded as the ‘head’ of the noun phrase: A score of customers were waiting at the door.

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Scotch, Scots, Scottish.

1 The favoured terms are a Scot or Scotsman or Scotswoman for a person from Scotland, Scottish as the general adjective relating to Scotland, and Scots for any of the dialect forms of English spoken in (especially Lowland) Scotland (to be distinguished from Scottish English which is a variety of standard English). Scots is also used in certain expressions such as Scots law and the Scots Guards.

2 The adjective and noun Scotch, though regularly used by Burns and Scott , fell out of favour in the 19c and is now confined to certain fixed expressions such as Scotch broth, Scotch eggs, Scotch mist, and Scotch whisky. Outside the UK, and especially in America, Scotch is likely to occur more often.
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scrimmage, scrummage.

Scrimmage is the more general word for ‘a rough struggle or brawl’ and is a technical term in American football, whereas scrummage (more usually shortened to scrum) is the term used in rugby football.

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seance

a term for a spiritualist meeting, is now normally spelt without an acute accent on the first e.

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seasonable, seasonal.

Seasonal means ‘occurring at or associated with a particular season’ (the seasonal migration of geese), whereas seasonable is a more judgemental word meaning ‘suitable for the season or time of year’ (There was a seasonable crispness in the air).

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second.

The pronunciation is with the stress on the first syllable in all uses except the verb meaning ‘to transfer to another use or employment’, when the stress falls on the second syllable.

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second hand

is normally spelt as two words in uses such as heard at second hand, and is hyphened when used as an adjective (a second-hand car) or adverbial phrase (They always buy second-hand).

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secretary

should be pronounced as four syllables with the first r fully articulated, not as if it were spelt seketerry or sekretry.

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sect

is a word of Middle English origin denoting a party or faction holding views other than those of the majority (especially in a religious body). Historically it has been applied by Anglicans to various non-conformist groups (e.g. Methodists and Quakers) and it is now used of various groups, always with unfavourable connotations.

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seeing

is commonly used as a kind of conjunction, often followed by that, with the meaning ‘because, considering that’:
He was the kid-brother whom I helped as far as I could, seeing that we had no mother—B. Cobb , 1971. The forms seeing as and seeing as how occur in informal contexts.

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seem.

For the type seems to have been, see PERFECT INFINITIVE.

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seldom

see RARELY.

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self.

Except in commercial contexts (a cheque drawn to self), self is now used as a substitute for myself or oneself only in jocular or informal contexts or in more casual styles of writing:
A.A. [sc. Alcoholics Anonymous] requires memory, the acknowledgement of actions' effects on self and others, then apology and atonement—B. Holm , 1985.

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self-

is a highly productive prefix forming compounds of various types, in most of which self- acts as the object on which the action or attribute signified by the second element operates, e.g. self-betrayal (= betrayal of oneself), self-awareness (= awareness of oneself), self-addressed (= addressed to oneself), etc. In other uses self is an agent, e.g. self-educated (= educated by oneself), self-evident (evident in itself), and self-service (= service by oneself). Occasionally the second element is sufficient by itself and self- is arguably redundant, as in self-assured, self-conceited, and self-confident, but the prefix serves a reinforcing role and most of this type are idiomatic.

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semi-

is the most active and versatile of the prefixes meaning ‘half’ (the other two being demi- and hemi-) in forming compounds, often with adjectives and verbal participles as the second element (semi-automatic, semi-detached, semi-skilled, etc.) and occasionally nouns (semi-circle, semi-final). Semi- and demi- are Latin in origin, whereas hemi- is Greek.

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semicolon.

The semicolon is the least confidently used of the regular punctuation marks in ordinary writing, and the one least in evidence to anyone riffling through the pages of a modern novel. But it is extremely useful, used in moderation. Its main role is to mark a grammatical separation that is stronger in effect than a comma but less strong than a full stop. Normally the two parts of a sentence divided by a semicolon balance or complement each other as distinct from leading from one to the other (in which case a COLON is usually more suitable):
Most of his tools are old, handed down from his father and grandfather and uncles; here they are, handle upward, in tubs of oil and sand to stop them rusting— Morrison , 1993. It is also used as a stronger division in a sentence that already contains commas:
What has crippled me? Was it my grandmother, frowning on my childish affection and turning it to formality and cold courtesy; or my timid, fearful mother, in awe of everyone including, finally, me; or was it my wife's infidelities, or my own?— Lambert , 1989.

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senator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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senior citizen.

She is a retired person, a senior citizen, you might say— Pym , 1977. Senior citizen is a modern euphemism (first recorded in the 1930s) for an elderly person or old-age pensioner, and is more politically correct because it refers positively to status rather than negatively to age. It is now widely used in official contexts.

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sensational.

The original meaning ‘relating to sensation or the senses’, first attested in the mid 19c, has been all but driven out by its extended meaning ‘causing or intended to cause an exciting or startling effect’ (i.e. causing a sensation in the corresponding sense):
Watergate was such a sensational piece of skulduggery—Times, 1980.

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sensible, sensitive.

1 The primary meaning of sensible is ‘having (common) sense’, i.e. the opposite of foolish, and of sensitive ‘easily offended or emotionally hurt’. In these uses they hardly get in each other's way. Where they overlap is in meanings to do with reactions involving the senses or feelings: you are sensible of something when you apprehend it with emotional consciousness and are sensitive to something when you react to it with strong emotional feeling, the words ‘consciousness’ and ‘feeling’ characterizing the difference between the two. However, sensible of now sounds old fashioned, and a more likely choice of words might be conscious of or aware of, although these admittedly denote intellectual rather than emotional perceptions.

2 The nouns sensibility and sensitivity are harder to keep apart. Sensibility corresponds to sensible (in its familiar meaning) much less closely than sensitivity does to sensitive, and chiefly denotes (often in the plural) a person's delicate finer feelings:
Walter was a little hurt at this since he did most of the cooking at their place, but Zimmerman was too upset to worry about Walter's sensibilities— Elton , 1992. Sensitivity has a wider range of meanings concerned with physical or emotional reactions of various kinds:
My reference to it was simply a tease, and all the more tempting given Victor's known sensitivity on the point— Climber and  Walker , 1991 /
It is difficult to see how we can have sensitivity to plants and rivers, trees and ecosystems if we have no sensitivity to the caged animal—Animal Welfare and the Environment, 1992.
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sensitize,

not the arguably more correct form sensitivize, is the standard word in meanings to do with making things sensitive, normally in physical senses (in photography, for example).

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sensual, sensuous.

1 Sensual is the older word (15c), and originally described feelings that involved the senses as distinct from the intellect. As it became more closely associated with aspects of physical indulgence characterized by the expression sensual pleasure (principally sexual but also to do with food), sensuous came into use (first apparently by Milton in 1641) to take over the meanings that sensual had once had in relation to aesthetic rather than carnal sensations.

2 In current usage, this distinction holds good for those who want a rule: (sensual)
Modigliani appreciated Kisling for what he was, a sweet-natured, high-spirited, sensual young man—J. Rose , 1990 /
The Hindu god of love, Kama, is the husband of Rati, the goddess of sensual desire—P. Allardice , 1990 / (sensuous)
All the sensuous elements of the previous years have been banished; colour has been reduced to a severe combination of browns, dull greens and greys—J. Golding , 1988 /
The passage exemplifies the distancing effect of simile, and the more sensuous effect of metaphor—E. Black , 1993.
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3 But in the hurly-burly of general usage the meanings are too close, and sensuous has begun to go the way of sensual, especially in modern popular fiction:
He looked forward to this drink, the first of the day, with a sensuous desire— Vine , 1987 /
There was something extremely sensuous about having a man dry her hair, especially this man—A. Murray , 1993. Although the complex subtleties of sense perception cause meanings to merge into one another, it is prudent to remember the basic distinction when using these words, so that sensuous can retain its full force of meaning in uses that are primarily to do with aesthetics, for example in the context of music or poetry:
Cesti's great gift was for melody: sensuous and eminently singable—G. Abraham , 1985.
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sentence.

1 Many users of this book will have been taught that a sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense, contains a main verb, and when written begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (or a question mark if it is a question or an exclamation mark if it is an exclamation). This is a good working definition, and rather than pick holes in it we might more profitably add certain riders to it:

2 A sentence can contain ellipsis, i.e. a verb and other words can be understood or suppressed:
It had been a good party. An unforgettable party, actually. And still was—A. Huth , 1992. (Ellipsis of it had been in the second sentence and it in the third.) Grammarians may argue about whether these are all true sentences, but for practical purposes it is sensible to regard them all as qualifying for the term, if only to make straightforward discussion about language structure possible.
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3 There are three basic kinds of sentence. A simple sentence normally contains one statement: It has been a good party. A compound sentence contains more than one statement, normally joined by a conjunction such as and or but: It has been a good party and we enjoyed it / It has been a good party but l've known better. A complex sentence contains a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses, such as a relative clause introduced by which or who: It has been a good party, which we enjoyed very much.
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sentence adverb.

1 Certain adverbs, such as actually, basically, clearly, frankly, interestingly, normally, regrettably, strictly, and usually, have the special role of qualifying entire statements rather than individual words. Some of these are adverbs of time and frequency and retain a closer connection with the verb despite being separated from it:
It is normally very difficult to get a new sport accepted for the Olympics—New Yorker, 1984. The others have a more independent role in referring not to the content of the statement but to an external consideration, such as the opinion of the speaker, even though they may not be explicitly expressed as such:
Regrettably, most overseas hotels are not well equipped for disabled holidaymakers—holiday brochure, 1990 (= as is to be regretted) /
Clearly therefore, we suggest, this points to a ‘mole’ within British Telecom Prestel headquarters—Times, 1984 (= as is clear). This phenomenon is commonly associated with 20c usage, but examples of earlier date are recorded.

2 The examples given so far are mostly unexceptionable, but controversy arises with thankfully, regretfully, and, above all, hopefully:
Hopefully, our experience will be of use to them—Independent, 1989. This may be because, unlike the others, there is no phrasal basis corresponding to it is clear that (for clearly) or to be frank (for frankly), since ‘it is to be hoped that’ is passive whereas hopeful is ‘active’ (i.e. the person so described does the hoping). See HOPEFULLY.
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separate.

Note the spelling with two as, unlike desperate. The verb is pronounced sep--rayt, and the adjective sep--rt.

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sepulchre

is spelt -re in BrE and sepulcher in AmE.

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sequence of tenses.

This refers to the pattern of tenses in a sequence of verbs within a sentence. If a simple statement such as I'm afraid I haven't finished is put into indirect speech by means of a reporting verb such as said, thought, etc., the tense of the reported action changes in accordance with the time perspective of the speaker: He said he was afraid he hadn't finished. However, the tense of the reported verb can stay the same if the time relative to the speaker is the same as that relative to the person reported: She likes beans can be converted either to She said she liked beans or to She said she likes beans, and I won't be here tomorrow can be converted either to He said he wouldn't be here tomorrow or to He said he won't be here tomorrow.

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sergeant, serjeant.

The normal spelling in the context of the police and the army is sergeant; serjeant is usually restricted to the titles of certain ceremonial offices, such as the serjeant-at-arms with reference to the British parliamentary or civic official.

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series

is spelt the same both as a singular and as a plural noun.

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serviceable

is spelt with an e in the middle, to preserve the soft sound of the c.

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serviette

see NAPKIN.

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sesquicentenary

see ANNIVERSARIES.

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sett

is still a common variant spelling of set in the meanings (1) a badger's burrow and (2) a paving-block.

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seventies

see EIGHTIES.

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several

is an adjective and pronoun. As an adjective, it is only used with plural countable nouns (several people but not several furniture) and is more positive in implication than a few. However, unlike a few, several cannot be qualified by an adverb such as quite or only.

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sew, sow verbs.

Sew means ‘to form stitches with a needle and thread’ and has the past form sewed and the past participle sewn or sewed. Sow means ‘to plant (seed)’ and has the past form sowed and the past participle sown or sowed.

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sewage, sewerage.

Sewage is waste matter carried by sewers, and sewerage is a system of sewers.

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sexcentenary

see ANNIVERSARIES.

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sexist language.

Roughly since the 1970s, certain established uses of language have come to be regarded as discriminatory against women, either because they are based on male terminology or because women appear to be given a status that is linguistically and socially subsidiary. Specific aspects of this will be found at the entries for -ESS, GENDER-NEUTRALITY, -MAN, MS, -PERSON. Since the 1980s, many official style guides (including Judith Butcher's Copy-editing, third edition, Cambridge, 1992) have included advice on how to avoid sexist language. In 1989 the General Synod of the Church of England debated a report on the need to introduce non-sexist language into the liturgy, and in the same year a revised version of the Bible substituted one for man in such contexts as Happy is the man who does not take the wicked for his guide. It is in the realm of idiom that male-biased language will most likely persist, since it is difficult to reconstruct without awkwardness or affectation such compound words and phrases as manpower, maiden voyage, every man for himself, and the man on the Clapham omnibus.

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shall and will.

1 The customary rule is that to express a simple future tense shall is used after I and we
(In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today— Hansard , 1992) and will in other cases, whereas to express intention or wish the reverse applies
(We will give people a new right of access to open country, create new national parks and step up protection for special sites—It's time to get Britain working again (Labour Party), 1992); but it is unlikely that this rule has ever had any consistent basis of authority in actual usage, and many examples of English in print disregard it. In general, the rule applies more strongly to I than to we.

2 Furthermore, the distinction is often difficult to establish, especially in the first person when the speaker is also the performer of the future action and intention is therefore implied at least partially. Will and (occasionally) shall are used as auxiliary verbs to refer to future action or state, but other, more natural, ways of expressing this are commonly preferred, such as am going to:
I'm going to teach him people are more important than money— Gee , 1992.
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3 When shall and will are used in conversation, they are normally contracted to 'll, especially after pronouns, leaving the difference between the two words irrelevant:
They'll cook and clean for a week before a party—New York Times, 1976 /
I'll remember this sodding day until the day I die— Bogarde , 1980.
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4 Shall has been largely driven out by will in all parts of the English-speaking world other than England. It survives mostly in first-person questions or suggestions
(Shall I help you to try again?—B. Jagger , 1986 /
‘Shall we take our drinks to the bedroom?’ she said softly—J. Francome , 1990), in legal language
(The landlord shall maintain the premises), and in the contracted negative form shan't (‘Have no fear … I shan't throw in the towel, I promise you.’—M. Russell , 1979), but shan't is not used in American English. In the English of England (not of Britain), shall half survives in such (now old-fashioned and affected) uses as
Yes, you shall take some eggs back to your aunt—C. Harvey , 1992 (a command or assurance) and Shall you come tomorrow? (seeking information rather than making a request), but will (or sometimes can) is just as common, especially in speech, and is more natural.
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5 There is not much doubt that will will win, and shall shall lose, in the end.
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shambles.

The word now most commonly used to mean ‘a mess or muddle’ has a colourful history. It started life in Old English in the singular form shamble meaning ‘a stool or footstool’, came to refer to a table or stall for the sale of meat, and was then applied (in the plural, shambles) to the slaughterhouse from which the meat came. From the 16c it meant any scene of blood and carnage. The modern meaning arose as recently as the 1920s, and is still disliked by many because it debases a powerful word. In these last two senses shambles is normally treated as a singular noun, usually in the form a shambles (The house was a shambles or The house was in a shambles).

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shamefaced

meaning ‘showing shame’, is a 16c alteration of an older word shamefast, meaning ‘bashful’, and should be spelt as one word. The adverb shamefacedly should be pronounced as four syllables.

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shampoo.

The verb has inflected forms shampoos, shampooed, shampooing.

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shanghai

meaning ‘to kidnap for naval service’, inflects awkwardly in English, but the recommended forms are shanghais, shanghaied, shanghaiing.

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shan't

see SHALL AND WILL (4).

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sharp

is used as an adverb only in expressions such as at 10 o'clock sharp (= exactly) and He pulled up sharp (= abruptly). In other meanings of sharp, the correct form of the adverb is sharply (Prices dropped sharply / She spoke to them sharply).

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shave.

The verb has a past form and past participle shaved, but the adjectival form is normally shaven, as in clean-shaven.

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she.

1 For she or her after the verb be, see CASES 2A.

2 For the expression he or she, see GENDER-NEUTRALITY.
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s/he.

A child's sexual orientation is determined before s/he enters school—American Educator, 1978. This written representation of ‘he or she’ as a gender-neutral pronoun is generally limited to the domain of reports and dead-pan English. Because it cannot be articulated, it is unlikely to penetrate further into the realms of standard usage. See GENDER-NEUTRALITY.

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sheaf

has the plural form sheaves. The verb meaning ‘to make into sheaves’ is sheave.

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shear, sheer.

Shear is a verb meaning ‘to remove by cutting’ or ‘to cut the wool off (a sheep)’, and has the past form sheared and the past participle shorn or (in the context of metal-cutting) sheared. Sheer is an adjective describing a steep cliff or ascent and is also used in expressions such as sheer luck.

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sheath

is pronounced sheeth (like teeth) in the singular and sheedhz (like seethes) in the plural.

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sheep

is the same in the singular and plural.

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sheikh

pronounced shayk or sheek, is the preferred spelling of the word for an Arab chief or leader.

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shelf

has the plural form shelves, and the corresponding verb is shelve. The compound form shelf-ful should be written with a hyphen for clarity, and its plural is shelf-fuls.

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show, shew.

The normal spelling is show. Shew is used in Scottish law and in citations from the Bible and Prayer Book.

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shibboleth.

The primary meaning in current English is ‘a custom or phrase that distinguishes a particular class or group of people’, either one approved of or one deprecated in others
(Apparently, to wear a hat in the cafeteria was a student shibboleth—I. Young , 1990), and is an extension of the biblical meaning of a Hebrew word used by Jephthah as a testword by which to distinguish the fleeing Ephraimites (who could not pronounce the sh sound) from his own men the Gileadites.

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shine.

The normal past forms and past participle are shone, but shined is used in AmE and in both varieties in the meaning ‘to make (something) shine’:
The car is a red Mercedes, newly shined—S. North , 1989 (UK) /
It occurred to me that this was not a reflection from his glasses or his crown, no matter how much they shined—D. Pinckney , 1992 (US).

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shingles

the disease, is normally treated as a singular noun (Shingles sometimes follows a bad case of measles), but it can be plural when the emphasis is on the resulting blisters rather than the illness itself (The shingles were extremely painful).

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ship

see BOAT.

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shire.

In England, the shires are traditionally the foxhunting areas of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and the former county of Rutland. Since the reorganization of local government in 1972 and 1986 the term shire county has been applied to the 39 counties outside metropolitan areas which have county councils, as distinct from London and the six metropolitan counties.

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Shoe.

The verb has inflected forms shoes, shoeing, and (past tense and past participle) shod.

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shop verb.

In BrE the verb is used intransitively (i.e. without an object) in its meaning ‘to buy things at shops’, whereas in AmE it is also used transitively with the meaning ‘to examine or buy goods at (a store)’:
One man who had shopped the entire store complained that he hadn't found what he was looking for—S. Marcus , 1974. The informal transitive use ‘to inform on (someone)’ is chiefly BrE.

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short-lived

is pronounced shawt-livd in BrE and shawt-liyvd in AmE.

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short, shortly adverbs.

The roles of these two words are fairly clearly separated. Short usually means ‘before the expected time or place, abruptly’ (We cut short the celebration / They pulled up short), whereas shortly is most often used to mean ‘before long, soon’ (She is expected to arrive shortly).

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should and would.

1 As with shall and will, should has been largely driven out by would as an auxiliary verb, but there is the added consideration that should also (in fact more often than not) denotes obligation or likelihood
(Now I think we should bring down the curtain on this little episode, and go to bed—A. Browning , 1992 /
The main advantage of digital mobile phones is that you should be able to have more of them—Economist, 1993).

2 As an auxiliary verb, would is more usual than should when stating a condition or proposition and is the only choice when asking a question (They would like to stay / I would think so / Would you bring the children?). Should is sometimes used in the first person (singular and plural) for statements and propositions, especially in the English of England
(‘/ should like one of these,’ says Claudia— Lively , 1987) and in tentative statements of opinion
(I should say that there is not only increasing public awareness of the problems of smoking and its longterm consequences to the health of smokers, but [etc.]— Hansard , 1992), and is always used in inverted constructions expressing a condition:
St Bernards had placed a fee on this transfer should he go to a Football League club—N. Sands , 1991.
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3 Would has to be used when referring to unfulfilled conditions and hypotheses
(Ordinarily, I would have chosen an empty table— Aldiss , 1991) and to habitual action in the past
(These he would produce with a flourish during our Wednesday- and Sunday-evening sessions— Self , 1993), and to express the future in the past
(Horrified, she realised she would have to write and thank everyone—P. Street , 1990).
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4 In conversational English, the contracted forms I'd, you'd, etc., are often used in simple statements instead of the full forms, so that the should / would distinction is not an issue
(Better ask yourself which you'd choose—P.D. James , 1986 /
I'd be delighted to join you— Amis , 1988), but in meanings to do with obligation or likelihood (see paragraph 1) the full form should has to be used.
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should of.

This erroneous form of should have arises in all English-speaking countries because the contracted form should've is indistinguishable from it in speech. It is often associated with the speech of children or poorly educated adults:
Well, you should of buyed some cigarettes for yourself so it's your own fault—S. Mackay , 1984.

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shovel.

The verb has inflected forms shovelled, shovelling in BrE, and in AmE usually shoveled, shoveling.

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show.

The past tense is showed (I showed it to them), and the past participle is normally shown (Have you shown it to them?) but occasionally showed:
Mr Marr hadn't shown up at any of the places where he should have been— Williams , 1992.

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shrilly

meaning ‘in a shrill manner’, is pronounced shril-li, with both Is fully articulated.

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shrink

has a past tense shrank and a past participle shrunk, but shrunken is the normal adjectival form in both physical and abstract senses:
She was a thin sickly child with a tremendous head of dark curly hair, a tiny shrunken face and enormous eyes—S. Stewart , 1991 /
Eliot discussed the shrunken sense in which ‘culture’ was applied to the arts—R. Crawford , 1990.

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shrivel

has inflected forms shrivelled, shrivelling, and in AmE usually shriveled, shriveling.

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shy.

The adjective has comparative and superlative forms shyer and shyest, and derivative forms shyly, shyness.

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sibling

is a kind of popularized technicality, a word reintroduced by anthropologists in the early 20c and useful now as a gender-neutral term for ‘brother or sister’:
Small groups drifted through the classroom: mothers and fathers, large numbers of children—Edward's pupils along with older and younger siblings— Lively , 1990. The word is also common in the expression sibling rivalry:
Moses … shows more than a hint of sibling rivalry in his attitude to his brother Aaron—C. Raphael , 1972.

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sic

the Latin word for ‘so, thus’, is added in round or square brackets after a quoted word or phrase about which some doubt might be expected in the reader's mind, because of a misspelling (which the quoting writer does not want to correct) or some other oddity of use:
Mr Foot … started work to settle the miners [sic] dispute even before kissing hands with the Queen—OED_2 citing The Guardian, 1974, drawing attention to rather than silently correcting a missing apostrophe. It should not be used as a supercilious comment on the quoted writer's style or supposed looseness of grammar, as in the following example: /
probably have a different sense of morality to [sic] most people—Chicago Tribune, 1994, quoting Alan Clark .

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sick

see ILL.

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sickly

is an adjective meaning ‘weak in health’, and is not used as an adverb.

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siege

is spelt -ie-, as is besiege.

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sienna

the pigment and its colour of yellowish-brown (raw sienna) or reddish-brown (burnt sienna) is spelt with two ns despite being derived from the name of Siena in northern Italy.

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sieve

a device for separating solids from liquids, is spelt -ie-, and pronounced siv.

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signal.

The verb has inflected forms signalled, signalling in BrE, and in AmE usually signaled, signaling.

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signatory

is now the usual spelling (not signatary) for the noun meaning ‘a party or state that has signed an agreement’, and the corresponding adjective.

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significant other

is a coy term for a live-in partner and normally occurs in facetious contexts. See also POSSLQ.

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silken

see -EN ADJECTIVES.

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sillabub

see SYLLABUB.

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sillily

though formally correct, is too awkward for normal use and is usually replaced by the phrase in a silly way or by other one-word adverbs such as foolishly or stupidly.

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silo

has the plural form silos.

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similar

is followed by to:
It seemed to me that she was acknowledging an emotion similar to my own—C. Rumens , 1987.

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simile

is a figure of speech consisting of a direct comparison using a construction with as … as …, or with the first as omitted:
Soft as rain slipping through rushes, the cattle came— Blunden . Some similes belong to a stock type, e.g. (as) drunk as a lord, (as) fit as a fiddle, etc. See also METAPHOR AND SIMILE. Others are constructed with like, e.g. Her skin is like honey.

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simplistic

is first recorded in its modern meaning as recently as the late 19c. It differs from simple in implying a simplicity that is excessive or misleading rather than direct and useful:
She's quite right … It is simplistic to speak of malice— Stoppard , 1976. To preserve this useful distinction, care should be taken not to use simplistic when simple itself is adequate.

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sincerely.

For Yours sincerely, see LETTER FORMS.

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sinecure

meaning ‘a position that requires little or no work but provides profit or honour’, is normally pronounced siy-ni-kyoo-, with the first syllable like sign.

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sine qua non

is normally pronounced see-nay kwah nohn, although other pronunciations are heard. It means ‘an indispensable condition or qualification’.

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sing.

The past form is sang and the past participle is sung, although sung is found for the past tense in literature of the 18c and 19c.

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singeing

meaning ‘burning lightly’, is spelt like this to distinguish it from singing (formed from the verb sing).

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Sinhalese

is the recommended form of the noun and adjective associated with Sri Lanka, rather than Singalese, Singhalese, and other variants.

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sink.

The verb has the past tense sank (but formerly and occasionally still sunk) and the past participle sunk. The adjectival forms sunk and sunken are not readily distinguished: sunken is often used to mean ‘submerged’ (a sunken ship), ‘fallen in, hollow’ (sunken cheeks, sunken eyes), and often ‘below the normal level’ (sunken garden). Sunk is the form normally chosen for technical expressions such as sunk fence, sunk key, and sunk panel, although in these cases too sunken is sometimes used. In general use sunken is the more common choice for attributive uses (i.e. before nouns).

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sinus

has the plural form sinuses. In Latin the plural is sinus, not sini.

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siphon

is the recommended form for the noun and the verb, not syphon.

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sister

a senior female nurse, usually in charge of a hospital ward. The equivalent term in AmE is head nurse.

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sister-in-law

means
(1) one's wife's or husband's sister,
(2) one's brother's wife,
(3) one's brother-in-law's wife.

The plural is sisters-in-law.

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sit

see SAT.

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sitting-room, living-room.

These are the standard terms in current use for the main room of a house equipped for comfort. Lounge is ‘non-U’ (see U AND NON-U) when applied to a room in a private house, and drawing-room is now old-fashioned.

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situate

meaning situated, survives in legal language and occasionally in the language of estate agents' descriptions, in the UK and beyond:
The premises situate at Lukashya turn-off, Mungwi Road—Times of Zambia, 1977. It has no place in general usage.

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situation

is a useful noun for expressing the meaning ‘a set of circumstances, a state of affairs’, especially when preceded by a defining adjective, e.g. the financial situation, the political situation, etc. It is less useful, indeed often redundant, when a noun precedes: crisis situation adds nothing to crisis and bankruptcy situation adds nothing to bankruptcy because both words implicitly denote situations in themselves. On the other hand, hostage situation is a convenient short way of saying ‘a situation in which hostages have been taken’ because hostage is not already a ‘situation’ word.

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sixties

see EIGHTIES.

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sizeable

with an e in the middle, is the recommended spelling.

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skeptic, skeptical

see SCEPTIC, SCEPTICAL.

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ski.

The noun has the plural form skis, and the verb has inflections skis, skied (pronounced skeed), skiing (pronounced skee ing). Words ending in -i (in this case from Norwegian) are always awkward in English, and some people prefer to use the forms ski'd and ski-ing rather than try to force the word into an uncomfortable English pattern, but these look if anything even more ungainly.

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skier, skyer.

A skie (pronounced skee-) is a person who skis, whereas a skyer (pronounced skiy-) is a high hit in cricket.

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skilful, skilled

1 Skilful is spelt in this way in BrE, and usually skillful in AmE.

2 Skilled is the word to use when referring to types of work (also semi-skilled, unskilled), and is classificatory in function, whereas skilful is evaluative and can refer to people and their achievements (a skilful painter / a skilful painting).
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skill-less

should be spelt with a hyphen to avoid the awkward collision of three ls.

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skyer

see SKIER.

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slack, slacken.

Both words have been in use since the 16c, and remain interchangeable in many meanings. There are, however, some areas of preference: slacken is generally more dominant in the sense ‘to make or become slack (or slacker)’: a breeze, demand, one's energy, one's pace, a rope, the tide, all slacken, and we slacken our efforts, our grip, our opposition. In the meaning ‘to be lazy or idle’ slack is used, but only in progressive tenses: She thought I was slacking but not She thought I had slacked.

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slander

see LIBEL.

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slang,

1 The term slang is first recorded in the 1750s, but it was not used by Dr Johnson in his Dictionary of 1755 nor entered in it as a headword (he used the term low word, with implications of disapproval). Nonetheless, the notion of highly informal words or of words associated with a particular class or occupation is very old, and this type of vocabulary has been commented on, usually with disfavour, for centuries. More recently, the development of modern linguistic science has led to a more objective assessment in which slang is seen as having a useful purpose when used in the right context.

2 Drawing the line between colloquial language and slang is not always easy; slang is at the extreme end of informality and usually has the capacity to shock. In English slang often has associations of class or occupation, so that many slang words have their origins in cant (the jargon of a particular profession, e.g. bogus, flog, prig, rogue), criminal slang (broad = female companion, drag = inhalation of tobacco smoke, nick = to steal), racing slang (dark horse, no-hoper, hot favourite), military slang (bonkers = crazy, clobber = beat or defeat, ginormous = huge), and most recently computing slang (hacking = breaking into networks, surfing = browsing on the Internet). Other words stay largely within their original domain of usage, such as drugs slang (flash = pleasant sensation from a narcotic drug, juice = a drug or drugs) and youth slang (blatantly = definitely, wicked = excellent).
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3 Slang words are formed by a variety of processes, of which the following are the main ones:
a established words used in extended or special meanings: flash and juice in the previous paragraph, awesome = excellent, hooter = nose, take out = kill.
b words made by abbreviation or shortening: fab from fabulous, pro from professional, snafu (= situation normal: all fouled up).
c rhyming slang: Adam and Eve = believe, butcher's (hook) = look.
d words formed by compounding: airhead = stupid person, couch potato = person who lazes around watching television, snail mail = ordinary mail as opposed to email.
e merging of two words: ‘portmanteau’ words such as ditsy = dotty + dizzy, ginormous = gigantic + enormous.
f backslang, in which the spelling or sound of other words are reversed: yob from boy, slop from police.
g reduplications and fanciful formations: heebie-jeebies, okey-doke.
h words based on phrases or idioms: bad-mouth = to abuse, feel-good as in feel-good factor, in-your-face = aggressive, drop-dead = extremely (beautiful etc.), must-have = essential, one-night stand = brief sexual encounter.
i loanwords from other languages: gazump, nosh, shemozzle from Yiddish, kaput from German, bimbo from Italian (= little child).
j words taken from dialect or regional varieties: manky = dirty, from Scottish; dinkum = genuine, right, Australian and New Zealand.
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4 Slang uses are especially prevalent in areas in which direct language is regarded as taboo or unsocial, such as death (to kick the bucket, to hand in one's nosebag, to snuff it), sexual functions (to have it off, to screw), and excretion (to dump, to sit on the throne).
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5 Slang is by its nature ephemeral, and relatively few words and uses pass into standard use. Examples of these include bogus, clever, joke, and snob (all classed by Dr Johnson as ‘low words’). Conversely some words that were once standard have passed into slang (e.g. arse, shit, tit).
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6 The first work to record English slang was published as B.E.'s Dictionary of the Canting Crew in 1699. Modern works include Eric Partridge's famous Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (edited by Paul Beale , 1984), The Slang Thesaurus (edited by Jonathon Green , 1986), and The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang (edited by John Ayto and John Simpson , 1992).
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slate verb.

There is an important difference between its meanings on the two sides of the Atlantic. In BrE it means ‘to criticize severely’, whereas in AmE it usually means ‘to nominate’ or ‘to designate or schedule’ (as in slating a meeting). The context will normally clarify which sense is meant, but care is needed in interpreting newspaper headlines such as Summit meeting slated.

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slavish

is spelt without an e.

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slay

meaning ‘to kill’, has the past tense slew and the past participle slain. In BrE it has a literary flavour, but it is an ordinary word for violent killing in AmE, appearing in newspaper headlines such as Serial killer slays seven, which sometimes get carried over into British newspapers as well.

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sled, sledge, sleigh.

All three word are derived from Dutch and are used for vehicles that carry people or goods over snow. In BrE sledge is the normal word for vehicles of various sizes pulled by people or animals (toboggan, a native American word, is also used for the type used for sport on slopes). Sled is used mainly in North America for a large vehicle pulled by animals, and sleigh for the larger type of vehicle drawn by horses or reindeer.

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sleight

as in sleight of hand, is pronounced like slight. It is the noun equivalent of the adjective sly, as height is of high.

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slimy

is spelt without an e.

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sling

has the past tense and past participle slung.

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slink

has the past tense and past participle slunk.

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sloe-worm

see SLOW-WORM.

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slogan

was originally a Gaelic word for a warcry, but the dominant meaning now is the less specific one ‘a watchword or motto’ (ban the bomb, business as usual) or ‘a short catchy phrase used in advertising’ (Persil washes whitest).

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slough.

The noun meaning ‘bog or swamp’ is pronounced to rhyme with now. The separate word (noun and verb) to do with an animal's skin is pronounced to rhyme with stuff. In AmE, the first noun is often written slew and pronounced sloo.

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slovenly

is used as both adjective and adverb; the form slovenlily would be too awkward and is not used.

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slow, slowly.

In current English the normal adverb for general purposes is slowly (We drove slowly down the road / She slowly closed the door). Literary uses of slow as an adverb died out in the 19c
(As the stately vessel glided slow beneath the shadow— Byron , 1812), and in current usage it is confined to the expression go slow, to compounds such as slow-acting and slow-moving, and to occasional informal uses
(It was easy to drive slow and look into lighted uncurtained windows—L. Ellmann , 1988). The comparative and superlative forms slower and slowest are however regularly used as well as more slowly and most slowly:
Neurotransmitters make the heart beat faster or slower—Scientific American, 1974 /
I tried to keep one thing—the foot—in focus throughout, because it seemed to be moving slowest—Photography (Argus), 1990.

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slow-worm

a small legless lizard, is the dominant current spelling (formerly also sloe-worm). The word is unconnected with either sloes (the fruit) or the adjective slow.

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slur.

The verb has inflected forms slurred, slurring.

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slush, sludge, slosh.

Sludge is usually applied to something relatively thick and less liquid, e.g. to wet clinging mud or slimy deposits, whereas slush more typically describes thawing snow or melting ice. Slosh (in its related uses) is a verb meaning ‘to move with a splashing sound’.

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sly.

The adjective has comparative and superlative forms slyer and slyest, and derivative forms slyly, slyness.

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smell verb.

The form for the past tense and past participle in BrE is smelled or smelt; in AmE smelled is usually preferred. When the verb is used intransitively, the quality of the smell is normally expressed either by a phrase introduced by of or by an adjective, and not an adverb:
His jacket smelt of horses and tobacco and general maleness—A. Fraser , 1975 /
As she stooped lower her breath, caught in all the black veils, smelled terrible— Keane , 1988. A comparative construction with like is also possible:
This smells like a poncey brothel—L. Henderson , 1970. When an adverb is used it is normally an intensifying adverb (His jacket smelled strongly of horses … / … it smelled extremely putrid), and this applies when smell is used absolutely with the meaning ‘to smell badly, to stink’: The prison cell smelt abominably.

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smite

has the past tense smote and a past participle smitten. In its physical meaning ‘to hit’, smite is falling into disuse in ordinary contexts, but to be smitten is still going strong in its figurative meaning ‘to be infatuated or obsessed’ (He was smitten by her beauty).

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smog

formed from smoke + fog and first recorded in 1905, is one of the most enduring portmanteau words of the 20c.

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smoky

is spelt without an e.

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smoulder

meaning ‘to burn slowly’, is spelt in this way in BrE and usually smolder in AmE.

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snaky

meaning ‘winding or sinuous’, is spelt without an e.

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sneak verb.

Its origins are shrouded in mystery (despite earlier similar forms in Old English and other Germanic languages) as it emerges full clad in the works of English playwrights around 1600:
A poor unminded outlaw, sneaking home— Shakespeare , 1 Henry IV, iv.iii.58, 1596. In current use it is inflected regularly, with a past tense and past participle sneaked; the bizarre form snuck, which has no precedent in other verbs in -eak and -eek (creak, leak, peak, peek, reek, squeak, etc.) has insinuated itself into several varieties of English, including those of North America, but is not yet treated seriously in BrE. An odd word with an odd history, perhaps with further oddities to come.

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snivel.

The verb has inflected forms snivelled, snivelling in BrE, and in AmE usually sniveled, sniveling.

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so.

1 The weather is so uncertain. Fowler's (1926) reservations about what he termed the ‘appealing so’ (i.e. the use of so to appeal for agreement) had more to do with group psychology than good use of language. The use is thoroughly idiomatic in conversational English, although in more didactic contexts, such as that aesthetically so brilliant world of Greater Greece, it sounds decidedly affected or has ‘a certain air of silliness’ (as Fowler expressed it).

2 So that is well established as an alternative to in order that, but it is often used to denote result as much as intention:
Police … confiscated hundreds of pairs of laces from ‘bovver boots’ so that the youngsters wearing them could not kick anyone—Daily Telegraph, 1980. In more recent usage, so is often used alone with the same meaning, leaving the causal connection even more tenuous:
My father had been a minor diplomat, so as a child I had lived in France, Turkey and Paraguay— Greene , 1980 (here so definitely denotes result rather than purpose).
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3 For do so, see DO 3E.
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sobriquets

A sobriquet (preferred spelling, not soubriquet) is a nickname that has become so firmly attached to a particular person, place, or thing, that it is understood independently of the real name and is often used in preference to it. The table below gives a selection (some have more than one).

NAME

STANDS FOR

Albion

England

alma mater

one's college or university

Athens of the North

Edinburgh

Auld Reekie

Edinburgh

Auntie

the BBC

Bard of Avon

Shakespeare

Beefeater

Yeoman of the Guard

Big Apple

New York

Black Country

the industrial west Midlands of England

Black Death

the 14c plague in England

Black Prince

the eldest son of Edward III

City of Dreaming Spires

Oxford

Emerald Isle

Ireland

Garden of England

Kent

Iron Duke

the Duke of Wellington

Jack Tar

a sailor in the Royal Navy

John Bull

an Englishman

Kiwi

a New Zealander

Left Bank

the artistic district of Paris

Maid of Orleans

Joan of Arc

Old Nick

the devil

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

the Bank of England

The Pond

the Atlantic Ocean

sport of kings

horseracing

Stars and Stripes

the flag of the USA

Swan of Avon

Shakespeare

The Thunderer

The Times (newspaper)

Tinseltown

Hollywood

Tommy (Atkins)

a British soldier

Uncle Sam

USA

Union Flag (or Union Jack)

the British flag

Virgin Queen

Queen Elizabeth I of Englannd

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so-called

is traditionally used before a name or description to signal doubt about relevance or entitlement, as in this so-called work of art. In recent usage it has been applied in a way that simply calls attention to the description, or distances the user from it, without necessarily questioning it: the so-called generation gap (i.e. the phenomenon that people call the generation gap). In speech intonation normally makes the meaning clear, and in print the context does the same.

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sociable, social.

These two words relate to different meanings of society, and should not normally get in each other's way. Social is a classifying word that relates to society in the broad sense of the relation of human beings to one another (Man is a social animal / a social occasion). A social worker is one who deals with those in society who need help, and social security is financial assistance given to them. Sociable is a judgemental word relating to the quality of human relations (corresponding to society in the sense ‘companionship, good company’). A sociable person is one who is friendly and able to deal well with social occasions, and a sociable evening is one marked by friendliness and good humour.

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sociologese.

The seemingly pretentious and opaque language found in some writing on sociology was an obvious target for Sir Ernest Gowers in his edition of Fowler's book (1965). Among several examples, all unattributed, the following was typical: The technique here reported resulted from the authors' continuing interest in human variables associated with organizational effectiveness. Specifically, this technique was developed to identify and analyse several types of interpersonal activities and relations, and to provide a method for expressing the degree of congruence between two or more of these activities and relations in indices which might be associated with available criteria of organizational effectiveness. But there is a difference between sociology written for sociologists (which this is) and sociology intended for a wider readership (if there is such a thing). For reservations about choosing linguistic targets from technical domains, see more generally GOBBLEDEGOOK, JARGON, PLAIN ENGLISH.

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sojourn.

‘
You seem to have acquired a very utilitarian view of universities, from your sojourn in Rummidge,’ said Professor Penrose, who was one of the very few people Robyn knew who used the word sojourn in casual conversation— Lodge , 1988. The word is normally pronounced soj-n.

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solemnness

is spelt with two ns, if needed instead of the more usual solemnity.

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soliloquy

see MONOLOGUE.

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solo

has the plural form solos.

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soluble, solvable.

Substances are soluble, not solvable, but problems and difficulties are soluble or solvable. The opposites are insoluble and unsolvable.

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sombre

is spelt this way in BrE, and somber in AmE.

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sombrero

a broad-brimmed Mexican hat, has the plural form sombreros.

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some.

1 The use of some to mean ‘very much’ or ‘notably such’ in sentences of the type This is some party is still considered suitable mainly for informal contexts, and Churchill's famous line in a speech in 1941, Some chicken! Some neck! (in response to a warning that England would have her neck wrung like a chicken), does not seem to have affected popular perception of it. It is also used ironically with the opposite meaning in sentences such as Some friend he is to treat you like that!

2 In AmE some is used to mean ‘to some extent’, as in She thought about it some, in the same way that any is used to mean ‘at all’ (You haven't aged any), and is occasionally used with the meaning ‘somewhat’ to qualify an adjective
He's going to be some pissed off when he finds out about this—M. Machlin , 1976. These uses are not found in BrE.
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3 When some is used before a number, the number should be an approximate or rounded one:
There are in Britain some two hundred and twenty known varieties of hover fly— Punch, 1966.
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4 The phrase some of us may be treated as a first-person or a third-person phrase depending on the degree of involvement by the speaker or writer: Some of us want to change our plans includes the speaker whereas Some of us want to change their plans excludes or at least distances the speaker from the intended change of plans. The choice only arises when a personal or possessive pronoun or adjective (here our and their) follows in the sentence.
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somebody, someone.

1 Both words have been in use since the early 14c and are largely interchangeable. Some one occurs as two separate words less often than any one (see ANY (4)), but uses of the type Some one thousand eggs have been collected should be borne in mind.

2 For clashes of agreement in sentences of the type I really resent it when I call somebody who's not home and they don't have an answering machine, see AGREEMENT (4).
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someday

is now commonly spelt as one word in BrE as well as AmE when it is used as an indefinite adverb:
He likes writers and wants to be one someday—J. McInerney , 1988. When it is further qualified, and therefore more compositional in character, it is written as two words, as in Let us meet some day soon.

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someplace

is a common alternative for somewhere in AmE, but still sounds somewhat alien in British contexts:
She can get a good job herself someplace and they can get married— Smith , 1983.

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somersault

is now the dominant spelling for the acrobatic movement, rather than summersault.

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sometime, some time.

1 Sometime, spelt as one word, is an indefinite adverb with two main meanings:
(1) ‘former’, as in their friend and sometime partner, and
(2) ‘at some time in the future’, as in I'll tell you about it sometime. When some and time both retain their separate meaning, they are spelt as two words: Do you have some time to spare? / The job will take some time to finish.

2 Sometime is also used to mean ‘occasional’, especially in the phrase a sometime thing, but this use is not standard:
The Federal bureaucracy has grown unwieldy and party discipline in Congress is a sometime thing—Newsweek, 1980.
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sometimes, some times.

The common adverb sometimes is written as one word: I sometimes like my coffee black. Some and times are spelt as two words when they retain their separate meanings, normally as a noun phrase: We used to have some times, in the old days.

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something.

The practice, originally in AmE and now spreading to BrE, of adding -something to a multiple of ten to denote an age range (most often but not exclusively thirty-something) is a convenient informal device:
This comic strip collection chronicles the demands of a ‘thirtysomething’ career woman—Publishers Weekly, 1989.

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somewhen

would be a useful word if people took it seriously, but its use has always been rare and only in the company of a better established word such as somewhere or somehow:
I shall write out my thoughts more at length somewhere, and somewhen, probably soon— Stuart Mill , 1833 /
I cherished the belief that somehow and somewhen I should find my way to Oxford—J.C. Masterman , 1975.

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son-in-law

means one's daughter's husband. The plural is sons-in-law.

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soon.

No sooner, being a comparative expression, is followed by than, not when:
No sooner had a vaccine for Marek's Disease been found than Fowl Pest swept through our poultry flocks—Country Life, 1972.

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soprano

has the plural form sopranos.

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sort of

see KIND OF.

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soufflé

is spelt with an acute accent on the e and is pronounced soo-flay.

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sound.

The adverb is confined to the expressions sound asleep and sleep the sounder (as in He slept the sounder for a long walk).

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soundbite

meaning ‘a short pithy extract from a recorded interview’, is a media word of the 1980s that is still going strong, along with photo opportunity and spin doctor. All three terms arose first in the US, and have spread rapidly to other parts of the English-speaking world.

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south, southern, southerly

see EAST.

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southward, southwards.

The only form for the adjective is southward (in an southward direction), but southward and southwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for southwards in BrE:
the longer transhumant routes from the Pyrenees southwards to Catalonia—Times Literary Supplement, 1976.

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sow verb

see SEW.

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spadeful

has the plural form spadefuls. See -FUL.

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spastic

has been used since the 18c to refer to victims of cerebral palsy and other afflictions causing spasmodic movements of the limbs. Its use in the 1970s and 1980s, especially by young people, in the generalized meaning ‘inadequate, incompetent’, with reference to people, not only is deeply offensive but has compromised the normal use of the word to an extent that makes it too seem derogatory now. In these circumstances a phrase such as ‘suffering from cerebral palsy’ is preferable for the adjective and ‘person suffering from cerebral palsy’ for the noun.

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-speak.

George Orwell's term Newspeak, used in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to describe a sinister language used for official communications, gave the English-speaking world a new suffix that could be used to form terms for any special mode of speaking or writing. Examples of its wide use include Britspeak, criticspeak, gutterspeak, netspeak (the language of television networks), and royalspeak:
‘I am most grateful and touched that you have decided to name a locomotive after me,’ it [sc. a telegram] said in classic royalspeak—Guardian, 1981.

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speciality, specialty.

In the primary meanings, ‘a product, activity, or service in which a person or group specializes’ and ‘a special feature or skill’, speciality is the word in BrE and specialty in AmE:
We had eaten nothing with the champagne except a small dish of potato crisps, a speciality from the island of Maui— Lodge , 1991 /
She considered dog issues her specialty—T. Drury , 1991 (US).

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special, specially

see ESPECIAL, ESPECIALLY.

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species

is pronounced spee-sheez, and is unchanged in the plural. Note that specie, pronounced spee-shi, is a technical term for coin as opposed to paper money.

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specious, spurious.

Specious, like the Latin word speciosus from which it is derived, began its life meaning ‘having a fine outward appearance’ (from Latin species ‘outward form’), but in the 17c acquired the unfavourable connotations that now characterize its meaning as ‘plausible but in fact wrong’ as in a specious argument. Spurious, which is sometimes confused with specious, is derived from the Latin adjective spurius ‘false’, and means ‘not genuine, not being what it purports to be’. A specious claim is one that is attractive but insubstantial whereas a spurious claim is one based on a false premiss.

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spectator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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spectre

is spelt this way in BrE, and specter in AmE.

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spectrum

has the plural form spectra.

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speculator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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speed verb.

The past tense and past participle are sped when the meaning is ‘to go fast’ (The car sped past / By that time she had sped down the road) and speeded when the meaning is ‘to break a speed limit’ or when the verb is followed by up (He often speeded to get there in time / The reform process needs to be speeded up).

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spell verb.

The form for the past tense and past participle is spelt or spelled. Spelt is more usual in BrE, especially in the primary meaning ‘to write or name the letters of a word’; spelled is more common in AmE and in the phrasal verb spell out = to explain in detail.

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spelling.

1 Before the invention of printing in the 15c, English and other European languages lacked any regularity of spelling and usage was largely based on personal preference. Despite the development of rules, English remains notoriously beset by irregularities of spelling, and various proposals have been made over the years for reforms that would make spelling more straightforward in the interests of native speakers and foreign learners alike. These proposals have usually been based on phonetic principles, so that a reformed spelling conforms more to pronunciation, but questions of whose pronunciation forms the basis and which spellings are appropriate when more than one is available for a particular sound (e.g. ou as in count or ow as in cow) have not been resolved. Another objection is that a phonetic orthography would obscure word origins and connections, especially in groups of words in which the stress pattern changes, e.g. adore / adoration and nation / national. In any case, no machinery for reform exists, and it is unlikely that significant change can be achieved except by the weight of ordinary usage. (For a fuller discussion of this issue, see
The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992, 973–6.)

2 A major cause of confusion is the exceptional tolerance English has for variant spellings. This works in unpredictable ways, so that accessary / accessory and judgement / judgment are all permitted spellings whereas accomodation is not a permitted variant of accommodation nor millenium of millennium. In this book, preferred spellings are given when legitimate alternatives exist and correct spellings are identified when other occurring forms are not legitimate.
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3 There are two broad categories of spelling difficulty:
(1) systematic problems that occur in words belonging to a certain type (e.g. the formation of nouns from verbs in -dge, such as acknowledgement and judgement) and in the inflection of words (e.g. the plural of nouns in -o such as potato and solo, and the -ed and -ing forms of verbs such as benefit and unravel), and
(2) individual difficulties attached to particular words (e.g. embarrass with two rs but harass with one, and millionaire with one n but questionnaire with two) and sets of words that can be confused (e.g. desert / dessert and hoard / horde).

The second category includes words adopted with little change from other languages, causing problems of inflection in English (e.g. shanghai and ski).
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4 Guidance on the more important systematic features of spelling and inflection will be found in the following separate entries: ABBREVIATIONS, CO-, CONTRACTIONS, DE-, DIS-, DOUBLING OF FINAL CONSONANTS WITH SUFFIXES, -ER AND -EST FORMS, -ER AND -OR, -EY AND -Y IN ADJECTIVES, -FUL, HYBRID FORMATIONS, I BEFORE E, -IZE, -ISE IN VERBS, LATIN PLURALS, -LESS, -LIKE, -LY, MIS-, NON-, -O, PALINDROME, PRE-, -RE AND -ER, SELF-, SEMI-, -T AND -ED, -UM, UN-, -XION.
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5 For differences in British and American spelling, see AMERICAN ENGLISH (3).
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6 The table below lists words in common use that cause particular spelling difficulties. Some of these are also given as separate entries.

WORD

COMMENT

accommodate, accommodation, etc.

two cs, two ms

acknowledgement

-dge- preferred form

acquaint, acquaintance, etc.

acq-

acquire

acq-

acquit

acq-

aggressive, aggression, etc.

two gs, two s's

apostasy

ends -asy

appalling

two ps, two ls

artefact

arte- preferred to arti-

asphalt

not ash-

bail / bale

see entry

baulk

see entry

biased

preferred to biassed

breach/breech

see entry

changeable

-eable

chord / cord

see entry

commemorate

two ms followed by one m

committee

two ms, two ts

complement / compliment

see entry

connoisseur

two ns, two s's

consensus

not concensus

cooperate, cooperation, etc.

no hyphen

desiccated

one s, two cs

desperate

two es

diphthong

not dipthong

dispatch

preferred to despatch

dissect

two s's

dissipate

two s's, one p

draft / draught

see entry

ecstasy

ends -asy

eighth

two hs

embarrass, embarrassment, etc.

two rs, two s's

enthral

one l

exhilarate

two as

fulfil

one final l; AmE also fulfill

gauge

-au- not -ua-

guard, guardian, etc.

-ua- not -au-

harass, harassment, etc.

one r, two s's

hoard / horde

see entry

idiosyncrasy

ends -asy

impostor

ends -or

install

two ls

instalment

one l; AmE installment

judgement

-dge- preferred form

liquefy

ends -efy

manoeuvre

-oeu-; AmE maneuver

mayonnaise

two ns, one s

medieval

-e- preferred to -ae-

mellifluous

two ls followed by fl

memento

mem- not mom-

millennium

two ls, two ns

millionaire

two ls, one n

minuscule

not miniscule (see entry)

mischievous

not -ievious

misspell

two s's

moccasin

two cs, one s

necessary

one c, two s's

occurrence

two cs, two rs

Portuguese

u before and after g

practice / practise

see entry

principal / principle

see entry

questionnaire

two ns

rarefy

ends -efy

recommend

one c, two ms

restaurateur

no n

resuscitate

-s- followed by -sc-

Romanian

Rom- not Rum-

sacrilegious

-i- followed by -e-

separate

two as

stationary / stationery

see entry

supersede

not -cede

threshold

one h

unwieldy

not -wieldly

veterinary

not vetinary

wholly

preferred to wholely

withhold

two hs

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spill.

The form for the past tense and past participle is spilled or spilt:
He nearly spilled his drink— Updike , 1988 /
The lounge boy … left too much change on the table and a puddle where he'd spilt the Coke— Doyle , 1990 /
Other multinationals doubtless polluted waterways or spilt their toxics—Guardian, 1994. Although spilt was the more favoured form until the end of the 19c spilled seems to be more common in the 20c (especially in the past form), but spilt is secure in the expression (crying over) spilt milk. There is no clear evidence of a distinction in the patterns between BrE and AmE.

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spin verb.

The form for the regular past tense and past participle is spun:
The other man spun towards the sound, gun extended, ready to fire—A. Lejeune , 1986 /
I was spun round, and dragged back—A. Billson , 1993. Before the 20c span was commonly used for the past tense but this is now a deviant form.

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spinach.

The recommended pronunciation is spin-ij, but spin-ich is usual in AmE and also occurs in BrE.

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spin doctor

someone who speaks at a senior level for a political party and gives a favourable ‘spin’ (i.e. interpretation) to events, is a vogue media term of the 1980s and 1990s: see SOUNDBITE.

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spinney

a BrE word for a small wood or copse, has the plural form spinneys.

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spiral.

The verb has inflected forms spiralled, spiralling in BrE, but often spiraled, spiraling in AmE.

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spirit.

The verb has inflected forms spirited, spiriting.

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spiritual, spirituous.

The two words now have distinct meanings, spiritual being the general word relating to the spirit or soul, and spirituous referring to distilled alcoholic drinks. In older writing up to the end of the 19c spirituous is sometimes found as a synonym of spiritual.

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spirt

see SPURT.

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spit verb.

The form for the regular past tense and past participle in BrE is spat, but in AmE either spat or spit is used:
I was so mad I could have spit—New Yorker, 1989.

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spitting image

meaning ‘an exact double’, is an established phrase, although it is in origin a misunderstanding of spit and image (spit and picture also occurred), which was itself an extension of the early 19c phrase the (very) spit of. A transitional form spitten image is first recorded in 1910. The older forms are also occasionally found:
Look at this, Father, appeared last Friday on Sister Philomena, the very spit and image of the nail marks in the palms of our Blessed Lord— Mantel , 1989.

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spiv

a 20c British colloquial expression for ‘a man characterized by flashy dress, who makes a living by illicit or unscrupulous dealings’, emulates the American genius for inventing short words (e.g. blurb, stunt) whose sound is curiously suited to their meaning. Spiv may be connected with the late 19c slang words spiffed ‘smartly dressed’ and spiffy ‘smart, spruce’.

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splendour

is spelt -our in BrE and splendor in AmE.

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split infinitive.

1 A split infinitive occurs when a word (usually an adverb) or phrase comes between the particle to and the verb of a so-called to-infinitive (to really love / to really and truly love). No other grammatical issue has so divided English speakers since the split infinitive was declared to be a solecism in the 19c: raise the subject of English usage in any conversation today and it is sure to be mentioned. The term itself is first recorded as recently as the 1890s, although the controversy is somewhat older and the practice very much so. Examples occur in Middle English (though only twice in Chaucer) but it went out of fashion from the 16c to the end of the 18c, and no examples have been found in Shakespeare (unless we count Sonnet 142: Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows, Thy pity may deserve to pitied be). During the 19c it came back into favour, with examples to be found in Fanny Burney , Thomas Hardy , and most famously in a poem of Byron:
To sit on rocks to muse o'er flood and fell, To slowly trace the forest's shady scene—Academy, 1897.

2 Now, at the end of the 20c, the split infinitive is widely held to be an error on the grounds that the particle to and its verb belong together. The basis for this belief is highly questionable. Other separations occur, for example between a verb and its auxiliary verb (I have never said so), but as a matter of style (rather than grammar) the objection can be valid, especially when the adverb can be placed naturally in another position or when the split is a lengthy one:
We talked about how everything was going to suddenly change— Williams , 1985 (defensible on grounds of emphasis, perhaps, but the normal order is
We talked about how everything was suddenly going to change) / You two shared a curious dry ability to without actually saying anything make me feel dirty— Roth , 1987 (split here for effect).
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3 On the other hand, the split infinitive avoided, usually by putting the adverb before or after the entire to-infinitive, can lead to results that are just as unnatural, often stylistically poor, and in some cases ambiguous or misleading:
Rhys considers it unwise to attempt radically to alter taxes on large cars, as proposed by Labour—Autocar and Motor, 1990 /
It should be the Government's task quietly to advocate such a comprehensive strategy with our American allies—Times, 1998. In both examples the natural position of the adverbs radically and quietly is after the word to, and in the first case the important connection between radically and the verb it qualifies (alter) is compromised. In some cases, the adverb becomes attached to the wrong verb:
It was in Paris that the wartime alliance began finally to break up—television broadcast, 1998. It is arguable in these cases that the adverb, or adverb phrase, has a stronger claim to association with the verb than does the purely functional particle to. In writing it is often possible to rephrase so as to avoid the hazard altogether, but in speech a sentence once begun has to be finished, and sometimes an infinitive is better split either because the rhythm of the sentence demands it or because ambiguity might otherwise result.
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4 When an adverb, especially an intensifying adverb such as actually, even, ever, further, just, quite, really, belongs with a verb that happens to be an infinitive, it is usually better (and sometimes necessary) to place it between to and the verb:
I want to really study, I want to be a scholar— Murdoch , 1987 /
In face of all this Patrick managed to quite like him— Amis , 1988. In some cases, an adverbial phrase is also inseparable from its verb:
It allowed Fernanda Herford to slightly more than double her money— Barnes , 1993.
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5 RECOMMENDATION. The split infinitive, though recent as an object of disapproval in the broader context of the history of English, has sufficient weight of opinion against it to recommend avoidance when possible, and especially when it is stylistically awkward. But it is neither a major error nor a grammatical blunder, and it is acceptable and at times necessary when considerations of rhythm and clarity call for it.
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spoiled, spoilt.

In BrE the normal form for the past tense and past participle is spoilt, although spoiled is also used and is the dominant form in AmE. As an adjective in attributive position (i.e. before a noun, as in a spoilt child) spoilt is always used in BrE and sometimes in AmE.

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spokesperson

see -PERSON.

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sponge

has derivative forms spongeable and spongeing (both with e), but spongy.

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spontaneity

is traditionally pronounced spon-t-nee-i-ti, but the alternative spon-t-nay-i-ti is becoming increasingly common.

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Spoonerism.

The Revd W. A. Spooner (1844–1930), Dean and Warden of New College, Oxford, has given his name to this most endearing form of linguistic error involving the transposition of letters, although those commonly attributed to him are likely to be spurious, e.g. a well-boiled icicle (for a well-oiled bicycle) and a half-warmed fish (for a half-formed wish).

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spoonful

has the plural form spoonfuls.

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spouse

is a convenient genderneutral term, less formal in tone than it once was, for a married man in relation to his wife and a married woman in relation to her husband.

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spring verb.

The past tense is sprang or occasionally (especially in AmE) sprung. The past participle is sprung.

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spry.

The inflected forms and derivatives are spryer, spryest; spryly, spryness.

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spurt

is the dominant spelling for the noun and verb to do with gushing and sudden increase of effort, not spirt.

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squalor

is spelt -or in both BrE and AmE.

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squeeze verb.

The past tense and past participle are squeezed. The past form squoze is non-standard or dialectal, despite its use by President Ronald Reagan at a press conference in 1985 when commenting on a small skin cancer: I picked at it and I squoze it and so forth and messed myself up a little.

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stadium.

The plural forms are stadia (with reference to the ancient world) and stadiums (with modern reference).

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staff.

The plural in the meanings ‘pole’ and ‘body of employees’ is staffs. In the music meaning it is staffs or staves.

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stalactite, stalagmite.

A stalactite hangs down from the roof of a cave, and is formed from dripping water containing rich minerals. A stalagmite rises up from the floor and is formed from deposits also caused by dripping. Both words are derived from the Greek word stalass meaning ‘to drip’, and are pronounced with the stress on the first syllable in BrE but with the stress on the second syllable in AmE.

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stanch

see STAUNCH.

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stand verb.

In BrE candidates stand for office, whereas in AmE they run for it.

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standard English.

The term has been variously defined and heavily politicized, but essentially it is the form of English that is most widely accepted and understood in an English-speaking country and tends to be based on the educated speech of a particular area, in England the south-east (although it can be spoken in a variety of accents). It is used in newspapers and broadcasting and is the form normally taught to learners of English. For a fuller treatment see The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), 982–3.

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standpoint

see POINT OF VIEW.

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state.

It is usual to spell it with a capital initial letter when it refers to political entities, either nations (The State of Israel / a State visit), or parts of a federal nation (the State of Virginia / crossing the State border), and when it means ‘civil government’ (Church and State / the Secretary of State). This applies both to names and to general reference when necessary to avoid possible ambiguity with the general meanings of state (as in the state [= condition] of Israel). In other contexts a lower-case initial is used (a police state / the welfare state).

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stately

is an adjective only (as in a stately home). The notional adverb statelily would be too awkward and is not used.

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stationary, stationery.

Stationary is an adjective and means ‘not moving’ whereas stationery is a noun and denotes paper and writing materials. Both words are derived from the Latin word stare ‘to stand’. The relevance of this to stationary is obvious, and the connection with stationery (and stationer, a supplier of stationery) is through the medieval Latin word stationarius which meant ‘a bookseller’, who was a fixed (as distinct from itinerant) shopkeeper.

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statistics noun

is treated as singular as the name of the science (Statistics is merely a form of knowledge), and as plural when referring to items of statistical information (The statistics of suicide are striking). The singular form statistic, denoting a single piece of information, is well established:
The statistic of 22.2 unemployed to every notified vacancy in Scotland—Times, 1973.

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status

is pronounced stay-ts and has the plural form statuses (the Latin plural is stats and is not used in English).

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staunch, stanch.

Staunch (pronounced stawnch) is used both for the verb meaning ‘to restrain the flow of blood’ (with the blood or the wound as its object) and for the adjective meaning ‘trustworthy, loyal’. The variant form stanch (pronounced stahnch) is preferred in AmE for the verb.

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stave noun.

One of its meanings is the same as that of staff, a set of lines on which musical notes are written. The plural of both forms is staves.

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stave verb.

Both staved and stove are used for the past tense and past participle. Staved off is more usual in the meaning ‘averted or deferred (danger or misfortune)’ and stove in is more usual in the meaning ‘crushed by forcing inwards’.

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stencil

as a verb has inflected forms stencilled, stencilling in BrE, and usually stenciled, stenciling in AmE.

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stereo

as a noun has the plural form stereos.

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stewardess

denotes a female steward, especially on a ship or aircraft. Flight attendant is now the preferred term with English-speaking airlines. See -ESS.

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sticking place, sticking point.

The phrase sticking point is first recorded in 1826, and in its common modern meaning ‘the limit reached of progress, agreement, etc.’ not until the 1960s. The allusion is to a line in Shakespeare's Macbeth (i.vii.60), where place is used: But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail. The reference here seems to be to screwing up the peg of a musical instrument until it becomes tightly fixed in its hole.

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stigma.

The plural in its special meanings (e.g. ‘the marks on Christ's hands and feet on the Cross’) is stigmata, with the stress either on the first or on the second syllable. In the figurative sense ‘a mark of disgrace or discredit’, the plural is stigmas.

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stigmatize

meaning ‘to describe as unworthy or disgraceful’, behaves like regard in being followed by as:
Negro styles traditionally stigmatized as ‘race’ music—Times, 1977.

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stile, style.

There are three words here, all derived from the Latin word stilus meaning ‘a writing tool’. The two words spelt stile are
(1) from Old English, meaning ‘a set of steps for crossing a fence’ and
(2) probably from Dutch, meaning ‘a vertical piece in the frame of a panelled door’.

The word style in its familiar meanings is spelt with a y from a false association with the Greek word stulos meaning ‘column’.

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stiletto

the knife and the high-heeled shoe, has the plural form stilettos.

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still life

the genre of painting, has the plural form still lifes.

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stimulus

has the plural form stimuli (pronounced stim-yoo-liy with the last syllable as in lie).

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stimy, stimie

see STYMIE.

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sting.

The verb has the past tense and past participle stung.

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stink.

The past tense of the verb is stank and the past participle is stunk. Stunk is occasionally used for the past tense, but is not now standard.

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stoep

pronounced like stoop, is a South African word for a terraced veranda in front of a house.

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stoic, stoical.

As an adjective, stoic is normally used attributively (i.e. before a noun, as in stoic virtues and stoic indifference), and preserves a more direct reference to the philosophy of the ancient Stoics from whom the word is derived. In predicative position (i.e. after a verb) stoical is more usual, and in all its uses conveys the more generalized allusive sense of personal restraint and self-control. A stoic indifference is the kind of indifference that the Stoics taught and practised, whereas a stoical indifference is indifference that is, on its own terms, concentrated and resolute. When the reference is to people rather than qualities, stoical has to be used: one can have stoic or stoical resolution but one can only be stoical oneself.

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stone adverb.

Combinations such as stone-cold and stone-dead, in which stone is used adverbially (‘like a stone’), have been recorded for centuries. More recently, stone has developed a freer adverbial use as a mere intensive equivalent to very or completely. It is not easy to pinpoint the date of this development, but it is now common, especially in AmE:
People … got stone drunk and cruised through red lights— Keillor , 1989.

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stood

is used for standing in non-standard uses comparable to sat for sitting, such as:
My husband was stood on the opposite side of the pits—Cycling Weekly, 1993. The origins of this use are obscure and probably dialectal.

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stop, stay.

In 19c fiction people frequently stopped with friends (overnight in their house), stopped for dinner, or stopped at home. In modern English we would use stay instead of stop in all these cases. But the older use still survives:
‘She's stopping with her daughter,’ the woman said. ‘She'll be back on Thursday.’— Mantel , 1985. It is also to be seen in the phrasal verbs stop off and stop over, meaning ‘to make a break in a journey’ (especially a long journey), and in the noun equivalents stop-off and stopover.

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storey, story.

For storey and floor see FLOOR, STOREY. The plural form is storeys. In AmE story is the usual form and its plural is stories; and what in BrE is a three-storeyed house is in AmE a three-storied house.

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straight away

meaning ‘immediately’, is first recorded in the 17c. It continued to be used as two words until the beginning of the 20c, when (probably under the influence of the fast-fading adverb straightway) it began to be written as one word, and uses of this form are frequent:
He couldn't decide whether to make for home straightaway— Wall , 1991. In AmE, straightaway is also an adjective meaning ‘direct’ (of a course of action) and a noun meaning ‘a straight course or section’.

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straight, strait.

Straight is a Middle English past participle of the verb stretch and has many meanings in modern English, primarily ‘extending uniformly in the same direction without a curve or bend’. Strait, which has the basic meaning ‘tight, narrow’, is used as a noun meaning ‘a narrow passage of water connecting two seas’, in the plural as in dire straits, and in combinations such as strait-laced and straitjacket (straightjacket is also used but the better spelling is strait-).

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strategy, tactics.

In war, as in politics and business, strategy is used of an overall plan of action embodying certain principles and objectives, and tactics is used of the detailed means adopted to achieve them. Tactics is normally treated as a plural, with tactic available as a singular form with the meaning ‘a tactical manoeuvre or device’.

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stratum

is normally pronounced strah-tm, and has the plural form strata. The use of strata as a singular noun (with a plural stratas) is erroneous:
The earth's crust contains stratas of hot, dry rock and natural aquifers—C. Wheater , 1990.

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street

see ROAD.

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strength

should be pronounced with the g fully articulated, not as if the spelling were strenth (to rhyme with tenth).

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strew

has a past tense strewed and a past participle form strewn (preferred) or strewed.

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stricken

a past participle of strike, survives chiefly in compound adjectives such as grief-stricken and panic-stricken. In compositional uses such as He has become stricken with remorse, it sounds archaic.

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stride.

The verb has the past tense strode and the past participle stridden. The participle is not readily remembered, and strode is sometimes mistakenly used instead:
Great strides are being strode in the cultivation of preteen female engineers—The Face, 1987.

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strike.

The verb has the past tense struck and the past participle struck or, in certain contexts, STRICKEN (see separate entry).

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string.

The normal form for the past tense and the past participle is strung. A musical instrument with strings is called a stringed instrument, but if the strings need renewing it is restrung.

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strive verb.

The regular past tense is strove and the past participle striven, but strived is commonly used for both in AmE:
We've strived to lead the way in offering you the tools you need—Money (US), 1993.

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stubbornness

is spelt with two ns.

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stucco

a word of Italian origin for a type of plaster covering walls, has the plural form stuccos, and as a verb it has inflections stuccoes, stuccoed, stuccoing.

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studio

has the plural form studios.

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stupefy

meaning ‘to make insensible’ or ‘to astonish’, is spelt -efy (like liquefy and rarefy), not -ify (like dignify and modify).

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stupor

meaning ‘a dazed state’, is spelt -or in BrE and AmE.

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sty.

The word meaning ‘a pen for pigs’ has the plural form sties. The word for ‘an inflamed swelling on the eyelid’ should be spelt sty, not stye, and also has the plural form sties.

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style

see STILE.

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stymie

is now the regular spelling of the word used in golf and in the meaning ‘to obstruct or thwart’, rather than stimy or stimie. The verb has inflected forms stymies, stymied, stymieing.

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subjunctive mood.

1 The subjunctive mood, one of the great shifting sands of English grammar, is a verbal form or mood expressing wish or hypothesis in contrast to fact, and usually denotes what is imagined, wished, demanded, proposed, and so on. In modern English it is distinguishable from the ordinary indicative mood only in the third person singular present tense, which omits the final s (if he make rather than if he makes) and in the forms be and were of the verb to be.

2 The subjunctive mood was common in Old English and until about 1600, then went into decline but has become remarkably prevalent again in the 20c, first in AmE and then in other forms of English including BrE:
I was going to recommend that he be terminated—New Yorker, 1987 /
It was as if Sally were disturbed in some way and was translating this disturbance into the habit of thought— Brookner , 1986 (UK) (note the shift to indicative mood after and) /
She insisted Jane sit there— Anderson , (New Zealand)/
It was suggested he wait till the next morning— Ondaatje , 1992 (Canada). In many cases, an alternative construction with should can also be used:
It was important that he should be included in my photographs— Francis , 1980.
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3 Typical subjunctive patterns are:
a After if (or as if, as though, unless) in hypothetical conditions:
Each was required to undertake that if it were chosen it would place work here—Times, 1986.
b In that-clauses following a verb connoting suggestion, wish, etc. (e.g. demand, insist, pray, recommend, suggest, wish):
Fundamentalist Islam … decrees that men and women be strictly segregated—Listener, 1988 /
Your situation demands that either Kooti be nobbled or Whitmore nullified—M. Shadbolt , 1986 (New Zealand).
c Be or were placed at the head of a clause with the subject following in an inverted construction:
Were I to get drunk, it would help me in the fight— Updike , 1986 /
Statistically, afterworlds—be they Christian, Greek, Pharaonic—must be populated almost entirely by children— Lively , 1987.
d In negative constructions, not (or never etc.) is normally placed before the subjunctive verb (and this position identifies the subjunctive status of verbs in the first and second persons as well as the third):
Again he insisted that he not be followed—Observer, 1987 /
One essential quality for a holiday novel is that it not be too light— Raphael , 1988.
e In certain fixed expressions and phrases, e.g. as it were, be that as it may, come what may, far be it from me, God save the Queen, heaven forbid, long live the King, perish the thought, so be it.
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submissible

meaning ‘able to be submitted’, is a better form than the alternative submittable.

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subpeona

a writ ordering a person to appear at a lawcourt, has the plural form subpoenas. In AmE it is sometimes spelt subpena, with the plural form subpenas. The verb has inflections subpoenas, subpoenaed, subpoenaing.

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subsidence.

The traditional pronunciation is sb-siy-dns, with the stress on the second syllable, but the form sub-si-dns, with the stress on the first syllable under the influence of residence and subsidy, is also common in standard speech.

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substantial, substantive.

Substantial is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable and substantive with the stress on the first syllable. Both words mean ‘having substance’, but substantial is the word in general use to denote people or things of size, importance, or value
(Scotland Yard said a ‘substantial amount of firearms and explosives’ had been recovered from the house—East Anglian Daily Times, 1993), whereas substantive refers more to what something consists of
(The dramatic political and diplomatic developments of 1988—of more importance to the achievement of a substantive peace than anything else since 1967—owed nothing to the peace process—D. McDowell , 1990). Substantial discussions are lengthy and wide-ranging ones, whereas substantive discussions deal with important topics. Substantive often occurs in technical contexts such as law and parliamentary procedure; for example, a substantive motion is one that deals specifically with a subject in due form.

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substitute

see REPLACE.

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subtitles, supertitles, surtitles.

Subtitles, printed captions that translate the dialogue in a foreign-language cinema or television film, appear at the bottom of the screen. Supertitles or surtitles, a more recent invention, translate the text of a play or opera as it is being said or sung, and are usually projected above the stage.

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subtle

has a corresponding adverb subtly.

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succeed.

When it means ‘to be successful’, succeed is followed by in + an -ing form, not (unlike fail) by to:
Some local preservation enthusiasts succeeded in getting the house listed as of architectural and historic interest—E. Lemarchand , 1972.

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succour

a rather formal word meaning ‘aid, assistance, especially in time of need’, is spelt -our in BrE and succor in AmE.

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such.

1 SUCH AS AN EMPHASIZER.
How can the House express its indignant rejection of football hooliganism while setting such a persuasive example of undignified and daily indiscipline?—Guardian Weekly, 1986. The construction with such a followed by an adjective is established and idiomatic in current English, despite occasional objections that so and not such should do the work of emphasizing here (… while setting so persuasive an example). (Compare the use of such qualifying a noun, to which nobody objects:
For God's sake, Beryl, don't be such a nitwit—J. Drummond , 1975.) In some cases such appears to qualify the combination of adjective and noun:
It is indeed hard to see how such a gigantic work … can be considered ‘minimal’ in any way—Radio Times, 1985.

2 SUCH AS WITH FOLLOWING PRONOUN. When an inflecting pronoun follows, it is more natural to regard such as as a preposition and to follow it with me, her, him, etc., rather than I, she, he, etc. (regarding such as as a conjunction with the continuation understood as such as I am, etc.)
They were not bad, for such as her— Macaulay , 1920.
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3 SUCH AS OR LIKE. Like is common when a single instance follows (a poet like Tennyson / take a girl like you), but such as is preferable (and more idiomatic) when a list follows (Members of the cat family, such as the lion, the tiger, and the leopard). See LIKE (2).
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4 SUCH … AS … OR SUCH … THAT … We are such stuff as dreams are made on. The relative pronoun that follows such in sentences of this type is as and not who, which, or that. But such followed by that is legitimate in constructions of the following types, in which that is a conjunction:
Midge was such a dingbat … that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during World War II—J. Irving , 1978 /
The ladies who feature with her on her home-video were such that ‘a man would be lucky to get out of them alive’ (hysterical laughter)—Listener, 1983.
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suchlike.

He left the sea, having had what amounted to a nervous breakdown, ‘always thinking of the other ships that went up, the bombings and suchlike’—Daily Telegraph, 1971. Fowler's verdict in 1926 was that this use of suchlike ‘is now usually left to the uneducated’ and that the like should be used instead. In terms of current use this judgement is too severe, especially for everyday conversational usage.

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suddenness

is spelt with two ns.

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suffix.

In grammar, a suffix is a word or element added at the end of another word to adjust or qualify its meaning, such as -ation (confirmation, privatization), -ing (driving, soldiering), and -itis (appendicitis). Some suffixes are created artificially from the end part of words to form similar types of word with different reference, e.g. -aholic (from alcoholic, forming workaholic etc.)

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suffixes added to proper names.

1 The suffix most commonly used to form nouns and adjectives relating to people's names (usually writers, artists, composers, etc., or founders of dynasties) is -an or -ian, and one of the oldest formations of this type is Virgilian (first recorded in 1513). Other formations include Aristotelian (1607), Ovidian (1617), and Ciceronian (1661), and it will be seen from this short list alone that some have survived more strongly than others. Shakespearian (with an occasional variant Shakespearean) is not recorded before 1755. Some words made in this way have multiple reference, e.g. Alexandrian (normally referring to the city of Alexandria or the literature or philosophy associated with it rather than to Alexander the Great). More recent formations include Beethovenian and Shavian, the latter derived from a Latinate form of the name of G. B. Shaw for reasons of euphony. Euphony often calls for use of other suffixes, such as -esque (from French, e.g. Dantesque, Schumannesque, Turneresque) and -ic (Byronic, Platonic, Pindaric, Ptolemaic), although in some cases the reason for a particular choice of suffix is less clear.

2 When -ian is added to an unaccented final syllable of a name, the syllable is normally lengthened to accommodate the addition, so that Alfred makes Alfredian (pronounced al-free-di-n).
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sugar

has derivative forms sugared and sugary, each with one r.

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suggest.

1 When followed by a that-clause and proposing a course of action rather than hinting at a fact, suggest commonly generates a subjunctive verb, and the same is true of the noun suggestion:
Uncle doesn't suggest that she bring a lamp from the next room— Bellow , 1987 (US) /
The suggestion that all HIV-positive individual be forcibly tattooed—Dædalus, 1989 (US) /
If you want to irritate D., then suggest glibly that she see a sports psychologist—Times, 1990. Alternative constructions with should (He suggested that they should find a scenic route), and with an ordinary tense (I suggest that he has another try) are more common in BrE than in AmE, but in general this verb is one of the great mainstays of the subjunctive mood in modern English. See SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

2 Note that when suggest means ‘state as a fact or hypothesis’ rather than ‘propose’ an ordinary tense is used:
I cannot accept John Peel's suggestion that punk rockers are the only truly socialist representatives we have left—Sounds, 1977.
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suggestible

means ‘open to suggestion’ (used of a person) more often than ‘able to be suggested’ (used of an idea or proposal), and is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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suitor

meaning ‘a man seeking to marry a (particular) woman’, is spelt -or, not -er.

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suit, suite.

The two forms are in origin the same word, and differences of usage are the result of historical choices since the 17c. In modern English we speak of a suit of clothes, armour, and playing cards, as well as a lawsuit and paying suit to (i.e. courting) a woman; and a suite of rooms, furniture, musical pieces, etc.

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sulphur

and its derivatives sulphurate, sulphurous, etc., are normally spelt with -ph- in BrE but -f-(sulfur etc.) in AmE.

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sullenness

is spelt with two ns.

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summersault

see SOMERSAULT.

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summon, summons.

Summon is a verb only, whereas summons is a noun and verb. A summons (plural summonses) is an order to appear before a judge or magistrate, and to summons someone is to issue them with a summons. Summon is the ordinary word meaning ‘to call formally’, as in The chairman summoned the members to a meeting.

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Sunday

see FRIDAY.

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super-.

The prefix dates from the 15c and has been prolific ever since, taking on a new lease of life in the 20c in formations such as superhighway (1925 in the physical sense in America), superman (1913), supermarket (1933), supermodel (1977), superpower (1921), supersonic (1919), superstar (1925), and superstore (1965).

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supercede

is incorrect; the correct spelling is SUPERSEDE.

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superior

is not a true comparative (like better or greater, for example) and is followed by to, not than:
The taste of an open mushroom grilled with garlic, parsley and butter is so splendid, and superior to snails given the same treatment—Times, 1980. In the language of advertising, superior has the depleted meaning ‘above average in quality’ (a superior housing development / made of superior leather).

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superlatives

see ADJECTIVE (3), -ER AND -EST FORMS.

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supersede

is the correct spelling for the verb meaning ‘to take the place of’. It is derived from the Latin word sedeo ‘sit’, but the influence of accede, intercede, precede, and others (derived from Latin cedo ‘go’) often mistakenly causes this word to be spelt supercede.

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superstitions.

A superstition in language, like any superstition, is a widely held belief with no rational basis. In English these include the beliefs that sentences should not begin with and or but, that a preposition should not end a sentence, that none should always take a singular verb, and that infinitives should not be split. See also FETISH (2).

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supervise

is spelt -vise, not -vize. See -IZE, -ISE.

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supine

see PRONE.

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supple

has the adverbial form supply (two syllables) rather than supplely (three syllables).

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suppose, supposing.

Both words are used as quasi-conjunctions to introduce an assumption or hypothesis:
Supposing the plan succeeded and his wife got stuck away in a nut-house—H. Howard , 1973 /
Suppose the guards were more alert, security measures more effective—R. Ludlum , 1978.

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supposedly

is pronounced as four syllables.

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suppressible

meaning ‘able to be suppressed’, is spelt -ible, not -able. See -ABLE, -IBLE.

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suppressor

a device for suppressing electrical interference, is spelt -or, not -er.

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sure, surely.

1 In all parts of the English-speaking world, surely is the dominant form in the meaning ‘in a sure or certain manner’ (slowly but surely) and in the use inviting or presupposing agreement (Surely that can't be right). In BrE, sure is limited as an adverb to fixed expressions such as sure as eggs is eggs and as sure as God made little apples, and to use as a form of assent in replying to a question or proposition, although this is better established in AmE:
‘Is that a fact?’ ‘Sure,’ murmured Archibald—P.G. Wodehouse , 1914 /
I asked if you could finish your lunch, and they said sure, no hurry— Stout , 1975 (US). (Surely is also used in this way.)

2 In other adverbial uses sure is most closely associated with AmE:
Parts of it were pretty, sure— Lurie , 1969 /
A chemical fire. You worry about those, sure, said Clerk—New Yorker, 1988.
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surmise

meaning ‘to infer doubtfully’ and (as a noun) ‘a conjecture or suspicion’, is spelt -ise, not -ize. See -IZE, -ISE.

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surprise

is spelt -ise, not -ize, as a noun and a verb. See -IZE, -ISE.

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surveillance

is pronounced s-vay-lns, with the -ll- articulated.

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survey

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb.

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surveyor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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survivor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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susceptible

has two principal meanings, each with its own construction. In the meaning ‘likely to be affected by’, it is followed by to:
Stinnes had reached that dangerous age when a man was only susceptible to an innocent cutie or to an experienced floozy— Deighton , 1984 /
The leopard frog … is particularly susceptible to a kidney carcinoma—Scientific American, 1973. When it means ‘allowing, admitting of’, it is followed by of:
In the late fourteenth century, one finds Wyclif using the word ‘nation’ (which was susceptible of a wide variety of usages), to denote men who had been bred in England—J.A.F. Thomson , 1992. It should not be used as a synonym of liable to or prone to:
Fast aircraft with swept-back wings are susceptible to dutch rolls—B. Jackson , 1976.

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suspect, suspicious.

1 Suspect is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun (the chief suspect) and adjective (a suspect package), and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb (They suspect something).

2 As an adjective, suspect is close in meaning to suspicious; both mean essentially ‘causing suspicion’. The chief differences are (1) that suspicious can also be used to describe a person (= feeling suspicion, as in They were suspicious of our intentions), and (2) that suspect has additional connotations regarding worth or reliability (suspect farm produce).
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3 The adverb suspiciously can mean either ‘in a manner expressing suspicion’ or ‘in a manner causing suspicion’, depending on the context: She looked at us suspiciously is an example of the first meaning and She was behaving suspiciously is an example of the second. An adverb suspectly is recorded but is hardly ever used in current English.
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suspender.

In BrE a suspender is a clip device holding up the top of a stocking or sock, whereas in AmE suspenders are what in BrE are called (men's) braces.

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suspense, suspension.

The two words used to be interchangeable in several meanings, but have since gone their separate ways. Suspense is used primarily to denote ‘a state of anxious uncertainty or expectation’, and is common attributively (i.e. before a noun, as in suspense thriller) to refer to a form of writing or drama. Suspension has more physical and technical meanings (as in a car's suspension and a suspension bridge) as well as the non-physical meaning ‘the state of being suspended from an office or position’.

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sustain.

Fowler's view in 1926 was that ‘sustain as a synonym for suffer or receive or get belongs to the class of formal words, and is better avoided’, and its use in the contexts of injuries, losses, hardship, etc., is still widely disliked. Fowler was anxious to confine it to circumstances that involved prolonged endurance
(Scarce one [of the cities] was now capable of sustaining a siege— Macaulay , 1849), but there is a thin line dividing this kind of brave resistance from more temporary kinds. In its other meanings, ‘to keep in being’, ‘to maintain in a certain state’, ‘to give support to’, and others, sustain is unexceptionable.

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swap

meaning ‘exchange’ (noun and verb) is the preferred spelling, not swop.

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swat, swot.

Swat is the spelling for the verb meaning ‘to hit sharply’ and the corresponding noun. Swot (originally a dialect variant of sweat) is a BrE colloquialism meaning ‘to study hard’ and ‘someone who studies hard’.

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swath, swathe.

The word meaning ‘a ridge of grass left after mowing’ and ‘a strip’ is spelt swath (pronounced swawth; preferred) or swathe (pronounced swaydh). The noun and verb meaning ‘a bandage or wrapping’ and ‘to wrap in bandages’ is spelt swathe (pronounced swaydh).

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sweat

see GENTEELISM.

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swell.

The verb has the past tense swelled and the past participle swollen, although swelled is sometimes used for the past participle when the reference is to a specified increase in size or numbers rather than to an unwelcome or harmful expansion or swelling:
Unlike the dailies, the number of titles was not swelled by relaunches and changes of status—C. Seymour-Ure , 1992.

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swim.

The past form of the verb is swam (She swam to the shore) and the past participle is swum (Have you swum recently?), but the reverse will be found in older writing:
Who, being shipwrecked, had swam naked to land— Johnson , 1750 /
As she sprang to meet it, with an eye that swum to thanks— Tennyson , 1847.

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swine

is a normal word for pig in AmE, but in BrE is mostly used either as a collective plural or (more often) informally as a singular or plural to refer contemptuously to a person or thing one objects to.

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swing.

In current use the past tense and past participle of the verb are swung (He swung his leg round / The street names were swung from signs on corners), but swang will be found for the past tense in older writing:
His arms dangled rather than swang— Belloc , 1912.

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swinging, swingeing.

Swinging is the ordinary present participle of the verb swing, whereas swingeing means ‘forcible, severe’ (as in swingeing tax increases), and is part of an archaic verb swinge meaning ‘to strike hard’.

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swivel.

The verb has inflected forms swivelled, swivelling in BrE, and in AmE usually swiveled, swiveling.

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swop

see SWAP.

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swot

see SWAT.

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syllabub

a sweet dessert made of cream, is preferably spelt syll-, not sillabub.

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syllabus

has the plural form syllabuses, not syllabi.

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syllepsis

(from a Greek root meaning ‘taking together’) is a figure of speech in which a word, or a particular form or inflection of a word, is made to fit two grammatical structures but is formally correct only for one, e.g.
She's a lovely, intelligent, sensitive woman who has and continues to turn around my life in a wonderfully positive way—Woody Allen reported in Times, 1992 (to turn fits with continues but not with has). Constructions of this type are technically ungrammatical, but they occur from time to time in the more spontaneous world of conversational speech. The terms syllepsis and zeugma (from a Greek word for ‘yoking’) are both used for the type characterized by a meaning difference in the ‘shared’ word rather than a grammatical one:
Sir Geoffrey Howe, who had arrived in a limousine, the editor of the Daily Telegraph, who had arrived in a motor-boat, and Dave Nellist, who had arrived in an anorak— Parris , 1991. There is much inconsistency in the way these two terms are applied.

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sylvan

is more common than silvan as the (chiefly poetic) word for ‘wooded’ or ‘rural’, despite its origin in the Latin word silva meaning ‘wood’:
amid scenes of sylvan beauty—A. Wainwright , 1990.

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symbolic, symbolical.

Both words mean ‘serving as a symbol’ or ‘involving the use of symbols’, but symbolic is much more common:
On the day before Easter, there is a symbolic burning of a cloth-draped wooden statue of Judas—C. Hammerschlag , 1988.

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sympathetic

in the meaning ‘eliciting sympathy’ rather than ‘feeling sympathy’, dates from the beginning of the 20c. Despite Fowler's reservations (he wrote in 1926 when it was still a new meaning), it has become rapidly established in standard English:
Despite the sympathetic portrayal of his father in these anecdotes, Lawrence turned against him after the death of his mother—J. Meyers , 1990.

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sympathy

see EMPATHY.

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symposium

meaning ‘a gathering for discussion’, has the plural form symposia (preferred) or symposiums.

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syndrome

pronounced sin-drohm, is originally a medical term for ‘a set of symptoms’. Its use as a vogue word in general contexts meaning ‘a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, behaviour, etc.’, is as recent as the 1950s; it is generally acceptable, but not when syndrome is simply a synonym for factor or aspect, i.e. a single circumstance rather than a set of circumstances coming together, which lies at the heart of its meaning:
The falling roll syndrome [in schools] was a problem of the greatest magnitude and one never experienced before—West Lancashire Evening Gazette, 1983.

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synecdoche

pronounced si-nek-d-kee, is a figure of speech in which a more inclusive term is used for a less inclusive one or vice versa, as in England came out to bat (England more inclusive for ‘the England team’) and a fleet of fifty sail (sail less inclusive for ‘ships’). See also METONYMY.

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synonyms

are words that have the same or a near meaning, such as the pair close and shut, or the trio begin, start, and commence. Some word sets of this kind arise because words coming into English from other languages failed to drive out those already in use; for example, close is a Middle English (13c) word derived from Old French, and joined the existing Old English word shut. Other pairs of words have different levels of appropriacy; for example, kill is a general word whereas slay is literary or rhetorical, and little carries connotations of affection that are not present in the more neutral word small (compare my little house and my small house). Many words are loosely described as synonyms although their meanings are close rather than identical (e.g. danger and risk, entreat and implore, leave and depart), and few synonyms are interchangeable in all contexts.

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synopsis

meaning ‘a summary or outline’, has the plural form synopses (pronounced -seez).

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synthesis

meaning ‘a process of bringing together or connecting’, has the plural form syntheses (pronounced -seez).

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syphon

see SIPHON.

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systematic, systemic.

The word in general use in the meaning ‘done according to a plan or system’ is systematic, and one can equally speak of systematic learning (i.e. following a system or set of principles) and a systematic search (i.e. one done methodically); the second is only a slight extension in meaning of the first. The much less common word systemic is mostly confined to technical uses in medicine and linguistics, and has the underlying meaning ‘relating to a system as a whole rather than to a part of it’.

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T

table verb.

In BrE to table a proposal means to place it on the agenda for discussion, whereas in AmE it means to put it aside for an indefinite period.

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tableau

meaning ‘a group of figures representing a scene’, has the plural form tableaux (pronounced tab-lohz).

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table d'hôte

meaning ‘a meal consisting of a set menu at a fixed price’, is printed in roman type with a circumflex accent on the o.

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tablespoonful

has the plural form tablespoonfuls, but in practice the type three tablespoons of—is more usual.

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taboo

is a noun, adjective, and verb, and is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable in all three. The noun has the plural form taboos, and the verb has inflected forms taboos, tabooed, tabooing.

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tacky.

It is a little surprising that this currently fashionable term meaning ‘tawdry, in poor taste’ has nothing to do with the word meaning ‘slightly wet or sticky’, but is of American origin and is an extension of a noun tacky (or tackey) that was used disparagingly to describe a weak horse or a poor white person from the southern States. It is first recorded in the newer meaning in the 1880s in uses that sound modern, e.g.:
Two little cards (with his name printed on them in gilt. Tackey? Ugh)—I.M. Rittenhouse , 1883.

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tactics

see STRATEGY.

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tactile, tactual.

Both words mean ‘relating to the sense of touch’, but tactile has become the more usual choice.

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tag question.

This is the grammarians' name for a question added at the end of a statement and acting as a reinforcer rather than seeking an answer, as in You will do this for me, won't you?/She has been to America, hasn't she?/I don't need an umbrella, do I?. In each case the verb in the main statement has been changed into an equivalent question; if the statement is positive the tag is negative, and vice versa, although a positive tag can follow a positive statement in the type You heard it too, did you?. The use of tag questions is subject to regional variation; for example, in some regions (including Wales in the UK and S. Asia outside it) isn't it is used as an all-purpose tag irrespective of the form of the statement:
You're going home now, isn't it?—A.R. Thomas , 1994.

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talisman

meaning ‘an object supposedly endowed with magic powers’, has nothing to do with the word man and the plural is therefore talismans. Its ultimate origin is an Arabic word connected with the Greek word telesma meaning ‘consecrated object’.

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talkative.

This word is surprisingly early (15c). Fowler (1926) forbore to attack it despite its being a ‘hybrid’, i.e. the Latinate suffix -ative has been added to the English word talk. But he pointed out that this was the only example of its kind relating to this suffix, and did so ‘with a view to discouraging imitation’. So far he has largely succeeded; imitation hybrids such as writative, babblative, and scribblative are recorded in the OED, and Shakespeare used forgetive (= inclined to forge, not really a hybrid), but these have not lasted.

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-t and -ed.

A number of irregular verbs have competing past forms and past participles in -t and -ed (e.g. leapt and leaped); the most common of these are given in the table below. In some cases the length of the vowel is shortened in the -t forms (e.g. lept instead of leept for leapt). It is difficult to establish distinctions based on region or meaning, but two tendencies are discernible:
(1) the form in -ed is more often preferred in AmE, and
(2) in BrE there is a stronger preference for the -t form when it is used as a participial adjective, as in The cakes are burnt as distinct from We burned the cakes

VERB

-T FORM

-ED FORM

bereave

bereft

bereaved

beseech

besought

beseeched

burn

burnt

burned

cleave

cleft

cleaved

dream

dreamt

dreamed

dwell

dwelt

dwelled

earn

earnt

earned

kneel

knelt

kneeled

lean

leant

leaned

leap

leapt

leaped

learn

learnt

learned

smell

smelt

smelled

spell

spelt

spelled

spill

spilt

spilled

spoil

spoilt

spoiled

earnt is not standard, but is increasingly found

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tangible.

The primary meaning is ‘perceptible by touch’, but in practice figurative uses tend to be more common, in which the meaning becomes ‘clearly intelligible, not imaginary or hypothetical’, as in tangible evidence and tangible proof.

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tantalize

means more than just tease or torment, as is shown by the word's origins in the treatment meted out to the legendary Phrygian king Tantalus, who was forced to stand in water which receded when he tried to drink and under branches that drew back when he tried to pick the fruit. The word is therefore best used when it retains an element of torment caused by something offered and then withdrawn, although this cannot always be as explicit or obvious as it was for Tantalus:
Foremost among their key sources was a man whom the authors still tantalizingly refuse to name—Time, 1974.

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Taoiseach

the title of the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic, is pronounced tee-shk.

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target.

1 The figurative use of target meaning ‘an amount or objective to be achieved’ arose during the Second World War and is now more common than the primary meaning. Sir Ernest Gowers , the senior Whitehall civil servant and writer on language, grew rapidly tired of the word:
We were offered a great variety of things that we might meritoriously do to our targets. We might reach them, achieve them, attain them or obtain them; we were to feel greatly encouraged if we came in sight of the target to which we were trying to do whatever we were trying to do, and correspondingly depressed if we found ourselves either a long way behind it or (what apparently amounts to the same thing) a long way short of it—ABC of Plain Words, 1951. While care should be taken to avoid contexts that are jarringly incongruous (such as keeping abreast of targets, perhaps), the physical image is less strong than it is (for example) with ceiling, and Gowers' strictures now seem somewhat obsessive. To complain, as some do, that a doubled target is larger, and therefore necessarily easier to hit rather than harder, smacks strongly of pedantry. Used with care, target has a useful role alongside alternatives such as aim, goal, object, and objective.

2 The verb, meaning ‘to single out as an object of attack’, has inflected forms targeted, targeting.
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tarmac.

The verb has inflected forms tarmacked, tarmacking.

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tart

see PIE.

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tartan.

1 see PLAID.

2 Tartan is used allusively in informal and normally affectionate compounds to denote people or things connected with Scotland; the tartan army is the body of Scottish supporters at football games abroad, and the tartan tax is an increment on income tax that might well fund Scottish devolution.
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tassel.

The inflected forms are tasselled, tasselling in BrE and in AmE usually tasseled, tasseling.

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tasty, tasteful.

Tasty is now restricted to the context of food (and some transferred uses) and is not used in the context of good taste (= aesthetic judgement), for which tasteful is the appropriate adjective. The opposite word tasteless, however, is used in all meanings, physical and abstract.

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tattoo.

The verb has inflected form tattoos, tattooed, tattooing. It can have as its grammatical object either the design that forms the tattoo (A heart was tattooed on her left arm) or the part of the body on which the design is put (Tattooed his cheek with a winged fist).

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tautology

is the repetition of the same idea or meaning in a phrase or sentence, as in a free gift (all gifts are free), a new innovation, and to return again. Some tautologies are contained within a small group of words such as a noun phrase (e.g. future prospects, past history, no other alternative, the general consensus). Others occur in the way sentences are put together (the tautologous words are printed in bold): The activities of the club are not limited only to golf / There is no need for undue haste / The Cold War came to a final close in Germany yesterday. Except when used as a literary or rhythmic device in which the effect is intentional, this kind of tautology is normally regarded as an error and should be avoided.

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taxi.

The noun has the plural form taxis, and the verb has inflected forms taxis, taxied, taxiing.

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teaspoonful

has the plural form teaspoonfuls. The phrase three teaspoons of—is also available.

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techno-.

The word technology and its main derivatives, technological etc., date from the 17c, but it was not until the 20c that the first element techno- became a formative element in such compounds as technocracy and technocrat (both first recorded in 1919), technophobia (1965, interestingly somewhat earlier than technomania of 1969), technofreak (1973), and technobabble (1987), all associated with computing and other areas of advanced technology. Other formations refer to types of synthesized electronic music, e.g. technopop (1980) and technorock (1983), and have led to the independent word techno, used as an adjective and a noun: …
the energized electrobeats and keyboard surges of dance-floor techno—Rolling Stone, 1994.

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teem.

It sometimes causes surprise that the two apparently close meanings involved here are of two distinct verbs. One, from an Old English word meaning ‘to give birth to’, means ‘to be full of or swarming with’ (as in a sea teeming with fish), and the other, from an Old Norse and word meaning ‘to empty’, means ‘to pour or flow copiously’ (as in teeming with rain). Neither should be confused with the verb team, as used in the phrasal verb team up with.

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teenager

meaning a person aged from 13 to 19, or sometimes loosely any adolescent person, is first recorded as recently as the 1940s (first in America), although teenage is somewhat older (1920s) and teens (as in a person in his teens) is much older (17c).

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teetotaller

is spelt with two ls in BrE, but in AmE often teetotaler.

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tele-

derived from the Greek word tle meaning ‘at a distance’, is one of the great formative elements of modern English and a genuine mirror of technological advance over several centuries. It occurred earliest in words such as telescope (first recorded in 1648), telegraph (1794), telegram (1852), telephone (1876 in its modern sense), telepathy (1882), and television (1907, a hybrid formed on the Latin element vision). In more recent formations tele- has been even freer of etymological constraints: telecommunication was formed first in French in 1937 at a conference in Madrid, telecast was modelled on broadcast and telegenic (meaning ‘visually attractive on television’) on photogenic, and words such as teleprinter, teleprompter, and teletext were formed simply by lumping tele- with an existing word of whatever origin.

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televise

is a back-formation from television, and is spelt -ise, not -ize, in both BrE and AmE.

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temperature

meaning ‘a high or abnormal temperature’ (as in Have you got a temperature?) is idiomatic in modern English but mostly confined to spoken forms.

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tempo

a term in music, has the plural form tempi (preferred) or tempos.

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temporary, temporarily.

Temporary is pronounced tem-p-r-ri, as four syllables, with an additional stress on the -ar- in AmE. Temporarily has five syllables and until recently was pronounced in BrE with the stress on the first syllable, but the AmE pronunciation with the stress on the -ar- is now almost as common in BrE.

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tend.

There are two verbs here. One is a shortened form of attend and is used either with an object or intransitively with to in the meaning ‘to take care of, look after’ (Shepherds tending their flocks / The thief was watching as she tended to her father). The other is derived from Latin tendere ‘to stretch’ and is used with a to-infinitive to mean ‘be inclined to’(He tended to do what his parents advised).

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tenet

meaning ‘a dogma or doctrine’, is now normally pronounced ten-it.

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tenor.

The word has a strange range of meanings (a singing voice, a prevailing course or direction, a legal term, the subject of a metaphor), all relating in some way to the Latin word tenre ‘to hold’. The spelling is -or in all meanings in both BrE and AmE.

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tense

is the location in time of the state or action expressed by a verb. English verbs properly have only two tenses, the present (I am) and past (I was). The future is formed with shall or will (I shall/will be: see SHALL AND WILL), other forms of the past are formed with auxiliary verbs (I have been / I was being), and the past perfect is formed with the past tense of have (I had been). Choice of tense mostly corresponds to actual time, but there are conventional uses of tenses other than this, e.g. the HISTORIC PRESENT in narratives (see the separate entry) and the use of the future for present as in polite requests such as Will that be all for now?. Choice of tense becomes more complex in reported speech (He said it is/was a nuisance): for this see SEQUENCE OF TENSES.

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terminal, terminus.

1 In BrE these words are largely interchangeable in meanings associated with the end of routes in different forms of transport, but a terminus is more likely to be a road or railway station at the end of a line and a terminal is more likely to be a complex of buildings at an airport (or in a city for connection with an airport). Terminus is not used in the airport sense but terminal is increasingly used in the road and rail senses. In AmE terminal is used in all three senses, whereas terminus tends to refer to the location (town, city, etc.) at the end of a route.

2 The plural of terminus is termini (pronounced ter-mi-niy).
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terminate

is a formal word for ‘stop or bring to an end’, as in terminating a pregnancy, an agreement being terminated, and a train that terminates at Paris. In general contexts, a simpler word such as stop or end should normally be used.

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terminus

see TERMINAL.

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terrain

is best reserved for contexts in which a geographical or military assessment is being made (an uneven terrain / the peculiarities of the terrain) rather than as a simple synonym for area, ground, region, or tract.

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terrible, terribly

have gone the way of other words of this type, such as awful / awfully, dreadful / dreadfully, frightful / frightfully; that is, terrible intensifies something by definition bad (a terrible mistake) and terribly intensifies adjectives and other adverbs generally (terribly important / not terribly good). Colloquially, terrible is used disparagingly with neutral nouns (a terrible speaker / What a terrible name to give a baby!). However, the adjective and adverb retain their literal meanings ‘horrifying, horrifyingly’ in contexts such as a terrible cry, terrible consequences, and terribly disfigured. By contrast, terrific when used with neutral nouns is not disparaging but approving (a terrific meal / a terrific speaker).

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tetchy, touchy.

Tetchy means ‘irritable, peevish’, and is a near synonym of testy, whereas touchy means ‘over-sensitive, likely to take offence’.

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tête-à-tête

meaning ‘an intimate conversation between two people’, is printed in roman type with the accents and hyphens as shown. The same spelling is used as an adjective or adverb (dined tête-à-tête), and the plural of the noun is tête-à-têtes.

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textual, textural.

The contexts normally prevent these two words getting in each other's way: textual means ‘relating to text’ (textual criticism), whereas textural means ‘relating to texture’, often in figurative contexts such as music (textural features / textural variation).

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than.

1 Than is normally used to introduce the second element in a comparison, and acts either as a conjunction (He is older than I am) or as a preposition (He is older than me). In uses such as He is older than I, than is normally regarded as a conjunction with the verb following I understood, but in spoken English at least the more usual choice is the type He is older than me. For this choice, see further at CASES 2B.

2 Other aspects of the use of than will be found at the following entries: BARELY, DIFFERENT (3), HARD (2), INFERIOR, OTHER (2), PREFER (3), RATHER (2), SCARCELY (1), SUPERIOR.
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thankfully

has been used as an ordinary adverb of manner since Anglo-Saxon times, and is still current in this meaning:
‘Until Friday,’ said Mrs Marsh, and shut the door thankfully behind her— Brookner , 1992. Since the 1960s, it has developed the additional role of sentence adverb, in which it qualifies a whole statement and reflects the opinion of the speaker rather than modifying anything contained within the statement:
Thankfully, however, the old style has not entirely disappeared—Daily Telegraph, 1982. Though frowned on from time to time, thankfully has not attracted the venom that hopefully has; this may well be to do with the meanings of the two words and the associations each has (thankfully expresses relief whereas hopefully raises doubts). For more on this issue in its context, see HOPEFULLY, SENTENCE ADVERBS.

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thanks to.

Thanks to the rank stupidity of Steve Gillery's bride-to-be, he had to hold his stag night on Saturday morning and rush off to the ceremony during half-time in the afternoon—M. Gist , 1993. This ironic use, in which thanks to is an equivalent of because of or due to, occurs in contexts where thanks are hardly appropriate, but it is attested from the 18c (and earlier in the form no thanks to), and its credentials are therefore sound. Meanwhile the straightforward use of thanks to continues in use:
Thanks to the national radio paging system, a doctor can be alerted to an emergency by a ‘bleep’, carried about his person—Scientific American, 1982.

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thank you.

The standard written form of the expression of thanks is thank you (two words), although thank-you (with hyphen) and thankyou (one word) are sometimes found, especially in ephemera such as junk mail and restaurant bills, and thank-you is the correct from in attributive use (before a noun, e.g. a thank-you letter). Thanks is more informal and conversational than thank you, as are many thanks and thanks a lot.

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that

is a word with many roles, and plays a major part in English sentence structure. The following are its main grammatical functions:
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN: That was what I meant
DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE: Why did you take that picture of me?
DEMONSTRATIVE ADVERB: I was that angry / It didn't hurt that much
RELATIVE PRONOUN: It was not the drug that had done it
CONJUNCTION: He had assumed that we would want to see him
1 As a demonstrative pronoun and adjective, that normally refers to something already mentioned or known: (pronoun) She had not meant it so, but it could have been read like that / How the hell did you manage that? / The witnesses, if they could be called that, continued to repeat that they knew nothing / (adjective) If I were you, I would keep an eye on that young man / It wasn't a nature reserve, that Ark of yours. There are also a number of familiar idiomatic or formulaic uses: Something worth a lot of money, that's for sure / She had a small, pretty face, I'll give you that / She cleared her throat to speak but left it at that / I just wanted to see her, that's all.
2 Its use as a demonstrative adverb equivalent to so or very (or so very) dates from the 15c and has been slipping in and out of standard usage ever since. In current English it is regarded as informal in both positive and negative contexts:
‘Shut up,’ says Claudia … ‘It's not that funny’— Lodge , 1988 /
You and your brother, you're not really that alike, are you?—Encounter, 1989. In other contexts, however, it verges on the formal or at least neutral:
The questioning attitude that comes naturally at student age is not that easily abolished—Listener, 1987.
3 As a relative pronoun, that becomes an alternative to which (and occasionally who). Although they are often interchangeable, there are some uses that are peculiar to each: When that is used it normally introduces a so-called ‘restrictive’ clause, which defines or gives essential (rather than additional) information about the noun or noun phrase that comes before: the pen that my father bought for me / the pen that is over on the table/ (in each case the that-clause defines which pen is meant). (See further at RELATIVE CLAUSES). In these cases the that-clause normally follows on without a comma. Which can also be used in these examples, but in conversational English that is more usual, and in some cases it is possible to omit the relative pronoun altogether and say the pen my father bought for me. That can also replace who (or whom), especially when the reference is non-specific, as in The person that I saw was definitely a woman, and when there are two antecedents, one inanimate and the other human: It was the drug and not her brother that had upset her. That is also more idiomatic than which in a number of cases:
(1) when which already occurs earlier in the sentence in another role (Which is the house that you bought?),
(2) after indefinite pronouns such as anything, everything, nothing, and something (There is something that I forgot to mention), and
(3) after a construction with the impersonal it (It is the new one that we want). When that is the object of the verb in its clause, it is regularly omitted, especially in speech (There is something I forgot to mention).

Which, not that, has to be used in so-called non-restrictive clauses which give additional rather than essential information: A new edition of the book, which has taken ten years to write, will be published this week. Which is also used when a preposition precedes it (Is this the book to which you are referring?); in a corresponding construction with that, the preposition has to come at the end (Is this the book that you are referring to? or Is this the book you are referring to?).
4 That is used as a conjunction to introduce a subordinate clause, principally after verbs of saying, feeling, believing, knowing, learning, etc.: The President admitted that he had lied / We would hate to think that they were corrupting you / I understand that you wanted to see me. A that-clause of this type can also occur after the impersonal it: It was natural that they should think so. Normally the conjunction that can be omitted, especially in speech: I understand you wanted to see me / It was natural they should think so. In inverted constructions, however, in which the that-clause comes before the main clause, that is obligatory: That they are guilty is assumed by everybody.

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the.

1 The, called the definite article, is the commonest word in English, occurring about once in every seven words of everyday language. It can therefore come as a surprise to know that it is pronounced in three ways, depending on its role and position. In normal use it is pronounced dh before a word beginning with a consonant (the table / the green house) and dhi before a word beginning with a vowel or a softly aspirated h sound (the apples / the other leg / the hotel). When emphasized, it is pronounced dhee (You mean the Sharon Stone?). These distinctions come naturally to most native speakers, but occasional divergences are heard, especially over-emphasis of the in cases where the weak form is called for.

2 When two nouns are joined by and, a second the is normally omitted: the distortion and innuendo to which several of your correspondents have resorted. But the must be repeated to avoid ambiguity: the black and the white penguins / the London and the Southampton trains. When two nouns joined by and form the subject of a sentence, they are sometimes regarded as a single concept and treated as grammatically singular:
The innocence and purity of their singing comes entirely from their identification with the character— Levin , 1985. See AGREEMENT (3).
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3 In titles of books, plays, films, etc., The should be retained when it forms part of the recognized title, but can be omitted when it does not fit the structure of the sentence: Look in The Times / a new edition of The Chicago Manual of Style but John is a Times reporter/J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
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4 In BrE it is usual to add the when referring to a person by a title, as in The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, attended the meeting. The style Prime Minister Tony Blair attended the meeting is characteristic of AmE. After verbs such as become, be appointed, etc., the definite article can be omitted before titles or names of office that refer to a single person: He became Prime Minister in 1997.
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theatre

is spelt -re in BrE but usually theater in AmE.

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their

see THEY.

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theirs.

This possessive pronoun, as used in The house is not mine but theirs, is written without an apostrophe. In compound subjects connected by and, the correct form is (e.g.) Our children and theirs went on holiday together, not Theirs and our children went on holiday together.

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theirselves

is non-standard for themselves, and arises from the tendency to regard self as a noun needing a possessive pronoun to qualify it; this is legitimate only when an adjective intervenes, e.g. their very selves.

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them.

1 see THEY.

2 Use of them as a demonstrative pronoun and adjective is non-standard or dialectal in current English:
Them's my sentiments—E.M. Forster , 1924 /
I didn't know much about planes in them days—P. McCabe , 1992.
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themself.

The standard reflexive form of they and them is themselves (as in The children have hurt themselves), but a form themself is recorded (with plural reference) from the 14c to the 16c, when it fell out of use. In the 1980s it was rediscovered in the search for gender-neutral pronouns, and occurs from time to time with reference to common-gender singular noun or pronouns, without yet being generally accepted:
I think somebody should immediately address themself to this problem—A.T. Ellis , 1987. The plural form themselves is also used in this way, but the effect is if anything more awkward:
It may be best, however, to confess to someone who will never meet her boyfriend,…just in case that third party got tremendously drunk at a party themselves, and blurted it out to someone else—Independent, 1998. The final battle for a set of gender-free pronouns will probably be fought over themself, but for now beware of it.

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then.

Use of then as an adjective as in the then President, to mean ‘at that time’, has been continuous since the 16c and is acceptable despite occasional objections to it. Less acceptable, however, is the type with an adjective following then, especially when joined by a hyphen: Four years ago great things were expected of Japan's then embryonic biotechnology industry. In many cases of this type, then can be omitted without any significant loss of meaning.

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thence

is a formal and literary word meaning ‘from there’ or ‘from then’:
It is very logical to feed wind-powered energy in the form of either electricity or direct heat directly into a buffer system and thence to direct use—Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1976. It is no longer used in everyday English.

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thereabouts

meaning ‘near that place’ or ‘near that amount’ (a hundred pounds or thereabouts), is along with thereby, therefore, and thereupon one of the few medieval compounds formed with there- to survive in modern English without any hint of archaism. The variant form thereabout is now less common.

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therefore.

1 This is the most resilient of the adverbs in there- and has been part of the core language since the 12c. It is always pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and can be placed in various positions in a sentence, including the beginning. In short sentences and in constructions in which therefore is associated with a particular word or phrase, it is not necessary to separate it with commas:
Would I please therefore oblige her by using the musical notation provided—Guardian, 1986 /
The relationship of patronage was therefore complex—R. Greene , 1993. When commas are used, they have the effect of emphasizing the previous word:
Washington, therefore, can see distinct advantages in a one-way upward crawling peg—Times, 1970.

2 When therefore comes at the beginning of a sentence, a following comma is optional and depends on the flow of the sentence:
You're not here as a solicitor… Therefore, you're entitled to call some other solicitor—J. Wainwright , 1972 /
Therefore I wear my ‘power suit’, I call it, if I have to go to a board in the conference room on the top floor with senior officials—G. Kirkup 1990. When it is immediately followed by a subordinate clause, it is more likely to be separated by a comma:
Therefore, when a battery shows signs of diminishing power and range effectiveness it makes sense to replace it—B. Smithson , 1988.
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there is, there are.

This impersonal formula is used to indicate the existence of something or someone in a way that avoids the need to identify them more closely grammatically. There is (or was) is used when the following noun is singular, and there are (or were) when it is plural: There is a spider in the bath / There were three biscuits a moment ago. When the number of the following noun is more complex, choice is normally determined by what follows immediately; for example, There is a pen and three sheets of paper on the desk sounds more natural than There are a pen and three sheets of paper on the desk. Amounts regarded as a unit are also treated as singular: There is £500 in my account (equivalent to ‘the sum of £500’). Use of there is, or more often there's, as an invariable formula regardless of number is often found but is only acceptable informally: There's 35 branches throughout the country.

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there you are, there you go.

There you are is used colloquially as a dismissive expression of regret:
I felt ridiculous of course, but there you are—S. Wall , 1991. There you go is sometimes used in the same way, and is also a conversational formula used to draw a person's attention to something offered:
Evan handed over her change. ‘There you go then.’— Anderson , 1993.

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thesaurus.

A thesaurus (pronounced th-saw-rs) is a dictionary organized to supply alternative words rather than to offer analytical explanations of what words mean. Because synonymy is such a complex phenomenon, most thesauruses can be, in their nature, as dangerous as they are useful. The plural is thesauri or thesauruses.

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these kind of, these sort of

see KIND OF.

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thesis

meaning ‘a dissertation’, has the plural form theses, pronounced thee-seez.

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they, them, their.

These three pronouns have all been used since the 16c to refer back to a singular pronoun, especially an indefinite pronoun such as anyone, everyone, nobody, someone, etc.:
One other type of sensor … sets up an invisible light beam … If someone walks across it, they interrupt the beam—P. Niesewand , 1979 /
The delicious aroma drifting across a neighbour's fence of food cooking over charcoal is enough to make anyone yearn for a barbecue of their own—Practical Householder, 1986. The value of this device has been enhanced in recent years by its validity as a gender-neutral option in place of more awkward conventions such as he or she, his or her, etc. For a fuller discussion of this issue see GENDER-NEUTRALITY.

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they're

is a contraction of they are, and should be distinguished from the like-sounding forms their and there.

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thief

has the plural form thieves.

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thimbleful

has the plural form thimblefuls.See -FUL.

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thinness

meaning ‘the quality of being thin’, has two ns.

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think.

1 After think, that is usually omitted when a clause follows: I think you are right. See THAT (4).

2 Think can be followed by a to-infinitive with the meaning ‘to remember’: Did you think to lock the door?.
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3 As a noun, think is relatively recent (early 19c) and is normally regarded as informal: I'll have a think about it.
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thinkable

meaning ‘imaginable, able to be grasped by the mind’, is not recorded before the early 19c, some 450 years after its more common antonym unthinkable:
A crash is a moment of panic when events are out of control and outlandish predictions become thinkable—Economist, 1991.

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thirties

see EIGHTIES.

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this.

1 Though a less complex word than that (it is not a conjunction or a relative pronoun, to begin with), this has three distinct roles: DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN: This is what I mean DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE: Would you like a glass of this wine? DEMONSTRATIVE ADVERB: The show is not usually this good

2 As a demonstrative pronoun and adjective, this normally refers to something or someone either present or being thought of at the time of speaking: What had I done to deserve this? / Did you leave this book behind? It can also refer back to an immediately preceding statement when no single word can be identified as the antecedent: Should governments do more, or ought this to be left to the private sector? When contrasted with that, this refers to the one immediately in mind, whereas that refers to the one mentioned before or known previously.
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3 When used informally as a demonstrative adverb, this has a more specific reference to immediate experience than does the corresponding use of that:
Keep in mind, however, that no existing property is this typical—Real Estate Review, 1972.
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thither

see HITHER.

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though

see ALTHOUGH. For as though, see AS (8).

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thrash, thresh.

These words were once variants of the same word, but now have different spellings and pronunciations. To thrash is to beat (physically and metaphorically as in beating one's opponents), whereas to thresh is to separate grain.

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three-quarter, three-quarters.

The noun expressing a fraction is three-quarters (with hyphen). The adjectival form is three-quarter (e.g. a three-quarter-length coat), and this is also the form for the players in a rugby team.

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threshold

is spelt with one h (contrast withhold), and the h is optionally silent or aspirated in speech.

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thrice

an adverb meaning ‘three times’, was formerly in general use but is now limited to archaic or literary contexts.

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thrive.

The past and past participle of the verb are normally both thrived, although throve (past) and thriven (past participle) are occasionally used.

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throes

as in to be in the throes of, is spelt in this way, and should be distinguished from throws as a part of the verb throw.

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through.

There are two important uses which are still regarded as Americanisms but are beginning to make an impression on BrE:
1 As a preposition meaning ‘up to and including’, as in Monday through Friday. British speakers are aware of this use but still regard it as non-British, useful though it is:
An eight-week summer program for disadvantaged children ages three through five—Dædalus, 1993.
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2 As an adverb meaning ‘finished’, as in Are you through yet?. AmE might well say Are you through with the phone?, where BrE would prefer Have you finished with the phone? (Note that in BrE, in the context of telephones, Are you through yet? would normally be taken to mean ‘have you got a connection yet?’) In AmE this use of through is often followed by a verbal noun: '
I'm through eating, said my father, pushing his plate away—L.S. Schwartz , 1989.
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thru

is an informal variant of through in AmE:
When she was little, and had stuttered thru a sentence—Black World, 1971. It is used more formally in the term thruway, meaning ‘an expressway’.

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Thursday

see FRIDAY.

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thus, thusly.

Thus is a word with an awkward role in modern English. Used sparingly and appropriately, it is highly effective, whereas when over-used it can seem stilted and affected. It has two basic meanings,
(1) ‘in this way’, and
(2) ‘accordingly, therefore’.

In the first meaning, it is placed in the same position as ‘in this way’ would be, but sits more comfortably before a verb or participle:
He persistently declines to extend to the Press that assistance (such as circulating in advance scripts of major speeches, or sticking to the text of speeches thus pre-released) which so greatly facilitates newspaper production—Church Times, 1976. In the second meaning, it can follow the word order used with therefore, except that initial position in a sentence often seems clumsy:
Thus the parents, in conversation at home, are able to identify themselves with the place and people under discussion—Where, 1972. In some uses, thus combines the two meanings:
He attempts to defamiliarize and deconstruct the text and thus account for its persuasive power—Review of English Studies, 1984. Thusly seems an unnecessary form, since thus is already an adverb, but it is used in AmE in jocular contexts:
On his way home George mused thusly—Boston Journal, 1889.

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tiara'd

meaning ‘wearing a tiara’, is preferable to the alternative form tiaraed.

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tidal

along with coastal, belongs to the list of Fowler's LOST CAUSES. His objection was that a Latinate suffix (-al corresponding to Latin -alis) is attached to a word of English origin (tide). Such objections seem absurdly puristic today.

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tidbit

see TITBIT.

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tight, tightly.

Tight is used as an adverb in combination with a number of verbs, primarily in commands or instructions: hold tight, sit tight, sleep tight. It also occurs as the first element in a few compound adjectives. e.g. tightfisted, tight-fitting, tight-lipped. In general use, tightly is the normal adverb.

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tilde

is a mark (˜) put over a letter to modify its pronunciation; e.g. ñ in Spanish (as in the second n in niño) is pronounced -ny-.

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till

see UNTIL.

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time.

For words denoting lengths of time, see EPOCH.

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times.

When followed by an adjective or adverb in the comparative degree, times normally denotes an increase and not a decrease, e.g. five times bigger, not five times smaller. There are occasional exceptions for special effect, but the rule should be followed in everyday language.

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timpani, tympanum.

Timpani is a plural noun meaning ‘orchestral kettledrums’ (informally shortened to timps). Tympanum is the technical term for ‘eardrum’, and has the plural form tympana.

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tin

see CAN.

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tinker

meaning ‘to play about’, is now normally followed by with rather than (as formerly) by at:
Whatever moral doubts there may be about tinkering with nature, the biotechnology revolution will not be stopped in its tracks—Oxfam News, 1990.

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tiptoe.

The verb has inflected forms tiptoes, tiptoed, tiptoeing.

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tirade

is normally pronounced tiy-rayd, with the stress on the second syllable, in BrE, and tiy-rayd, with the stress on the first syllable, in AmE.

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tire

(of a wheel) see TYRE.

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tiro

meaning ‘a novice’, is spelt in this way in BrE but more often tyro in AmE. The plural form is -os.

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tissue

should be pronounced tish-oo rather than tis-yoo.

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titbit, tidbit.

Titbit is the usual spelling in BrE and tidbit in AmE. The first element is probably derived from an English dialect word tid meaning ‘tender, nice, special’.

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titillate, titivate.

Titillate means ‘to excite’ (as in It titillated his fancy), and often has sexual overtones (especially in the noun derivative titillation), whereas titivate means ‘to adorn or smarten’ (as in She titivated herself up for the party). Titivate is often mistakenly used for titillate (though the reverse mistake does not occur):
Even now twelve heartfelt pages are titivating the senses of a Dead Letter superintendent— Thomas , 1933.

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titles

see CAPITALS 2A, THE (3).

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to.

1 For the type to really love, see SPLIT INFINITIVE.

2 In AmE, to is beginning to be used as an alternative for of to denote possession or relation:
He's married and the father to a son—Chicago Tribune,1989.
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tobacco

has the plural form tobaccos.

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toboggan.

The verb has inflected forms tobogganed, tobogganing, and derivative forms tobogganer, tobogganist.

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today, tomorrow, tonight

are still occasionally seen in their hyphened forms to-day, to-night, and to-morrow, but the regular spellings are now as whole words.

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together

see ALL TOGETHER.

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toilet.

Toilet is the commonest word in BrE for what used to be called water closet (or WC) and is still sometimes called lavatory. It is the word normally used on signs and notices when more specific reference to ladies and gentlemen (or gents) is not given. In middle-class British conversation loo (of uncertain origin) has become a regularly used alternative; toilet is regarded as non-U, and lavatory is now disfavoured almost as much. In AmE, the regular terms are restroom, bathroom, and washroom, with john as a more informal alternative. Many slang terms and euphemisms exist in both varieties (in BrE, bog, karzy, etc., and in AmE can, comfort station, powder room).

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token.

The phrase by the same token is used to connect a statement to something said previously, and means roughly ‘for the same reason’ or ‘in the same way’. Although it is used less precisely than these definitions imply, there should always be some causal or consequential connection of this kind:
I've dined out on a few stories about her. But not ones that matter. By the same token, she could have made quite a good thing about telling how she saw you…that night—D. Halliday , 1970.

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tomato

has the plural form tomatoes.

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tome.

A tome is a large heavy book, not a synonym for a book of any size.

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tomorrow

see TODAY.

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ton.

A ton is a unit of weight, and a tun is a cask or wine-measure. Both are pronounced tun and were once the same word, but they became differentiated in the 17c. A tonne, also pronounced tun, is a metric ton equivalent to 1,000 kilograms.

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tonight

see TODAY.

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tonsil.

The derivative forms are tonsillectomy, tonsillitis, and tonsillotomy, all with two ls.

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tonsorial

has nothing to do with tonsils, but is an adjective derived from the Latin word tonsor meaning ‘barber’ and is used facetiously to refer to a hairdresser or hairdressing.

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too.

1 Too is the normal word used to qualify an adjective or adverb to denote excess: The house is too large / I spoke too soon. It should not be used to qualify a participial adjective when this could not idiomatically be qualified by very: She was too tired is acceptable because tired has acquired the role of an ordinary adjective, but She was too affected by their criticisms is less satisfactory because affected is still regarded as part of a verb. In this case a better alternative is She was too much affected by their criticisms or She was excessively affected by their criticisms.

2 When too qualifies an adjective followed by a noun, the usual order is (for example) too large a house rather than a too large house. In more complex sentences it is often preferable to rephrase in order to avoid a clumsy sequence of words with too; for example, The incident arose from a too sudden reaction to the danger would be better expressed as The incident arose because they reacted too suddenly to the danger.
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toothcomb.

The expression toothcomb or (fine toothcomb) arose from a misreading of the compound noun fine-tooth comb (i.e. a comb with the teeth). Purists will insist on the original form, but the altered form follows the familiar pattern of idioms that lose direct association with their origins, and is acceptable:
A novel which has been picked over with toothcombs, in search of clues to ‘The Mystery’—Times Literary Supplement, 1972.

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tormentor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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tornado

has the plural form tornadoes.

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torpedo

has the plural form torpedoes, and the verb has inflected forms torpedoes, torpedoed, torpedoing.

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torpor

is spelt -or in both BrE and AmE.

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torso

has the plural form torsoes.

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tortoise

should be pronounced taw-ts. The form taw-toyz, with the second syllable like poise, is non-standard.

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tortuous, torturous.

Both words are derived from Latin torqure meaning ‘to twist’, but their literal meanings are different. The (less common) word torturous is a derivative of the English word torture, whereas tortuous has no such intermediary noun. A tortuous route is one that is twisting and winding, and a torturous illness or anxiety is one that is extremely painful. It is in their figurative uses, in which both words mean ‘difficult or complex’, that the overlap is most noticeable. A tortuous judgement is one that has many complicating features, and a torturous judgement is one that is painfully difficult to make; these are two aspects of a similar outcome. Tortuous is more common in this range of meanings and is usually the better choice.

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total.

The verb has inflected forms totalled, totalling in BrE, and usually totaled, totaling in AmE.
The derivative words are totally (adverb) and totality (noun).

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tother

originally a Middle English form (the tother) derived from wrong division of that other, is still used in humorous contexts in BrE, especially in the phrase tell tother from which (= tell one from the other).

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toupee

a kind of wig covering a bald spot, is spelt in this way without any accents.

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toward, towards

in BrE towards is much the more common form for the preposition, whereas in AmE toward is more usual: We walked toward / towards the house.

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towel

has inflected forms towelled, towelling in BrE, and usually toweled, toweling in AmE.

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trade marks

also called proprietary terms, such as Bovril, Hoover, Walkman, and Xerox, should normally be spelt with a capital initial in writing or print, but when they are used as verbs it is customary to use a small initial letter since the term has then become fully lexicalized (I'll xerox the documents). When trade marks are entered as headwords in dictionaries they normally appear with a capital initial and an explicit statement of their status; nonetheless, the trade mark owners are often hostile to their inclusion, since this can be taken to imply (although linguistically it does not) that the term has become generic and can accordingly threaten the status of the trade mark. It is an interesting area, difficult to resolve, in which actual things, the names for them, and their legal status all demand different priorities from those who use them.

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trade union

is the correct form, not trades union. The plural form is trade unions. But TUC is short for Trades Union Congress.

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trade wind

is written as two words.

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traffic.

The verb has inflected forms traffics, trafficked, trafficking. The derivative noun meaning ‘someone who traffics’ is trafficker.

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tragedy

originally a term for a kind of drama in which the principal character or characters suffer death or other misfortune, has been extended in use to refer to major misfortunes in real life
(The government…had been captured by the extreme right and its budget measures were ‘a tragedy for many good New Zealanders’—Keesings, 1990), and then further to refer to more trivial or ephemeral setbacks, such as defeat in a sports event. The word is best reserved for uses in which serious misfortune is involved.

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train station

first recorded in the OED as recently as 1955, seems to be taking over from railway station in contexts where something more specific is needed than just station:
A 24 year old man was later arrested as he arrived at Oxford train station—television news broadcast, 1993.

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trait

meaning ‘a person's distinguishing characteristic’, is usually pronounced tray in BrE, or sometimes trayt, as it is regularly in AmE.

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trammel

has inflected forms tramelled, tramelling in BrE, and usually trameled, trameling in AmE.

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tranquillity, tranquillize, tranquillizer

are spelt with two ls in BrE, but usually with one l in AmE. The adverb is tranquilly in both varieties.

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transcendent, transcendental.

The word used in general contexts to mean ‘excelling, surpassing’ is transcendent. Transcendental has the basic meaning ‘outside experience’ and is used mainly in technical contexts:
(1) in theology, to refer to God as being outside the universe, the opposite of immanent (see at IMMINENT),
(2) in philosophy to denote the teaching of the 19c American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson , and
(3) in the term transcendental meditation, a form of meditation derived from Hinduism.

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transexual

see TRANSSEXUAL.

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transfer

is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable as a noun, and with the stress on the second syllable as a verb. The verb has inflected forms transferred, transferring, but the derivative words are transferable, transference, transferor, and transferee (all with one r).

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transgressor

meaning ‘someone who violates a rule or law’, is spelt -or, not -er.

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tranship, transhipment

see TRANSSHIP, TRANSSHIPMENT.

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transient, transitory.

Both words mean ‘brief, fleeting’, with transient conveying rather more strongly the notion of people or things ‘passing through’ while transitory denotes temporary situations that are more static:
The highly transient nature of the casual labour force in hotels and catering, and the low attachment to work of many casuals…mean that the unions' task will scarcely be an easy one—B. Casey , 1988 /
In traditional critical study, questions about politics were rarely felt important since politics engaged with transitory activities—T. Healy , 1992. Transient has special meanings in music, philosophy, electricity, and nuclear physics, and transitory has a special meaning in law. The noun transience is generally preferable to the more cumbersome word transitoriness.

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transistor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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transitive verbs

see INTRANSITIVE AND TRANSITIVE VERBS.

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translator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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transliterate

means ‘to replace the letters or characters of a word with the corresponding letters in another alphabet’. Words may be transliterated into the Roman alphabet from their originals in Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and so on. The result is a transliteration, which preserves the form of the original, as distinct from a translation, which gives the equivalent word (often unrelated in form) in another language. For example, pteron is a transliteration from Greek, and wing is its translation.

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translucent

see TRANSPARENT.

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transmit

has inflected forms transmitted, transmitting, and derivative forms transmitter, transmittal (but more commonly transmission). The adjectival forms transmittable and transmissible are both in use.

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transparency

is more usual than transparence in the general meaning ‘the quality or state of being transparent’, and is the only form available in the concrete meaning ‘a photographic slide’.

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transparent

is the general word used to describe anything through which light can pass, so that what is on the other side is visible, as distinct from translucent, which denotes passage of light but not necessarily visibility (as with frosted glass, for example). Transparent also has figurative senses relating to mental comprehension rather than physical vision (e.g. Their intentions were transparent) and to political openness and accessibility to public scrutiny.

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transpire.

The origin of the word is in the Latin verb spirare ‘to breathe’, and in its primary physical sense meant ‘to give off vapour’ or ‘to perspire’ (a meaning still used in the physical sciences). In the 18c it developed two abstract meanings, both looked on with suspicion: (1) ‘to leak out, to become known’, usually with an impersonal it as subject
(The two girls, it transpired, did not work in a cabaret but assisted at a gambling salon—M. Pearce , 1992 /
It transpired later that the social workers were all under instruction to have identification—R. Black , 1992), and (2) in the late 18c, ‘to happen, to occur’
(What actually transpired upon the outbreak of the Civil War is lost in the mists of time—E.G. Holland , 1986), a sense that probably arose from a misunderstanding of the previous one. In the course of time the first of these meanings has become accepted, but the second, despite its closeness in some contexts, is still widely disfavoured (in the 19c the American writer Richard Grant White went so far as to describe it as a ‘monstrous perversion’) and it should not be used except informally.

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transport, transportation.

Transport is used both for the conveying of passengers and goods and for the vehicles used in this. Transportation, which is primarily an American word, is also used in BrE in the first of these meanings:
Its chief original purpose was to facilitate transportation by road of the products of the Coalbrookdale iron works, which had previously been conveyed by river and canal transport—B. Bailey , 1985. The word is also used historically with reference to prisoners sent to penal colonies overseas.

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transsexual

is the preferred form, not transexual.

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transship, transshipment

are the preferred forms, not tranship, transhipment.

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trauma.

The preferred pronunciation is traw-m, but trou-m is more common in AmE.

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travel.

The verb has inflected forms travelled, travelling, traveller in BrE, and usually traveled, traveling, traveling in AmE.

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treble

see TRIPLE.

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trek.

The verb has inflected forms trekked, trekking. The word implies a strong element of difficulty or arduousness, and as a synonym of go is used in hyperbole or for jocular effect.

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trellis

has inflected forms trellised, trellising.

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tremor

is spelt -or in BrE and AmE.

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tribe

1 Tribe is used without difficulty when the reference is historical
(Balbindor was a coastal Malay of the lban tribe— Aldiss , 1993), and some ancient societies had constitutional divisions normally translated by the term tribe (e.g. Athens and Rome). In modern contexts, however, the associations of empire and implications of cultural superiority make it a controversial term when applied to communities living within traditional societies. When these are not technically or traditionally known by the term tribe, alternative terms such as community and people are usually preferable.

2 For several centuries, tribe has been used disparagingly to mean ‘social circle’ or ‘set of associates’, but in recent usage this meaning has become more neutral in tone:
Nick and she, they were proportioned to each other, they seemed to belong to the same tribe— Rendell , 1988. On the whole, since its boundaries are clear, this use is unexceptionable.
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tricolour

meaning ‘a flag of three colours’, especially the French flag of blue, white, and red, is spelt -our in BrE and pronounced trik--l. In AmE it is spelt tricolor and pronounced triy-kul-

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trigger.

The verb has inflected forms triggered, triggering.

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trillion.

Now that BILLION means predominantly ‘a thousand million’ in both BrE and AmE, trillion has taken over the earlier BrE meaning of billion, i.e. ‘a million million’, in place of its own former (and more rarely needed) meaning ‘a million million million’.

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trio

has the plural form trios.

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triple, treble.

In general contexts (outside music, betting, etc.) the two words are largely interchangeable as noun, verb, and adjective, but treble is somewhat more common for the verb
(Either way, it's bound to treble his life insurance payments—Daily Telegraph, 1992) and triple for the adjective
(I was starting to get triple vision and wondering how you did that with only two eyes— Banks , 1990). Both words are used in the meaning ‘three times as many’, as in treble / triple the number and treble / triple the size.

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triptych

meaning ‘a painting or carving on three panels’, is pronounced trip-tik. The second element is derived from the Greek word ptukh meaning ‘fold’.

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triumphal, triumphant.

Triumphal is a classifying word denoting things connected with victory, such as a triumphal arch or a triumphal procession. Triumphant is more descriptive and means ‘exulting in a victory or success’ with a wide range of applications:
‘I thought so,’ said Gray, with a small triumphant laugh— Faulks , 1993 /
The triumphant British team at the world microlight competition in Dunakeszi, Hungary, deserve to be congratulated—Flyer, 1991. The two words can occasionally overlap in context: a triumphal entry and a triumphant entry can refer to the same thing, although one that is triumphal in fact may not necessarily be triumphant in tone.

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trivia

like trivial, has an interesting history. Both words are derived in roundabout ways from the Latin word trivium meaning ‘a place where three roads meet’, and come via the medieval sense of a three-part education in grammar, rhetoric, and logic as a division of the liberal arts. Trivia is treated as both a plural noun and a singular mass noun:
Besides, trivia has its importance, too. Or, to put it another way, trivia have their importance too—Sunday Times, 1978.

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trolley

is spelt -ey and has the plural form trolleys.

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troop, troupe.

A troop is an armoured unit of soldiers or a group of Scouts, whereas a troupe is a company of actors or performers. Correspondingly, a trooper is a soldier in an armoured unit (and, in America and Australia, a mounted police officer) and a trouper is a member of a group of actors or performers and (figuratively) ‘a staunch colleague’ (usually with a favourable qualifying word:
I don't think you're selfish at all. In fact, Maisie, I think you're a proper trouper— Francis , 1976).

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trouble.

As a comedian he had trouble finding a persona—New York Times, 1974. This use, in which trouble is followed immediately by a verbal noun, is acceptable informally, but in more formal contexts it should include the preposition in:
Once you have spoken to the potential recipients you should have no trouble in getting addresses—J. Ridgway , 1984.

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trousers

is a plural noun in ordinary use (Where are my trousers?), but takes the form trouser when used attributively (i.e. before a noun, as in trouser leg and trouser suit).

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trousseau

meaning ‘clothes collected by a bride in preparation for her marriage’, has the plural form trousseaus (preferred) or trousseaux, both pronounced troo-sohz.

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trout

is the same in the plural, except that old trout (a depreciatory slang term for an old woman) has the plural form old trouts.

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truly.

For Yours truly, see LETTER FORMS.

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trumpet.

The verb has inflected forms trumpeted, trumpeting.

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trunkful

has the plural form trunkfuls. See -FUL.

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truths.

The recommended pronunciation for the plural form is troodhz, although troothz is also heard.

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try and, try to.

1 Try, like come and go, can be followed by and + verb instead of by a to-infinitive:
Try and survive, try and live with the system— Seymour , 1983. This use is somewhat more informal than the construction with to, and also has the effect of placing the weight of meaning less on try and more on the following verb (compare the balance of meaning in Try to survive…). There are occasions when and has a somewhat larger share of the usage: (1) when try is already preceded by to
(Jack didn't stop to try and work it out—A. Masters , 1991), (2) in casual or formulaic commands and invitations
(Turn yer light out and try and get some sleep— Innes , 1991 /
If he'd said, let's all get together on this, let's try and solve the problem, the problem's been going on indefinitely…, he might have gained more credibility—council meeting recorded in British National Corpus, 1994), and (3) in expressions of challenge or defiance
(Just you try and stop me— Barnes , 1992). But these are tendencies only, and contrary examples are not hard to find:
That girl was going to try to put the blame on her, she could tell—S. Shepherd , 1988.

2 When try is in the negative, to and and occur more interchangeably in the same types of construction (for example, in commands), but and is noticeably more informal:
Don't try and change the subject!—M. Dibdin , 1989 /
Don't try to deny it—S. Howard , 1993 /
So Herbie didn't try and jump in the car before I could lift him—conversation recorded in British National Corpus, 1991 /
They should not try to be fair to other countries—New Scientist, 1991.
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3 The construction with and is not available after any other form of try, i.e. not after tries, tried, or trying
(They tried to warn us/What were you trying to tell me?/What if she tries to ring you?/I…paced around and tried to absorb all the details— Brookner , 1986), but it is available to tenses formed by auxiliary verbs + the simple form of try
(So let's not try and be too funny, eh?—T. Lewis , 1992 /
I might try and do that, I'll do it tomorrow—conversation recorded in British National Corpus, 1992). A construction with to is also obligatory when try is followed by a negative proposition:
Try not to hang things too close, too high, or too far apart—M. Gilliatt , 1992.
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4 CONCLUSION. From all this evidence we must conclude that choice between try to and try and is largely a matter of spontaneity, rhythm, and emphasis, especially in spoken forms. Generally speaking, try and is somewhat more casual in effect, and is especially idiomatic in speech, whereas there are often good reasons for preferring try to in more formal contexts. But usage is unstable, and is likely to remain so.
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tsar, czar.

Both spellings are in use for the title of the former Russian emperors, but tsar is more common in BrE and czar in AmE.

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-t-, -tt-.

For the inflection of words such as ballot and target, see DOUBLING OF FINAL CONSONANTS IN INFLECTION.

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Tuesday

see FRIDAY.

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tumour

is spelt -our in BrE and tumor in AmE.

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tun

see TON.

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tunnel.

The verb has inflected forms tunnelled, tunnelling in BrE and tunneled, tunneling in AmE.

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turban

has an adjectival form turbaned (one n).

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turbid, turgid.

The two words are unrelated but both can describe the flowing of water in their literal meanings (turbid means ‘opaque and cloudy’ and turgid means ‘swollen and overflowing’), and both refer to styles of writing in their figurative meanings, Turgid, meaning ‘inflated, bombastic’ (as in turgid prose), is the more commonly used, whereas turbid means ‘confused, muddled’.

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Turco-

is the normal combining form of Turkish (as in Turcocentric, Turco-Russian, etc.), not Turko-.

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turf.

The noun in its countable meaning ('a single piece of turf) has the plural form turves (preferred) or turfs.

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turkey

has the plural form turkeys.

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turquoise.

The recommended pronunciation in BrE is tur-kwoiz, but a more French-like form tur-kwahz is sometimes heard.

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turret

has an adjectival form turreted (one t).

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twenties

see EIGHTIES.

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-ty and -ness.

Most English adjectives can form nouns by adding the active (originally Old English) suffix -ness, and these nouns denote either a state or quality (cleverness, happiness) or an instance of a state or quality (a kindness). The suffix -ty (often in the form -ity) represents via Old French a Latin noun ending -tas or -itas, and is very common in English (e.g. honesty, notoriety, prosperity, sanity, stupidity); some forms also denote an instance of the quality in the way that some -ness nouns do (an ability, an ambiguity, a curiosity, a fatality, a subtlety, a variety). In most cases parallel nouns in -ness (ableness, curiousness, honestness, etc.) are not normally used, but in other cases a form in -ty has developed a special meaning or a sense of remoteness from the adjective that leaves room for an alternative in -ness, e.g. casualty / casualness, clarity / clearness, crudity / crudeness, enormity / enormousness, ingenuity (from ingenious) / ingenuousness (from ingenuous), nicety / niceness, purity (with sexual overtones)/pureness, preciosity (used of literary or artistic style)/preciousness, speciality / specialness. Some adjectives of Latinate origin that might have been expected to have forms in -ty in fact do not, and -ness forms are used instead, e.g. facetiousness, massiveness, naturalness, seriousness, tediousness. Conversely there are nouns in -ty for which no corresponding adjectives exist in English, e.g. celerity, fidelity, integrity, utility. For other noun forms see -ION, -MENT, -NESS.

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tympanum

see TIMPANI.

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type of

see KIND OF.

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typo

meaning a typographical error, has the plural form typos.

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tyrannize

meaning ‘to behave like a tyrant (towards)’ is used both transitively (i.e. with an object) and intransitively followed by over. Fowler (1926) rejected the transitive use but it is now the more common pattern: (transitive)
We can use it to tyrannize ourselves, to live in the future instead of the present—M. Williamson , 1992/(intransitive)
The priests know nothing, but pretend to know much and tyrannize over the common people—New Scientist, 1992.

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tyrant.

In modern use the word denotes the manner in which authority is exercised, i.e. oppressively and cruelly. In its ancient Greek context, it refers to the manner in which authority was achieved, i.e. by unconstitutional means. Once in power, a Greek tyrant might be a benevolent ruler.

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tyre, tire.

The standard spelling for a wheel's rubber covering is tyre in BrE and tire in AmE. Tire is the older spelling, and may be related to the word attire, a tyre being regarded as a form of ‘clothing’ for the wheel.

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tyro

(a novice) see TIRO.

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U

U and non-U.

The term was not known to Fowler (1926) but the idea of language use as a distinguishing feature of class most certainly was, as his article on ‘genteelisms’ (paying guest for lodger, serviette for napkin, etc.) shows. The term U, denoting the language of the upper class, was coined by the linguist A. S. C. Ross in 1954, and was turned into a kind of cult by Nancy Mitford in her book of essays entitled Noblesse Oblige, which explored a theme already present in her earlier writing, notably in her largely autobiographical novel The Pursuit of Love (1945) where Uncle Matthew (representing her father) explodes with indignation at words such as handbag and notepaper. The table below lists words considered U and non-U taken from Nancy Mitford's book, plus some pairs that have come to be distinguished in the same way since she wrote. (See also the entry GENTEELISM.)

U

NON-U

bag

handbag

bike

cycle

drawing-room

lounge

enough

ample, sufficient

false teeth

dentures

house

home

lavatory

toilet

looking-glass

mirror

luncheon

dinner

napkin

serviette

pudding

sweet, dessert

rich

wealthy

scent

perfume

be sick

be ill

sofa

settee

sorry

pardon

vegetables

greens

writing-paper

notepaper

Forms of pronunciation as well as choice of words are also a feature of U and non-U; for example, the pronunciation of scone to rhyme with stone is often regarded as non-U, as distinct from the U (originally northern) form that rhymes with gone, and for either iy-dh is U and ee-dh is non-U.
Social exclusiveness of a potentially sinister kind lies behind what can easily be taken for a language game. Nonetheless, the spirit of fun is hard to resist, as the poet John Betjeman found in his gently satirical poem ‘How to Get on in Society’ (1954):
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman, As cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I must have things daintily served. (four more verses follow)

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uglily

though formally correct, is too awkward for normal use and is usually replaced by the phrase in an ugly way.

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ultimatum

has the plural form ultimatums.

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ult.

is an abbreviation of Latin ultimo (mense) meaning ‘of the previous month’ and is still used occasionally in more formal commercial correspondence following a day (e.g. the 7th ult.) to denote a date in the month preceding.

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ultra vires

meaning ‘beyond one's legal power or authority’, is pronounced ult-r-viy-reez.

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-um.

For plural forms of Latin nouns ending in -um that have been adopted into English (e.g. addendum, compendium) see LATIN PLURALS.

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umbilical

is pronounced um-bil- i-kl (preferred) or um-bi-liy-kl.

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un-.

The prefix un- is used to form negatives of words with two types of meaning:
(1) denoting the opposite of an adjective or its derivative (uneducated, unhappiness), and
(2) denoting a reversal of the action implied by a verb (undress, unlock).

Some adjectival forms in un- have a special and usually unfavourable sense (unprofessional, unscientific) and when a neutral classificatory form is needed non- is used instead (non-professional, non-scientific; see NON-). For the choice between in- and un- forms, see IN- AND UN-.

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unaccountable.

We are here neither in the world of sheer unaccountable miracle nor in that of repeatable experiment—Theology, 1977. Unaccountable means ‘that cannot be accounted for’, and like reliable and a few other adjectives in -able is formed somewhat controversially from an intransitive verb (one that does not take an object), the linking prepositions for and on (account + for, rely + on) being suppressed in the -able forms. See also RELIABLE.

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unartistic

is sometimes used as a more neutral classificatory term instead of the more usual (and more judgemental) inartistic.

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unashamedly

is pronounced as five syllables.

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unattached participles

see PARTICIPLES (3).

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unaware, unawares.

1 The adjective unaware is used predicatively (i.e. after a verb) and is followed either by of or by a that-clause:
She still seemed unaware of the peril that she was in—M. Lide , 1991 /
Quite unaware that he had a month's redundancy money coming, Cornelius finished his breakfast—R. Rankin , 1993. It is occasionally used without any further complementation:
Once having looked, he could never again be unaware— Pargeter , 1989.

2 Unawares is an adverb, used especially in the phrase to catch someone (or be caught) unawares:
However, everyone comes unstuck once in a while, especially when caught unawares—S. Romain , 1989.
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unbeknown, unbeknownst.

These alternatives for the more usual word unknown entered the language in the 17c and 19c respectively. They are typically used in asides in the form unbeknown to or unbeknownst to (someone), and in current use unbeknownst is more common: …
whose real father, unbeknownst to her, is her mother's one-time Jewish lover—New York Review of Books, 1990. Both forms have a rhetorical tone but cannot now be said to be ‘out of use except in dialect or uneducated speech or in imitations of these’ (Fowler , 1926).

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unbiased, unbiassed.

The preferred form is unbiased, although -ss- is also found.

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uncontrollable

is now the dominant form, rather than incontrollable.

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uncooperative, uncoordinated.

Both words are now spelt as shown, without a hyphen and without a diaeresis over the second o.

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uncountable nouns

see COUNTABLE NOUNS.

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under

see BELOW.

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underlay, underlie.

1 The addition of the prefix under- makes both verbs transitive (i.e. take an object) and therefore they do not entirely correspond to the grammatical functions of lay and lie. The form of the past tense and past participle of underlay is underlaid, and the forms of underlie are (past tense) underlay and (past participle) underlain. The primary meaning of underlay is ‘to lay one thing under (another) to support it’ as in underlaying a floor covering with another layer of material, whereas the more common verb underlie means ‘to lie under (something)’, especially in figurative senses (as in These motives underlie all they do).

2 Underlay (with stress on the first syllable) is also a noun, meaning ‘material laid under a carpet’, whereas underlie is only a verb.
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underneath

has from earliest times been in competition with below, beneath, and under, and in current use tends to be used mainly in a physical sense, e.g. (adverb) a building with a garage underneath, and (preposition) underneath the arches of the bridge. Unlike the other words, underneath is also a noun (the underneath of the vehicle).

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undertone

see OVERTONE.

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under way.

There is a choice between under way and underway, with the two-word form still marginally preferable: /
started up the bagpipes and was soon under way, marching up and down the church hall—B. Millin , 1991 /
Don't forget that once work is underway, you should increase your building and contents insurances—Do It Yourself, 1992. The reworking of the phrase as under weigh, which arose from associations of ships weighing anchor and setting sail, was common in 19c writers (including Byron, Marryat, and Thackeray) but has largely disappeared since the nautical connection is irrelevant to most contexts.

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underwhelm.

He was … fluent in speech and crashingly dull. If there was an opportunity to be underwhelming, he unfailingly seized it—Observer, 1984 This fanciful variation on overwhelming means ‘unimpressive’ (underwhelmed and occasionally the simple verb underwhelm are also used); it dates from the 1950s but seems much more recent. The tone is generally jocular and this should be remembered in more formal contexts.

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undeservedly

is pronounced as five syllables.

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undoubtedly

see DOUBTLESS.

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uneatable

see INEDIBLE.

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uneconomic, uneconomical.

These two words correspond to the meanings of the positive forms economic and economical. Uneconomic means ‘not economic, not capable of being operated profitably’, whereas uneconomical means ‘not economical, wasteful’.

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unequal.

In its meaning ‘inadequate in ability or resources’, unequal is used with to followed by a noun or verbal noun (They were unequal to the task / They were unequal to completing the task).

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unequalled

is spelt in this way in BrE and usually unequaled in AmE.

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unexceptionable, unexceptional.

These two words correspond to the meanings of the positive forms exceptionable and exceptional. Unexceptionable means ‘with which no fault can be found, entirely satisfactory’, whereas unexceptional means ‘not out of the ordinary, usual, normal’. Unexceptionable is much more common than the positive form exceptionable, whereas exceptional and unexceptional are both well recorded.

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unget-at-able

meaning ‘inaccessible’, is informal. It is spelt with two hyphens as shown.

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uninterest

see DISINTEREST.

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uninterested

see DISINTERESTED.

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unique.

1 This is one of a handful of words that give rise to strong feelings. Its primary meaning is ‘having no like or equal, peculiar to an individual’:
Throughout these fluctuations of fortune, Edith's unique teaching style was getting more finely honed—Medau News, 1986. In this meaning it is regarded (like perfect) as absolute in sense, i.e. something or someone is either unique or not unique; they cannot be described as very unique or more unique or rather unique. (On the other hand, it is possible to be nearly or almost or perhaps unique just as it is to be nearly or almost or perhaps perfect.) This objection is philosophical rather than linguistic, and grammar caters for the logically impossible as readily as it does for the patently true. And is it not at least arguable that a person with three heads is more unique than a person with only two? Or then a person with twelve fingers?

2 The word is derived via French from the Latin word unicus meaning ‘single, sole’ and retained close links with its roots down to the 19c, when it broke loose and became conceptually an English word, marking its independence with a developed meaning that is now the controversial one, i.e ‘unusual, remarkable’. This sense is regarded as ‘gradable’ and is regularly qualified by very and other intensifying adverbs:
Your own slide guitar style is pretty unique; do you use glass or metal slides—Guitarist, 1992. /
Some design choices become so unique that they border on the eccentric and make a property difficult to sell—Chicago Tribune, 1995.
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3 Its adoption in unconvincing contexts by the world of advertising and marketing in slogans such as Hollywood's unique night life and a unique blend of Scottish heather honey and rare old malt whisky have done much to discredit this meaning, which is a natural one. Indeed, as so often with this type of sense development, meanings that are conventionally distinguished often shade into one another, and it is difficult to apply rules in the border areas of usage:
All these diverse atmospheres merge together beautifully to create a most delightful and unique East Lindsey market town—P. Furlong , 1989 /
Gavrilov was the outright winner of Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition where jury and audience alike were bowled over by his flame-throwing technique, by the unique drive and physicality of his playing—Gramophone, 1992.
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4 Meanwhile unique continues to be used in its primary meaning, often followed by the preposition to which identifies the object of uniqueness; an achievement or feat can be unique, so can an identifying number (which often has to be), and so can a method or technique:
Lorne and I had often visited this particular cave in an attempt to film the Celebes Macaque, a baboon-sized monkey unique to the island—L. Blair , 1988 /
Tuck stitch is one of those fabrics that almost all machine knitters recognise at once, it is so unique in its formation—Machine Knitting Monthly, 1992.
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5 Because unique is itself ‘unique’ in its primary meaning this will continue to be used, and it is more common than the strength of opposition to the weakened meaning might lead us to believe. But precise meanings are always vulnerable to drift, and in this case we are seeing a weakening of strength (as has happened to analogous words such as peculiar and similar), rather than the emergence of a distinct new meaning. If a rule is needed, prudence suggests that the weakened meaning should be used sparingly. In informal and conversational language, however, a broader range of meaning is permissible.
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United Kingdom

see BRITAIN.

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unlawful

see ILLEGAL.

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unless and until

is an established expression which, like as and when, serves to intensify doubt about the outcome. It occurs in alternative forms such as unless or until, until or unless, and so on:
Until and unless he discovered who he was, everything was without meaning—D. Potter , 1986 /
Membership of the House of Commons is still the only legitimate qualification for real power in Great Britain and likely to remain so unless or until our national identity is totally submerged in Europe—Spectator, 1991.

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unlike

is an adjective (animals as unlike as the bear and the lion), and a preposition meaning ‘dissimilar to’ (a journey unlike any other). Informally it is used as a quasiadverb in constructions involving a following preposition:
Unlike with fax messages you can edit and re-use the text of e-mails once they arrive on your computer—Times, 1998. In more formal contexts, combinations such as this can usually be replaced by alternatives such as in contrast to or as distinct from, or unlike without in.

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unparalleled

is spelt in this way in BrE and AmE.

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unpractical

means ‘not practical’, whereas impractical has a wider range of meaning: see IMPRACTICABLE, IMPRACTICAL.

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unprecedented

is pronounced with its second syllable -pres- not -prees-.

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unravel

has inflected forms unravelled, unravelling in BrE and usually unraveled, unraveling in AmE.

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unreadable

see ILLEGIBLE.

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unrepairable

see IRREPARABLE.

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unreservedly

is pronounced as five syllables.

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unrivalled

is spelt with two Is in BrE and usually as unrivaled in AmE.

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unsanitary

see INSANITARY.

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unseasonable, unseasonal.

Any difference in meaning corresponding to that of the positive forms (see SEASONABLE, SEASONAL) has become irreparably eroded, and the two words are both used to describe circumstances (especially weather conditions) that are not appropriate to the season in which they occur:
Younger people, because of the unseasonal heat, were wearing sweaters tied round the hips— Kirkup , 1991 /
The weather looked heavy and thundery, as if the unseasonable warmth would soon break—K. McCallum , 1993. Unseasonable can also mean ‘not opportune, untimely’ more generally, although it rarely does.

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unsociable, unsocial.

Like the positive forms (see SOCIABLE, SOCIAL), unsocial is a classifying word that essentially means ‘not suitable for society’ (and has the special sense denoting hours outside the normal working day), whereas unsociable is a more judgemental word referring to people (primarily) who dislike the company of others. To complete the picture, antisocial is sometimes used in the same way as unsociable, but properly means ‘contrary to or harmful to the social order’ (with reference to people and activities) and is therefore a much stronger word with more sinister implications.

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unsolvable

see INSOLUBLE.

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unstable

is the standard negative form of stable, but the corresponding noun is instability, not un-. See IN- AND UN-.

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unthinkable

is still used in its original meaning ‘unable to be imagined or grasped in the mind’:
You wander … in cool glades of unthinkable beauty—Westminster Gazette, 1897. But far more common now is the extended and more evaluative meaning ‘too unlikely or unpleasant to be considered’, comparable to similar shifts that have occurred with unimaginable and inconceivable:
In these circumstances the removal of British troops was unthinkable—C. Allen , 1990 /
Margaret Thacther give up? Unthinkable.—N. Wyn Ellis , 1991. Despite Fowler's objections to this use (as an expletive without the necessary ‘aroma of brimstone’) in a lengthy and ultimately futile tirade (1926), it is a natural development that retains the essence of the original meaning and applies it in a more realistic way, since nothing that is postulated can be literally ‘unthinkable’. Fowler knew this and saw in it the word's appeal, but common usage has taken a more practical course.

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until, till.

1 Till is not a shortened form of until but is the older word; the un- of until adds the element ‘up to, as far as’. The two words are often interchangeable, except that until is more usual at the beginning of a sentence and can sound somewhat more formal, especially in speech:
Until he got Jackson's note he had been convinced that the man was suffering from some sort of regular illness—C. Horrie 1988 /
I am 22, but I will not be able to earn my first salary until I reach 24—Independent, 1989 /
He didn't ask any more questions but he kept himself awake till Noreen came home— Pilling , 1987.

2 Up until (but not up till) is a needless variant, with the word up usually redundant and awkward:
Up until the late 1970s, 98 per cent of children raised in Northern Ireland experienced schooling only on their own side of the divide—J. Fulton , 1991.
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3 See also UNLESS AND UNTIL.
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4 Until such time as can be effective in emphasizing uncertainty about the outcome, but it should not be made to serve as a more verbose alternative to the simple word until:
Such noisy groups of youngsters … need to be broken down into smaller groups each controlled by a responsible competent leader or instructor until such time as they become mature canoeists—Canoeist, 1991.
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unto

is generally archaic as an alternative for to, and in current use it is normally restricted to fixed expressions such as do unto others and faithful unto death.

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up.

As well as its familiar uses as an adverb and preposition denoting a high place or position (jump up in the air / walk up the hill), up has an extraordinarily prolific existence in a role that can go unnoticed: as a particle forming a host of phrasal verbs such as come up, eat up, get up, look up, sit up, start up, take up, etc. In some of these, up is merely an intensifier that does not affect the basic meaning of the verb it is attached to: there is little difference in reality between eating your greens and eating up your greens except that the second is more positive. In other cases, the presence of up determines or affects the meaning in important ways: something comes up when it happens or occurs but the ordinary senses of come have no such connection; you can only look at something (i.e. look is intransitive) but you can look something up (i.e. look is transitive); and sitting up is almost but not quite the opposite action to sitting down. Most of these uses are based on native English words, and many of them have Latinate equivalents that sound more formal and often less idiomatic (arise or occur for come up, consult or refer to for look up, initiate or inaugurate for start up, accept or assume for take up, etc.). These uses of up cause amusement or amazement when people stop to think about them, but they lie at the heart of idiom and help define the Englishness of English. We should not be afraid to use them.

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upcoming

as an alternative to forthcoming, is recorded in AmE from the 1950s and is beginning to appear in British usage:
He told last week of the spectator who telephoned Selhurst Park to enquire about Wimbledon's upcoming game—Spectator, 1996.

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up, down.

In geographical terms, down means south and up means north, and so you go up to Scotland from London and down to Atlanta (Georgia) from Chicago. A conventional exception to this straightforward logic arises with capital or major cities; for example it is customary to speak of going up to London from whatever direction. In the context of railways, the up line (or up train) is the one that goes into London, and the down line (or down train) is the one that goes out of London. This rule is not, however, absolute; from Edinburgh, for example, it would be more usual to talk of going (or driving or flying) down to London than up to it because Edinburgh is also a capital city and because distance makes the geographical orientation again the primary consideration. As can be seen, usage is unstable, and there are political implications in the relative importance of places that regional sensitivities and movements for devolution are likely to intensify.

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upgradable

‘capable of being upgraded or improved’, is a word embodying all the resonance of an age of changing technology. It is spelt preferably without an e in the middle, and the corresponding noun is upgradability.

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upon

tends to sound more formal and emphatic than on when the two are used interchangeably: to look upon someone as a friend is a somewhat more imposing proposition than to look on them as a friend. Upon is the only choice in certain fixed expressions, such as once upon a time and upon my word, and in uses such as row upon row of seats and Christmas is nearly upon us.

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upstairs, upstair.

Upstairs is the normal form for both the adjective (the upstairs rooms) and the adverb (go upstairs). Upstair is occasionally found as an adjective, but not as an adverb.

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up to

see DOWN TO.

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upward, upwards.

1 The only form for the adjective is upward (in an upward direction), but upward and upwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for upwards in BrE:
The launcher consists of a small nozzle that directs a jet of water upward at an angle of approximately 45 degrees—Scientific American, 1973 /
James had rounded off sums downwards rather than upwards-writing £900 for an actual £975 for example—K.M.E. Murray , 1977.

2 Upwards of (or occasionally upward of) is first recorded in the early 18c in the meaning ‘rather more than’ and remains in standard use:
A goblet with coloured twists would be worth upwards of £500—Guardian, 1973.
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3 The adverb upwardly occurs mainly in the expression upwardly mobile, meaning ‘aspiring to social and professional advancement’.
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us.

1 Us is used informally to mean ‘me’ in invitations such as Give us a kiss and Let's have a look.

2 Us should not be used as the subject of a clause in standard English, although the use is found in some regional and dialect usage: Us country boys should stick together.
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-US.

For plural forms of Latin nouns ending in -us that have been adopted into English (e.g. focus, nucleus) see LATIN PLURALS.

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usable

is spelt without an e in the middle.

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use.

1 The transitive verb meaning ‘to make use of’ is pronounced yooz and the past form is used (yoozd). The corresponding noun use is pronounced yoos.

2 Used is pronounced yoost and followed by to in a number of special constructions:
a Be or become or get used to + noun or verbal noun means ‘be (etc.) accustomed to or familiar with’:
She had got used to the sissy … thin-blooded climate of Auckland—D.M. Davin , 1986 /
He still isn't used to her being old enough to drive—New Yorker, 1987.
b Use to (usually in the form used to or had used to) + infinitive refers to what happened or existed in the past but does no longer at the time referred to:
I know what you're thinking, Patrick, and I used to think it too— Amis , 1988 /
She had used to squat with old Mataka on the ground— Spark , 1969. Negatives and questions are formed with do + the use form
(What time did she use to return?—L. Thomas , 1972 /
I didn't use to curse or swear at them—M. Brogden , 1991) or, with somewhat more formal effect, directly with not or by inversion in the manner of the semi-modal verbs dare and need
(I used not to dream— Bawden , 1987 /
She used not to be so censorious of others' behaviour—T. Barnes , 1991). The form usedn't (or usen't) is also found in casual English but is less suitable in more formal contexts.
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utilize.

This 19c loanword has led a precarious life for a century and a half beside the much older word use (13c). In many contexts use is adequate and preferable, but a case can be made out for utilize when the emphasis is on practicality and effective exploitation:
Fewer victims meant fewer death sentences and so executioners in the provinces retired and, utilizing their professionally acquired anatomical skills, became surgeons' assistants or animal doctors—G. Abbott , 1991.

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V

vacation

is in North America the ordinary word for BrE holiday. In Britain it is only used in the context of universities and the law courts. The corresponding word for Parliament is recess.

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vaccinate

though technically the same as inoculate, in practice tends to be restricted to smallpox (possibly because its original association with cows, from Latin vacca ‘cow’, is still strong), whereas inoculate is used with reference to other diseases.

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vacuum

has the plural form vacuums in general use, but vacua is sometimes used in scientific contexts.

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vade-mecum

meaning ‘a hand-book or guidebook’ (from modern Latin meaning ‘go with me’), is pronounced vah-di-may-km and has the plural form vade-mecums.

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vagary

meaning ‘an eccentric idea or action’, is pronounced vay-g-ri.

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vainness

is spelt with two ns.

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valance, valence, valency.

A valance, pronounced val-ns, is a short curtain round the edge of a canopy or bed. Valence and valency (both pronounced vayl-, the first more common in AmE and the second in BrE) are terms in chemistry relating to the power of atoms.

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valet.

The noun is pronounced val-ay or val-it in BrE, and also v-lay, with second-syllable stress, in AmE. The verb meaning ‘to clean the inside of (a motor vehicle)’ has inflected forms valeted, valeting, pronounced val-ayd and val-ay-ing in BrE, v-layd and v-lay-ing in AmE.

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valley

has the plural form valleys.

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valour

is spelt -our in BrE and as valor in AmE. The corresponding adjective is spelt valorous in both varieties.

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vapour

is spelt -our in BrE and vapor in AmE. Derivatives such as vapourless and vapourish follow the spellings of the root forms, but vaporous (adjective) and vaporize (verb) are spelt -or- in both BrE and AmE.

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variance.

The phrase at variance should be followed by with, not from:
Michael Hamburger … writes of the poet's ‘moral purpose at variance with his personal needs and perceptions’—New Yorker, 1976.

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variant.

In language, a variant is a legitimate form or spelling of a word that differs from the main one. For example, judgment is a variant of judgement.

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variegated

meaning ‘marked by irregular patches of colour’, is pronounced vair-i-gay-tid as four syllables in BrE but in AmE more often as five syllables (with the middle e articulated).

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various

unlike certain, is not normally used as a noun (followed by of) in BrE, although it is occasionally used in this way in AmE:
Various of his colleagues … offer to go with him if he is dismissed—American Spectator, 1994.

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vase.

The standard pronunciation in BrE is vahz, and in AmE vays or vayz.

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've.

This contraction of the verb have is normally added to pronouns or to modal verbs such as might and would:
I've had my eye on both of you—D. Raymond , 1985 /
You would've thought at least she could've cut the bubbles off— Foster , 1986. Double or multiple contraction is a feature of some writing that seeks to reproduce conversational language:
Can't' ve been a nightmare then, can it?— Barker , 1991.

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velvet

has derivative forms velveted, velvety.

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venal, venial.

These two unrelated words are sometimes confused, chiefly because they are close in form but perhaps also because their meanings both have to do with forms of transgression. Venal means ‘able to be bribed, corrupt’ (from Latin venum ‘thing for sale’) and is used of people and their actions; venial means ‘pardonable’ (from Latin venia ‘pardon’) and refers in Roman Catholic teaching to minor or pardonable sins as distinct from mortal sins which bring eternal damnation.

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vendor, vender.

The usual spelling for this formal and legal word meaning ‘seller’ is vendor. In AmE, vender is also used.

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venery.

This represents two distinct words of Latin origin, both archaic but still of interest and likely to be confused. One is from Venus, goddess of love and hence ‘sexual love’ and means ‘sexual indulgence’ and the other is from venari ‘to hunt’ and means ‘hunting’. Both words are pronounced ven--ri.

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venue

is derived from a French word meaning ‘a coming’, which underlies all its English uses. It has several obsolete meanings to do with coming forward in attack (e.g. in fencing) and from the 16c referred to the place where a jury was appointed to come together for a law trial. Its primary modern sense relates to coming together more generally, denoting the place where a meeting, sports event, concert, or other organized occasion takes place. A miniature social history can be made to unfold from this interesting little word.

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veranda

is now the usual spelling, not verandah.

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verbal

has four meanings, all close enough to cause possible confusion: (1) ‘having the nature of a verb’ (verbal noun), (2) involving words rather than actual things
(Opposition between these two modes of speaking is rather verbal than real—B. Jowett , 1875), (3) consisting of words (verbal wit), and (4) involving speech as distinct from writing (a verbal agreement). The most likely confusion is between the third and fourth of these meanings, and it is often advisable to use oral instead of verbal to preclude any doubt when the intended meaning is the ‘involving speech’ one (as in oral examination), restricting verbal to a few fixed phrases such as verbal agreement, verbal contract, and verbal evidence in which the meaning is established. Note also that oral occurs in several fixed expressions, such as oral traditiony (the transmission of ancient poetry and stories by word of mouth before they were written down).

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verbal noun.

1 A verbal noun (also called a gerund) is a form of a verb ending in -ing that acts as a noun, for example smoking in the phrase no smoking and in the sentence Smoking damages your health. It should be distinguished from (identically formed) participial adjectives (a smoking chimney) and participles used to form continuous tenses (The chimney is smoking).

2 Because a verbal noun is a part of a verb as well as being a noun, it can retain some of the characteristics of verbs in its grammatical behaviour; for example the forms She does not like me smoking in bed (non-possessive) and She does not like my smoking in bed (possessive) are both established in ordinary usage, although the second, in which smoking is treated as a full noun, is often preferred in more formal writing. Fowler (1906, 1926) rejected the first type as ‘grammatically indefensible’, since the words defy grammatical analysis (an example he gave was We need fear nothing from China [change to China's] developing her resources), but the basis of his argument lay in Latin rather than English grammar and has rightly been questioned since (notably by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen , 1860–1943). In current use, certain patterns are discernible:
a The possessive is the more normal choice when the word preceding the -ing form is a personal name or a noun denoting a person:
One cannot say that Kafka's marvelling at mundane accomplishments was not genuine—London Review of Books, 1987 /
I was now counting on my father's being able to make some provision somehow— Mehta , 1987.
b When the noun is nonpersonal, is part of a phrase, or is in the plural, the possessive is not normally used:
They turned a blind eye to toffee apples going missing— Winterson , 1985 /
Then we had our old conversation about the house being haunted—C. Rumens , 1987 /
Mrs Thatcher herself is not averse to this elegant bone being cast before her longstanding tormentor— Telegraph , 1987.
c With personal pronouns, usage varies between the possessive and non-possessive, the possessive being more usual at the start of a sentence:
Fancy his minding that you went to the Summer Exhibition—A.N. Wilson , 1978 /
His being so capable was the only pleasant thing about the whole dreadful day—E. Jolley , 1985 (Australia)/
There can be no question of you disturbing the clerks— Carey , 1988 (Australia).
d With indefinite pronouns the non-possessive form is more usual, the possessive sounding less natural:
He didn't think for a time of anyone clawing at his back—D.A. Richards , 1981 (Canada)/
There are many sound reasons, then, for everyone's wanting to join in this new Gold Rush—Encounter, 1988.
e In sum, the possessive is on the retreat, but its use with proper names and personal pronouns and pronouns persists.
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3 The to-infinitive also acts as a verbal noun (To err is human, to forgive divine), and choice between this and an -ing form is largely a matter of idiom. For example, one hopes to do something but one thinks of doing something, has a fondness for doing something, and has an aversion to doings something. Care needs to be taken not to confuse these patterns, especially when more than one is used in the same sentence.
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verbatim

meaning ‘word for word’, is pronounced ver-bay-tim.

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verbs.

1 A verb is traditionally regarded as a word that describes the action or state which the sentence seeks to convey and is normally an essential element in a clause or sentence: She locked the door / She was angry. Verbs are either transitive (i.e. take an object, as in She locked the door) or intransitive (as in She smiled); these functions are described more fully at the entry INTRANSITIVE AND TRANSITIVE VERBS.

2 Verbs are occasionally omitted from sentences, for example in radio and television announcements (This report from our Washington correspondent.) or as stylistic devices, afterthoughts, ways of avoiding repetition, etc.:
Friday morning. By tube to a lecture at the London School of Economics– Encounter, 1981 (in diary style) /
That way, they can work out their aggressions. Once a year.—New Yorker, 1987.
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3 For other aspects of verbs and their behaviour, see AUXILIARY VERBS, MODAL VERBS, PHRASAL VERBS, REFLEXIVE VERBS, VERBS FROM NOUNS.
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verbs ending in vowels and -ay etc.

The following table lists routing inflections of representative verbs having certain awkward vowel endings in their base forms, and shows any exceptions:

VERBS IN -AY

allay

allays

allayed

allaying

play

plays

played

playing

playable

exceptions

lay

lays

laid

laying

layable

pay

pays

paid

paying

payable

say

says

said

saying

sayable

VERBS IN -EY

convey

conveys

conveyed

conveying

conveyable

VERBS IN -I

ski

skis

skied

skiing

taxi

taxis

taxied

taxiing

VERBS IN -IE

die

dies

died

dying

VERBS IN -O

veto

vetoes

vetoed

vetoing

video

videoes

videoed

videoing

VERBS IN -OY

enjoy

enjoys

enjoyed

enjoying

enjoyable

cloy

cloys

cloyed

cloying

VERBS IN -UY

buy

buys

bought

buying

buyable

guy

guys

guyed

guying

VERBS IN -Y AFTER A CONSONANT

copy

copies

copied

copying

copiable

deny

denies

denied

denying

deniable

specify

specifies

specified

specifying

specifiable

try

tries

tried

trying

triable

VERBS IN -YE

dye

dyes

dyed

dyeing

dyable

to avoid confusion with dying from die

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verbs from nouns.

By a process called ‘conversion’, verbs have for several centuries been formed from nouns (and occasionally adjectives), by using the same word (e.g. to question, to knife, to quiz, to service), by adding a suffix such as -ize (prioritize, randomize), or by back-formation in which the noun form is shortened (to diagnose, to televise). Although objections are raised to some of these formations (especially the longer ones in -ize, such as hospitalize and privatize), it is an established process and generally a useful one.

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verger.

The name for the church official is spelt as shown, except that the spelling virger is used of St Paul's Cathedral in London and Winchester Cathedral.

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veritable

featured prominently in English from the 15c to the 17c, and then fell out of use until it was revived as a Gallicism in the 19c with an intensive meaning ‘deserving its name’ (a veritable feast). In modern use it has a somewhat rhetorical or affected tone:
So tough, you'd like us all to think, but inside you're a veritable marshmallow—M. Yorke , 1973.

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vermin

is normally treated as a plural in both its meanings (‘mammals and birds that are harmful to other life’ and ‘vile or despicable people’), although it can refer to a single person or animal:
Suddenly the older of the two little girls said, ‘Why is a squirrel called vermin, Dad?’—M. Bowring , 1993. There is no plural form vermins.

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vermouth

the drink, is normally pronounced with the stress on the first syllable in BrE, and with the stress on the second syllable (to rhyme with tooth) in AmE.

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verse

can mean (1) poetical composition in general (She writes verse as well as prose), (2) a line of poetry, (3) a section of a poem also called a stanza, and (4) each of the short numbered divisions of a chapter in the Bible.

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verso

meaning ‘the left-hand page of a book’, has the plural form versos. The right-hand page is called the recto.

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vertebra

means ‘a segment of the backbone’; in the plural vertebrae (pronounced ver-ti-bree) it refers to the backbone as a whole.

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vertex

meaning ‘the highest point’, has the plural form vertices (pronounced ver-ti-seez) or vertexes.

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very, much.

1 The uses of very and much as intensifying adverbs are for the most part complementary. Very qualifies adjectives and adverbs (very large / very slowly), whereas much qualifies past participles that are used as adjectives (a much enlarged edition / They were much criticized). There is a grey area including words that are strictly speaking past participles but have come to be treated as full adjectives, notably words of feeling such as annoyed, pleased, tired, worried, etc., and words with a strong adjectival element such as sheltered(a very sheltered upbringing) and involved (He is very involved in charitable work). These are now more naturally qualified by very than by much. When the verb element is uppermost, much is preferred; we would for example speak of a much honoured dignitary rather than a very honoured one, and we would say that alternatives are not much differentiated in preference to not very differentiated. At the heart of this grey area lie words such as respected, in which the adjective and verb emphasis is infinitely variable: if we say a much respected politician we stress the process, whereas if we say a very respected politician we assess the effect.

2 It is worth adding that much can itself be qualified by very; consequently any of the words we have been reviewing that can be intensified by much can be more strongly intensified by very much (e.g. very much criticized / very much enlarged).
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3 Some types of participial adjective are conventionally qualified by intensifying words other than much and very, e.g. injured (and similar words such as burnt, scarred, etc.) is qualified by badly or seriously, bungled by badly or severely, and outnumbered, outvoted, etc. by heavily.
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4 In a 20c development, very is used to qualify nouns that have assumed the role of adjectives: for example, a song might be called very sixties (characteristic of the 1960s), and a building might be called very art deco (built in that style).
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-ves.

For plurals such as calves, see -FS, -VES.

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vest.

In BrE, a vest is an undergarment for the top part of the body and also a garment worn by athletes. In AmE the first of these is called an undershirt, and vest is a term for what in BrE is a man's waistcoat and also for a short sleeveless jacket worn by women.

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vet

is an accepted shortening of veterinary surgeon and the normal word in BrE. In AmE vet and veterinarian are used in this sense, and vet also means ‘a veteran’. The verb, meaning (1) to treat (a sick animal) and (2) to examine or check critically, has inflected forms vetted, vetting.

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veto.

The noun has the plural form vetoes, and the verb has inflected forms vetoes, vetoed, vetoing.

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via

meaning ‘by way of’ (Paris to Athens via Venice) is originally the ablative of Latin via meaning ‘way, road’, and is now fully naturalized in English. It is increasingly used to denote a form of transport rather than the route, in place of the more obvious preposition by (via airmail / via satellite).

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viable

is a 19c loanword from French, and was first used to describe a foetus or new-born child that was capable of maintaining life. Metaphorical uses developed in the 19c, but it was not until the 1940s that it became a vogue word applied to a whole range of ideas, plans, propositions, etc., regarded in terms of their practicability. Sometimes the metaphor is justified, but often alternatives such as feasible, practicable, sustainable, tenable, valid, workable will do just as well.

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vibrator

is spelt -or, not -er.

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vice

a formal term meaning ‘in place of’ (appointed Secretary vice Mr Jones deceased), is pronounced viy-si and is originally a form of a Latin word meaning ‘in place of, in the stead of’. It is the same word as vice- in vice-chancellor, vice-president, etc.

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vicegerent.

A vicegerent (pronounced viys-jer-nt) is a person appointed to carry out the office of another, for example the Pope regarded as God's representative on earth.

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vice versa,

meaning ‘the other way round’, is pronounced viy-si ver-s. It is derived from a Latin phrase meaning ‘the position being reversed’, and is fully naturalized in English.

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victuals

pronounced vit-lz, is a rather old-fashioned or rustic (plural) noun meaning ‘food or provisions’, and like all such words is sometimes used in humorous or affected contexts.

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vie

meaning ‘to compete for superiority’, has inflected forms vies, vied, vying.

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view

is used in two common idioms, in view of and with a view to. In view of is used as an equivalent of because of or considering followed by a noun (or verbal noun) to introduce a known or expected circumstance: He was especially anxious to court the Kremlin in view of the rapid cooling of the U.S.'s interest in Ethiopia–Time, 1977. With a view to is a more formal expression, is usually followed by a verbal noun, and means ‘in order to achieve’:
We recommend that there should be a peer review of all the departments at Chelsea … with a view to phasing out those which do not come up to the standard of the rest of the university—Times Higher Education Supplement, 1981. In ordinary language a construction with in order to (+ infinitive) is often preferable.

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viewpoint

see point of view.

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vigour

is spelt -our in BrE and vigor in AmE. The adjective vigorous is spelt -or- in both varieties.

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villain, villein.

The two spellings are forms of a single word with two branches, originally meaning either ‘a low-born rustic’ or ‘a serf in the feudal system’ and derived from the Latin word villa meaning ‘country house or farm’. The spelling villain was associated from the 17c with the worsened meaning ‘an unprincipled scoundrel’, while the other form villein slipped into historical use as the feudal system was replaced by capitalism. The distinction is preserved in current usage.

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viola.

The musical instrument is pronounced vi-oh-l, and the flower vly--l. The plural form in both cases is violas.

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violable

not violatable, is the derivative form of violate.

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violoncello

is the correct spelling. not violin-. It is an Italian word, a diminutive of violone which is a double-bass viol. The plural form is violoncellos. Normally, however, the shortened form cello is used.

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virago

meaning ‘a fierce or abusive woman’, is pronounced vi-rah-goh and has the plural form viragos.

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virement

meaning ‘a process of transferring public funds from one account to another’, was taken from French in the early 20c. An anglicized pronunciation with the first syllable as in fire is now usual.

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Virgil

is the preferred spelling of the name of the Roman poet, not Vergil (despite the Latin form Publius Vergilius Maro).

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virile

is pronounced vi-riyl in BrE, and also vi-rl in AmE.

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virtual

has taken on a brand new meaning in the computer age. By itself it is defined some-what obscurely as ‘not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to exist’, and it only begins to make sense in its most common context of virtual reality, a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment in which the user can participate by means of special electronic equipment such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors. Anything presented to the user in this form can be described as virtual: a virtual hand, a virtual flower, a virtual person, etc.

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virtuoso

meaning ‘a person highly skilled in musical technique’, has the plural form virtuosi, pronounced -si or -zi.

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virus

has the plural form viruses. In computing, a virus is a self-replicating program that harms other systems. It is malicious in intention, unlike a bug, which is an unintentional flaw in a program.

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visage

a literary word meaning ‘face, countenance’, is pronounced viz-ij.

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vis-à-vis

(also printed without the accent) is pronounced vee-zah-vee and is now mostly used as a preposition meaning ‘in relation to’:
The state has a duty to protect its citizens from external enemies, and this can best be achieved by maximizing its power vis-a-vis other states—P.  1984.

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viscount

is a British nobleman ranking between an earl and a baron. The rank is called a viscountcy.

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visible, visual.

Visible means ‘able to be seen’, whereas visual is a classifying adjective denoting anything to do with sight or vision. The visual arts are those forms of art that are appreciated by the eye, and a visual display unit (VDU) is a computer screen.

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vision.

‘
How do you find Weedin?’ ‘Totally,’ Dougal said, ‘lacking in vision. It is his fatal flaw. Otherwise quite sane.’— Spark , 1960. This meaning, ‘statesmanlike foresight’, grew out of a much older set of meanings to do with intellectual perception as a metaphor based on physical seeing. Fowler dubbed it a ‘vogue word’, a status that to some extent it still has.

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visit.

To visit with someone, i.e. pay them a brief call, is now regarded as an Americanism although it was current in Britain in the 19c, occurring for example in writings of Ruskin and George Eliot (Middlemarch, 1872).

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visitation

once a formal word for visit, is now largely confined to special meanings such as official visits of inspection and an affliction attributed to some supernatural agency or other. In AmE visitation also refers to the right granted by a court to a divorced parent to visit a child that is in the custody of the other parent. It should not be used as a simple synonym for visit.

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visitor

is spelt -or, not -er.

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visor

is the preferred spelling for the various kinds of covering for the face, not vizor.

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vitamin

is pronounced vit--min in BrE and viy-t-min in AmE and in some other parts of the English-speaking world.

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viva voce

meaning ‘an oral examination’, is pronounced viy-v voh-chi. It is usually shortened to viva (plural vivas) and this is also used as a verb (with inflected forms vivaes, vivaed, vivaing).

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viz.

is a shortened form of videlicet, a Middle English word based on Latin words meaning ‘it is permissible to see’; the final z is explained as a medieval symbol standing for the ending -et. The abbreviation is used to mean ‘namely’ in introducing a specific mention of what has been only vaguely or indirectly referred to (my only means of income, viz. my fiddle), and is often articulated as ‘namely’, although informally the more direct pronunciation viz is also used. Note that it differs from i.e. (= id est) in identifying rather than explaining.

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vogue words.

In its meaning ‘popular use or currency’, vogue dates from the 17c, but the expression vogue word (or term) did not come into general use until the 20c. Fowler , who was one of the first to use the term, defined it as a word that ‘emerges from obscurity … into sudden popularity’; he was generally open-minded about their usefulness, and it has been later critics who have tended to pour scorn on the practice of words coming into and going out of fashion. Some vogue uses arise because they are associated with events of particular public interest (such as yomping = marching over heavy terrain, used by Royal Marines in the Falklands war of 1982). Others fall in the category of ‘popularized technicalities’ (such as chain reaction, parameter, and persona). When Fowler wrote (1926), the vogue words to which he drew attention included acid test, asset, distinctly (as in distinctly colder), far-flung (which he liked, in the right place), frock (= woman's dress), intensive, mentality, unthinkable, and vision (= political foresight). Gowers, writing in 1965, retained acid test and unthinkable (!) and added, among others, coexistence, overtones, psychological moment, and target. More recent vogue uses include designer (as in designer clothes), interface, ongoing, paradigm, parameter, spin doctor, and syndrome. See also POPULARIZED TECHNICALITIES. The term buzz-word, meaning much the same as vogue word, is first recorded in the 1940s in America.

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voicemail

an electronic system of storing messages from telephone callers, has achieved such rapid familiarity that it is normally spelt as one word.

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volcano

has the plural form volcanoes.

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volley.

The noun has the plural form volleys, and the verb has inflected forms volleys, volleyed, volleying.

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volte-face

meaning ‘a sudden change of opinion or reversal of policy’, is pronounced volt-fahs and is printed in roman type as a naturalized word.

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voluntarily

is traditionally pronounced in BrE with the stress on the first syllable, but the awkwardness of this pattern has led, under American influence, to the stress being placed often on the third syllable (-ar-).

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vomit.

The verb has inflected forms vomited, vomiting.

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vortex

has the plural form vortexes in general use, but vortices (pronounced vaw-ti-seez) in technical contexts.

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W

wadi

is the recommended spelling for the dry bed of a watercourse in North Africa, not wady. The plural form is wadis.

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wage, wages.

Wages is normally used in the plural (Their wages are still too low); an older singular construction survives only in the biblical line For the wages of sinne is death (Romans 6:23). But wage is also used (What sort of wage are you paid?), and is the obligatory form in certain fixed expressions (wage-earner, minimum wage).

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wagon, waggon.

The form with one g is recommended, although the house style of some printing houses in Britain is the -gg- form.

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wainscot

meaning ‘panelling on the lower part of a wall near the floor’, has derivative forms wainscoted, wainscoting (one t in each).

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wait

see AWAIT.

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waitperson

a gender-neutral term for a male or female waiter, dates from the 1980s, first in America. The feminine form waitress is sometimes disfavoured as a sexist term but is still in wide use.

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waive

means ‘to give up (a right or claim) voluntarily’, as in waiving an immunity or waiving formalities. It is not formally confused with the more familiar verb wave except in phrasal verbs such as waive aside and waive away (= to put aside as if with the wave of the hand), which are incorrect ( I cannot waive away all the teaching of history).

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wake, waken

see AWAKE, AWAKEN.

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wallop.

The verb has inflected forms walloped, walloping.

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want verb.

1 Want is of Norse origin and came into English in the 13C. The dominant meaning in current usage is ‘to desire or wish for’ (Tom wants a computer for Christmas / What do you want to do now?), and a range of earlier meanings equivalent to ‘to lack or need’ has been reduced to a few uses as in The house wants painting and The standard is sadly wanting (= inadequate), in the expression to want for nothing (or not want for anything), in advertisements (bar staff wanted), and in the non-standard types You want to pull yourself together and You want to go straight on and turn right at the lights (= need to, should). Occasionally the two branches of meaning merge (The organization badly wants better leadership), and it is easy to see how the ‘needing’ branch led to the ‘wishing’ branch.

2 Some special and modern uses of want are:
a Forms in -ed and -ing in constructions of the type We want our car washed and The roof wants mending are sometimes reversed as We want our car washing and The roof wants mended. These uses are mostly regional in BrE and are non-standard.
b Want is followed by a that-clause:
You want that I should lose both my lieutenants together?—A. Lejeune , 1986.
c Want is followed by for + object + to-infinitive, most often in cases in which want is followed by an intensifying word or phrase such as very much or so much:
My mother wanted so much for my sister to have the best animals—New Yorker, 1989.
d Want is used for want to, especially in the form if you (etc.) want:
It means he will be able to come in whenever he wants— Williams , 1985 /
Stay home if you want— Weldon , 1988.
e There is ellipsis of a following verb (come, go, etc.) in the expressions to want in (= to be included) and to want out (= to be excluded):
The Federal Reserve chairman Mr Paul Volcker has reportedly told friends that he wants out—Guardian, 1984.
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wantonness

is spelt with two ns.

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warder, wardress.

These terms for male and female prison guards respectively have now been largely replaced by the gender-neutral term prison officer.

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warn verb

is traditionally a transitive verb with a grammatical object corresponding to the person or people receiving the warning: She warned them of the danger / She warned them that it was unsafe. In the 20c an intransitive use with a following that-clause has come into common use, with the object of the warning left unspecified:
Arafat also warned that any Palestinian group that rejected the idea…must read itself out of the P.L.O.—Time, 1976.

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wash up

in BrE means ‘to wash crockery and cutlery after use’, whereas in AmE it means ‘to wash one's hands and face’.

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wastage

should not be used as a synonym of the noun waste, but has special (often technical and always non-judgemental) meanings:
(1) loss by natural means, e.g. wear or erosion,
(2) an amount wasted,
(3) in the phrase natural wastage, reduction in staffing by resignations and retirement rather than enforced redundancies.

Waste has connotations of disapproval in its meaning ‘a bad use of resources or assets’ (as in go to waste, a waste of time, etc.), but is neutral when it means ‘refuse, unwanted material or food’.

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waste-paper basket

is the BrE term; in AmE it is waste-basket.

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-watch.

The noun watch, meaning ‘a state of alert’, first produced a suffix (or combining form) in the 1950s, and is known earlier in verbs such as firewatch (a term from the Second World War), but it is essentially a creation of the 70s (doomwatch) and 80s in combinations to do with animal welfare such as badger-watch, birdwatch, and whale-watch, and in other uses such as crime-watch (the name of a UK television programme), hacker-watch (precaution against computer hackers) and stormwatch. Other ad hoc uses occur, establishing -watch as a productive element within fairly narrow limits:
Family-sized platters contain an entire chicken or spaghetti for eight. …No reservations, so prepare to people-watch while you wait—Minnesota Monthly, 1994.

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Watergate

see -GATE.

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watershed

originally a term in geology referring to the flow and division of river currents, has been used since the late 19c in the figurative meaning ‘a turning-point in affairs’:
In the social history of twentieth-century Britain the Second World War stands out as a watershed—H. Smith , 1986. It is often used attributively (i.e. before a noun:
Ade became one of the more astute chroniclers of the daily preoccupations of ordinary people who were living through the ‘water-shed period’—T. Tobin , 1973). In the UK watershed has a special meaning in broadcasting, denoting the time in the evening after which programmes are no longer guaranteed as suitable for viewing by children.

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wave

see WAIVE.

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wax verb.

In the meaning ‘to assume a specified tone or state’, wax is followed by an adjective, not an adverb: to wax lyrical, to wax enthusiastic, etc.:
When the Roman soldiers were asked to take part in the Claudian invasion of 43, they waxed indignant— Fraser , 1988. This use is primarily rhetorical.

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way

see NO WAY, UNDER WAY.

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waylay

has inflected forms waylays, waylaid, waylaying.

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ways.

In March 1994 the American Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that an overall peace agreement in Bosnia was a ways down the road; and Tom Wolf in his Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) wrote I was standing out in the street a little ways. This use of the plural ways, meaning ‘at some indeterminate distance (in time or place)’ is related to a use (with a qualifying word) that was once standard in BrE
(Falmouth…is no great ways from the sea— Byron , 1809) but is now confined to dialect use.

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we.

1 The personal pronoun we has a wide range of reference, so that care is often needed to avoid misunderstanding. In its primary meanings it can denote any of the following:
(1) you (singular or plural) and I,
(2) you and I and some others, or
(3) I and some others (but not you: We are going now, but don't you hurry).

Informally, it can also mean just ‘you’, as in the condescending form of enquiry How are we today?

2 We is also used with indefinite reference in the following conventional uses:
a When a writer or speaker includes his or her readers or hearers and other unnamed people in a statement or proposition: As we saw in the last chapter… / What do we, as a nation, care about books? / We have to tackle the problem of inflation.
b When a monarch is using the first person (the so-called royal we). This practice is dying out, however. Queen Victoria is credited with the remark We are not amused, but Queen Elizabeth II is noted for My husband and I and generally uses the singular form when referring to herself. (Margaret Thatcher's pronouncement We have become a grandmother, quoted in The Times of 4March1989, was blatant affectation.)
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3 We is sometimes used mistakenly for us, possibly as a kind of hypercorrection, in sentences such as: Perhaps this product is best suited to we cloth-capped northerners. For the wrong use of us for we, see US (2).
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wear, gear

Wear is normally used as the second element in compounds denoting forms of clothing, such as footwear and underwear, but gear is used in headgear. Used by itself, gear (= clothing, attire) is now considered informal, although it was once used as a regular word in this meaning.

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weave verb.

It is worth pointing out that there are two words involved here, although their meanings overlap in figurative applications. The one meaning ‘to form fabric by interlacing threads’ is from Old English, and the other, meaning ‘to take a winding course’, is a form of a later (13C) word taken from Old Norse. The two verbs have different sets of inflection: the older word has a past form wove and a past participle woven, and the later word has weaved for both. Care needs to be taken to distinguish these in figurative uses; both words can be used but the image is different in each case:
Then they got on to the little scooter and weaved down the lane— Winterson , 1987 /
She wove her way among the crowd, bumping into people, being bumped into—M. Ramgobin , 1986 (South Africa). (In the second example, wove may just be a slip for weaved.)

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Web

is normally spelt with a capital W when it refers to the World Wide Web, an information access system for the Internet. In combinations such as web page and web site, however, it tends to be spelt with a small initial letter. World Wide Web is often abbreviated to WWW.

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wed

(= marry). The form of the past tense and past participle is either wedded or wed. Its shortness makes it a popular word with headline-writers and journalists
(Supermodel Claudia Schiffer has ditched her boyfriend to wed Prince Albert of Monaco, it was claimed last night—Sun, 1992), but otherwise its use has become increasingly restricted to special contexts (e.g. in a state of wedded bliss / With this ring I thee wed) and to figurative uses
(This power plant is wed to a double-pivot spring strut suspension—Transpacific (US), 1992).

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Wednesday

see FRIDAY.

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week

see DAY.

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weir

is the standard spelling for a dam built across a river. The older variant wear is now obsolete.

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weird

meaning ‘strange, unnatural’, is spelt -ei-, not -ie.

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well

see AS WELL AS.

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well, well-.

There is much uncertainty about whether forms such as well(-)made and well(-) received should contain a hyphen or be spelt as two words. The normal rule is that the combination is hyphened when it occurs in attributive position (i.e. before a noun, as in a well-made cupboard and a well-received suggestion), but not when it occurs after a verb (as in The cupboard looks well made and The suggestion was well received).

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well-nigh

meaning ‘nearly, almost wholly or entirely’, has been in continuous use since the Old English period but is now usually regarded as literary or archaic in tone:
If your country is the size of a postage stamp, your population is unsophisticated and your borders are well-nigh indefensible, you need luck—Economist, 1992.

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welsh.

The expression welsh on, meaning ‘to evade (an obligation)’ or ‘to fail to carry out (a promise)’, dates from the 1930s, although the verb (of unknown origin) was used transitively (with a person as object) in the 19c. To avoid a direct and possibly offensive association with the Welsh people, it is often spelt welch.

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Welsh rabbit

the dish of cheese on toast, has no obvious connection with the Welsh or with rabbits, but has been known in this form since the early 18c (and is the name used in Mrs Glasse's The Art of Cookery in 1747). Its origin is obscure, as is the emergence of the alternative form with rarebit, a word otherwise unrecorded.

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werewolf

should be spelt in this way rather than as werwolf and the recommended pronunciation is with the first syllable as in ware.

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west, western, westerly

see EAST.

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westward, westwards.

The only form for the adjective is westward (in a westward direction), but westward and westwards are both used for the adverb, with a preference for westwards in BrE:
He climbed the lower slopes of Big Allen and stood, looking westwards— Rendell , 1988.

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wet verb.

The form of the past tense and past participle is wet or wetted. Wet is used in certain familiar contexts (He wet the bed / After they had wet their whistles [= had a drink]), but in general use wetted seems now to be more common:
Two weeks ago a heavy rain had leaked through the ceiling and wetted the box—New York Review of Books, 1987 /
With her clothes wetted and her pockets full of big round stones—A.S. Byatt , 1990.

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wh-.

Words beginning with wh- (what, where, wherever, white, etc.) are normally pronounced with the h unaspirated in Received Pronunciation in England and Wales. In general American, in Canadian, and in Scottish and Irish English they are commonly aspirated as hw-, Variation occurs in all these varieties.

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wharf

has the plural form wharves (preferred) or wharfs.

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what.

1 GENERAL. As a relative pronoun, what is an especially complex word because it can be either singular or plural and can refer both to words that have gone before and to words that come later in the sentence. In general it stands for a group of two or more words such as that which, those which, the thing (or things) that, anything (or everything) that, etc.:
What you need…is some outside interest— Rendell , 1974 /
Some of those who take jobs in department stores or markets steal what they can—Time, 1970. It must not be used as equivalent to the simple relative pronouns that, which, or who, a use characteristic of highly informal or uneducated speech:
I was the only boy in our school what had asthma— Golding , 1954.

2 SINGULAR WHAT. A problem of singular or plural verb agreement arises when what is singular but looks forward to a plural noun or pronoun later in the sentence: What we need is / are clear guidelines. Fowler had a useful rule that if the sentence begins in the singular (i.e. the initial what is singular), the continuation should also be singular; so the example just given would be expressed in the form What we need is clear guidelines. In current use this rule is often respected, as the following examples show:
What really worries me is the numbers— Bawden , 1987 /
What bothered him was drivers who switched lanes without signalling—New Yorker, 1989. In these cases, it is arguable that a noun phrase such as the circumstance of or the fact of should be understood after the main verb; it is not the numbers or the drivers as such that cause the worry in the first example or the bother in the second, but the fact of what they represented or were doing.
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3 PLURAL WHAT. A different situation arises when what is plural: / have few books, and what there are do not help me. In this sentence, what refers back to books, and so its plural status is clear. When what refers forward, the choice is less obvious: We seem to have abandoned what seem / seems to us to be the most valuable parts of our Constitution. Fowler (whose example this is) had another useful rule in these cases: if what can be resolved into the—s that, with—s standing for a plural noun that comes later in the sentence, the construction should be plural. In the example just given, what …can be resolved into the parts of our Constitution that …, and the continuation should therefore be seem (plural), not seems. If the relative clause introduced by what comes at the head of the sentence, the same rule can be followed if what can be resolved into that which: What [= that which] is required is faith and confidence, and willingness to work. This principle is much less secure, however, since what in the example given (Fowler's again) can as easily be resolved as the things which (plural): What [= the things which] are required are faith and confidence, and willingness to work. Here there is clearly a choice, and naturalness and rhythm will often be de cisive; the important point is that the choice between singular and plural should be consistent throughout the sentence, and that a singular what should not be followed by a plural continuation: What is required are faith and confidence, and willingness to work.
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4 THE TYPE WHAT…AND WHICH… When a relative clause introduced by what is followed by further relative clauses joined by a conjunction such as and or but, the what should be repeated when it refers to something other than at its first occurrence:
There is a definite mis-match between what universities are producing and what industry is wanting—Daily Telegraph, 1971. In this example, the first what refers to one thing and the second what to another, and both are needed. But the temptation to use a further what (or worse, a relative which) should be resisted when this would have the same grammatical status (as subject or object in its clause) and reference, since the first what is adequate to sustain the sense: Nobody is going to object to what is a popular measure and which will help those most in need should be rewritten as Nobody is going to object to what is a popular measure and will help those most in need (or as Nobody is going to object to what is a popular measure which will help those most in need, where a popular measure becomes the antecedent of the second which).
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5 WHAT AFTER AS AND THAN. What should not be used after the conjunctions as and than in comparative constructions of the following type:
People who have difficulty in ‘hearing’ intonation patterns are generally only having difficulty in relating what they hear (which is the same as what everyone else hears) to this ‘pseudo-spatial’ representation—P. Roach , 1983 (read: the same as everyone else hears) /
She sometimes comes out with more than what she went in with—R. Hamilton , 1993 (read: more than she went in with). But what should be used when it is essential to the structure of the sentence:
It was always easier to say what such a school should not be, rather than what it should be—H. Judge , 1984.
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whatever, what ever.

1 Whatever is written as one word when it is an indefinite relative pronoun or adjective used in statements or commands:
Fiction, in whatever form, about real people is more often than not a pain—New Yorker, 1975 /
Whatever you're up to during the snowy season, a wonderful warm woolly makes the perfect winter wear—Hair Flair, 1992. It is also used with concessive force equivalent to ‘regardless of what’
(Whatever Ned Kelly was really like…he can scarcely have been like Mr Jagger—New Statesman, 1970), and elliptically (with the continuation omitted) in informal uses such as:
Her lunch-break dash to Selfridges for pantie-tights, or whatever—G.F. Newman , 1970.

2 A comma is sometimes needed to clarify the meaning when a sentence begins with a whatever-clause, especially when the verb of the main clause can be understood either intransitively or as referring back to whatever: Whatever they have done, they are now leaving means ‘they are leaving (intransitive), regardless of what they have done’, whereas Whatever they have done they are now leaving means ‘they are leaving (transitive) whatever it is they have done’.
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3 Whatever is also the correct form when used as an adverb to strengthen negative statements:
There is no sexual element whatever—Daily Telegraph, 1972.
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4 What ever is written as two words when ever is used as an intensifying word and the expression as a whole is equivalent to what on earth, usually in direct questions:
‘Pardon me asking, sir, but what ever happened to your pilot's licence?’—J. Neale , 1993. See EVER (1).
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whence, whither.

Both words have centuries of history behind them and were once routine in their respective meanings ‘from which place’ and ‘to which place’, but in current use they are regarded as archaic or at least highly formal, although they occur occasionally in modern literature:
He has also, of course, a passport which nails him for who he is and whence he comes— Lively , 1987 /
I write, now, from my bed, whither Dr Felton has banished me—M. Roberts , 1990.

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whenever, when ever.

Whenever is written as one word when it is a conjunction
(Whenever possible he liked to make a point of talking to drug users on their own ground—Times, 1970) or a quasi-adverb used informally (I'll do it at the weekend or whenever). When ever is written as two words when ever is used as an intensifying word, usually in direct questions: When ever did they arrive? See EVER (1).

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where-.

Words still in general currency that are formed with the prefix where- include, in addition to those listed here as separate entries, whereas (used in contrasts), wherefore (only in the whys and wherefores), wherein (supposedly formal but common), and whereupon (in narration). Many others have fallen out of use or are regarded as archaic, but will be met in older writing, e.g. whereat, wherefrom, wheresoever, wherethrough, whereto, wherewith.

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whereabouts noun.

The plural form ousted the singular form whereabout in the 19c; when a verb follows it is more often in the plural than in the singular, but both constructions occur regardless of the number of people or things in question: (plural) His current whereabouts were not disclosed / By early Friday the whereabouts of the raiders still were unknown / (singular) The whereabouts of the remaining two paintings is unknown.

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whereby

meaning ‘by what or which means’, is one of a dwindling number of where- forms still in common use:
It was Sir Keith Joseph who drew attention to the ‘ratchet effect’ in politics, whereby the right seems to have acquiesced in the changes the left brings about—Listener, 1977.

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wherever, where ever.

Wherever is written as one word when it is a conjunction
(One knows the type… They're complete poison, wherever they go—R. Barnard , 1977) or a quasi-adverb used informally (A holiday in France or wherever). Where ever is written as two words when ever is used as an intensifying word, usually in direct questions: Where ever have they gone?. See EVER (1).

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wherewithal

meaning ‘the means or resources for something’, is always used with the:
You don't need the intellectual wherewithal to function in society— Pinker , 1994.

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whether.

1 For the choice between if and whether, see IF (2).

2 When the alternative to the whether clause is a simple negative, this can take several forms, but whether or not is now more usual than whether or no:
I brooded all the way whether or not I had hit the right note— Gardam , 1985 /
‘Whether the report is true or not,’ said Bush, ‘I know I speak for all here [etc.]’—Chicago Tribune, 1989. For whether or no, see NO (3).
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3 Whether is often repeated as a clearer marker than a bare or of an alternative that forms a separate sentence, especially when the gap between whether and or is a long one:
You must decide yourself whether each new Beaver [= junior Scout] should be asked to pay for his scarf and woggle, or whether these should be provided by the Colony—J. Deft , 1983.
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4 When a clause introduced by whether relates to a preceding word such as matter, issue, problem, or question, whether can follow directly or be separated by of:
Senator Ervin said the issue of whether the subpoenas were continuing was ‘a difference in a teapot’—Times, 1973 /
And as for the matter of whether the gent's armed with the sort of foresight Phillip K. Dick grants his ‘precogs’, you can just make up your own mind—Sounds, 1977 /
The whole question whether women actually are more pacific by nature is not the subject of the present book— Fraser , 1988.
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which.

1 For the choice between that and which, see THAT (3). It is especially important that which, not that, should be used in so-called non-restrictive clauses giving additional rather than essential information: A new edition of the book, which has taken ten years to write, will be published this week. (Note that in this role, which is usually preceded by a comma.)

2 The use of which to introduce a clause that is grammatically a relative one but in fact adds new information or leads on to a new point has been recorded for several centuries but has become especially common in the 20c:
He does Mr Rabinowitz's teeth which is super— Williams , 1985 / (starting a new sentence)
It was as though Hungary was not another place but another time, and therefore inaccessible. Which of course was not so— Lively , 1987.
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3 Use of which with a personal antecedent is now archaic only, and is familiar mainly from the Prayer Book:
O God, which art author of peace, and lover of concord—Book of Common Prayer, 1548–9 (modern spelling).
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4 When a which-clause is followed by another which-clause joined by and or but, the second which must have the same grammatical status as the first. In the following example the first which is the subject of its clause, whereas the second is the object of the verb (found): In contrast Peake's use of elevated language has a childlike quality, which is appropriate given that the protagonist, Titus, is a boy, and which I found endearing.
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while, whilst.

1 Both forms are used in BrE, but whilst is not much used in AmE.

2 The word is a conjunction, and its primary sense is temporal, meaning ‘during the time that’ (They had begun drinking while he prepared to cook) or ‘at the same time as’ (She enjoyed drawing while she was being read to). Since the time of Shakespeare , however, other uses have emerged in which while (or whilst) means ‘although’ or ‘whereas’, with concessive or contrastive rather than temporal force (While I enjoy his company, I couldn't live with him / I live in London, while my sister lives in New York). The concessive use (in particular) has been disapproved of by some (including Eric Partridge in Usage and Abusage, 1942 and later), but it is so well established that criticism is futile. Instances of possible ambiguity between the temporal and concessive–contrastive types of meaning are sometimes adduced, but they are usually contrived and unlikely to arise in practice (such as the old chestnut The Curate read the First Lesson while the Rector read the Second). Examples: (temporal)
Here father and daughter sat side by side on the window seat while he coached her each evening in the school holidays—C. Brayfield , 1990 / (concessive)
While domestic happiness is an admirable ideal, it is not easy to come by—T. Tanner , 1986 / (contrastive)
Whilst Mackenzie carried on and ended up editing the Sun, Sutton began to question what he was doing—C. Horrie 1988.
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3 While and whilst are used elliptically, with the omission of a subject and main verb such as they were (in the first example following) or he was (in the second):
Dinner ladies helping with playground supervision have been jostled and abused while trying to tackle unruly pupils—Daily Telegraph, 1983 /
While still working for the restaurant in 1956, he began his franchising career—Money, 1985. In this type of construction while (or whilst) is usually temporal (as in both of these examples) or concessive (as in the following example), and when concessive it tends to come before the main clause:
More recent evidence, whilst not addressing this issue directly, tends to suggest that this desired relationship is still important—J. Finch , 1989.
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4 A sentence such as the following is incorrect: While being in agreement on most issues, I would like to challenge one in particular. The omission is misconceived since the full form is while I am and not while I am being; correct while being to while I am in agreement or while in agreement.
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whinge

meaning ‘to grumble peevishly’, is BrE. Its -ing form is whingeing, with an e to preserve the soft sound of the g.

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whirr

meaning ‘to make a continuous buzzing sound’, is spelt with two rs in BrE and usually with one r in AmE, and the corresponding noun follows suit. The verb has inflected forms whirred, whirring in both varieties.

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whisky, whiskey.

Whisky is the usual spelling in BrE (especially with reference to Scotch whisky) and Canada, and whiskey is used of the spirit made in Ireland and the USA and is the usual spelling generally in AmE.

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whit

a 16c word derived ultimately from an Old English form meaning ‘a thing or creature of unknown origin’, is commonly used in both BrE and AmE in the phrase not a whit or no whit (= not at all, by no means):
This much ballyhooed Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is fun—if you're not bothered by theatre that cares not a whit for words and contains not one ghost of an idea—New Yorker, 1991 /
Ashdown's latest repositioning changes Major's position not a whit—Sunday Times, 1995. Fowler (1926) and Gowers (1965) classed it among the so-called ‘Wardour Street words’ (i.e. old-sounding words affectedly adopted like old-looking furniture), but it has lost most of these associations in the meantime.

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Whit.

Whit Sunday (or Pentecost) is the seventh Sunday after Easter, and Whit Monday is the day following Whit Sunday. Whitsun and Whit are regularly used as informal shortenings of Whitsuntide, the weekend including Whit Sunday. Whit is related in form to white, and the name is probably derived from the white robes of those newly baptized at Whitsuntide.

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white.

For a time it was thought appropriate to spell white with a capital initial when it was used as a racial term with reference to light-skinned people, but the normal preference now is for a small initial. Unlike BLACK, white in this sense does not have any derogatory overtones.

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whiten

is the usual form of the verb in current usage in the meanings ‘to make white’ and ‘to become white’, but white is used in the expression whited sepulchre (meaning ‘a hypocrite’, in allusion to Matthew 23:27) and in the phrasal verb white out meaning ‘to correct (a mistake) with white correction fluid’.

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whither

see WHENCE.

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whitish

meaning ‘somewhat white’, is spelt without an e in the middle.

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whizz

is the recommended spelling for the noun and verb (and also in whizz-kid), not whiz, although this too occurs.

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who and whom.

1 Who is used as a relative pronoun (The woman who saw you) and as an interrogative (Who is there?), and whom is, formally, its objective form (The woman whom you saw / Whom did you see?). In all these uses who (or whom) refers to a person or to several people, but as a relative pronoun who can informally refer to an animal or to an organization regarded in terms of its members (The committee, who meet on Friday,…).

2 In practice, whom is in decline and is increasingly replaced by who (or that), especially in conversational English. (This is not a new development; examples can be found from Shakespeare onward.) In the examples given in the preceding paragraph, it would be more natural to say Who did you see?, and in the one before it The woman who you saw or The woman that you saw or The woman you saw (for the omission of the pronoun, see RELATIVE CLAUSES (2)).
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3 When the relative pronoun is governed by a preposition, a construction with whom now seems formal, or even over-formal, and an alternative construction with who and the preposition at the end is the usual option in everyday language: (formal)
They…argue about a man called Simpkins of whom the poet is jealous—Encounter, 1987 /
Lord Jenkins likened this stance to countries… ‘who in the two world wars have waited to see which side was winning before deciding with whom to ally themselves’—Times, 1999 / (informal)
What did she know of his life, who he went to bed with?— Murdoch , 1993. (A mixed style sometimes occurs:
There were other people whom I would have liked to speak to—G. Butler , 1983.)
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4 The same distinction of formality applies in the choice between who and whom used as an interrogative pronoun in questions: (formal)
Whom should we support in the present fluid situation?—Bulletin of the American Academy, 1990 /
To whom have you complained?—V. Finkelstein , 1993 / (informal)
Who do you think you're speaking to?—W. Mcllvanney , 1985.
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5 Opinions about the diminishing use of whom vary widely from complete tolerance (‘We have got rid of ye as the subjective form of you, so why not whom as the objective form of who?’) to strong regret or outright disapproval. Most severely criticized now are uses in which who replaces whom in grammatically straightforward contexts which traditionally call for whom:
Christ, who went for who first?—V. O'sullivan , 1985 /
The stuff which was kept under wraps most of the time came flooding out in elections: who had fought on what side, who had killed who, who had really represented the will of the Irish people—Independent, 1999. Then there are those who regard the use of whom as a sign of education and reliability: ‘
I don't know whom else to ask.’ The elder of the two policemen, Butterworth, noticed that she had said ‘whom’ and decided that she was a credible witness— Brookner , 1992.
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6 There are occasions when whom is used incorrectly (or hypercorrectly) when who is needed:
The baronet whom Golitsin claimed had been the target for homosexual blackmail—P. Wright , 1987. In this sentence, whom should be who, because it is the subject of had been (… who had been the target …) and not the object of claimed. This type, with the insertion of a word such as claim, say, think, etc., is extremely common:
He is demanding £5,000 from the elderly woman whom [read: who] he says ruined his life—Sunday Times, 1990. Note also constructions in which a whole clause introduced by who is the object of a verb or preposition; in these cases also, who is correct:
The staff have noisy arguments about who should siesta on the cold stone floor— Deighton , 1976.
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whoever, who ever.

1 The same distinction applies here as to whatever and what ever, whoever being written as one word when it is an indefinite relative pronoun equivalent to ‘whatever person’ used in statements or commands (Whoever wants it can have it) and when the meaning is ‘regardless of whom’ (Whoever it is, I don't want to see them). Who ever is written as two words when ever is used as an intensifying word and the expression as a whole is equivalent to who on earth, usually in direct questions: Who ever are those people?. See EVER (1).

2 The objective form whomever still occurs but it can sound formal or affected in general contexts:
To impose his will on whomever he sees comfortably settled— Beerbohm , 1920. In some cases it is wrongly used: …
ready at once to relax with whomever came to hand— Brookner , 1992 (with governs the whole following clause; the pronoun is the subject of the clause and should therefore be whoever).
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wholly

meaning ‘entirely, completely’, is spelt this way, not wholely.

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whom

see WHO AND WHOM.

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who's

is a contracted form of who is (Who's going to the party?) or who has (The person who's got my pen). It is occasionally used in error for whose:
‘Conor,’ called Vaun, humping a churn of milk. ‘Who's turn to deliver?’—J. Leland , 1987.

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Whose

1 Despite a long-established folk-belief (which Fowler deplored) that whose, when used as a relative, should only mean of whom and not of which, usage over several centuries from the time of Shakespeare and Milton supports its use with reference to inanimate things as well as to people. Fowler , quoting the opening lines of Paradise Lost (Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world), insisted that ‘good writing is surely difficult enough without the forbidding of things that have historical grammar, and present intelligibility, and obvious convenience, on their side’, a verdict that still has the ring of good sense. The following modern examples show how awkward it can be to replace whose with a construction involving of which, especially when an adjective comes between whose and the following noun (as in the 1986 example):
There were pictures whose context she understood immediately— McEwan , 1981 /
He looked up again at the tank whose huge cannon seemed to be pointing at him—P.P. Read , 1986.

2 This does not mean that of which cannot be used; when it fits comfortably in the sentence structure, it is a legitimate and often preferable alternative:
What seemed to be at risk was Mr. Gorbachev's ‘glasnost’ policy, the essence of which is more openness—Scotsman, 1986. It has to be used, of course, in non-possessive contexts: Important towns had their own theatres, most of which had been built in Hellenistic times.
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why.

1 For reason why, see REASON

2 The plural form of the noun is whys (used in whys and wherefores).
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wide

rather than widely is used in a number of fixed expressions such as wide apart, wide awake, and wide open, as an element in the word widespread, and in the phrases hit (or shoot) wide and open one's eyes wide.

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wife

has the plural form wives.

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wilful

is spelt in this way in BrE, but willful is also used in AmE.

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will

see SHALL AND WILL.

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wimmin

a phonetic spelling of women, is recorded in facetious contexts from the early part of the 20c. It was adopted by feminists in the 1980s because it dispensed with the element -men:
Why are these (ignorant) gay men (and sadly sometimes wimmin) stereotyping gayness?—Pink Paper, 1990. The form has not achieved any neutral usage and must be regarded as ephemeral.

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wind verbs.

There are two verbs here. The verb meaning ‘to twist, coil, etc.’ is pronounced wiynd and has the past tense and past participle wound (pronounced wownd). The unconnected verb meaning ‘to exhaust the breath’ is pronounced wind and has the past tense and past participle winded.

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windward

referring to the side from which the wind is blowing, is spelt -ward as adjective, adverb, and noun. The form windwards is no longer used.

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-wise, -ways.

Both suffixes were active in forming adverbs (always, sideways / crosswise, edgewise) up to the 19c, and tended to overlap (e.g. edgeways / edgewise, crossways / crosswise), but in current use only -wise is now productive in the special meaning ‘in the manner of—’ in ad hoc formations:
Her mass of chestnut hair parted Rossetti-wise in the middle— Macaulay , 1923 / …
dangling his arms beside his hips and rolling his head idiotwise—J. Mclnerney , 1985. From the 1940s, the suffix developed a further meaning ‘as regards—’; ‘in respect of—’:
Plotwise, it offers little more or less [etc.]—Saturday Review, 1948 /
They all keep up with me, drinkingwise—New Yorker, 1993.

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wish verb.

The use with a simple direct object
(Would you wish a little more hot water, ma'am— Dickens , 1854) has been replaced in BrE by like, but is still said to be current in AmE.

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wisteria

is the usual form for the climbing plant, not wistaria. It is named after the 18c American anatomist Casper Wistar (or Wister).

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wit verb.

This old native word for know barely survives in the phrase to wit (= that is to say, namely), in the derived forms wittingly and unwittingly, and in the first and third person singular archaic form wot (especially in T. E. Brown's often quoted remark (1892), A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!).

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withhold

is spelt with two hs.

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without

1 Unlike the corresponding physical meaning of within (= inside), the original meaning of without, ‘outside’ (preposition and adverb), is no longer much used, although it will be familiar from literary contexts
(There is a green hill far away, Without a city wall— Alexander , 1848 /
The throng without was … becoming more numerous and more savage— Macaulay , 1849). The primary current uses are in the sense ‘lacking, not having’ (I came without an umbrella) and governing verbal nouns (She left without saying anything).

2 Also defunct is the use of without as a conjunction meaning ‘unless’, ‘except when’, although it still occurs in regional or dialect use and will be found occasionally in modern fiction:
I can truthfully say he never sat an exam without he was bad with his asthma— Barker , 1991.
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3
How'd you like to make yourself a passel [= parcel] of money without hardly havin' to do any work?—D. Westheimer , 1973. The use of without + hardly, which is a combination of a negative and an implied negative, is non-standard. The standard expression is almost without (or in some contexts, with hardly:
His eyes flickered to left and right, with hardly a turn of the head—T. Barnes , 1991).
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wizened

meaning ‘thin and shrivelled’, is a Scottish word derived from Old English that has now become a general English word.

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woman

see LADY, WOMAN.

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-woman.

This suffix denoting female occupations is in decline as the search for GENDER-NEUTRALITY gathers pace. Policewoman has been largely replaced by police officer (or woman police constable, WPC), chairwoman, spokeswoman, and others by forms in -person, and so on. Other compounds that remain in use generally have a cultural or historical reference, e.g. needlewoman, servicewoman. See FEMININE DESIGNATIONS.

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womanly, womanish.

Womanly is a complimentary word applied to women and meaning ‘having the good qualities of women’, whereas womanish is applied to men and is usually derogatory in the sense ‘effeminate, unmanly’. See also FEMALE, FEMININE.

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womyn

is a word coined by feminists to replace -men as a sequence of letters in the word women. It is unlikely to achieve general currency.

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wonder

is followed by whether or if, and in more formal writing can take a subjunctive verb in the past:
Hilliard wondered whether Barton were not right after all— Hill , 1971 /
They had never had a serious conversation, and she wondered if that were wrong— Brookner , 1992. In general contexts, however, an ordinary verb is normal:
She wondered if I was free to have dinner at her house—C. McCarry , 1977. For the type I shouldn't wonder if … see NOT (5).

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wont

the surviving past participle of an obsolete verb won meaning ‘to accustom oneself to’, is pronounced wohnt and should be distinguished from won't, the contracted form of will not. It is used in two principal ways: followed by a to-infinitive as in They were wont to say, and as a noun in the type as is their wont. The form wonted, meaning ‘accustomed, habitual’, is used before a noun, as in He showed his wonted skill.

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won't

the contracted form of will not, is the only survivor of several forms derived from woll (= will) not.

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woodenness

is spelt with two ns in the middle.

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woollen, woolly

are the spellings in BrE, and in AmE woolen, wooly.

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word order

see INVERSION.

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workaday, workday.

Workaday is now used only as an adjective in the meaning ‘ordinary, everyday’. The usual nouns for a day on which work is done are workday and working day. In AmE, workday also means ‘the part of the day used for work’ (as in an 8-hour workday).

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worldly

meaning ‘temporal or earthly’, has two Is.

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World Wide Web

see WEB.

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worsen

see -EN VERBS FROM ADJECTIVES.

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worser.

Changed to a worser shape thou canst not be— Shakespeare , 1 Henry VI v.iv, 1591. This so-called ‘double comparative’ has good literary credentials, but is not standard in current English.

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worship

has inflected forms worshipped, worshipping, and a derivative form worshipper in BrE, and often worshiped, worshiping, worshiper in AmE.

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worst.

The idiom if the worst comes to the worst has been standard in BrE since the late 16c. In AmE it usually occurs in the form if worst comes to worst.

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worth while, worthwhile.

The traditional distinction is to use the two-word form predicatively (i.e. after a verb, as in The experiment was worth while) and the one-word form attributively (i.e. before a noun, as in a worthwhile experiment). However, the one-word form is increasingly used in all contexts. Note that the correct use with a following verbal noun is worth, not worth while (It was worth doing It was worth while doing).

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would

see SHOULD AND WOULD.

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wrack

see RACK.

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wrath, wrathful, wroth

Wrath is an archaic or literary noun meaning ‘anger’, and is pronounced rawth or roth, or in AmE rath. Wrathful is the corresponding adjective meaning ‘angry’. Wroth is also an adjective, and is always used predicatively, i.e. after a verb, especially in the expression wax wroth meaning ‘to become angry’. As these words move further back into the remoteness of archaism, their distinctions are becoming blurred, with wroth in particular being used where wrath is needed.

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wreak

is used in the expression wreak havoc (on). It is derived from an Old English verb meaning ‘to avenge’. The unrelated verb work is also used in this connection, with its archaic participial form wrought occasionally coming into service:
Moko, the banana disease, has already wreaked havoc on the trade—Times, 1983 /
A decade of inflation had wrought havoc with its portfolio of fixed interest mortgages—Financial Times, 1984.

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wreath

has the plural form wreaths, pronounced reedhz or reeths. The verb, meaning ‘to encircle with a wreath’, is spelt wreathe and is pronounced reedh.

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write.

I had written my mother about all this—New Yorker, 1987. The transitive use with the recipient as the object is well known in AmE, but has disappeared in BrE, except occasionally in old-fashioned commercial correspondence (Please write us at your convenience).

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writ large.

Every project has success writ large over it—Author, 1994. This still-popular phrase is first recorded in the 17c, and is based on a participial form of write that is otherwise obsolete.

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wrong

like right, exists as an adverb alongside the regularly formed word wrongly. It is mostly used with a limited number of words and means roughly ‘incorrectly’, or ‘astray’, as in We guessed wrong and I said it wrong. In these cases wrongly can also be used, but the effect can be somewhat ponderous, and wrongly comes into its own in the more general meaning ‘in the wrong way’, especially when coming before rather than after an adjective or participle:
It arrived at Heathrow as mishandled luggage, having been wrongly off-loaded in Rome from a flight from Australia to London—Daily Telegraph, 1972. Note that in the expression go wrong, wrong is probably not an adverb but still an adjective (agreeing with the subject as with become and other verbs).

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wroth

see WRATH.

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wrought

is an old past form and past participle of the verb work, surviving only in the term wrought iron, in the occasional variant wrought up (= worked up, i.e. agitated, nervous), and as a form of the expression work havoc (see WREAK).

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wry

has inflected forms wryer, wryest, and derivative forms wryly, wryness.

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wych

is the usual spelling in the name of the tree wych elm. It is apparently derived from a Germanic form meaning ‘to bend’.

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X

-x

is used to form the plural of a number of loanwords from French that are not fully naturalized, for example chateau (= a castle or large house) and plateau. Other words tend to be treated in a more native way and form plurals in -s, for example gateau. Usage is unstable in this regard.

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Xerox

a proprietary term for a make of photocopier, should be spelt with a capital X. As a verb, however, it is spelt xerox.

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-xion.

A small number of nouns derived from Latin words ending in -io, -ionis have been spelt either -ction or -xion in English. Where there is a choice, current usage tends to prefer -ction (e.g. deflection, inflection), but in other cases -xion is the only ending in use (the main cases are complexion, crucifixion, transfixion).

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Xmas.

In this abbreviated form of the name Christmas, first recorded in the 18c, the initial X represents a Greek chi (= ch), the first letter of the name Christ. It is a convenient shortening commonly used in newspaper headlines, on cards, and in personal letters, but it is better to pronounce it as ‘Christmas’ than as ‘ex-mass’ which some people consider tasteless.

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X-ray

is spelt in this way as a noun and verb.

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Y

y and i.

For problems of spelling involving y and i in words, see CIPHER, GYPSY, LICH-GATE, PYGMY, SIPHON, SIREN, STYMIE, TIRO, TYRE, WYCH.

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Yankee.

A Yankee is properly an inhabitant of New England or of the northern states of the USA, and the name was used with this meaning during the American Civil War. On the other hand the shortened form Yank is commonly applied to Americans generally. Both words are informal only, and their origin, though widely discussed, remains unclear.

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ye

a pseudo-archaic form of the definite article the, is used commercially in names such as ye olde tea-shoppe. Though pronounced yee, its first letter represents an old runic letter called ‘thorn’ (pronounced dh as in modern this), which in written form had come to resemble the letter y.

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yeah.

is the conventional spelling of the informal shortened form of yes. In print it is used only to represent a spoken form, commonly used in the phrase Oh yeah? expressing doubt or disbelief.

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year.

see DAY. A possessive apostrophe is needed in expressions of the type (singular) a year's imprisonment and (plural) two years' imprisonment.

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yes

used as a noun (refused to give a definite yes), has the plural form yeses.

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yet and still.

1 These two adverbs used to be more interchangeable than they are now. A sentence such as Mrs. Throckmorton was shot in her apartment last night, and the bullet is in her yet, in which yet denotes continuity of action up to the time in question, would be acceptable, especially informally, in America (the source of this extract) and Scotland, but in the English of England still would be used instead of yet and the word order would usually be different: … and the bullet is still in her. In England, yet is used to mean ‘up to this time’ or ‘up to then’ (1) in a question or after a negative (Is she 21 yet? / She wasn't yet 18 / Have they arrived yet? / They haven't arrived yet [or haven't yet arrived] / I hadn't yet decided what to do). Note the position of yet in these examples, and note that with action verbs the perfect tense (formed with have) or past perfect tense (formed with had) is used, but in AmE a past tense formed with do is also used informally: Did they arrive yet? In the negative examples, still can also be sometimes used, e.g. They still haven't arrived.

2 It is worth pointing out that in Scottish English a question such as Is it raining yet? would be ambiguous, equivalent to the English English questions ‘Has it started to rain yet?’ and ‘Is it still raining?’. In conversation, intonation would normally clarify, but this might need to be accentuated south of the border.
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3 In positive contexts, yet is used as a more formal alternative to still in the following types, normally with be, have to, or a modal verb such as can: We'd better do it while there is yet time / I have yet to receive a reply / I can hear her yet.
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4 See also ALREADY (2).
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Yiddish words in English.

Yiddish is a vernacular language used by European Jews, based chiefly on High German with Hebrew and Slavonic borrowings, and written in Hebrew characters. English, especially AmE, has adopted many words and phrases from Yiddish in the 19c and 20c, and some of these are given in the table below.

ITEM

MEANING

bagel

hard ring-shaped ring of bread

chutzpah

shameless audacity

klutz

clumsy or inept person

kvell

to boast or gloat

mazuma

money

need it like a hole in the head

can well do without it

nosh

food

schlemiel

clumsy person, fool

schlep

to haul or drag

schmuck

abusive term for a person

shtoom

silent

What's with you?

What's the matter?

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yodel.

The verb has inflected forms yodelled, yodelling in BrE, and usually yodeled, yodeling in AmE.

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yogurt

is the preferred spelling, although yoghurt (with an h) is also common. It is pronounced yog-t in BrE, and yoh-gt in AmE and in Australia and New Zealand.

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yoke, yolk.

A yoke is a wooden crosspiece of the kind fixed over the necks of work animals. A yolk is the yellow part of an egg (and is related to the word yellow).

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you and I.

For between you and I, see BETWEEN (5).

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you know

see MEANINGLESS FILLERS.

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you name it

is a cliché of the 1960s, still much in vogue. It means ‘and so on, and other familiar things of the same kind’:
‘I've picked up rocks, glass, parts of beer can—you name it,’ she said—New Yorker, 1988.

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you're

is an informal contracted form of you are (You're sure, are you?). It needs to be distinguished from the identical-sounding possessive word your.

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yours.

This possessive pronoun, as used in The blame is not mine but yours, is written without an apostrophe. In compound subjects connected by and, the correct form is (e.g.) Our children and yours should have a joint party, not Yours and our children should have a joint party.

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yourself, yourselves.

Yourself (singular) and yourselves (plural) have two primary roles,
(1) as reflexives (Are you talking about yourself? / Help yourselves to biscuits), and
(2) as emphatic words in apposition to the pronoun you (You yourself told me so).

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yous, youse

are regional and dialectal forms of you (plural). In Britain they are associated especially with the speech of Glasgow and Liverpool, and they occur in American, Australian, and New Zealand literature reproducing non-standard speech:
It's the least I can do for youse—E. Jolley , 1985 (Australia).

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youth

has the plural form youths, pronounced yoodhz. As well as meaning ‘a young person’ (in BrE usually a boy but in other varieties a boy or girl) and ‘a young time of life’ (in their youth), it has a collective sense ‘young people’, normally preceded by the: The youth of Australia have been saved once more from the dreaded lurgy, marijuana—It, 1971. In this meaning it is commonly used in attributive position (i.e. before a noun, e.g. youth centre, youth movement).

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-yse, -yze.

The BrE English form of the suffix is -yse (analyse, catalyse, dialyse, paralyse). In AmE the normal forms are analyze etc.

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Z

zap verb

is a vogue word of the 80s and 90s meaning ‘to liven or revitalize’, and commonly occurs as a phrasal verb with up:
A whole head of garlic is olive-oiled, oven-baked, blobbed with brie, then zapped up with a sprig of fresh thyme on top—Western Living, 1991. An earlier meaning, ‘to kill’, familiar from comic strips and the world of electronic games, is still in use, as is a more recent meaning, ‘to switch casually from one television channel to another’. The inflected forms are zapped, zapping.

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zenith

is pronounced zen-ith in BrE and zee-nith in AmE.

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zero.

The noun has the plural form zeros, and the verb (normally used in the form zero in) has inflected forms zeroes, zeroed, zeroing.

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zeugma

see SYLLEPSIS.

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zigzag.

The verb has inflected forms zigzagged, zigzagging.

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zinc.

The adjectival form meaning ‘coated in zinc’ is zinced.

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zoology.

The older pronunciation zoh-ol--ji, favoured by OED editors and supposedly by zoologists themselves, has largely given way in general use to zoo-ol--ji (influenced by the common shortening zoo). But beware of rearguard actions.

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OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS
Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage

Edited by Robert Allen
This Pocket edition is based primarily on Robert W. Burchfield's renowned The New Fowler's Modern English Usage. Robert Allen has taken all the key elements from the best-selling parent work, rewriting entries to present the arguments and recommendations in a more accessible and digestible form, and has added completely new topics such as American English, new words, and gender-neutrality. Clear guidance on grammar, usage, syntax, and style for English is provided.
Robert Allen is an experienced lexicographer and former Senior Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and Chief Editor of the eighth edition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary.

ISBN 0198608373

© Oxford University Press 1999, 2002

First published 1999

E-book copyright © 2003.