abrogate makes -gable; see -ABLE 1. absence. For conspicuous by a. see HACKNEYED PHRASES.

absolute. See LU; &, for the sense in grammar, TECHNICAL TERMS.

ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION. 1. The insertion of a comma between noun & participle in the absolute use is indisputably wrong; it arises from the writer's or the compositor's taking the noun, because it happens to stand first, for the subject of the main verb; & it puts the reader to the trouble of readjusting, after he has formed it, his notion of the sentence's structure. The King having read his speech from the throne, their Majesties retired is the right form; but newspaper writing or printing is so faulty on the point that it would appear nine times out of ten as The King, having read his &c.

2. The case in this construction is the subjective; e.g. There being no clear evidence against him, & he (not him) denying the charge, we could do nothing. There is little danger of the rule's being broken except where a pronoun stands as complement ; though no-one would write me being the person responsible, the form the person responsible being I is likely to be shrunk from; me is ungrammatical & should not be used except colloquially; myself is usually possible, but not always. The formula whom failing (= or in default of him) should be either who failing or failing whom; the justification of failing whom is that failing has, like during &c., passed into a preposition, & whom failing is a confusion between the two right forms.

ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES

3. The following example of one absolute construction enclosed in another is a pretty puzzle for those who like such things: To the new Greek Note Bulgaria replied by a Note which was returned to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Greece, it being declared, not wishing to enter into any bargaining. It is clear enough that that will not do, & that it must be changed into (a) it being declared that Greece did not wish, or (b) Greece not wishing, it was declared, to ...; but why will it not do? Because the absolute construction' it being declared 'cannot, like the it was declared' of b, be parenthetic, but must be in adverbial relation to the sentence; knowing that, we ask what 'it' is, & find that it can only be an anticipatory it (see IT) equivalent to that Greece did not wish'; but the consequent expansion Greece, that Greece did not wish being declared, not wishing' makes nonsense.

ABSOLUTE POSSESSIVES. Under this term are included the words hers, ours, theirs, & yours, & (except in the archaic attributive-adjective use, as thine eyes) mine & thine. The ordinary uses of these need not be set forth here. But a mistake is often made when two or more possessives are to be referred to a single noun that follows the last of them: the absolute word in -s or -ne is wrongly used in the earlier place(s) instead of the simple possessive. The correct forms are: your & our & his efforts (not yours & ours); either my or your informant must have lied (not mine); her & his mutual dislike (not hers); our without your help will not avail (not ours). There is no doubt a natural temptation to substitute the wrong word; the simple possessive seems to pine at separation from its property. The true remedy is a change of order :-your efforts & ours & his; my informant or yours; our help without yours. It is not always available, however; her &

abstraction, abstractness. See -ION & -NESS.

abysmal, abyssal. The first is the rhetorical word (abysmal ignorance, degradation, bathos); abyssal, formerly used in the same way, has now been appropriated as a technical term meaning of the bottom of the ocean or of a depth greater than 300 fathoms.

Academe properly means Academus (a Greek hero); & its use as a poetic variant for academy, though sanctioned by Shakspere, Tennyson, & Lowell, is a mistake; the grove of A., however, (Milton) means rightly The Academy.

Academy. The A., the Garden, the Lyceum, the Porch, the Tub, are names used for five chief schools of Greek philosophy, their founders, adherents, & doctrines: the A., Plato, the Platonists, & Platonism; the Garden, Epicurus, the Epicureans, & Epicureanism; the Lyceum, Aristotle, the Aristotelians, & Aristotelianism; the Porch, Zeno, the Stoics, & Stoicism; the Tub, Antisthenes, the Cynics, & Cynicism.

acapsular. See A-, AN-. acatalectic. See TECHNICAL TERMS. acaulous. See A-, AN-.

accelerate makes-rable; see -ABLE 1. accent. Pronounce the noun ǎ'ksnt, the verb akse'nt; see NOUN & VERB ACCENT.

accent(uate). In figurative senses (draw attention to, emphasize, make conspicuous, &c.) the long form is now much the commoner; in literal senses (sound or write with an accent), though either will pass, the short prevails; & the DIFFERENTIATION is worth encouraging.

acceptance, acceptation. The words, once used indifferently in several senses, are now fully differentiated. Acceptation means only the interpretation put on something (the

word in its proper acceptation means love; the various acceptations of the doctrine of the Trinity), while acceptance does the ordinary work of a verbal noun for accept (find acceptance, be well received; beg or ask one's acceptance of, ask him to accept; cf. ask his acceptation of, ask how he understands; cards of acceptance, accepting an invitation; acceptance of persons, partiality; acceptance of a bill, drawee's accepting of responsibility; endorses my acceptance of the terms, agrees with me in accepting them; cf. endorses my acceptation of them, agrees with my view of their drift).

accepter, -or. See -OR.

accept of. This, formerly used almost as widely as the simple verb, is now restricted to the meaning consent to receive as a gift or benefit or possession. We can still accept of a gift or favour, of a person's love or hand or company, of a brace of grouse, & the like, though even these phrases tend to become archaic. But a theory, an emendation, advice, an apology, a ruling, a challenge, we only accept.

access

access, accession. There are probably, in modern usage, no contexts in which one of these can be substituted for the other without the meaning's being modified. But, perhaps owing to the fact that, with such modification, similar collocations for both are not uncommon, the wrong one is sometimes carelessly or ignorantly chosen. With regard to arriving, accession means arrival, opportunity of arriving; accordingly accession to the throne means becoming sovereign, access to the throne opportunity of petitioning the sovereign ; we can say His access to fortune was barred, or His accession to fortune had not yet taken place, but not the converse. The idea of increase, often present in accession, is foreign to access; an access of fury, fever, joy, despair, &c., is a fit or sudden attack of it, which may occur whatever the previous

ACCESSARY

state of mind may have been, whereas an accession of any of them can only mean a heightened degree of the one that already existed; our forces have had no accession, have not been augmented in numbers, have had no access, have not been able to enter.

accessary, accessory. The words, though they have separate histories, are often confused; but a fairly clear line of distinction can be made out. Accessary involves the notion of complicity or intentional aid or consent, & is accordingly used only where that notion is applicable, i.e. chiefly (as a noun) of persons & (as an adjective) of persons or their actions (he was an accessary, if not the principal; the accessaries also were punished; this course has made us accessary to the crime; was guilty of accessary action). Accessory has no such implication of consent, &, though it includes the notion of contributing to a result, emphasizes especially the subordinate` nature of the contribution; it is applied chiefly to things (the accessory details of the picture; that is only an accessory, an unessential feature ; the accessories, the not indispensable accompaniments).

accidence. See TECHNICAL TERMS. acclimatize, -imate, -imatization, Acclimatize, -imatation, -imation.

as

acclimatization, are the forms for which general usage seems to have decided. Some writers wish to retain the others with reference to the process when brought about by natural human opposed to agency; but it is doubtful whether the words are in common enough use for the differentiation to gain currency; &, failing differentiation, it is better that the by-forms should perish.

accommodate makes -dable; -ABLE 1.

accompany.

For inflexions

VERBS IN IE &c., 6.

accompan(y)ist. See -IST.

see

see

accomplice, accomplish. The OED

8

ACCOUNT

gives the pronunciation with -ŏm-, not -ŭm-, as the established one for both words, though the historical pronunciation' of accomplish was with -ŭm-.

accord, account. The phrases are of one's own accord, on one's own account; of one's own account is a confusion. See CAST-IRON IDIOM.

according as. There is a tendency to repeat the phrase (like BETWEEN), with a mistaken idea of making the construction clearer, in contexts where the repetition is not merely needless, but wrong. For instance, the second according as it should be omitted in

The big production will be harmful or the reverse, according as it can command the Government to insure it a monopoly in all circumstances, or according as it works with the knowledge that, if it abuses its trust, the door is freely open to the competing products of other countries.

The error is at once apparent if the clause (for it is a single clause, in fact) is reduced to its simplest expression (will be harmful or the reverse) according as it is irresponsible or responsible; no-one would write or according as it is responsible ; the temptation comes in long sentences only, & must be resisted. Or according as is legitimate only when what is to be introduced is not, as in the quotation, the necessarily implied alternative or the other extreme of the same scale, but another scale or pair of alternatives. Man attains happiness or not according as he deserves it or not (right), according as he deserves it or does not deserve it (right), according as he deserves it or according as he does not deserve it (wrong), according as he deserves it or according as he can digest his food (right).

accouchement &c.

WORDS. account.

See FRENCH

Unlike regard, & like consider, this verb does not in good modern usage admit of as before its complement; I account it a piece of

acknowledge(ment). For pronunciation see KNOWLEDGE. For -dg(e)ment see JUDGEMENT.

acoustic. Pronunciation varies between -ow- & -ō0-. In favour of -- is the adoption from French, the sound of Greek ov in the more recent English pronunciation of Greek, & the general impression that the value of ou in outlandish words is oo; in favour of -ow- is the older & still common English pronunciation of Greek, & the normal value of ou in English. If the word came into popular use, it would probably be with -ow-, which even perhaps tends to prevail.

now

acquaintanceship is a NEEDLESS VARIANT for acquaintance.

act vb. In the sense behave like, the word, once used as freely as play, has contracted a slangy or vulgarly colloquial tone, & is now more appropriate in such expressions as act the giddy goat than in act the philosopher, lover, child, or even fool, in all of which play is better.

act, action. The distinction between the two words is not always clear. The natural idea that act should mean the thing done, & action the doing of it, is not even historically quite true, since act

actus

represents the Latin noun (which is very close to actio in sense) as well as the Latin participle actum ; but, if not true, it has influence enough to prevent act from being commonly used in the more abstract senses; we can speak only of the action, not the act, of a machine, when we mean the way it acts; & action alone has the collective sense, as in his action throughout (i.e. his acts or actions as a whole) was correct; there are also other senses in which there is obviously no choice open. In contexts that do admit of doubt, it may be said generally that action tends to displace act. If we were making the phrases for the first time now, we should probably prefer action in Through God will we do great acts, The Acts of the Apostles, By the act of God, Be great in act as you have been in thought, I deliver this as my act & deed. This tendency, however, is by no means always effective; it is indifferent, for instance, whether we say we are judged by our acts or by our actions; there is no appreciable difference between it was an act, & it was an action, that he was to regret bitterly. And in certain contexts act more than holds its ground: (1) in the sense deed of the nature of; it would be an act (never action) of folly, cruelty, madness, kindness, mercy, &c.; similarly in the sense deed characteristic of; it was the act (rarely action) of a fool (cf. the actions of a fool cannot be foreseen, where the sense is not characteristic deed, but simply deed). On the other hand, when for of folly or of a fool &c. foolish &c. is substituted, action is commoner than act-a cruel, kind, foolish, noble, base, action or ací. (2) In the sense instant of doing: caught in the act, was in the very act of jumping. (3) In antithesis with word, thought, plan, &c., when these mean rather every word, each thought, a particular plan, than speech, thinking, planning: faithful in word & act (but in speech & action); innocent in thought & act

ACTUALITY

(but supreme in thought & action); the act was mine, the plan yours (but a strategy convincing in plan, but disappointing in action).

actuality. See LITERARY CRITICS'

WORDS.

acuity, acuteness. See -TY & -NESS. adagio. Pl. -os; see -O(E)S 4. ad captandum. See TECHNICAL

TERMS.

addicted to. This should be followed by an ordinary noun or a verbal noun in -ing-is addicted to whisky, is addicted to reading the jokes in Punch aloud-& never by an infinitive, as in is addicted to read the jokes aloud. The wrong construction, which occasionally occurs, is probably suggested by the commonest phrase-addicted to drink, in which drink is the noun.

addle, addled. The adjectival use of addle as in an addle egg, his brain is addle, is correct, & was formerly common; but to prefer it now to the usual addled is a DIDACTICISM. It still prevails, however, in compounds, as addle-pate, addle-brained.

adducible, -eable. Use -ible; see -ABLE 2.

adhere, adhesion. The established phrase give in one's adhesion to a policy, party, leader, &c., means to declare one's acceptance of, & describes a single non-continuous act; it is to be observed, however, that adhere to is not used, by good writers at least, in the corresponding sense accept or declare acceptance of, but only in that of remaining con

stant to.

adieu. See -x, & FRENCH WORDS. adipose. See PEDANTIC HUMOUR. adjectivally, adjectively, &c. Adjectivally & substantivally are preferable to adjectively & substantively (cf. ABLATIVELY) because (1) the words adjective & (in the grammatical sense) substantive are now regarded as nouns; so far as they are still used as adjectives, they are felt to be nouns used attributively; adverbs formed directly from them

adjudicate makes-cable; see -ABLE 1. administratrix. For pl. see -TRIX. admirable. See POSITIVE WORDS. admiredly. A bad form; see -EDLY. admission, -ittance, -issible, -Ittable. Of the nouns, admission is used in all senses (No admittance except on business is perhaps the only phrase in which the substitution of admission would be noticed), while admittance is confined to the primary sense of letting in, & even in that You sense tends to disappear. have to pay for admission is now commoner than for admittance, & so with What is needed is the admission of outside air; admission 6d. is now the regular form; on the other hand Such an admittance (instead of admission) would give away the case is now impossible.

The difference between the adjectives is that admissible is the established word, & admittable, though formerly current, is now regarded as merely made for the occasion, & used only when the connexion with admit is to be clear; this is chiefly in the predicate, as Defeat is admittable by anyone without dis

honour.

admit of. This combination, formerly used indifferently with admit in several senses, is now restricted to the sense present an opening or leave room for, & to impersonal nouns usually of an abstract kind as subject: His veracity admits of no question (but not I can admit of no question); A hypothesis admits by its nature of being disputed (but not he admits of being argued with); A modern battleship does not admit of careless handling.