ANALOGY, 3 not yield abstentients? Because the correspondence between abstention & dissension is not quite so close as he assumed; if he had remembered dissentire & abstinere, analogy would have led him to abstinents instead of to abstentients. That is a live newspaper instance of the fallibility of analogy, & dead specimens may be found in any etymological dictionary -dead in the sense that the unsoundness of their analogical basis excites no attention as we hear the words. Who thinks of chaotic, operatic, dilation, dandiacal, & direful, as malformations? yet none of them has any right to exist except that the men who made them thought of eros as a pattern for chaos, drama for opera, relate for dilate, maniac for dandy, & dread for dire, though each pattern differed in some essential point from the material to be dealt with; the objection to some of the words is explained in the separate articles. These malformations, it is true, have now all the rights of words regularly made; they have prospered, & none dare call them treason; but those who try their luck with abstentients & the like must be prepared to pass for ignoramuses. See also HYBRID DERIVATIVES, & (talking of ignoramuses, for which false analogy has been known to substitute ignorami) LATIN PLURALS. 3. As a corrupter of idiom. That is the capacity in which analogy chiefly requires notice in this book. Understanding by idiom the way in which it comes natural to an Englishman to word what he wishes to express, as opposed to the ways that might occur to an imaginary being presented with the bare vocabulary of English to make himself intelligible with, & by an idiom any particular combination of words, or pattern of phrase, or construction, that has become habitual with us to the exclusion of other possibilities, the pranks played by analogy upon idiom & idioms are innumerable. Of the following extracts each ex hibits an outrage upon idiom, & each is due to the assumption that some word or phrase may be treated in a way that would be legitimate if another of roughly the same meaning had been used instead; that other is given in a bracket, sometimes with alternative forms :They are capable of braving this consequence, but we do not think the public need fear that they will do it for anything less than what they are honestly convinced to be a real necessity (they honestly believe to be)./ The double task was performed only at the expenditure of laborious days & nights (cost)./The feature mostly remarked upon in his style when contesting individual games was the complete absorption which the great expert bestowed upon the board (attention)./Those regulations about good husbandry so unpopular to farmers & landlords (unpalatable)./ Roumania indicated her reluctance to any step compromising her future good relations with Germany (repugnance; or reluctance to take)./ Several English papers attribute a desire on the part of Canada to do a little coquetting with the United States (detect, or conjecture; or attribute to Canada)./Whether such a scheme would come under the category of public utility' is ambiguous (doubtful)./We should be sorry to see the slightest obstacle placed by Free Traders to an honest & dignified withdrawal on the part of their opponents (opposed; or placed in the way of withdrawal)./Questions of international law, in which an intimate acquaintance of Scottish jurisprudence was particularly useful (knowledge; or acquaintance with)./ Mr. H. Belloc, who has not often admitted to ignorance on any subject, has owned (confessed to ignorance; or admitted ignorance)./ The Government of this South American Republic are naturally alert to the fact that. . . (alive, or awake)./ The newspaper reader who was scared by placards which alleged to give authentic news of the naval crisis ANALYSE (purported, or professed)./It is more probable that the forecast is imperfect than that the German Government has withdrawn its previous compliance to the whole demand (consent; or compliance with)./ These are all casual lapses, each revealing that the writer is not a master of idiomatic English, but not caused by any widespread misapprehension of the meaning of particular words. There are, however, words whose sufferings under analogy are more serious, so that the unidiomatic substitute tends to supplant the true English; some of these, dealt with in separate articles, are: as well as (= besides; see WELL); ANTICIPATE (= expect); ADVOCATE (= recommend); AIM (=purpose); CLAIM (= assert); DUE TO (=owing to); EQUAL 2; FOIST (=fob); FEASIBLE (= possible); HOPE (=expect); HARDLY 2 (= no sooner); IN ORDER THAT (= SO that); INSTIL (= inspire); OBLIVIOUS (=insensible); POSSIBLE (=able); PREFER (=wish rather); REGARD 3 (= consider); SUPERIOR 3 (= better); VARIOUS (= several). See also the general articles OBJECT-SHUFFLING, SLIPSHOD EXTENSION, & CAST-IRON IDIOM ; & examples of wrong analogy, of less importance, will be found also under forbid, intimidate, lethargy, measure, motive, opportunity, prejudice, privilege, propensity, resentment, stigmatize, sufficient, tend, the more (THE 5, 6), tinker, & value. analyse is better than analyze, but merely as being the one of two equally indefensible forms that has won. The correct but now impossible form would be analysize (or analysise), with analysist for the existing analyst; see also -IST. anapaest, anaphora. See TECH NICAL TERMS. two advantages of representing the Greek original (anakhōrētēs) more closely, & corresponding better with the surviving feminine anchoress (anchoritess being now archaic). anchovy. Usually ǎnchō'vi; rarely, by RECESSIVE ACCENT, ǎ'nchovi. anchylose, ankylose. The right form would be ancylose. The established one is anchylose, with h inserted to preserve the hard sound; these irregular devices are regrettable, since it is a matter of absolute indifference whether the hard sound is preserved or not, while the inserted h puts the Greek scholar off the track. The form with k, which is occasionally used, would have secured the sound more certainly & not deceived the scholar. ancien régime. See FRENCH WORDS. and. 1. And which. 2. Bastard enumeration. 3. Commas in enumeration. 1. For and which see WHICH. 2. Bastard Enumeration. There is perhaps no blunder by which journalistic & other hasty writing is so commonly defaced at present as the one exemplified in He plays good cricket, likes golf & a rubber of whist. The forms of enumeration with which we need concern ourselves in dealing with this are He is Y & Z (1) He is (A,) X, Y, & Z (2) He is (A&) X & Y & Z (3) Nos 1 & 2 are the ordinary idiomatic forms; 3 is unusual but unobjectionable; 4 is exceptional, & used only as a sometimes justifiable stylistic device. The writer of He plays &c. (who surely is not, & certainly ought not to be, indulging in stylistic devices) thinks he is using No 2, but is in fact using No 4, with a No 1 as one of its members; he thinks the items of his enumeration are three (as they would have been if he had said & loves a rubber), but they are in fact two; he thinks he is avoiding the unusual No 3 (which would require & likes golf & AND, 2 loves a rubber), but is in fact avoiding the normal No 1. The test for this now prevalent slovenliness is fortunately very simple in a No 2 (i.e. in the form we all habitually use for enumerations of more than two items) there must be nothing common to two or more of the items without being common to all. In the He plays example the word likes is common to the golf & whist items, but has no relation to the cricket item. In the following examples, numerous because the temptation presents itself in different forms of greater or less insidiousness, what is common to some but not all items is in roman type; corrections are added in brackets; but it may be said in general that insertion of the missing and, from which ignorant writers shrink consciously or unconsciously, is usually attended with no more damage to euphony than that repetition of essential words by the fear of which ELEGANT VARIATION, in all its distressing manifestations, is produced; there is nothing to offend the ear in He plays good cricket, & likes golf & a rubber of whist. Hence loss of time, of money, & sore trial of patience (reduce to a No 1 with a No 1 in its first item:-time & money, &)./Penn's letters are courtly in tone, full of friendly advice, & affectionate wishes (reduce to 1, with a 1 in second item:& full; advice &)./It was terse, pointed, & a tone of good humour made it enjoyable (reduce to 1, with a 1 in first item :-terse & pointed)./ He has his ideals, is well read, a lover of poetry, & a student (reduce to 1 with a 2 in second item:& is)./ His workmen better housed, better fed, & get a third more in wages (reduce to 1 with a 1 in first item:-housed & fed)./ He has not advanced with the rapidity of Sir A. B., who was called' at the Middle Temple in 1894, became a Q.C. in 1895, & a Bencher in 1900 (reduce to 1-who, after being called)./ Moltke had recruited, trained, are & knew by heart all the men under him (reduce to 1 with a 1 in first item-had recruited & trained & knew)./ Unemployed workmen gathered before the buildings, hooted the prince when he entered them, & on his departure (reduce to 1 by placing a comma before gathered or removing that after buildings)./... Neipperg, who countermanœuvred with vigilance, good judgment, & would not come to action (reduce to 1 with a 1 in first item:-vigilance & good)./ Make some sacrifice in order to pass the Appropriation Bill, the Finance Bill, the Expiring Laws Continuance Act, & make progress with .. (reduce to 1 with a 2 in first item :-Bill, & the Expiring)./ For it fails to include many popular superstitions, does not evidence any great care in its composition, & its arrangement is amateurish (correct into 2:& is amateurish in arrangement)./ The Protectionist method is extremely wasteful, quickly exhausted, inflicts the maximum of injury on consumers, & on the great majority of producers (the blunder is double; make two 1s:—wasteful & quickly exhausted; it)./In 1889 he rode in Australia, Africa, & two years ago he rode over the Pyrenees (reduce to 1 with a 1 in first item :-Australia & Africa)./ Light is thrown upon Herrick's friendships, travelling, his life as a Cavalier, & as Vicar of Dean Prior (double blunder; reduce to 1 with a 1 in each item :— Herrick's friendships & travels, & his life both as). A few bad enumerations are added for which carelessness rather than a wrong theory seems responsible. The centuries during which the white man kidnapped, enslaved, ill-treated, & made of the black a beast of burden (& made a beast of burden of; or & ill-treated the black & made him a)./ He has been successively Governor of the Gold Coast, has done good work in Hong Kong, & has governed Natal (has successively been.; Coast, done; & governed)./Many of these authoresses are rich, influential, & are AND, 3 surrounded by sycophants who (& surrounded)./It is true he has worked upon old material, has indulged in no more serious research than a perusal of the English & French chronicles of the age & most of the modern works dealing with the subject (material & indulged). 3. And & commas in enumerations, of the (A,) X, Y, & Z form (i.e., such as-Every man woman & child was killed; Blue brown & grey eyes; Blue eyes skies & ties; An honest sober & industrious man; Some French Latin & other words have been borrowed). There is no agreement at present on the punctuation; we may see :Every man, woman, & child, was killed; Every man, woman, & child was killed; Every man, woman & child, was killed; Every man, woman & child was killed. This licence, however, often leaves readers helpless against ambiguity; e.g., if the comma after the last item is a matter of indifference, the reader faced with A party formidable, intelligent, & numerous outside the House cannot possibly tell whether the limitation outside &c. applies to all three adjectives or only to the last; & if the comma before the and is indifferent, he cannot tell whether, in All the most important documents, declarations & resolutions, which comprise the American constitution, he has three separate items (documents, declarations, resolutions), or whether the second & third are the two items that make up the first. The only rule that will obviate such uncertainties is that after every item, including the last unless a heavier stop is needed for independent reasons, the comma should be used (Every man, woman, & child, was killed; They killed every man, woman, & child.). Accordingly, in the ambiguous examples above, a comma should be inserted after numerous, & one after declarations. Those examples are actual extracts from newspapers, & more such extracts follow, with corrections :-The only plan is to bring all the resources of the Poor Law, the local authorities, & charity to bear on the rest (charity, to)./Little more than reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, & singing is taught (singing, is)./This humourist, sentimentalist, & not too reverent agnostic must find life packed with entertainment (agnostic, must)./The cost of renting, repairing & improving transferred school buildings (repairing, & improving, transferred)./The modes in which I now feel, desire, & think arise out of the modes in which I have previously done so (think, arise)./The design & scope of it do credit to the organizers & planners, the artists & architects, & the men of business who have worked together in preparing it (business, who. Misinterpretation is obviated; for the relative clause probably belongs to all the items)./ The smooth grey of the beech stem, the silky texture of the birch & the rugged pine & oak (birch, &. Without this, pine & oak have silky texture). The One concession, however, must be made. Among the examples corrected above there are none of the type in which several adjectives enumerated as (A,) X, Y, & Z are attached to a following noun. rule would require us to write They have blue, brown, & grey, eyes; Some French, Latin, & other, words have been borrowed. These being intolerable, it is clear that a loophole must be made; & an analogy that will serve is offered by the invariable form of the corresponding enumeration without and. Logic would require A sober, honest, industrious, man; but we write A sober, honest, industrious man ; & the same licence must be recognized for Some French, Latin, & other words. andantino. Pl. -os; see -o(E)S 3. anemone. Puzzling to pronounce ; an emine(nce), not an enemy, gives the order of consonants. anent, apart from its use in Scotch ANEURYSM law-courts, where it is in place, is chiefly met with in letters to the press; that is, it is a favourite with unpractised writers who, on their holiday excursions into print, like to show that they possess gala attire. See ARCHAISM. Anent is often found in the company of dubious syntax & sense, as in :-Sir,-Your remarks today on the result of the Canadian election anent the paragraph in the Philadelphia Record is, I am glad to see, the first sign of real appreciation of... (is should be are; & he is not glad that it is the first sign). aneurysm, not aneurism. The y is due to Greek eurus wide; the false form suggests the totally different sense nervelessness; cf. MESEMBRIAN THEMUM. angel. Talk of an a. is a GENTEEL ISM. angina. To say ǎ'njina was long regarded as a sad lapse from Latinity, & ǎnji'na was expected of all educated persons. Progress in Plautine prosody has revealed that the i was short in Latin, & OED gives precedence to ǎ'njina. See FALSE QUANTITY. The angle n., angle v., angler. noun angle (fish-hook) is now hardly used except in the BATTERED ORNAMENT brother of the a. The verb is chiefly a stylish synonym (see WORKING & STYLISH WORDS) for fish. Angler, on the other hand, has a real use, since fisher is archaic, & fisherman is assumed, unless context forbids, to mean one who makes his living by fishing with nets. anglice, -cè. See LATINE. Anglo-Indian. For ambiguous meaning, see MULATTO 4. ankle, ancle. The -k- is usual. annihilate makes-lable; see -ABLE 1. announce. See FORMAL WORDS. annoyedly. A bad form; see -EDLY. annul. So spelt, but -lled &c.; see -LL-, -L-. annunciation. Pronounce -sĭā- ; see -CIATION. another. For one a. see EACH 2 antagonize. As a synonym for oppose, resist, neutralize, counteract, the word is recognized in dictionaries ; but the OED quotations for it are far from impressive, & it may safely be said that the occasions are rare indeed when one of those words would not be preferable to it. It does appear in those senses in modern journalism, but perhaps never without producing an effect of vulgar display; see WORKING & STYLISH WORDS. One or two quotations may be given in which there can be no doubt of the meaning :— Socrates ends by saying that we should antagonize gambling on the ground of its being bad business & not as being bad morals./Every attempt to substitute coercion for persuasion is a reversion to the very ideals which Labour collectively professes to antagonize./The Democrats have given notice of a determination to antagonize this & all other Bills for ... The last is from the OED, which states that this use (person opposing thing) is American English only; the first two examples show that it has since appeared in England; it is to be hoped than it may not last on either side of the Atlantic. But a. has another sense in which it does good service, & should certainly not be banned. That is to rouse or incur the hostility of, to expose oneself by one's action to the enmity of. This sense probably comes also from America, where it is commoner than in England; but its usefulness is so obvious that we should welcome it. As the OED has only one example, a few quotations may be worth giving to enable readers to judge of its merits; it should be observed that the idea is not oppose, though opposing is implied, but something |