WHOSE

were

referred to, though they selected long before the present article was designed, supply illustrations of that; This book, from theconcentrated-harvest-of-wisdom-inwhich we would become This book, from whose concentrated harvest of wisdom we'; 'The camera, the-remarkable-&-convincing-evidence-it-has-been-possible-toobtain-with-which has' would become The camera, whose remarkable & convincing evidence has '. To take everyday samples instead of such monstrosities, would not 'Courts whose jurisdiction', & a game of whose rules it is ignorant' be clear improvements in the following ?-The civilians managed to retain their practice in Courts the jurisdiction of which was not based on the Common Law./In Whistler v. Ruskin the subject of a most entertaining paper-we have the law standing as umpire in a game of the rules of which it is quite ignorant. Of course they would, & of the convenience of whose of &c. which there can really be no question; nor is the risk of ambiguity worth considering, so rare is it in comparison with that of artificial clumsiness. The tabooing of whose inanimate is on a level with that of the PREPOSITION AT END; both are great aids to flexibility; both are well established in older as well as in colloquial English; My thought, Whose murder yet is but fantastical (Macbeth), & The fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world (Paradise Lost), are merely the first instances that come to mind. The Milton happens to be a little out of the ordinary in that whose is not a mere possessive, but an objective genitive; but that even such a use is not obsolete is shown by the following from a newspaper: Sir William Harcourt thrice refused an earldom, whose acceptance he feared might be a barrier to his son's political career.

Let us, in the name of common sense, prohibit the prohibition of

whose inanimate; good writing is surely difficult enough without the forbidding of things that have historical grammar, & present intelligibility, & obvious convenience, on their side, & lack only-starch.

why. Pl. whys.

BROAD.

wicker makes -ered; see -R-, -RR-. wide. 1. For the distinction between w. & broad, which is of considerable idiomatic importance, see 2. Wide(ly). It should be remembered that there are many positions in which, though widely is grammatically possible, wide is the idiomatic form; see UNIDIOMATIC -LY for other such adjectives; yawn wide, aim wide, wide apart, wide awake, open one's eyes wide, is widespread, are all usually better than widely apart &c., & there are many

more.

wide(-)awake. He is wide awake; A very wide-awake person; He was wearing a wideawake or wide-awake. widely. See wide.

widish, not wideish; see MUTE E. wife. For the verb &c. see -VE(D). Diminutive wifie, see -EY, -IE, -Y. For all the world & his wife see WORN-OUT HUMOUR.

wight. A WARDOUR STREET word. wild. 1. Hyphens &c. We saw a wild boar or a wild duck, but They were hunting wild-boar or wildboar or shooting wild-duck; a wild cat is an untamed one of the domestic kind, a wildcat or wild-cat one of the species so named; wild oats, not wild-oats; see HYPHENS. 2. Wild(ly). For play, run, shoot, talk, &c., wild, see UNIDIOMATIC -LY.

wilful. So spelt; see -LL-, -L-, 4. will, n. 1. Phrases like the will to power, in which a noun is tacked on to will by to, have come from Germany & been allowed to sojourn amongst us for a time; but there is a stronger case for their deportation & repatriation than against many human aliens, & it may now be hoped that our philosophers, if they really do require the meaning

1. Forms. There is a verb to will, conjugated regularly throughoutwill, willest, wills, willed, willedst, willing; it means to intend so far as one has power that so-&-so shall come about, the so-&-so being expressed by a noun or a that-clause or an infinitive with to: You willed his death, that he should die, to kill him. The much commoner auxiliary verb has none of the above forms except will, & on the other hand has wilt & would & would(e)st; it has also none of the above constructions, but is followed by an infinitive without to: He will die, Would it be true? The meaning of this auxiliary is curiously complicated by a partial exchange of functions with shall, the work of merely giving future & conditional forms to other verbs being divided between certain persons of shall & certain persons of will, while the parts of each not so employed retain something of the senses of ordering (shall) & intending (will) that originally belonged to the stems.

2. Will & shall. There is the English of the English, & there is the English of those who repudiate that national name; of the English of the English shall & will are the shibboleth, & the number of those who cannot frame to pronounce it right', as they talk to us in the newspapers, best reveals to us the power in the English Press wielded by Scots & others who are not English. That power need not be grudged them, & it is perhaps presumption to take for granted that shibboleth is better than sibboleth; but the mere Englishman, if he reflects upon the matter at all, is convinced that his shall & will endows his speech with a delicate

precision that could not be attained without it, & serves more important purposes than that of a race-label.

The idiom is a strange one, & under shall has been sufficiently illustrated to save those who may wish to acquire it some of the usual mistakes. The general statement will be enough here that nearly all misuses are of will for the idiomatic shall, not of shall for will; to which may be added a small selection of various common wrong forms, with references to the sections of shall :

See SHALL, 1

:

If we add too much to these demands we will be in grave danger of getting nothing. / We are facing the consequences today, & will have to face them for many years to come in the affairs of Europe./We have no proper place at the Coronation of King George, & would lay ourselves open to the gravest misunderstanding by departing, on this occasion, from the settled policy of our party. See SHALL, 2

We would like to bring together two extracts dealing with the effects of the Budget on land./But at any rate we would feel sorry to have missed anything that is told us of Edison in the biography.

WILLY

tended that the exterior scenes in no fewer than four different pictures will be taken before they return.

Willy, -ie. See -EY, IE, -Y. wily makes wilily; see -LILY. wind, n. Words for wind, & names of particular winds, are apt to be troublesome & to be confused with one another. The following words are in alphabetical order, & the definitions are those of the OED, except where (for wind itself only) the OED was not yet out :

anti-trade wind. A wind that blows steadily in the opposite direction to the trade-wind, that is, in the northern hemisphere from S.W., & in southern hemisphere from N.W.

bise. A keen dry N. or NNE. wind prevalent in Switzerland & the neighbouring parts of France, Germany, & Italy.

blast. A strong gust of wind. blizzard. A furious blast of frostwind & blinding snow.

breath. A gentle blowing, a puff. breeze. A gentle or light wind. cloud-burst. A violent storm of rain, a waterspout '.

6

cyclone. a. A storm in which the wind has a circular course. b. A hurricane or tornado of limited diameter & destructive violence. c. A system of winds rotating around a centre of minimum barometric pressure.

draught. A current of air, esp. in a confined space, as a room or a chimney.

föhn. A warm dry south wind which blows down the valleys on the north side of the Alps.

gale. a. A wind of considerable strength. b. A gentle breeze.

gust. A sudden violent rush or blast of wind.

harmattan. A dry parching landwind, which blows during December, January, & February, on the coast of Upper Guinea in Africa; it obscures the air with a red dust-fog. hurricane. A name given primarily to the violent wind-storms of the West Indies, which are cyclones of

WIND, N. diameter of from 50 to 1000 miles, wherein the air moves with a velocity of from 80 to 130 miles an hour round a central calm space, which with the whole system advances in a straight or curved track; hence. any storm or tempest in which the wind blows with terrific violence.

mistral. A violent cold north-west wind experienced in the Mediter ranean provinces of France & neighbouring districts.

monsoon. A seasonal wind pre vailing in southern Asia & esp. in the Indian Ocean, which during the period from April to October blows approximately from the south-west, & from October to April from the north-east.

puff. A short impulsive blast of breath or wind; a whiff.

samiel. The simoom.

simoom. A hot, dry, suffocating sand-wind which sweeps across the African & Asiatic deserts at intervals during the spring & summer.

squall. A sudden & violent gust. a blast or short sharp storm, of wind. storm. A violent disturbance of the atmosphere, manifested by high winds, often accompanied by heavy falls of rain, hail, or snow, by thunder & lightning, & at sea by turbulence of the waves. Hence sometimes applied to a heavy fall of rain, hail, or snow, or to a violent outbreak of thunder & lightning, unaccompanied by strong wind.

tempest. A violent storm of wind. usually accompanied by a downfall of rain, hail, or snow, or by thunder. tornado. a. A very violent storm. affecting a limited area, in which the wind is constantly changing its direction or rotating; loosely, any very violent storm of wind, a hur ricane. b. On the west coast of Africa, a rotatory storm in which the wind revolves violently under a moving arch of clouds. c. In the Mississippi region of U.S., a destruc tive rotatory storm under a funnelshaped cloud like a waterspout. which advances in a narrow path over the land for many miles.

&

typhoon. a. A violent storm or tempest occurring in India. b. A violent cyclonic storm or hurricane occurring in the China seas adjacent regions, chiefly during the period from July to October. waterspout. a. A gyrating column of mist, spray, & water, produced by the action of a whirlwind on a portion of the sea & the clouds immediately above it. b. A sudden & violent fall of rain; a cloudburst. whiff. A slight puff or gust of wind, a breath.

whirlwind. A body of air moving rapidly in a circular or upward spiral course around a vertical or slightly inclined axis which has also a progressive motion over the surface of land or water.

wind. Air in more or less rapid natural motion, breeze or gale or blast (Concise Oxf. Dict.).

zephyr. A soft mild gentle wind or breeze.

wind, verbs. Wind, wound, to twist &c. Wind, winded (or wound), to blow (a horn). Wind, winded, to give breath to or exhaust the breath of. The two latter are from the noun wind (wound being a natural corruption), & unconnected with the first.

windward(s). See -WARD(s).

wine makes winy; see MUTE E. winning makes -est; -ER & -EST, 4. winter. W. garden, w. quarters, w. solstice; each should be two words, unhyphened; see HYPHENS 3 B. For the w. of our discontent, see IRRELEVANT ALLUSION.

see

wire makes wirable, wiry; MUTE E. Wire rope should be two words unhyphened; HYPHENS 3 B. wise, n. In the phrases in no wise, in any wise, &c., wise should be a

see

separate noun unhyphened; HYPHENS, Group *From hand to mouth; if in does not precede, there is no objection to any of the three forms no wise, no-wise, nowise. -WISE,-WAYS. 1. The ending -ways, or occasionally -way, is often used indifferently with wise, & is very seldom the only form without one in -wise by its side-perhaps only in always. 2. In a few established words, -wise is alone, esp. clockwise, coastwise, likewise, otherwise, sunwise. 3. In other established words both forms are used, as breadth-, broad-, end-, least-, length-, long-, no-, side-, slant-. 4. In words made for the occasion from nouns, as in Use it clubwise or pokerwise, Go crabwise or frogwise, Worn cloakor broochwise or chainwise, Placed studwise or fencewise, -wise is now much the commoner.

wise

wishful is a word chiefly used by those who disapprove of the phrase ANXIOUS to, & it has consequently a certain taint of purism about it. If it should ever lose that, & come into general use, it would at once relieve anxious of a meaning that is open to exception, & provide desirous with a grammatically convenient synonym; compare desirous of doing with wishful to do. In the mean time, wishful (with its ludicrous suggestion of wistful) gives the reader a slight shock as he comes to it : We should recommend a perusal of the whole article to those wishful to understand the real nature of the conflict.

wistaria. So spelt.

wit, n. See HUMOUR; that the two are different names for the same thing is no doubt still a popular belief; but literary critics at least should not allow themselves to identify the two, as in: It is to be doubted whether the author's gifts really do include that of humour. Two jests do not make a wit.

wit, vb. Pres., wot, wottest; past wist; infin., to wit; part. witting. Sec WARDOUR STREET.

WITCH

witch-. See wych-.

witenagemot. Pron. wi'tenagimō't. with. Writers who have become conscious of the ill effect of as to & in the CASE of, casting about for a substitute that shall enable them still to pull something forward to the beginning of a sentence ( The modern journalistic craving for immediate intelligibility' said Dr Henry Bradley), have lately hit upon with, which is sometimes found displacing of or some really appropriate preposition-atrick that should be avoided :-With pipes, as with tobacco, William Bragge was one of the most successful collectors./ [Collins, Blair, Parnell, Dyer, Green] Collins has had his excellent editors, & we must suppose that the manuscript has finally disappeared; but, with the others, we suspect that the poems are extant./Read of pipes, of tobacco, the poems of the others.

withal. See WARDOUR Street. withe, withy. Both spellings, & the monosyllabic as well as the disyllabic pronunciation, are in use. As against those who condemn the monosyllable as a novelty or an ignorance, there is the plural withs in the A. V. of Judg. xvi. 7. But probably withy, pl. -ies, is the best form for modern purposes, obviating uncertainty.

without. 1. W.- outside. 2. W.= unless. 3. Without or without. 4. Without hardly. 5. Without him being. 6. Negative confusion.

=

1. W. outside. Both as adverb (listening to the wind without; clean within & without), & as preposition (is without the pale of civilization), the word retains this meaning; but it is no longer for all styles, having now a literary or archaic sound that may be very incongruous.

2. W. unless. No high efficiency can be secured without we first secure the hearty cooperation of the 30,000,000 or so workers. The use is good old English, but bad modern Englishone of the things that many people say, but few write; it should be

left to conscious stylists who can rely on their revivals' not being taken for vulgarisms.

3. Without . . . or without... It can be done without any fear of his knowing it, or without other evil consequences. The well meant repetition of without is not merely needless, but wrong. See OR 4.

4. Without hardly. The introduction of the vast new refineries has been brought about quickly, silently, & effectively, & without the surrounding community hardly being aware of what was happening. Again, like 2, a common colloquialism, but, unlike it, one that should never appear outside spoken or printed talk; the English for without hardly is almost without.

5. Without him being. The word is peculiarly apt to usher in a FUSED PARTICIPLE, e. g. The formidable occasion had come & gone without anything dreadful happening. The fused participle is no worse after without than elsewhere, but those who are prepared to eschew it altogether should take warning that without will sometimes try their virtue, so often does the temptation present itself; it is, for instance, a pure accident that the sentence quoted in 4 for a different point contains the fused participle without the community being aware. Escapes are usually not hard to find; here ' & nothing dreadful had happened or without any dreadful results would do, but particular suggestions for a particular case are of little value; the great thing is general readiness to abandon & recast any of one's phrases that one finds faulty. 6. Negative confusion. Like all negative & virtually negative words, without often figures in such absurdities as-It is not safe for any young lady to walk along the Spaniards-road on a Sunday evening by herself without having unpleasant remarks spoken as she passes along./ Rendering it possible for a Government to accept some at any rate of the recommendations of the Committee