I Always Look Up the Word "Egregious": A Vocabulary Book for People Who Don’t Need One

304 Pages·1987·35.25 MB·English

by  Maxwell Nurnberg

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"E*gre«gious"
AVocabalaiyBook
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Who Dont Need One
by
Maxwell
Nurnberg
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011
http://www.archive.org/details/ialwayslookupworOOnurn
Always Look
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Up Word
the
"Egregious"
BooksbyMaxwellNumberg
What'stheGoodWord?
Wonders inWords
FunwithWords
Word Play
Punctuation Pointers
QuestionsYouAlwaysWantedtoAskAboutEnglish
AGatheringofPoems (Editor)
IAlways LookUptheWord"Egregious"
WithMorrisRosenblum:
HowtoBuildaBetterVocabulary
AllAboutWords
WhattoNameYourBaby
A
With Harold Clarke:
ChalkDust, anationally producedFederalTheaterPlay
Always
I
Lookup
Word
the
"Egregious**
Maxwell Nurnberg
PRENTICE HALL PRESS • NEW YORK
"
ToEllenand EugeneandRose
Thisbookisavailableataspecialdiscountwhenorderedin
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SpecialSales, 13thfloor, 1Gulf + WesternPlaza,NewYork,NY10023.
Copyright©1981byMaxwellNumberg
Allrightsreserved,includingtherightofreproduction
inwholeorinpartinanyform.
Publishedin 1987byPrenticeHallPress
ADivisionofSimon&Schuster,Inc.
Gulf + WesternBuilding
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NewYork, NY10023
OriginallypublishedbyPrentice-Hall,Inc.
PRENTICEHALLPRESSisatrademarkofSimon&Schuster,Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Numberg,Maxwell
Ialwayslookuptheword"egregious.
Includesindex.
1. Vocabulary, I. Title.
PE1449.N82 428.1 81-1460
ISBN0-13-448720-6 AACR2
ISBN0-13-448712-5(pbk)
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
15 14 13 12 11 10 9
FirstPrenticeHallPressEdition
Acknowledgments
For most of the sentences cited as illustration of the use of a
word in context, I am deeply indebtedtoTheNew York Times
with its brilliant array ofjournalists, reviewers, critics, editorial
staff, Op-Ed essayists, sports writers, and the often distin-
guished men and women who write letters to this prestigious
newspaper.
When theNewYorknewspaperstrikewason,Imoved
to the Times Literary Supplement (ofLondon) and, when that
publication was suspended, I cast peripheral glances at The
New Yorkerand theNew YorkReview ofBooks. Anyexcerpts
that come from these sources are labeled 7LS, NY, orNYRB,
(All others except a few home-grown sentences are from The
New York Times.)
Since have used so much newspaper material—
I
sometimes ofa controversial nature—I wish to makethe usual
disclaimer The views expressed in these excerpts do not
necessarily reflect my views orthose ofmy publisherorofany
ofthe sources mentioned.
For material quoted from other sources I wish to
make, with thanks, the following acknowledgments:
To Prentice-Hall and Dora Rosenblum for permission
to use and adapt material from two publications. How to Build
Q Better Vocabulan; and All About Words, on which I col-
laborated with the late Dr. Rosenblum.
To"PleasuresinLearning,"aselectionIcontributedtoa
formerNew York University publication, forthe epigraph that
heads Chapter 1; copyright © 1964 by Maxwell Nurnberg.
To Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., for the excerpt
from The Golden Echo by David Garnett and fortwo excerpts
from GeorgeOrwell's essayPoliticsandtheEnglishLanguage,
copyright © 1946 by George Orwell.
To Curtis Brown, Ltd., for permission to reprint a
passage from Robert Graves's "Goodbye to All That," copy-
right © 1929 by Robert Graves.
^
To Oxford University Press for permission to reprint
the anonymous clerihew "Spinoza" from The New Oxford
BookofLightVerse, selectedbyKingsleyAmis(1978),no. 185.
To Random House, Inc., forpermission to quote lines
from Italo Calvino's TheBaror) in theTrees, © 1959.
To check on derivations and definitions I have con-
sulted chiefly Webster's Severith New Collegiate Dictior]ari;;
Webster's New World Dictionari; of the English Language,
Second College Edition; and theAmerican Heritage Diction*
ori; ofthe English Language with its unique Usage Panel and
its appraisal of usage in dispute.
As a backup used Webster's ThirdNewInternational
I
Dictionary, Unabridged (hereafter referred to as W3), and its
supplement 6,000 Words, and now and then, as will be seen,
the OxfordEnglish Dictionary, hereafterreferredto asOED.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge my great indebtedness
to Ruth M. Goldstein forherpainstaking readingandtyping of
the manuscript as well as her occasional felicitous additions
andwisesubtractions.
Contents
Proem
1. Prolegomenon 1
2. WarmingUp 7
3. TakingaTurn fortheWorse—Pejoratives 71
4. Pretentious? Moi? 93
5. TripleThreat 146
6. AroundtheWorld in ManyLanguages 154
7. UppertoLowerCase 208
8. WordsThatMayFoolYou 234
9. UpwardMobility 248
10. Rx—Use OnlyasDirected 260
Index 284