Good Word Guide: The Fast Way to Correct English: Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and Usage

353 Pages·2010·4.72 MB·English

by  Martin H.

GOOD
WORD
GUIDE

G O O D
W O R D
G U I D E
Editor
Martin H. Manser
Consultant Editors
Jonathon Green and Betty Kirkpatrick
Compilers
Rosalind Fergusson, David Pickering, and Jenny Roberts
A
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Firstpublishedin1988.
ThirdeditionpublishedasBloomsburyGuidetoBetterEnglish.
Fourtheditionpublishedin1997.
Fiftheditionpublishedin2003.
Copyright#1988,1990,1994,1997,2000,2003by
BloomsburyPublishingPlc,
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ISBN0747565244
eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0339-5
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Acknowledgments
Theeditorexpresseshisthankstothefollowing:thelateJohnSilverlight
forhishelpfulcommentsasConsultantEditoronearliereditions,
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KathyRooneyandFayeCarney,ofthepublishers,fortheirencouragement
ateverystageofthebook’sproduction,andonthefirstedition,SarahPeasley
forhelpincompilingthetextandMargaretMcPheeforadviceon
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C O N T E N T S
INTRODUCTION......................................................... vii
GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION ............................................. xiii
GOOD WORD GUIDE ..................................................... 1
TABLES:
Animals (male, female, young)............................................. 19
Collective nouns ....................................................... 58
Collectors and enthusiasts................................................ 59
Countries and peoples................................................... 72
Eponymous words ..................................................... 108
Foreign words and phrases............................................... 129
Non-sexist terms...................................................... 211
Phobias ............................................................ 231
Prefixes............................................................. 240
Similes............................................................. 278
Smileys............................................................. 281
Suffixes ............................................................ 292
Text messaging....................................................... 300
Verbs (irregular verbs).................................................. 317

I N T R O D U C T I O N
Thesedaystheterm‘communicativeskills’hasbecomeavogueexpression,being
muchinevidenceinsituationsvacantcolumnsandplayinganimportantrolein
educationalrethinking.Incommonwithmanyvoguishexpressionsoftheageoveruse
has left it in danger of not being taken seriously. This is a great pity since the
phenomenon which the term describes is of paramount importance in modern life.
Failuretocommunicateeffectivelyisattherootofmanysocialillsandmisfortunes,
from war to missed career opportunities, from industrial strife to broken relation-
ships.Ifonlywehadbeenabletopersuadetheotherpartyofourrealintentions,what
misunderstandings and conflict might have been averted.
Nowadaysthereislittleexcuseforpoorcommunicativeskillsinthosewithabasic
education,eveninthosewhofeelthattheymissedoutatschoolinthisparticulararea
ofeducation.Articulacyisnotnecessarilyinborn;itcanbeacquired.Neverbeforehas
there been such a wealth of self-help English language material available to ease the
process of this acquiral.
The proliferation of English language reference books is a relatively recent
occurrence. Not long ago the average family bookshelves probably stocked, if any
reference books, an ancient Bible, a dog-eared, somewhat elderly dictionary, and
perhapsasetofout-of-dateencyclopedias.Inmanycasesthisstateofaffairsmusthave
changed radically, judging from current sales of English language reference books.
Something of a revolution hit reference book publishing, brought about partly by
the arrival of computerization and new technology and partly by the realization
among publishers that reference books, although expensive to produce, represented
lessofariskthanotherbranchesofpublishing.Therewasprobablyalsoanelementof
response to demand as people came to realize the need for articulacy in the modern
world.
For whatever reasons, bookshop shelves have become positively crammed with a
widerangeof attractive,up-to-dateEnglishlanguagereferencebooks,mostof them
extremelyreasonablypriced.AtfirstmostofthesewereEnglishlanguagedictionaries
but soon a wider selection of books joined them. The net result was that the
promotionalactivities involvedin bringingthese referencewares to the notice of the
publicmadeitdifficultforpeoplenottobeawareofanimportantfact–thatlanguage
issubjecttochange.Newspapersrevelledinprovidingtheirreaderswithselectedlists
of the ‘new English’, the more bizarre the better.
The speed at which new words are added to the language nowadays is over-
whelming,butitisnotonlythevocabularythatissubjecttochange.Asattitudesand
conventionschangeotherareasoflanguagechangewiththem–stylistics,usage,and
even, in some cases, pronunciation.
It is all too easy to feel marooned in this sea of change. While the importance of
Introduction viii
communicative skills cannot be denied, many people find it difficult to set about
acquiring them. Getting to grips with something as amorphous as the English
language can be a daunting task, particularly for those whose formal education
omitted to convey much about the structure or grammar of the language.
Dictionariesobviouslyprovideagreatdealofself-helpwithregardtolanguagebut
their contribution is frequently restricted to meaning, spelling, or pronunciation.
PeopleseekingtoextendtheircompetenceintheuseofEnglishrequiremorevaried
and in-depth assistance.
Thesaurusesareanothergreatboontothosewishingtoimprovetheirstandardof
articulacy but here again they are far from providing all the solutions. Although
would-be writers or speakers will undoubtedly find in thesauruses a wide range of
inspirationalwords with which to clothe ideas, they might well feel in need of some
guidance as to how exactly these words should be used.
Inthepresentagemuchmoreemphasisthanhithertoisplacedontheimportance
of being able to produce a high standard of English, whether oral or written.
Formerlythisaspecttendedtobeneglectedinfavourofhighlydevelopedreadingand
interpretative skills but this is now being rectified in these days of mass commu-
nication.
Participationinthecommunicationmedia,forexample,isnolongerrestrictedtoa
fewhighlyeducatedexperts.Audienceparticipationhasextendedfromtherealmsof
the stage to the realms of radio and television and beyond them to the dizzying
heightsofchatroomsandwebforumsontheInternet.Indeedonewonderswhatlocal
low-budget radio stations would do without the phone-in contributions of the man/
woman in the street, not to mention the chat show featuring the local celebrity who
has published a first novel, climbed Everest, or lost more weight than anyone else in
the community. All manner of things are of interest to the media.
Inordertoimproveone’soralandwrittenskillsitisimportanttohavemorethan
justadictionaryandathesaurusasself-helpmaterial.Ofimmensehelparebooksthat
offer guidance in the use of language, particularly those which show language in
action by including example sentences or phrases.
Suchbooksprovideveryvaluablegroundrulesonwhichtobaseone’sownEnglish
usage.Fewofuscanrelyentirelyoninstinctorevenonmemorywhenitcomestothe
English language for it is full of quirks and inconsistencies. Even the most educated
benefit from having a standard authority to fall back on.
Languagereferencebooksthesedaysarelessdidacticthantheywere.Ingeneralwe
have moved on from the times when they were entirely prescriptive in their
commentsonlanguage.Nowmostofthemadoptamoredescriptiverole,restricting
themselves to stating what is actually happening in language rather than dictating
what ought to be happening.
Inevitablytherearepeoplewhoareunhappywiththischangeofemphasis.Thereis
a school of thought prevalent mainly among older people which seeks to impose a
kindofrestrictiononlanguagethatisnolongerimposedonotherareasoflife.Itisas
if,inanageofuncertaintyandkaleidoscopicchange,theylooktolanguagetoprovide
a safe, unchanging structure.
ix Introduction
This places an impossible burden on language. It does not exist in a vacuum but
simplyreflects what is happening in society and the world around. If we do not like
thewords,weprobablydonotliketheeventsbutitisdifficulttoholdbackthetideof
change.
Attheveryleastwecannotstemtheflowofvocabularyadditionswhicharecreated
inresponsetonewinventions,newdiscoveries,andnewconcepts.Newlabelshaveto
befoundandsoareborncamcorders,E-numbers,geneticengineering,andteleshopping,
tonamebutafewofthenewwordsthatareinvadingthelanguagefromeveryareaof
human activity. The development of the World Wide Web and the revolution in
communications it has brought about has proved a particularly powerful engine for
linguistic innovation, spawning hosts of new acronyms, technical terms, and slang
words, as well as promoting creative attitudes towards the use of grammar and
symbols.
Language change is not confinedto new vocabulary additions. Sometimes the old
gets recycled in a new form as words alter their meaning in some way. The classic
example is, of course, the word gay, which has almost entirely lost its ‘merry’
associations – except in literature written before the present day – in favour of
the modern meaning of ‘homosexual’.
There are, however, a growing number of other instances of language change,
severalbasedonmisconceptionorerror.Hopefullywasanearlyexamplewhenitcame
tomean‘itistobehopedthat’aswellas‘withhope’.Nowdisinterestedisfrequentlyto
befoundmeaning‘notinterested’aswellas‘unbiased’.Thereisnowaveryfinelineto
be drawn between error and alternative usage – and sometimes the former becomes
the latter.
Data,forexample,asthepluralofdatumshouldcomeaccompaniedbyapluralverb
butitisnowfrequentlyseeninthepresenceofasingularverb,particularlyinthefield
ofinformationtechnology.Thesamefatehasbefallenmedia.Itisnolongerthoughtof
assimplythepluralofmediumbutasawordinitsownright.Assuchitisincreasingly
accompanied by a singular, rather than a plural, verb.
Educationaltrendsfrequentlyhaveaneffectonthestateofthelanguage.Withthe
virtualdemiseoftheteachingofclassicsinschoolsaknowledgeofLatinandGreekin
relation to the English language is now quite a rare phenomenon among younger
people. So is born the puzzlement over medium/media and datum/data and the
confusion over stadia/stadiums and referendums/referenda.
Thecreativewritingphaseinprimaryschoolswastheforerunnerofmanyspelling
problems and even more grammatical problems. It is, of course, a good thing to
encouragecreativityand self-expression,but some knowledgeof the structure of the
language is necessary if one is to use it with confidence and skill. With the
introduction of such measures as the Literacy Hour in schools, significant attempts
have been made in recent years to restore good standards in reading and writing,
including the correct use of grammar, but what is done cannot be undone and there
remain generations to whom formal knowledge of linguistic principles is a closed
book.
ThishasundoubtedlyaffectedmodernEnglishasitisusedbytheman/womanin