frL'r.cpril 22,1077
Jffio dl'SicmncQ in trends moving Yo'dr feviord'
Tkr.-xf rowcrf An article said that a big cofies
ssrv&g outfit "reports no trend to tea." Molly Fitzgerald
of Vyncote, Pa., is curious about the validity of the visa of
to rather than towad after the word trend. Either word is
acceptable since both mean in the direction of. Toward
might be the better because it is ks explicit, less definite.
If ycu lock towzd fee left you might be lockhg 40
decrees in that direction whereas if you are looking to
the left you would be looking the full 45 degrees that
way. If that mikes a difference to you, you'd better say
TrcrJ towzrd. v
Eut, not except "Happily browsing" through my 71w
Catfl Writer, says Csnjaaiia Roth cf St. Louis, he came
on the entry "Cat, mcaniig only," which he believes rein
forces his contention that one cf our national monuments
contains an odd statement. The Tomb of the Unknown
bemstein on words
Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery has the inscript
ion "Here lies a soldier known but to God." This clearly
means, he says, that the soldier is known to everyone
except God. How he reaches this conclusion is a puzzle to
me.
My book quotes the grammarian George 0. Curme as
writing that but "is now often felt as an adverb with the
force of only and thus can now as an adverb be used
where it was once not used in older English." If you sub
stitute only for but in the Arlington inscription, you have
"a soldier known only to God." Mr. Roth apparently was
substituting except for but.
As a conjunction but can mean except, but as an
adverb it can mean, and here clearly means, only. Of
course some of the only-ists might argue that' the only
belongs after God, but would they put the but in that
position and make it read "a soldier known to God but'?
-
How to treat a couple. Whether to regard couple as
singular or plural is a question that returns again and
again. This time it comes from Judy Floy of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, who cites the sentence, "The couple (has
have) three children," and asks, "Has this usage changed
during recent Americanization of the English language?"
Just what usage she is referring to I don't know any more
than you do.
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However, most writers prefer to treat the word as a
plural most of ths tlr.e. It is quite aU rht to sy, "The
Jones couple wa the youngest at the party." Cut if you
think the word must always be sirulaf, you are likely to
get into trouble with some sentence requiring a pronoun
referring to your skuhtr couple; for example: "The
coujSj ur.L-j jrtd vit.tn its czi skidicd off the rcsd."
The advice here is to favor the plural in nine cases out of
ten.
Dcr!cr. A doping sent in by another lowan,
Elizabeth G. Nelson of Mjmxi City, contains one of the
most surprising dancing participles I have ever seen -surprising
because of its clumsincsN and surprising because
it must have been written by an editor of the paper in
which it appeared. The passage begins by saying that the
paper welcomes letters stating the opinions of its readers,
then goes on: "Only signed letters are printed, knowing
that responsible opinions come from responsible people
willing to be identified."
What is the subject of that participle knowing? The
grammatical problem could be solved by beginning the
sentence "We print only signed letters . , but how
would the editor know tire opinions or the people were
Responsible" merely because the letter was signed? Try
again, Mr. Editor.
Msster neer-disoster. The distinction between master
ful and masterly has not been taken up here in so long a
time that I thought I would discuss it again just to calm
down Raymond Caporetti of Philadelphia. Declaring that
he is "irritated," he writes, "Is it anything short of dis
graceful that so many book reviewers people of whom
one might expect a good . knowledge of the English
language - now use mqsterful to describe every novel that
comes across the desk?
What the reviewers usually mean, of course, is
masterly. Masterful means inperious or domineering.
Masterly means showing the skill and competence of a
master. One reason that the masterful word is the one
more often misused probably lies in the fact that it lends
itself more gracefully to an adverbial form. "He writes
mzstsrfii'JIy" sounds natural even though it is usually
improper. "Ha writes masterly sounds a little odd despite
terly is an adverb as well as an adjective.
. the fact that m
.
Another close pdr. A wine ad sent this way by Hsnry
Specter of Fhiladelphia contained this headline (trade
name omitted here): "We left Nature alone. She gave us
this wine." As Mr. Spector says, those words are an
of the prevalent ignorance of the difference be-
- Uft doits, past tense of ha?e done should exclusively
mean to cause to be in solitude.
Let done should exclusively .mean to allow to be un
disturbed, to be not bothered. Those are the meanings
that should prevail, but unfortunately in popular speech
they are regarded as just about mterchansabls and have
even won some degree of acceptance under the label "in
formal." Word odditis. The word kser is acronym for Light
Amplification by Stimulated Emission of .Radiation. It has
been in use only since about 1960, yet it has already pro
duced by back-formation the completely accepted
intransitive verb lose. A laser is a device that produces a
coherent, highly concentrated beam of light waves and the
verb lose means to emit such a beam. Obviously the word
people weren't lase-y about approving those words.
The Panama Canal, which has been figuring in the
news, added a few terms to our language, according to
Stuart Flexner's lovely book I Hear America Talking. The
Big Ditch at one time was a way of referring to the canal.
Then there was electric mule, a locomotive used to tow
ships through the locks. And let's not forget the term
Panama hat.
You probably wouldn't think that the word Cider
originated in the Middle East, but it did - and among its
originators was the Hebrew word shekhar, meaning strong
drink. Arabs, Ethiopians, Greeks and others had similar
words meaning related things such-as drink heavily or he
was drunk. Of course in this country in colonial days
cider was as American as apple pie.
' (c) 1377 Theodora M. Barnstcin Special Future
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