|
able (adj.) The construction able to ascribes to its subject the ability to accomplish the action expressed in its complement. One should avoid using able to with passive construction involving forms of the verb be, as in The problem was able to be solved, since the sentence ascribes no capacity or ability to the problem itself. In such cases can or could can usually be substituted. The problem could be solved. By contrast, passives with get ascribe a more active role to their subjects, and here the able to construction can be used: He was able to get himself accepted by a top law school.
boycott (v) Word History: Charles C.Boycott was the estate agent of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. The earl was one of the absentee landowners who as a group held most of the land in Ireland. Boycott was chosen in the fall of 1880 to be the test case for a new policy advocated by Charles Parnell, an Irish politician who wanted land reform. Parnell urged that any landlord who would not charge lower rents or any tenant who took over the farm of an evicted tenant should be given the complete cold shoulder. Boycott, a former British soldier, refused to charge lower rents and ejected his tenants. Boycott and his family found themselves without servants, farmhands, service in stores, or mail delivery. Boycott’s name was quickly adopted as the term for this treatment, not just in English but in French, Dutch, German, and Russian as well.
forceful, forcible, forced (adj) These words have distinct, though related meanings. Forceful is used to describe someone or something that possesses or is filled with strength or force: a forceful speaker. Forceful measures may or may not involve the use of actual physical force. Forcible, by contrast, is most often used of actions accomplished by the application of physical force: There had been a forcible entry. Forced is used to describe an act or a condition brought about by control or an outside influence: a forced landing.
gender (n):Traditionally, gender has been used primarily to refer to the grammatical categories of “masculine,” “feminine,” and “neuter,”; but in recent years the word has become well established in its use to
refer to sex-based categories, as in the politics of gender. This usage is supported by the practice of many anthropologists, who reserve sex for reference to biological categories, while using gender to refer to social or cultural categories. According to this rule, one would say The effectiveness of the medication depends on the sex of the patient, but In peasant societies, gender roles are more clearly defined. This distinction, however, is by no means widely observed.
I (pro) The question of when to use nominative forms of the personal pronouns (I, she, they etc.) has always created controversy among grammarians and uncertainty among speakers and writers. When pronouns are joined with other nouns or pronouns by and or or, there is a wide spread tendency to use the objective form even when the phrase is the subject of the sentence: Robert and her are not speaking to each other. This usage is natural in colloquial speech and writing: John and she will be giving the talk. …When pronouns joined by a conjunction occur as the object of a preposition such as between, according to, or like, many people use the nominative form where the traditional grammatical rule would require the objective; they say between you and I rather than between you and me and so forth. Such constructions are best avoided. The objective form sounds most natural when the pronoun is not grammatically related to an accompanying verb or preposition. Thus, in response to the question “Who cut down the cherry tree?” we more colloquially say “Me,” even though some grammarians have argued that I must be correct here by analogy to the form “ I did.”
input (n) The noun input has been used as a technical term for about a century in fields such as physics and electrical engineering, but its recent popularity grows out of its use in computer science. In general discourse input is now widely used to refer to the transmission of information and opinion. Although the usage is well established, care should be taken not to use the word merely as a way of pretending to a scientific precision unwarranted by the facts of the case.
likely (adj./adv.): Used as an adverb, likely is most commonly preceded by a qualifier such as very or quite. He will quite likely require some help with his classes. But the unmodified use of likely is common enough in educated writing, and though it might be better avoided in highly formal style, it should not be regarded as incorrect: They’ll
likely buy a new car this year.
unexceptionable (adj) This word is derived from the word exception in the sense “objection,”
as in the idiom take exception. Thus unexceptionable means “not open to any objection,” as in A judge's ethical standards should be unexceptionable. Unexceptional, in contrast, is related to the common sense of exception and generally means “ not exceptional, not varying from the usual,” as in Some judges’s ethical standards have unfortunately been
unexceptional.
Source: American Heritage College Dictionary
|
