eerie or eery Note that pioneer and volunteer are free of any derogatory or contentious associations, whether as nouns or verbs. In each case they were borrowed ready- made into English, and cannot be analysed in the same way as the English formations. Compare -ier. eerie or eery All major dictionaries prefer eerie for this Scottish dialect word, though eery is more regular as the spelling for an English adjective. (See further under -y.) The Oxford Dictionary’s record for eery stops in the eighteenth century however; and eerie has clearly prevailed. effect For the difference between effect and affect, see under affect. effective, efficient or efficacious These words are all about getting things done and having the desired effect, but the first two have many more applications than the third. The third efficacious is now used principally to refer to medicines and remedies. It was once used more widely, in situations where we now use effective, but nowadays appears only in the most lofty style. Effective has expanded its domain continually since the fifteenth century, when it was simply a scholar’s word, and even since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when it had particular uses in military and technical contexts. It can now be used in relation to almost anything that achieves the intended result, from effective advertising to effective parenting. It canbeusedofobjectsandinstruments, as well as methods and strategies, and even of people who harness and mobilise others’ efforts towards a particular goal: an effective chairman. In some contexts it carries the meaning of “being in force”, as in prices effective until December 31st. It can also mean “in fact”, particularly as an adverb: It effectively rules them out. Efficient is most often applied to people who do not waste time or energy and other resources in fulfilling particular tasks, such as an efficient waiter. It can also be applied to engines and machinery which give relatively large amounts of power in relation to their consumption: more fuel-efficient than the previous model. Note that the word effectual once served as an alternative to effective and efficient. Nowadays it hardly appears except in the negative: ineffectual, used to describe a person who fails to meet the demands of a task, or an instrument which does not achieve its purpose. -efy/-ify See -ify/-efy. e.g. This Latin abbreviation stands for exempli gratia meaning “by way of an example”, or simply “for example”. Like other Latin abbreviations, it is not nowadays italicised.As a lower case abbreviation, it’s still mostly printed with stops (see abbreviations), though it also appears without one or both of them. Among 51 instances of e.g. in the Australian ACE corpus, 11 were eg, and the third alternative eg. was represented by 5 instances. (See further under Latin abbreviations.) 244 elder or older The punctuation before and after e.g. has long been the subject of prescription. A comma used to be considered necessary after it, and still is, according to the Chicago Manual of Style (2003). But most style guides now dispense with one after it “to avoid double punctuation” (New Hart’s Rules 2005), and emphasise only having a comma before it. Other punctuation marks, such as a dash, colon or opening parenthesis could equally well come before it, depending on the structure of the sentence. The propriety of using e.g. in one’s writing has also been subject to taboos and prescriptions. Generations of editors have translated it into“forexample”whenever it appeared in running text, because it was deemed suitable only for footnotes (according to Fowler 1926) or parentheses (Chicago Manual 1993). While the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual (2003) no longer tries to discourage the use of e.g. in running text, the Australian Government Style Manual (2002) is still concerned about it appearing in “more formal publications”, and in running text generally. It does allow that e.g. is often used where space is limited, as in notes and captions, or in “publications where there are many shortened forms”. As far as Cambridge University Press is concerned, the decision is up to individual authors, and e.g. is used from time to time on the expository pages of Butcher’s Copy-editing (2006) Compare i.e. egoist or egotist These words have identical meaning for many people, both referring to individuals who are seen as preoccupied with themselves and their own interests. Dictionaries often suggest that they may be synonyms for each other, and yet for some users they embody slight differences due to their independent origins. Egoist (andegoism) originated in eighteenth century philosophy, amid questions as to whether self-interest was the basis of morality. From this the egoist comes to be someone who finds more interest in himself or herself than anyone else. Egotist derives from egotism, a word usedin eighteenth century stylisticdiscussions to refer to writing which makes excessive use of the first person (I). Nowadays the words egotism and egotistare not restricted to writing,and refer to self-importantbehavior of any kind, whether it is boasting about one’s achievements, or building public monuments to oneself. Yet in this sense, egotism is simply the outward expression of egoism, and so the two words merge in describing the same kind of personality. For the choice between ego(t)istic and ego(t)istical, see -ic/-ical. ei or ie For the spelling rule which highlights this question, see i before e. either The question of using singular or plural verbs with either is discussed under agreement section 1. elder or older Elder (andeldest) were inuse centuries beforeolder (and oldest). But since the fifteenth century older and oldest have steadily gained the upper hand. Nowadays elder and eldest are hardly used except within the family, as in his elder 245 electric, electrical and electronic sister, their eldest son. Even there, Australians can just as well say his older sister, their oldest son. In Britain the adjectiveselder and eldest persist a littlemore strongly than in Australia or the US, occurring about twice as often in comparable English databases, but still much less often than older/oldest. Examples such aselderstatesman, and elder partner (usedin Britain for the senior partner in a company), show howthe meaning ofelder has developed, so that it now seems to emphasise relative seniority and experience rather than age. That point is clear when we try to compare ages in a structure like: X is elder/older than Y. Only older can be used in this way nowadays, and it can be used to compare the relative ages of people in any social group from school students to pensioners, as well as objects and abstracts of any kind. The changing meaning of elder is also evident from its use in reference to the senior members of atribe (Aboriginal elders), or the layofficersof certain Protestant churches. It also emerges in expressions such as no respect for their elders, where neither the experience of age, nor age itself, seem to be given their due. electric, electrical and electronic The power of electricity is invoked in the first two words, and during the nineteenth century when the frontiers of electricity werebeing explored, both forms of the word appeared in its collocations. Expressions such as electrical battery and electrical shock seem a little surprising nowadays, because we now tend to use electric when referring to specific things which are either powered or produced by electricity, e.g. electric light, electric radiator, electric current, electric shock. Electrical is used in collocations which are generic: electrical appliances, electrical equipment, or which relate in a more general way to the nature of electricity: electrical energy, electrical engineering. (See further under -ic/-ical.) Electronic embodies the discovery that electrons carry the charge in electric current, and involves the twentieth century science and technology of electronics. They are concerned with modulating and amplifying the electric charge, using semiconductor devices. Note also electrolytic which means “working by electrolysis”, the process of using an electric current to break up a chemical compound. electrify or electrocute There is an electric charge in both these verbs, but only with electrocute is it likely to be fatal. A person may be electrocuted by accident, or as a mode of execution (in the US). Electrify is primarily used in connection with powering a system with electricity, as in electrifying the railway to Canberra. It can also be used figuratively to mean “excite” or “thrill”, as in His words electrified the audience. electrolyse or electrolyze See under -yse/-yze. elegy or eulogy Either of these may be uttered in memory of someone who has died, buttheir overtones are different. An elegy is an artistic or literary composition 246 ellipsis which is mournful or contemplative in tone, and may express nostalgia for things past or persons lost. The eulogy is a ritual speech or statement which is consciously laudatory and affirmative of what the dead person achieved. elementary or elemental These words did service for each other in the nineteenth century, but they are clearly distinguished nowadays, with elementary enjoying much wider use than elemental. Elementary often refers to the elements or basics of any subject you could think of, from physics to piano-playing. Elementary textbooks are the ones designed to teach the basics to beginners. Because elementary connotes lack of knowledge and experience, it can also be used as a put-down, as in the proverbial “Elementary, my dear Watson” of Sherlock Holmes. However all elementariness is relative, and it’s a relatively advanced mathematics student who cantakeelementarynonhomogeneous linear differential equations in his or her stride. And when physicists speak of elementary particles, or chemists of elementary substances, the discourse is likely to be technical and demanding. Elemental relates to older notions about nature. When the physical world was believed to be formed out of the four elementsof earth, air, fire and water, elemental was the relevant adjective. With the demise of such ideas, elemental lives on in figurative expressions such as elemental fury, implying the great forces of nature and human nature. elfish or elvish See under -v-/-f elision The disappearance of a vowel, consonant or whole syllable from the pronunciation of a word is known as elision. In writing it’s represented by an apostrophe, as in he’s, won’t or huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’. The term elision was used by Fowler (1926) and some others to refer to words or phrases which were contracted in this way (see further under contractions). In certain poetic metres (especially those whose syllables are strictly counted), elision is the practice of blending the last syllable of one word into the first syllable of the next, particularly when both are vowels. It was and is a way of keeping the regular rhythm with otherwise awkward combinations of words. For elision of numbers in spans, see under dates. ellipsis Both grammarians andthose concerned with punctuationmakeuse of this term. In grammar it means the omission of a word or words which would complete or clarify the sentence. In punctuation practice, it refers to the mark, usually a set of three dots ( . . .), which shows where something has been consciously omitted from a quotation. Let’s deal with each meaning in turn. 1 Ellipsis in the grammar of a sentence. Many ordinary sentences omit a word or words which could be added in to spell out the meaning and clarify the sentence structure. All the sentences below show some sort of ellipsis. The ellipted elements are shown in square brackets. 247 ellipsis a) They took glasses from the bar and [they took] knives and forks from the tables. b) They said [that] no-one was there. c) The woman [that/whom] I spoke to yesterday was there. d) Those results are better than [those that] our team could get. e) They are enjoying it more than [they did] last year. f) Herbert loves the dog more than [he does] his wife [does]. g) The politics of war are more straightforward than [those of] peace [is]. Note that the last two sentences have alternative meanings, depending on which of two possible points of ellipsis is addressed. The ambiguity calls our attention to the ellipsis, though most of the time it passes unnoticed. Several kinds of ellipsis, such as of a second identical subject in a coordinated sentence, or of that and other conjunctions in subordinate clauses, are well known and recognised by modern grammarians (see further under clauses section 2, and that section 2). The ellipsis of items in comparative statements with than is also very common, and it need not disturb communication. The concern of some grammarians about sentences like (d) and (e) above is focused on the function of than in them (is it a preposition or a conjunction?)—rather than whether the sentences fail to communicate. (See further under than.) Yet the last two sentences (f) and (g) do raise questions of meaning, showing the occasional problems caused by ellipsis. Grammatical ellipsis is the hallmark of everyday conversation. In exchanges with others we continually omit elements of the sentence that would simply repeat what has gone before: Are you coming to the barbecue? Not until after the meeting. I’ll be gone by then. Where to? As the examples show, the ellipses help to connect an answer with the question, and a follow-up with a previous statement. Ellipsis is in fact part of the bonding or cohesion of such discourse (see further under coherence or cohesion). Apart from contributing to the efficiency of conversation, it is the medium through which we manipulate and expand utterances. 2 Ellipsis in punctuation usually means the set of dots which show where words have been omitted from a text. But because ellipsis refers in the first place to the omission itself, the term is sometimes applied to other punctuation marks whose function is the same, including asterisks, and dashes. (See further under asterisk and dashes.) To avoid ambiguity on this, some style books refer to ellipsis points, and reserve the right to discuss only the dots—as we shall. Most style manuals recognise the practice of using three dots for an ellipsis occurring anywhere within a sentence or between sentences, and the Australian Government Style Manual (2002) endorses it without question. The practice is actively recommended as “sanity-saving” by the Canadian Freelance Editors Association. The alternative practice—of using three dots for an omission within 248 else sentences, and four dots (counting in the full stop) for an omission between sentences—creates many complexities. The spacing for the four dots is uneven, with the full stop set close to the final word, and the other three dots with equal space on either side of them. The difference is shown below: He wanted no more of it. But having said that . . . The use of four-dot ellipses for between-sentence omissions is still recommended practice in the Chicago Manual of Style (2003). Yet the difficulty of managing the spacing, and the lack of means to achieve it on many typewriters and wordprocessors leave many writers and editors with no choice but to use three dots for any ellipsis. All the authorities agree that it’s reasonable to begin with a capital letter after an ellipsis (whether or not there was a capital at that point in the original) if the resumed quotation constitutes a fresh sentence. It always helps the reader to have the start of a sentence marked, and only in legal and scholarly quotations is this consideration overruled by the need to keep every letter in the same case as the original. One other simplification of older ellipsis practice is dispensing with them at the start of a quotation. The opening quote marks themselves show that the words cited are an excerpt. Note that a whole line of ellipsis points can be used to indicate the omission of a line or lines of verse from a poem, or where whole paragraphs have been omitted from a prose text. else This word is usually classified as an adverb in dictionaries, yet its most important roles are as part of a compound pronoun or conjunction. Its legitimacy in those roles is only gradually being recognised. It frequently appears as part of an indefinite or interrogative pronoun, as in: anyone else someone else what else who else So well established are these phrases that else can take the possessive form quite easily: anyone else’s umbrella who else’s car This usage was once frowned on by those who insisted that else was an adverb and so could not be made possessive. The paraphrase they suggested was whose car else, which nowadays seems quite stilted and unacceptable. Another common role of else is to join forces with or as the compound conjunction or else. At times it even stands alone as a conjunction. Compare: Take the car or else you’ll be late. You’d better come, else they’ll wonder what’s going on. This use of else as an independent conjunction occurs in commands and advisory statements, in the context of direct speech. Modern Australian dictionaries do not recognise it, and the Oxford Dictionary notes it only as an obsolete “quasi 249 elusive or allusive conjunction”, with a few citations from the fourteenth century. Yet its currency in British English is acknowledged in the Right Word at the Right Time (1985), even though it discourages its use in writing. Those who write formal documents are not likely to want to use else as a simple conjunction, because of its association with speech. But there’s no reason to disallow it in other kinds of writing, where direct speech and advice have a natural place. elusive or allusive These adjectives can easily be mistaken for each other in speech, being identical in most people’s pronunciation, and sometimes rather alike in meaning, as in an elusive charm, and an allusive comment. In both phrases the words imply that something is there and yet not there. But the different spellings confirm that they relate to different verbs (elusive to elude, and allusive to allude); so an elusive charm is one that eludes the beholder and cannot be pinned down: while an allusive comment just alludes to something, touching on it in passing, and not dwelling on it. Allusive and allude are usually linked with things said (or not said), while elusive and elude relate to things (or people) that disappear or escape. elvish or elfish See under -v-/-f em-/en- See en-/em em dash This is a name used for the em rule, especially in North America. See next entry. em rule This is the traditional printers’ name for the full dash. See dashes section 1. email or e-mail The hyphenless spelling is preferred by both Australian Oxford (2004) and the Macquarie Dictionary (2005), and it’s commoner by far in Australian internet documents (Google 2006). Though this puts it out of step with other words formed with the same prefix, e.g. e-commerce, it shows how fully assimilated the word is, helped by the fact that it operates as both noun and verb. The noun itself is now used in two different ways, as 1 a mass noun, as in there’s too much email to deal with 2 a countable noun, as in I dashed off five emails See further under count nouns. email style Email messagescombine elements of thememo with aspects of letter writing. The headers of emails identifying the sender, receiver and subject are like those of memos (see Appendix IX). Emails often do without a salutation within the body of the message, and go straight to the heart of the matter. If there is a salutation, it’s much more likely to be “Hi” than “Dear X”. In email messages the complimentary close is also less necessary, and more variable than the conventional 250 emigrant, ´emigr´e or expatriate “Yours sincerely” of ordinary letter writing (see yours faithfully). The language within email messagesvariesenormouslydependingontheir purpose, with standard English in institutionalemails at one end ofthe scale, and theabbreviated SMS codes used for social communication at the other (see SMS). embargo For the plural of this word, see -o. emend or amend Neither of these verbs is in common use nowadays, but both survive in specialist contexts. To emend is the work of scholars, as they edit individual words and expressions in older texts in order to produce a definitive version of the original. The fruits of this workareemendations.Emendingisamatter of fine detail, whereas those who amend documents are either editors seeking to improve a draft manuscript by modifying its substance, or legislators modifying the provisions of legal codes and constitutions. Their work results in amendments and changes to the original text. The plural form amends in to make amends is a fossil of the once much wider use of amend, in references to improving one’s conduct and social behavior. Another fossil They must amend their ways is now usually expressed as mend their ways.As that example shows, mend has taken over most of the general functions of amend in modern English. emergence or emergency There is a clear difference between these now, unlike many -nce/-ncy pairs (see further under that heading). Both are nouns derived from the verb emerge, with emergence serving as the abstract noun, and emergency as the highly specific one, meaning a situation which requires urgent action. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the spellings were interchangeable, and only since the nineteenth century has emergency been the more common spelling for the urgent situation. emigrant, ´emigr´e or expatriate All these refer to someone who has emigrated away from their native country; however each word has its own implications. Emigrant expresses the plain fact that someone has moved permanently away from their country of origin, and is neutral as to the reason for their move as well as their social background. Emigr ´ e carries more elitist overtones, as well as theimplicationthattheemigration was necessitated by political circumstances. Historically the word ´ emigr ´ e has been associated with those who fled from the French and Russian revolutions, though it might seem applicable to those who felt obliged to flee communist revolutions in Chile, Afghanistan and Vietnam. The higher social background of ´ emigr ´ es is clear when the word is contrasted with refugees, who may come from any social class. The term expatriate may be applied to those whose emigration was either voluntary or involuntary, though it is often applied to individuals who choose for professional reasons to live in another country, as in: London has its share of expatriate Australians. 251 eminent or imminent This voluntary exile is sometimes seen as betraying a lack of patriotism, which no doubt explains why expatriate is sometimes misconstrued as expatriot. Webster’s English Usage (1989) forecasts that it has some chance of becoming an acceptable variant spelling in the future, though it’s not yet acknowledged in the major dictionaries. For the distinction between emigrant, immigrant and migrant, see under migrant. eminent or imminent While eminent is a term of commendation, meaning “outstanding”, imminent means that something is on the point of happening. Typical uses are an eminent scholar and their imminent defeat. As the examples show, imminent is used of events, and eminent of people, generally speaking. The two are unlikely to come together in the same utterance—unless of course you’re about to be visited by an eminent person, in which case it would be possible to speak of an eminent, imminent visitor! Note that when eminent becomes an adverb it means “extremely or very”, as in eminently likely or eminently fair. emoticon This word is a blend of emotion and icon, coined in computerspeak to refer to the “pressbutton” expressions of emotion that can be created out of keyboard characters, especially punctuation marks. The best known example is the “smiley” face i.e.( ( ), which turned on it side and reduced to the facial essentials within the lineof print as :>). Others areless standardised and canindeed have more than one meaning,forexample:>o whichmayconveysurpriseorshock. Emoticons are used freely in social emails and text messaging. See further under SMS. emotive or emotional Though both of these recognise the role of emotion, they identify it in different places. Emotive implies that emotion is raised in the audience, and a phrase such as emotive words often suggests that the speaker’s output is calculated to kindle the emotions of those listening. The word emotional simply implies that emotion was expressed by the speaker, or was characteristic of the speech itself. An emotional speech can of course have an emotive effect on the audience. empaneled or empanelled See under -l/-ll employee, employ´e or employe Employee is the standard form of this word nowadays, everywhere in the English-speaking world. Yet it seems to have established itself earlier in North America than Britain, and the Oxford Dictionary in the last decade of thenineteenth century dubbed it“rare except US”. At that stage the Oxford gave much fuller coverage to the French form employ ´ e, and made a point of saying that employ ´ ee was used for female workers. But in its 1933 Supplement, Oxford endorsed employee as the common English term, and the idea of a gender distinction seems to have disappeared along with the French accent. The -ee suffix 252 -en is of course gender-free, as in many words. (See further under -ee.) The spelling employe is still recognised as an occasional alternative to employee in the major American and Australian dictionaries, but is not used in Britain. emporium For the plural of this word, see under -um. en-/em- These are variant forms of a prefix borrowed from Norman French in words such as encircle, encourage and enrich. The prefix has been put to fresh use in English, in forming new verbs out of nouns and adjectives: enable embed embellish embitter emblazon encase encompass engulf enlarge enlist empower ennoble enrapture enslave ensnare enthrall entomb entrance entrench As those words show, the em- form is used before words beginning with b and p, and en- before all others. en-/in- The prefix en- has long been interchanged with the in- prefix from Old English, and the identical one from Latin (see further under in-/im-). This vacillation has left us with optional spellings for a number of other words: endorse/indorse enfold/infold engrain/ingrain enmesh/inmesh enshrine/inshrine enthrone/inthrone entrench/intrench entwine/intwine entwist/intwist enure/inure Note however that the different spellings entail different meanings for some users with inquire/enquire and insure/ensure. (See under those headings.) In some cases the earlier spelling with in- has been totally replaced by en-, hence the strangeness of the following: inclose incompass ingender ingross inlist inroll inthrall The reverse has happened in one or two such as envigor and empassion, where in-/im- have replaced the earlier en-/em (See also incumbent.) -en These letters represent four different English suffixes: r a plural ending on nouns, e.g. children (see further under plurals) r a past participle ending, e.g. taken (see irregular verbs section 7) r a means of forming adjectives out of nouns, e.g. golden r a means of forming verbs out of adjectives, e.g. sharpen Only the fourth of these suffixes is still active and creating new words. The first two are fossilised, and the third is not much used except in poetic diction. Adjectives formed with -en are derived from single-syllabled nouns: ashen earthen leaden oaken silken wooden woollen The -en ending implies “made out of”, and occasionally “looking as if it were made out of”, as with leaden skies and silken hair. The pattern is so simple that we might wonder why its use is so limited nowadays. One reason is that it competes with 253 [...]... -or The most significant group of agent words with -or are Latin or neo-Latin in origin Note especially those based on verbs ending in -ate, for example: agitator calculator demonstrator elevator precipitator radiator spectator illustrator operator With other Latin verb groups, the endings are increasingly mixed Older agentives such as conductor, contributor, director, instructor and investor retain the. .. for the adverb is also on the increase in Australia: They’re rich enough that they could buy their own house This wording is less concise than the other, but it serves to draw extra attention to the subject they and their action, rather like a cleft sentence See further under that heading enquiry or inquiry See inquiry enroll or enrol Both of these spellings appear in Australian documents, though the. .. than the main text In the US the equivalent term is back matter endpapers These are the folded leaves glued inside the covers of a hardcover book which join the front cover to the first page and the last page to the back cover endways or endwise See under -wise -ene or -ine See -ine England See under Britain and British English or Englishes English is the world’s most widespread language Its history... plural ending The original Latin phrase et cetera means “and the rest” or “and the others”, implying a known set of items which might be used to complete the list preceding it It relieves the writer of the need to list them, and calls on the reader to supply them However etc is quite often used more loosely to mean “and others”, which presumes nothing of the reader, and just notes that the list is incomplete... section 2) The term ergative has been put to other uses by field linguists, to distinguish nouns which carry different inflections according to whether they are the subject of a transitive verb, as opposed to an intransitive verb, as in some Aboriginal languages Even more curious for the outsider, the inflection for the intransitive subject is then the same as that of the transitive object (See further under... as in: Newton, Optics p.16 et seq Newton, Optics p.16 et seqq While the first of those refers the reader to pages 16 and 17, the second is openended It leaves it to the reader to decide how far to keep going from page 16 in search of relevant material More specific references are preferred these days for each type, so that the first would be: Newton, Optics pp 16–17 and the second, say: Newton, Optics... declines to remain a “guest” of the government This may explain the popularity of escapee, which is endorsed in most Australian newspaper style guides The Melbourne Age has stood alone in preferring escaper, perhaps following Fowler’s lead Note that the other agent words based on escape belong to different worlds altogether For an escapist it’s all in the mind, and for the escapologist, it is the dramatic... subject to ethnocentricity, i.e the tendency to take your own culture as the reference point in judging any others In early Christian usage it meant “heathen”; with the turn of the third millennium, many people use it to identify any other culture than their own Ethnic thus often means “not of the mainstream”, and acquires the connotations of “strange and exotic” It often implies a reluctance to differentiate... long even the male and female icons for them can survive The search for replacement euphemisms can also be a source of comedy, and some seem deliberately aimed at comic effect The phrases used to allude to a person’s madness are legion, as round the bend becomes round the twist, bats in the belfry is Australianised as kangaroos in the top paddock, and being not the full 272 even quid becomes a sausage... promoter The older nouns with -or can sometimes be identified by the fact that their standard meaning has moved some distance away from the formative verb, and seems to 263 -er>-rdesignate a role rather than a specific action, e.g conductor The new formations with -er express the ordinary meaning of the verb Note that the -or ending also goes with certain Latin loanwords such as doctor, impostor which . illustrator operator precipitator radiator spectator With other Latin verb groups, the endings are increasingly mixed. Older agentives such as conductor, contributor, director, instructor and investor. connoting the heinousness of a deed or event. Compare: The enormity of the crime made the people take the law into their own hands. With the enormousness of the calculations, the computer crashed. The. The ellipted elements are shown in square brackets. 247 ellipsis a) They took glasses from the bar and [they took] knives and forks from the tables. b) They said [that] no-one was there. c) The