slangy phrases like “reading-type mate- rial” in lieu of type of reading material. 2. TYPE and KIND; other meanings Used strictly, type fits a clearly defined group (“Citrine is a type of quartz”) while kind or sort has more general ap- plication. (“That is the kind of weather I like.” / “She is the sort of person who gets along with everyone.”) Strict users appear to be in the minority. The noun type can also denote printed characters (“The manuscript has been set up in type”) or the metallic blocks producing them in traditional printing. Type can serve as an adjective when it pertains to printing, as in type style and type faces, or when it is united with a technical term, as in Type AB blood. As a verb, type (present participle typing) can mean to operate a typewriter or computer keyboard (“She types eighty words a minute”) or to classify (“They typed him as a vagrant”). See also KIND OF. 446 type 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 446 ULTIMATUM. An ultimatum is not just any demand. This noun, along with the adjective ultimate, stems from the Medieval Latin ultimatus, meaning final. An ultimatum is the ultimate demand or proposition or statement of terms pre- sented by the government of one coun- try to the government of another country before launching war or using force. The threat of hostilities is ex- pressed or implied in the statement. Ulti- matum is too important a word to be treated in the casual way it often is. “Iran issued an ultimatum to Britain,” a newscaster announced on television. Iran’s demand, that Britain ban a book, was backed by the threat of severed relations but not hostilities. Therefore calling it an “ultimatum” is not a precise use of the word. At least the demand had an element of finality. Not so in the next instance, reported in a newspaper article: When city officials discovered that [an unauthorized street clock] last month, they issued an ultimatum to the restaurant’s owners. If you want permission to erect the clock . . . you must first remove it. There “ultimatum” is evidently sup- posed to be humorous, so its irrelevance to international relations does not alone preclude its use. However, the officials’ proposition carried no threat of forceful action and was not final. The next sen- tence says, “But discussions that began last week produced a less severe solution yesterday.” So no “ultimatum” was is- sued, even stretching the word to the bursting point. The South Korean government issued a statement asking the United States to clarify news reports of official spying on the Korean president. A story about the statement starts out with a contradic- tion: “The State Department yesterday rejected another South Korean ultima- tum, the second in two days.” Aside from the Koreans’ obvious reluctance to wage war on the United States, the fact is that they made two successive de- mands, so the first cannot be truly recorded as an “ultimatum.” A front-page headline: “Vatican Is- sues an Ultimatum. . . . ” According to the story, the Vatican’s envoy to Panama “delivered an ultimatum” to General Manual Noriega, the Panamanian leader, during the U.S. invasion: His sanctuary at the embassy would expire. What the envoy delivered was more like an eviction notice. The idea of the small- est state in the world threatening mili- tary violence is ludicrous. UNDESCRIBABLE. See INDE- SCRIBABLE, UNDESCRIBABLE. undescribable 447 U 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 447 UNEMPLOYED, UNEMPLOY- MENT. See JOBLESS. UNEXPRESSIBLE. See Verbal un- mentionables. UNINTERESTED. See DISINTER- ESTED and UNINTERESTED. UNIQUE. “It is absolutely the most unique place in the world,” a secretary of the interior said about the Grand Canyon. A scientist said about mam- moths, “They were very unique ani- mals.” An orchestral manager was quoted as saying, “Ojai is something so unique among festivals.” Unique (adjective), from the Latin unicus, only or single, means being the only one of its kind or without an equal. The Sun, as a star, is unique in the solar system but not in the universe. To call something or someone “the most unique” is as meaningless as calling it “the most only one.” Uniqueness can- not vary in degree. So adverbial quali- fiers like “most” / “very” / “so” / “rather” / “more” / “somewhat” cannot apply to unique. Some of them may ap- ply to weaker adjectives such as excep- tional, extraordinary, outstanding, rare, remarkable, or unusual. A very rare bird has a few specimens; only the final speci- men will be unique. It is possible to qual- ify unique with adverbs like truly, really, nearly, most nearly, or more nearly, which do not purport to change the de- gree of unique. But the speakers quoted above are not in the word business. Those in the mass media should know better, should they not? On television a newscaster said, “The budget bill was rather unique,” and an announcer described “America’s most unique travel adventures.” A magazine said that “the most unique mail order items” were not the most expensive. And the word appeared twice in a news story about a tribute to a baseball player: [Jackie Robinson] lived a career so compelling and unique its retelling once again riveted. . . . The obvious presence of such people of color un- derscored the unique relationship baseball has had with minorities since 1947. . . . Robinson’s career was unique—not “so” unique, though so unusual, so extraordi- nary, etc. would be correct. The second sentence is grammatically sound, though the aptness of “unique” may be debated. Minorities are in other sports. Journal- ism need not ape the advertising indus- try, which tries to persuade us that every product is “unique.” (Another error in the first sentence is the intransitive use of “riveted.” Rivet is a transitive verb: “its retelling riveted the audience.” See also RACE and NATIONALITY, 3.) Surely an educator should be expected to know the proper usage of words. A high school supervisor in the Southeast told a television interviewer that not ev- eryone was capable of teaching. “It takes a very unique individual. . . . ” (One who speaks properly?) UNLESS AND UNTIL. The phrase “unless and until” befits a legal docu- ment. Separately, unless and until have different meanings. Together, they are usually excessive in normal prose. The conjunction unless means if not, or except when. The conjunction until means up to the point that, or up to the time of. When combined in “unless and until,” they add up to an overblown phrase. Usually one word or the other, depending on the context, can be scrapped with no loss of meaning. This sentence, from a book, illustrates the two words in combination: Those laws [governing matter un- der very extreme conditions] are im- 448 unemployed, unemployment 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 448 portant for understanding how the universe began, but they do not affect the future evolution of the universe, unless and until the universe recol- lapses to a high-density state. Unless is enough. The universe will con- tinue to evolve, if it does not recollapse. To use “until” alone might suggest that recollapsing is a sure thing. The addition of “and until” is unnecessary and more legalistic than scientific. Sometimes “or” replaces “and,” yielding the phrase “unless or until.” The result is the same. A comparable phrase is “if and when.” If means in the event that. When means at the time that. Here too one word or the other, depending on context, usually can stand alone. A variation of the phrase is “when and if.” Such phrases can be left to lawyers. See also Twins. UNLIKE. 1. Clarity. 2. Comparability. 1. Clarity Unlike can be clearer than not . . . like: “Campbell is not a college graduate, like his predecessor, Morgan.” Was Morgan graduated from college or not? If he was, a better way to begin is “Unlike his predecessor. . . . ” But if he was not, a better way is “Like his prede- cessor. . . . ” See also LIKE, 1; NOT, 1E. Users of unlike must make it clear just what they are contrasting. The con- trasted elements need to be isolated and not obscured by modifiers. In this sen- tence from a newsletter, nine modifying words precede the noun “lift”: Unlike other GGT buses, the new Flx- ible buses features an Americans with Disabilities ACT (ADA) approved front door wheelchair lift which al- lows for a 45-seat bus capacity. The extent of the difference between the buses is blurred by the pile-up of modi- fiers and the ambiguous “which.” See Modifiers, 4; THAT and WHICH. (An- other mistake is a noun-verb disagree- ment in number: It should be “buses feature.” Flxible is a brand, not a mis- take.) 2. Comparability The prepositions unlike and like are opposite in meaning but alike grammati- cally. Whereas like likens one thing to another, unlike contrasts one thing with another. Either way, the things need to be comparable to make complete sense. In the use of unlike, we encounter the same problem of false comparison that was shown in the use of like. This remark was made on a national telecast: “Unlike thirty years ago, we now have sunscreens to shield us from daily exposure.” A time in the past and what we now have belong to different categories. “Unlike what we had thirty years ago . . .” is a correction. Unlike occasionally serves as an ad- jective: “the unlike duckling.” See also LIKE, 2. UNMENTIONABLE. See Verbal unmentionables. UNQUALIFIED. See DISQUALI- FIED and UNQUALIFIED. “UNQUOTE.” See QUOTE and QUOTATION. UNSPEAKABLE. See Verbal unmen- tionables. UNTHINKABLE. Two dictionaries offer the identical opening definition of unthinkable: “Not thinkable; inconceiv- able.” Such a definition is paradoxical. Anything you can think is thinkable. Anything you can conceive is conceiv- able. Just to mention something, albeit to condemn it as wrong or impossible, is to think of it. unthinkable 449 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 449 This discourse is to reject, not the word, but the definition and inappropri- ate use of the word. When all four pan- elists in a television discussion agreed that U.S. withdrawal from Saudi Arabia was “unthinkable” (a word suggested by the moderator), they all thought of it. The proposition might have been called unacceptable, undesirable, unfeasible, or unreasonable (or a good idea, had pan- elists been selected who did not all think alike), but was it really “unthinkable”? The same two dictionaries offer an identical second definition: “Not to be thought of or considered.” That one is more tenable. There may be certain con- cepts that, though they can be thought, should not be thought. In that sense, dic- tators regard democracy as unthinkable; and, in promoting their product, cigarette companies regard the danger to health as unthinkable. Normally you can think what you want in our society. Our laws restrict only what you do; thought- control is generally unacceptable. It is verbal profligacy to use “unthink- able” just to express disagreement with a proposition, unless it is horrible or evil beyond contemplation. To use it to de- scribe something that actually exists or has already been done (“the administra- tion’s unthinkable actions in Latin America”) is preposterous. See also Verbal unmentionables. UNTIL. See TILL and “’TIL”; UN- LESS AND UNTIL; UP, 2 (end). UNUTTERABLE. See Verbal un- mentionables. UP. 1. As a verb. 2. In phrases. 3. Prefix and suffix. 1. As a verb As a verb, up is more or less colloquial and not for all occasions. Using it in the (transitive) sense of raise or increase—to “up prices” or “prices were upped”—is scorned by some critics, one of whom calls it “jour- nalese.” At least one expression of that sort has become established: to up the ante, meaning to increase the stakes, par- ticularly in a poker game. To up (intransitive) is also to rise or get up, or to act unexpectedly or sud- denly: “She upped and walloped him on the jaw.” 2. In phrases When added to a number of verbs, up (adverb) forms distinctive phrases, in which up does not bear its literal mean- ing: higher or the opposite of down. Make up, for instance, can mean to put together, form, arrange, complete, compensate for, become friendly again, or put on (cosmetics). We bring up (chil- dren or topics), get up (in the morning), keep up (an activity or appearance), look up (information in a reference book), and turn up (something lacking). Up may intensify verbs, adding an ele- ment of completeness or thoroughness. Treasure-hunters dig, hoping to dig up riches. To dress is less formal than to dress up. To tear a book damages it; to tear up the book destroys it. Clean up and tie up are somewhat intensified ver- sions of clean and tie in literal senses, and they have respectively the additional meanings of make a lot of money (collo- quial) and delay or immobilize. Nevertheless, up goes unnecessarily with some other verbs, making no differ- ence in their meanings. Two professors wrote that “some of the resources freed up by pruning military outlays should permit Democrats to advance the ‘pock- etbook issues’. . . . ” No one is likely to miss “up” if it is removed from a sen- tence like that or phrases like these: “end up” (the meeting), “light up” (a cigar), “finish up” (the job), “head up” (a com- mittee), “make up” (the beds), “match up” (cloths), “open up” (the gate), “pay up” (the money), “write up” (an article). 450 until 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 450 The “up” in “hurry up” / “join up” / “wait up” adds nothing to hurry, join, wait. Instead of telling someone just to lis- ten, it is fashionable (at this writing) to tack on the appendage “up.” On a radio news network, the remark “Listen up, Steven Spielberg” prefaced a broadcast of a computer-generated portrayal of a dinosaur cry. Up is the first word in sundry phrases. Among useful ones are up against, meaning confronted with; up for, pre- sented for (election, trial, etc.); up to, oc- cupied in, capable of, or equal to; and up to date, current. (“These accounts are up to date” or “These are the up-to-date ac- counts.”) The “up” is redundant in “up until” or “up till,” inasmuch as until or till means up to a point or time. See also CAUGHT and CAUGHT UP. 3. Prefix and suffix Up- is joined as a prefix in many words. Some of them, accenting the up-, are upbeat, upbraid, upgrade, upkeep, upright, uprising, uproar, upshot, up- start, and upward. Others, such as up- heaval, uphold, upholster, and uproot, accent the second syllable. Still others give about equal stress to both syllables: upside (down), upstairs, upstream, and uptown. The stress may vary, as in upset: the noun is UP-set, the verb up-SET; the adjective goes either way. Dictionaries disagree on the pronunciation of some other up- words. Up is hyphenated in the adjectives up- and-coming, meaning advancing toward success; and up-and-down, meaning fluctuating in direction or vertical. As a suffix, -up may or may not be joined by a hyphen. Examples are the nouns breakup, buildup, holdup, setup, windup, close-up, make-up, and shake- up (all accenting the first syllable). As verbs, each of the root words would be separate from up. Dictionaries do not agree what to hyphenate, and several dictionaries show no pattern behind their choices. For instance, one book runs wind-up, shakeup, and a choice be- tween make-up and makeup. Another spells them windup, shake-up, and makeup. A usable rule of thumb for words with up suffixes (suggested by Roy H. Copperud) is to follow the root word with a hyphen if it ends in a vowel. See also UPCOMING; PICK UP and PICKUP; ROUND UP and ROUNDUP; SET UP and SETUP. UPCOMING. Upcoming dates back to the fourteenth century. For about 500 years it was solely a noun, meaning the action of coming up; for instance, “From the hill, we watched their upcoming.” Then it began to be used also as an ad- jective, in a similar sense, e.g., “the up- coming travelers.” Its adjectival use as a synonym for an- ticipated, approaching, coming, or forth- coming, as in “the upcoming election,” began still later. The Oxford English Dictionary can trace that “chiefly U.S.” application only as far back as 1959. In its newest sense, upcoming has not won general acceptance. Use it if you have to, but never as a replacement for coming up, the way a telecast of enter- tainment news misused it: “With the new season upcoming, optimism is high.” The flavor is German, not En- glish. Change “upcoming” to coming up or just coming. A predecessor of the original upcom- ing, by about three centuries, was up- come, a rare verb meaning to come up. See also Backward writing, 3. US and WE. See Pronouns, 10. USE. See UTILIZE, UTILIZATION. USE TO and USED TO. Each of the samples below displays a wrong use to and used to 451 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 451 tense of the verb use. Past should be pre- sent and present should be past. “ ‘What did your name used to be?’ this reporter couldn’t resist asking.” Change “used” to use: “ ‘What did your name use to be?’ ” “I use to like people for what I could get out of them.” Change “use” to used: “I used to like people. . . . ” Used to, indicating a former state or a former activity, often is correct. But when did goes with a verb, it takes over the job of casting the verb’s action in the past. In that way, use is no different from other verbs. We say, “When did she leave?” (not “left”) or “I did not sleep” (not “slept”). The fact that used to and use to sound so similar can account for the confusion. In the negative, two constructions are possible. One may say either “He did not use to drink much” or He used not to drink much.” The first is more com- mon, especially in speech. The meaning of use to may be expressed in other ways: “He did not drink much in the past” or “in past years” or “in those days.” Used to can mean accustomed to. “I am used to hard work.” / “We were used to walking barefoot.” That sense em- ploys only used, the past participle, and only in the passive. UTILIZE, UTILIZATION. Utilize, often conscripted as a high-flown syn- onym for use (verb, transitive), has its niche. It implies putting to practical use something that has not been practical so far, or making something more produc- tive or profitable by finding a new use for it. These are appropriate examples: “Many companies would like to utilize the natural resources of the Antarctic.” / “Silicon was utilized in the computer revolution.” In the examples below (from a book and a newspaper), “uti- lize” is used loosely. You should be able to boost your usual weekly or monthly sales figures from time to time by utilizing one of the more popular promotional tech- niques. If the techniques are already in popular use, using will do in place of “utilizing.” To avoid becoming a rape victim, there are several precautions to follow as well as a variety of defenses to uti- lize if assaulted. Again, use is enough. Utilize would be the right word in speaking, for instance, of “a variety of common objects to uti- lize as defenses.” (See also Crimes, 1.) A related noun is utilization, which at times is forced to serve as a pretentious synonym for the noun use. In a dictio- nary article, a linguist describes a mil- lion-word sample of American writing containing 61,805 word forms. As already suggested in our discussion of the frequency of words of different length, word utilization in actual use varies enormously. The sentence would be improved by changing “word utilization in” to their. Another synonym for use is employ (verb, transitive), which has its own nu- ance: to apply or devote to an activity. “She employed her time and energy in helping the poor.” Of course employ also means to hire or to use the services of an employee. 452 utilize, utilization 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 452 VASELINE. Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly, used for medicinal pur- poses. As a trademark, it should be capi- talized. A book of language instruction for newcomers prints the commercial names of several products in lower case. In sample dialogue, a customer tells a phar- macist, “I’ll need some vaseline, too.” Another commercial product that the book incorrectly mentions in lower case is Q-Tips. See also BAND-AID. H. L. Mencken, who refused to capi- talize Vaseline and many other trade- marks, wrote that it had entered German and French dictionaries and, as fan-shih-ling, was among four “Ameri- canisms” borrowed by the Chinese. (The others were p’u-k’e, poker; tel-lu- feng, telephone; and ch’ueh-ssu-teng, charleston, the dance.) He described its origin: Robert A. Chesebrough coined it in 1870 or so, drawing from the German wasser, water, and the Greek elaion, oil, for he believed that the decomposition of water gave rise to petroleum. VENAL and VENIAL. See Confus- ing pairs. VENUE. Venue is a legal term. It is the locality in which a crime is commit- ted or the cause for a civil suit occurs. It is also the political division from which a jury is called and in which a trial is held. When a lawyer requests a “change of venue,” he wants the trial moved else- where. Lately it has been used as a highfa- lutin synonym for a variety of simple words, which would generally be quite adequate and often be more specific. It has been particularly common in show business, but some in other fields too are forcing it into service. This is from a book about marketing (emphasis added): Still, consider if this [a newsletter] is a good venue for you. . . . But particularly for consultants whose strong suit is not the written word, it [use of a newsletter service] is a plausible venue. Before “venue” began circulating pre- tentiously outside the legal community, the writer might have used medium (first sentence) and course (second sentence). A weekly newspaper chose to use “screening venue” rather than movie theater. A restaurant reviewer preferred “lunch venue” to lunchroom. A radio commercial for language instruction used “venues” in place of schools. And a notice posted at a legitimate theater an- nounced “EVENTS AT OUR OTHER VENUS” (sic). VERBAL. 1. Oral and verbal. 2. Pop- ular definition. 3. Technical meanings. verbal 453 V 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 453 1. Oral and verbal A lawyer did not write this sentence, which is looser than it may seem. A written, detailed contract has the virtue of specifically spelling out terms and mutual obligations, but it also binds a lot tighter than a verbal agree- ment. The opposite of a written contract is an oral contract; that is, one that is spoken rather than written. All contracts or agreements are verbal, because they have to do with words, whether or not the words are written down. Verbal (adjective) pertains to words. It can have any of these senses: A. In words or through the use of words. Songs communicate in both musical and verbal ways. B. Emphasizing words as such, without regard to the ideas or facts that they convey. This is purely verbal criticism, not substantive. C. Word for word. A verbal translation is literal, rather than literary. Verbal and oral both come from Latin, in which verbum means word and oris means mouth. Oral has other mouth-related mean- ings. An oral vaccine is one that is swal- lowed. Oral hygiene is health care for the mouth. The adverbs related to verbal and oral are verbally and orally. 2. Popular definition “Verbal” often serves in popular speech as an antonym for written. Gen- eral dictionaries offer that loose use among their definitions. But why choose a fuzzy word when using a precise one is so easy? The Random House Dictionary adds a note defending the use of “verbal” to mean spoken: The practice dates from the sixteenth century; it rarely produces confusion; one can tell the meaning from the context. Contrarily, The American Heritage Dictionary (first edition) cautioned against the application of verbal to terms such as agreement, promise, commit- ment, and understanding; it can mean what is written, while oral cannot. Ver- bal (says the third edition) “may some- times invite confusion,” as in this example: Does “modern technology for verbal communication” refer to devices like radio and telephone or those like telegraph and fax? Webster’s second edition said, in the main text under verbal, that “by confu- sion” it was taken to mean spoken. Web- ster’s Third drops that qualification. 3. Technical meanings In grammar, verbal has some technical meanings. Verbal (adjective) means per- taining to a verb, or having the function of a verb, or used to form verbs (such as the verbal suffix -ize). A verbal (noun) is a word or phrase formed from a verb that is used as a noun or adjective. Gerunds and at times infinitives and par- ticiples may be called verbals. Verbal unmentionables. Unmen- tionables is a euphemism for underwear, little used now, except in an attempt to be humorous. It was once applied to trousers. We are assigning the designa- tion of verbal unmentionables to a cate- gory of paradoxical expressions or words. What distinguishes each is that it seems to discourage any reference to the very thing it is used to refer to. If taken literally, it might not be used at all. Expressions include it (or that) goes without saying, needless to say, not to mention, not to say, to say nothing of, and words cannot describe. Single words include inconceivable, indescribable, in- effable, inexpressible, unimaginable, un- mentionable, unsayable, unspeakable, unthinkable, and unutterable. This quirk in our language is far from new. In Eureka, an essay on the universe, 454 verbal unmentionables 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 454 published in 1848, Edgar Allan Poe wrote that “a certain inexpressibly great yet limited number of unimaginably yet not infinitely minute atoms” had radi- ated from a primordial particle; that traveling from the star 61 Cygni, even at an “inconceivable rate, light occupies more than ten years”; and that stars give “birth and death to unspeakably numer- ous and complex variations” of life. (Emphases are added.) To hint at or mention something while feigning an unwillingness to men- tion it is a rhetorical device known as apophasis (a-POF-a-sis), adopted from the Greek word for denial. A guest on the air who says “I won’t plug my restaurant, Joe’s Eatery” is using it. See also INDESCRIBABLE, UNDE- SCRIBABLE; OF COURSE, 3; NOT TO MENTION; TO SAY NOTHING OF; UNTHINKABLE. Verbosity. Using many words or too many words, either in writing or in speaking, is verbosity or wordiness. Usu- ally it means using more words than are necessary to communicate one’s mean- ing. Verbosity (pronounced vur-BOS-ih- tee) can in addition imply an instance of speech or writing that is obscure, pompous, or tedious; or a tendency to- ward such speech or writing. A noun with similar meaning is pro- lixity (pronounced pro-LIX-ih-tee), the quality of or tendency toward such ex- cessive length or elaboration in speech or writing as to be tiresome. The related adjectives are verbose (vur-BOAS), wordy, and prolix (PRO-lix or pro-LIX). Nouns pertaining to unnecessary rep- etition are pleonasm, redundancy, and tautology. See Tautology. The prose of government, academia, art, science, business, and other fields can be verbose, jargonal, or just windy. An official in southern California re- ported that an earthquake was mild by saying, “We have not activated the disas- ter mode.” To announce that an epi- demic was going away, the director of a federal health agency said, “There is a downslope on the curve of occurrence.” A Tennessee school board considering curricula decided that “pre-assessment, post-assessment, learning alternatives and remediation will be an integral part of instructional modules within the framework of program development.” A collegiate dean in Wisconsin said she had worked at “conceptualizing new thrusts in programming.” An artist wrote this of her abstract paintings: “A strong frontal progressive image of light through the layers declares the present, which is, life existing in the now.” (See Punctuation, 3D.) A plaque in an art gallery said of another abstract artist, “Through the use of layering, her paintings invoke a sense of continuum, a present tense portrayal that reveals a connection to our past as well as prepar- ing ground for the future.” (See EVOKE and INVOKE.) The beginning of a study by two pro- fessors in a scientific journal is quoted below. The study deals with pigeons. Had it dealt with people, it might have been complicated. In general, research on concurrent choice has concentrated on steady- state relations between the allocation of behavior and independent variables that are associated with reinforcement or aspects of responding. The devel- opment of quantitative models de- scribing stable-state choice has been successful, and is exemplified by the generalized matching law (see Davi- son & McCarthy, 1988, for a review), which provides a description of the re- lation between behavior-output ratios and reinforcer-input ratios when two variable-interval (VI) schedules are concurrently available. Now some bedtime reading for stock- holders, excerpts from a corporation’s annual report: verbosity 455 04-R–Z_4 10/22/02 10:33 AM Page 455 [...]... that” to because; of a friendly (or cheerful etc.) character” to friendly (or cheerful etc.); “is in possession of to has; and so on Recent decades have brought many roundabout expressions, such as “I am supportive of him” instead of I support him; “at this point in time” instead of now; “in terms of and “all that” used unnecessarily; “for” free and listen “up”; and “person” and “people” as suffixes... both a wooden bowl and a wood bowl are right 481 WORDINESS, WORDY See Verbosity Words that sound alike See Homophones “WORLD’S OLDEST PROFESSION.” See “OLDEST PROFESSION.” WORSE and WORST See BETTER and BEST, WORSE and WORST WOULD and WILL See Double negative, 1; Subjunctive, 2, 3; Tense, 4 WOULD HAVE, WOULD’VE, and “WOULD OF. ” See HAVE, HAS, HAD, 2 WRACK See RACK and WRACK WREAK and WRECK A television... served time and was ” or “Having served time , he was ” In THAT, 3, and WHICH, 3, the point is made that a clause starting with and that or and which normally follows a comparable that or which clause The principle holds for and who (and but who): In “Adams, a candidate for mayor and who has served on the City Council for four years, said ,” the and serves no function and ought to be... humanity,” restore is the right form of the verb The question to be asked is what who represents Here it represents certain people It is the same when that substitutes for who See also ONE OF, 3 WHO and THAT, WHO and WHICH See WHO, THAT, and WHICH WHO and WHOM 1 The basics 2 The critics 3 WHOEVER and WHOMEVER 1 The basics All speakers of the English language know the meaning of who or whom: what person(s)... British-style “Staff Get” instead of “Staff Gets.” See STAFF.) An advertiser in the personal ads was ABANDONED By her boyfriend whom has found other interests of which she is not one of anymore “Whom” should have been who, the subject of the verb has found, and preceded by a comma (Among the ad’s faults, of of is redundant and “anymore” is not pertinent Could it be that he scorned her English? ) A network anchor... wins Change “whomever” to whoever; it is the subject of the verb wins Omit “depending on,” which is superfluous WHODUNIT See DO, DID, DONE WHO EVER and WHOEVER See (-)EVER WHOEVER and WHOMEVER See WHO and WHOM, 3 WHOM See WHO and WHOM WHOSE 1 For people and things 2 WHOSE and WHO’S 1 For people and things Whose is the possessive form of both who and which Thus whose, unlike who, applies not only to... or male, the source of virile Yet virtue and virtuous, with the meanings of chastity and chaste, have often been applied just to women VISCOUS and VICIOUS See Confusing pairs VISE and VICE See Homophones VISITING FIREMAN See -MAN-, MAN 463 VITAL Vital (adjective), stemming from the Latin vitalis, of life, has essentially the same meaning in English: relating to life, characteristic of life, essential... Some of the participants, however, carrying along stylized Chinese dragons, did proceed in a twisting or curving manner, so perhaps they were winding their way WENT See GONE and WENT WERE See WAS and WERE; Subjunctive WHAT EVER and WHATEVER See (-)EVER WHEN AND IF See UNLESS AND UNTIL 468 whence and “from whence” WHENCE and “FROM WHENCE.” A senator said, “These young people [cadets] are a reflection of. .. David’s demonstration of ” WHEREAS See Sentence fragment, 1 WHERE EVER and WHEREVER See (-)EVER WHEREFORE and WHEREOF A radio host recommended a far-off restaurant Having been there, “I know wherefore I speak,” he said If he meant “I know what I’m talking about” and was intent on making his point through archaic language, the word to use was whereof (adverb) It can mean of which, of whom, or whence... A contemporary of his, H L Mencken, wrote: The schoolmarm continues the heroic task of trying to make her young charges grasp the difference Here, alas, the speechways of the American people seem to be against her The two forms of the pronouns are confused magnificently in the debates in Congress, and in most newspaper writing, and in ordinary discourse the great majority of Americans avoid . 3. US and WE. See Pronouns, 10. USE. See UTILIZE, UTILIZATION. USE TO and USED TO. Each of the samples below displays a wrong use to and used to 451 04-R–Z_4 10/ 22/02 10: 33 AM Page 451 tense of. am supportive of him” instead of I support him; “at this point in time” instead of now; “in terms of and “all that” used unnecessarily; “for” free and listen “up”; and “person” and “people” as suffixes. Even. 455 04-R–Z_4 10/ 22/02 10: 33 AM Page 455 The portion of sales hedged is based on assessments of cost-benefit profiles that consider natural offsetting expo- sures, revenue and exchange rate volatilities and