A sidewipe at English pedantry

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 22

A sidewipe at English pedantry

A new edition of the late Theodore M. Bernstein’s “Miss Thistlebottom’s Hobgoblins” has been published — and not a moment too soon. It appears the English-lan-guage pedants are gaining on us, writes Victor Wilson, of the Newhouse News Service, in New York. “The purpose of this book,” Mr Bernstein wrote in the new paperback edition, “is to lay to rest the superstitions that have been passed on from one generation to the next by teachers, by editors, and by writers — prohibitions deriving from mere personal prejudice or from misguided pedantry, or from cold conservatism that would freeze the language if it could. “There is a perfectly legitimate code governing grammar, usage, and style, but the code is set up neither by cranks nor by knownothings. What we require is neither a language that is cramped nor a language gone wild.” Some of the examples cited in “Hobgoblins” include: • Burglarise. Though frequently labeled colloquial, this probably will end. The reason: “The word fills a need.” • Eyewitnesses. “Frowning on the word is a species of nitpicking.” 9 Firstly. Some grammarians have always objected, though never to secondly, thirdly, etc. Why not use first, second, etc., “which incidentally will obviate the need to say thirty-fourthly?” 9 Fix. Has something like two dozen meanings. A good place to draw the line around uses like “I’ll fix you for this” or “I’m fixing to go to Chicago.” • Guest. Nothing to support some editors’ dictum that a guest (as in hotel or restaurant) doesn’t qualify. “The underlying idea of the word is stranger, not freeloading.” • Insane asylum. “Obviously, an asylum cannot be unsound in mind,” a writer once remarked. Obviously. And so, “We are more likely to say mental hospital or home for the mentally retarded.” • Killed instantly. “How else?”

an editor once asked. W’ell, by inches, slowly, by famine. Then someone is bound to ask, “Instead of instantly, don’t you mean instantaneously?” Remarks Mr Bernstein: “Ho-hum.” • Mid-air. One editor asked where mid-air was. The author: “To be sure, the word is not very specific nor very informative, yet is in good use.” • Naked, nude. “Nowadays, except in specialised use in the art field (Michelangelo enjoyed painting nudes), the words are just about interchangeable.” ® People, persons. "Use people for large groups presented in round numbers: use persons for an exact or small number.” 9 Round. Write “the year round” and “we showed visitors round.” Also, “Around is perfectly good, too.” 9 Sideswipe. “Sidewipe was the version some editors used to demand, but the word for a swinging blow is sideswipe.” 9 Sideways. “In at least one book, sideways is branded a corruption of sidewise, and endways a corruption of endwise. Unadulterated nonsense. If anything, the ‘ways’ versions are the more dominant, and their respectability was achieved four centuries ago.” 9 Stick. “Stick is almost as much of an all-purpose word as fix. The most that can be said about its many uses is that, one by one, they . seem to gain respectability. Stick around for a while and maybe even ‘stick around’ will become standard.” 9 Unprecedented. “The older the world gets, the less likelihood there is that a given event is unprecedented. All that any editor should do is demand that a reporter make a careful check and be sure he is right before he uses the word.” © Way. “Used as an adverb (‘He is way behind in his work’), is close to standard. Of course, ‘far’ is a more acceptable synonym.” Editor’s footnote: The recent correspondence on the English language will be not be reopened.