DIGEST BOOK

nmmi • »jl' a nmr/tuoEirs

NOW IN PAPERBACK! Great reading

on tbe world's mostpopular subjects
fromAmerica's mositrusted magazine!

EDITED AND COMPILED BY THE EDITORS OF READERS DiGEST

WORD
The entertaining way to enrich your language skills,
with an Introduction by Peter Funk
Berkley/Reader's Digest books
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT
THE ART OF LIVING
CURIOUS CREATURES
DRAMA IN REAL LIFE*
"1 AM JOE S BODY"
KEEPING FIT
LAUGHTER. THE BEST MEDICINE*
THE LIVING WORLD OF NATURE
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
MEDICAL MIRACLES
MIND POWER
RAISING KIDS
SECRETS OF THE PAST
TESTS AND TEASERS
UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS
WORD POWER
WDRD
THE EDITORS OF READER'S DIGEST

An Anthology of Articles&Tests
with an Introduction by Peter Funk

%
A BERKLEY/READER'S DIGEST BOOK
published by
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following organizations and in-
dividuals for permission to reprint material from the indicated sources:
Mr. Clifton Fadiman for "Plain Thoughts on Fancy Language" and "I
Know Whatcha Mean"; Farrar Straus & Giroux, Inc. for "A Word With
You, Miss Thistiebottom," condensed from MISS THISTLEBOTTOM'S
HOBGOBLINS: THE CAREFUL WRITER'S GUIDE TO THE TABOOS,
BUGBEARS AND OUTMODED RULES by Theodore M. Bernstein,
copyright © 1971 by Theodore M. Bernstein; The Christian Science Mon-
itor for "Like, I Mean, You Know, Right?" by Roderick Nordeli, copyright
© 1972 by The Christian Science Publishing Society; Viking Penguin Inc.
for "Classroom Classics" condensed from BIGGER AND BETTER BON-
ERS. edited by Alexander Abingdon, copyright © 1952 by The Viking
Press and reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc.; Harper & Row,
Publishers, Inc. for "Write The Way You Talk" condensed from SAY
WHAT YOU MEAN by Rudolf Flesch, copyright © 1972 by Rudolf
Flesch and reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers. Inc.;
Hie Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. for "A Civil Tongue" condensed from
A CIVIL TONGUE by Edwin Newman, copyright © 1975, 1976 by Edwin
Newman; The Columbia Forum for "Was Paul Revere a Minuteperson?"
by Jacques Barzun, copyright © 1974 by The Trustees of Columbia Uni-
versity in the City of New York; Channel Press/Hawthorn Books Inc. for
"Watch Your Language!" condensed from MORE LANGUAGE THAT
NEEDS WATCHING by Theodore M. Bernstein, copyright © 1962 by
Theodore M. Bernstein; Mr. Stuart Chase for "How To Argue", "A Tip
on Straight Thinking" and "Neither Black Nor White"; San Francisco
Examiner for 'Thank You, William Shakespeare!" by Guy Wright, copy-
right © 1964 by The News Call Bulletin; Crown Publishers, Inc. for
"Alphabet You'll Like These Puns" by John S. Crosbie, condensed from
CROSBIE S DICTIONARY OF PUNS, copyright © 1977 by John S.
Crosbie; Newsweek (May 6, 1968) for "Anything Goes, Verbalization-
wise", copyright © 1968 by Newsweek, Inc.; Mrs. James Thurber for
'The Meaning ManglenT by James Thurber Copyright © 1960 James
Thurber. Condensed from Clifton Fadiman's Department, Party of One,
in Holiday, December 1960 issue; Newsweek (December 8, 1975) for
"Why Johnny Can't Write" by Merrill Sheils, copyright © 1975 by News-
week, Inc.; Atheneum Publishers for "Beware These Word-Traps!" by
Theodore M. Bernstein, condensed from THE CAREFUL WRITER, copy-
right © 1965 by Theodore M. Bernstein; Mr. James P. Degnan for "Masters
of Babble", copyright © 1976 by James P. Degnan, and reprinted from
HARPER'S (September 1976, pg. 37); Mr Edwin Newman for "There's
a Meaning Here Somewhere", copyright © 1975 and reprinted from Es-
quire (December 1975); Atheneum Publishers for "The Baffling World of
Psychobabble" condensed from the book PSYCHOBABBLE by R. D.
Rosen. Copyright © 1975, 1976, 1977 by Richard D. Rosen. Used by
permission of Atheneum Publishers; Redbook (October 1960) for Oh,
,4

Waddle I Do?" by Janet Agle, copyright © 1960 by McCall Corp.; Mr.

Fulton Oursler, Jr. for "There is Magic in a Word of Praise" by Fuiton
Oursler; Channel Press/Hawthorn Books Inc. for "Watch Your Language"
by Theodore M. Bernstein, condensed from WATCH YOUR LAN-
GUAGE!, copyright © 1958 by Theodore M. Bernstein; American Way
(October 1978) for "Englisch As She is Goodly Spocken" by Nino Lo
Bello, copyright © 1978 by American Way; The Yale Review (Spring
1936) for 'The American Language" by H. L. Mencken, copyright © 1936
Yale University; Houghton Mifflin Company and Brandt & Brandt for
"Name-Changing—It's The Custom!" condensed from ON BECOMING
AMERICAN by Ted Morgan, first published by Houghton Mifflin Com-
pany, copyright © 1978 by Ted Morgan. Reprinted by permission of
Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc.; Harper's Magazine (November
1973) for "Cracking the Real-Estate Code" by Richard Lipez, copyright
© 1973 by Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co., Inc.
 Contents

Inirodurtion: The Wonder of Words: Peter Funk 1

\^ords—Our Most Ancient Legacy: W.L. White 5
bur Native Tongue, Alive and Well: Roderick MacLeish 10
Word Power Test No. 1: Words of Lincoln 15
Your Words Give You Away: John Kord Lagemann 18
Are You a Skid Talker?: Corey Ford 22
Word Power Test No. 2: Relics of Old English 25
Plain Thoughts on Fancy Language: Clifton Fadiman 28
A Word With You, Miss Thistlebottom: Theodore M. Bern-
stein 31
Word Power Test No. 3: Medical Terms 35
Like, I Mean, You Know, Right?: Roderick Nordell 38
Ways to Write Better Letters: J. Harold Janis 40
Word Power Test No, 4: Peop'e, Beasts and Places 44
Classroom' Classics: Alexander Abingdon 48
Are We Becoming a Netion of Illiterates?: Vance Pack-
ard 50
Word Power Test No. 5: English from Greece. Rome and
Elsewhere 55
Write the Way You Talk: Rudolf Fiesch 58
A Civil Tongue: Edwin Newman 64
Word Power Test No. 6: Words from Reader's Digest 67
Was Paul Revere a Minuteperson?: Jacques Barzun 70
Watch Your Language!: Theodore M. Bernstein 73
Word Power Test No. 7: To Look and Dance and Read and
Listen 76
How" to Argue: Stuart Chase 79
Thank You, William Shakespeare!. Guy Wright $2
Word Power Test No. 8: Nouns: Airborne and Nof 84
Alphabet You'll Like These Puns: John S. Crosbie 87 i
Anything Goes, Verbalizationwise: Newsweek 91
Word Power Test No. 9: Living Latin 94
The Meaning Manglers: James Thurber 97
Why Johnny Can't Write: Merril) Sheils 100
Word Power Test No. 10: Advertising Words 106
Don't Give Up on English: Will Stanton 109
Beware These Word-Traps!: Theodore M. Bernstein 112
Word Power Test No. 11: Moderately Difficult Words 115
A Tip on Straight Thinking: Stuart Chase 118
Masters of Babble: James P. Degnan 121
Word Power Test No. 12: Book Words 124
There's a Meaning Here Somewhere: Edwin Newman 127
The Most Nerve-Shattering Word in the Language: H. Allen
Smith 130
Word Power Test No. 13: Margaret Mead 133
As Silly as a Simile: Jane Goodsell 136
I Know Whatcha Mean: Clifton Fadiman 139
Word Power Test No. 14: Headliners: News in a Nut-
shell 142
Neither Black Nor White: Stuart Chase 145
I Keep Healing Voices: Cornelia Otis Skinner 149
Word Power Test No. 15: The Sporting Life 154
The Delicate Art of Asking Questions: John Kord Lage-
mann 157
The Baffling World of Psychobabble: R.D, Rosen 163
Word Power Test No. 16: How Cicero Made Adjectives 167
Oh, Waddle I Do?: Janet Agle 171
Why Did They Call It That'!. Gary Jennings 173
Word Power Test No. 17: Political Vocabulary 177
There is Magic in a Word of Praise: Fulton Oursler 181
One Man's Mede Clifton Fadiman 185
Word Power Test No. 18: The L ore of Bench and Bar 188
Watch Your Language!: Theodore M. Bernstein 191
My, O Myopia!: Cornelia Otis Skinner 195
Word Power lest No. 19: High School Specials 198
"Englisch as She Is Goodly Spocken": Nino Lo Bello 201
Word Power Test No. 20: A Nosegay of Look-Alikes 203
The American Language: H. L. Mencken 206
Name-Changing—It's the Custom!: Ted Morgan 2J1
Word Power Test No. 21: Words Ending in ' ite" 215
Accuracy Is a Winner's Policy: Evan Hill 218
Cracking the Real-Estate Code: Richard Lipez 223
Word Power Test No. 22: The French All Around Us 225
"Everything Begins With a Pfcncil": Jerome Brondfield 228
Long Live The Book!: Ernest O. Hauser 232
Word Power Test No. 23: The Joys of Self-
Improvement 237
Words That Have Appeared in These Tests 240
 INTRODUCTION

The Wonder
of Words
BY PETER FUNK

Though you may not be aware of it consciously, the fact

is you have always had an interest in language. The day
you were bom you attempted to express your feelings and
you've been trying to do so ever since.
As you grew older the sounds you made developed into
definite forms or words which were symbols representing
your thoughts. At three you were able to use at least 1000
words and understood three or four thousand more. By ten
your vocabulary had increased dramatically to perhaps as
many as 20,000 words.
During this period you were discovering how to put these
words together to make sense. With some difficulty you
learned to write and to memorize the various peculiarities
of spelling. You were taught to read and you found out
writers could use words as weapons, as humor, to instruct
or to create emotions. You began to understand also that
like it or not the way each of us uses our words determines
to some degree how others rate us.
22 WORD f OWER
At times you probably wanted to know more about lan-
guage' to build your vocabulary, to write and speak well.
Word Power answers these needs. The book grew out
of articles that have appeared in Reader's Digest and se-
lections of my monthly '"Word Power" feature.
At one time "It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power"®
used the word "increase" rather than "enrich." DeWitt
Wallace, founder of the Digest suggested the change.
"Increase" means to become greater in size, amount,
degree, and the like—a straightforward word, plain and
simple.
"Enrich" is another kind of word altogether. It suggests
depth, wealth, abundance and profusion. There is a gran
deur and promise to the word.
There is a grandeur and promise too for you in this book.
It is a splendid compilation of information—learned, in-
teresting, entertaining, humorous and useful. You can read
it for enjoyment, play the vocabulary tests as a game and
at the same time you will be absorbing knowledge that will
enrich your entire life.
What excites me is the scope and the superb quality of
WORD POWER. It covers virtually every aspect of our
language from history to usage, giving you a purview no
other existing book can match. The editors culled through
past issues of the Digest selecting nearly 50 articles, many
written by eminent authorities and well-known authors,
such as: James Thurber, Jacques Barzun, Theodore M.
Bernstein, Corey Ford, Clifton Fadiman, Stuart Chase.
Edwin Newman, Fulton Oursler, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Dr.
Hairn G. Ginott arid many others.
The articles range from topics such as the ancient legacy
of our words to the fact fhat the ones we use are fingerprints
of our thoughts and attitudes. We iearn how to write busi-
ness letters, speak to children, recognize illogical talk, listen
intelligently and to avoid verbal booby traps. A glance at
the table of contents suggests the unusual range of material.
The "Word Power' tests are interspersed among the var-
ious articles. Take them at your leisure. You may find it
worthwhile to keep a record of the words that give you
difficulty and from time to time review them.
 The Wonder of Words 3
Why is a good working vocabulary such a definite asset
to have? The answer is that we think with words. We read,
we study, we understand, we write with them. You and 1
may have a "feeling" or an amorphous idea cr a vague sense
about something. But it will not become a clearly defined
image unless we become a kind of sculptor.
A sculptor shapes his feeling or idea by molding clay
until the image he has in mind emerges. We, as sculptors
of ideas, mold a possible thought into what is clear and
understandable by using the right words.
Johnson O'Connor, a pioneer in the study of vocabulary
ratings," observed that "although it is impossible to define
success rigidly, a large vocabulary seems to be typical of
all successful persons."
Before George Gallup founded the famous Gallup polls,
he was a college teacher who especially stressed vocabulary
growth among his students. He told me: "Whenever some-
one questions the value of vocabulary development, I point
out that words are the tools of thought. The more extensive
and precise a student's vocabulary, the more exact the stu-
dent's thinking. Undoubtedly this explains why there is
such a high correlation between the results of vocabulary
tests and intelligence tests."
In his review of the book. The Children of the Counter-
culture, Anatole Broyard makes the electrifying statement
that "the authors demonstrate an anemic vocabulary can be
even more damaging than an unhealthy diet."
As I perused the material in Word Power 1 kept thinking
of my father, Wilfred Funk. As a lexicographer and poet,
he had a lifelong love affair with words. Like most people
in love he was bursting to tell everyone about it. An inter-
esting word thrilled him just as a spectacular scene moves
an artist, or a concept captivates a scientist. In a group of
people he could scarcely wait to tell about the intriguing
etymology of a word he had just come across or about one
of the delightful curiosities of the English language. He
believed if he could only reach the public, millions of people
would share his enthusiasm for the wonder and fascination
of words. He was right, ot course. Millions of copies of
his books were sold and today are still best sellers in their
22 WORD f OWER
field. "It Pays to Enrich Your World Power"® created by
him in 1945 is one of the most popular features in Reader's
Digest.
Here is a book he would have appreciated. Varied and
rich in content, written by people who also have a love for
words, one that explores die wonders of our language as
well as showing us how to get the best use out of it.
To ask about the meaning of words is to ask about every-
thing. To use them with skill and integrity is to become a
master of expression. May Word Power encourage you on
this path.
Words—Our Most
Ancient Legacy
Next time you count, or speak of your brother or sister,
you are using heirlooms thousands of years old
BY W. L. WHITE

What are your oldest heirlooms? Not Great-Grandfather's

Civil War cavalry saber. Not even Great-Great-Grand-
mother's wedding silver. They are words you use for fa-
miliar things—water, com, sun, moon, father, mother.
These heirloom words—more ancient than the Pyramids,
more enduring than the walls of Troy—have been handed
down to us from a tiny, nameless and forgotten tribe which,
five or six thousand years ago, was the ancestor of our
speech.
Today, people of all races in Europe, India, South Af-
rica, the Americas and the Pacific islands use almost these
same words and many others like them. This makes us
speech cousins to more than a billion people.
Scholars had long puzzled over the striking similarity of
words in different languages. In Dutch, voder; in Latin,
pater; in Swedish, fader; in German, voter; in Irish, athir;
in Persian, pidar; in the Sanskrit of distant India, pitr. These
words all sounded alike and meant the same thing—-father,
in English.
s
22 WORD f OWER
How did it happen that widely separated peoples used
such closely related sound symbols? The problem baffled
linguists for years, the more so becausc "father" was but
one of a host of such "coincidences." Toward the end of
the 18th century it dawned on scholars that perhaps all these
words stemmed from some common language spoken far
back before recorded history.
At last the brilliant German, Jacob Grimm, and other
scholars of his time worked out a "law" of language
changes. Their discoveries showed that the changes which
take place during the history of a language are regular and
consistent enough to permit comparisons between languages
and to reconstruct the earlier stages of languages.
Once the law of change was clear, scholars could see
that the many words for father all pointed back to an orig-
inal, PATER; that water in English, wasser in German, hydor
in Greek, voda in Russian (vodka is "little water"), udan
in Sanskrit, and even watar in the language of King David's
captain. Uriah the Hittite—all could have come only from
an original WODOR. Using the law, they could trace the
origir of countless words.
The scholars evolved an entire ancient vocabulary. They
labeled this early speech "Indo-European," because it had
both Indie and European branches. There is a Latin branch,
from which stem Italian. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Ru-
manian; there is a Germanic branch, which includes Eng-
lish, German, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian; the
Celtic branch includes Welsh, Irish, Breton; the Slavic in-
cludes Russian, Polish, Czech, Bulgar, Serb; in addition,
Indo-European includes Lithuanian, Persian, Greek, Ar-
menian and a score of dialects in India which have sprung
from ancient Sanskrit.
What tribe first spoke that mother tongue which hatched
out this brood of cousin languages?
Today we know much about these dawn people, even
though archeologists have uncovered not a single crumbling
wall, nor any fragment of pottery which we can be sure was
theirs.
By years of work—comparing Sanskrit with Greek and
Gothic with Latin, language students have reconstructed
 Words—Our Most Ancient Legacy 7
old Indo-European mother words just as a paleontologist
puts together a long-extinct reptile from a hatful of bones.
And with these old words as evidence, we can reconstruct
that ancient civilization that existed perhaps six thousand
years ago.
We find that the family unit may well have been as strong
then as now, for English brother comes from their word
BHRATER, as sister comes from their SWESOR, our word son
from their SUNU. English daughter has close cousins: dottir
in Icelandic, doche in Russian and, closest of all, dukhtar
in distant Persia—all stemming from DHUGHATER.
In culture the lndo-Europeans were far ahead of the North
American Indians, who had no domestic animals except
Jogs. Our speech ancestors had domesticated the cow
(GW'ou). which gave them milk (MELG). From this strain
they also bred oxen (UKSEN), which were joined together
with a yoke (YUC>). What did they pull? Surely a wagon,
for this word comes from their WEGH (meaning "to carry")-
and doubly surely because we know they had the wheel
(QEQLO), a wondrous device that was unknown in the prim-
itive Americas until Columbus.
They also knew sheep (their own became English ewe ),
which surely were tame, for from their fleece (PUiiis) they
got wool (WLANA). which they had learned to weave (WI-:BH)
into cloth and then sew (siw) into garments.
Their old word for dog was KUN, which came imo Eng-
lish as hound, into Latin as canis, then crossed back Into
English as canine. (Cats were unknown and, since the Arabs
called them qitt and the Turks kedi [maybe our kitty?), it
is probably that this dwarf tiger crept late into our homes
from some Asian or African jungle, and its name from
another speech family.) They also knew the pig (su--Eng-
lish sow and swine) and the horse (F.KWO—Latin eqans,
into English equestrian).
We might think of these ancestors only wandering
nomads had we not found their word for plow, which was
ARA. Because of Latin arare (to plow), we speak in English
of land which is arable—which can be cultivated.
What did they plant? Their word GRANU gives fc"ng!ish
grain. Of this GRANO. one kind they planted may have been
22 WORD f OWER
light in color, for their word for white (KWEIT), coming
down through Old Germanic hweits, then gave us English
wheat.
Com points to permanent settlements in which each fam-
ily has a home. They called it a DOM, and from this old
word Laf;n got damns and then gave us domicile, domestic
and dome. Was this ancient DOM a rude tent of skins? We
can be sure not, for DOM gave us English timber, of which
their homes were built. How was this timber cut? Certainly
with an AKS, which was probably of flint, for this Late
Stone Age people knew little of metals, but called them all
by a common word from which we have derived iron.
These speech ancestors of ours ground their grain in a
mill (MEL), added water and yeast (YES) to make a dough
(DHEIGH), which they would bake (BHOG) in an oven (UQNO)
to make bread (PA—Latin panis, hence English pantry, the
place where bread is kept)
Afl this we know from those old root words, which have
come down to us in a score of languages. Likewise their
numerals, which were: 1, OINOS; 2, DUO; 3, TREIES; 4,
QETWER; 5 , PENQE; 6 , SWEKS; 7 , SEPTN; 8, OKTO; 9 , NEWN;
10, DEKM.
While each modern language has changed them, at least
half the list would be understood by a native of ancient
Greece, or by a modern native of London. Moscow, Bom-
bay or Buenos Aires.
Had these people a government? Their word meaning
"to rule" was REG. from which India got rajah, Latin got
rex. "To lead" was DEUK. which has changed to tug in
English.
Where did these ancestors of ours live? Since all Indo-
European languages lack a common word for lion, tiger,
elephant, camel or palm, the homeland could not have been
far south. Their old word SNEIGHW (English snow, Russian
sneig. Greek nipha. Welsh nyf, Latin nix, French neige)
might even push this homeland far northward.
Wild animals we know they knew.are the snake (SERP),
the beaver (BHEEHRI ), the bear, the goose, the rabbit and
the duck. They had a word for small streams (STREW), and
another for little ponds, which came down into English as
marsh, mire and moor, and into Latin as mare—hence
 Words—Our Most Ancient Legacy 9
English mariner and maritime. But of vast salt oceans they
probably knew nothing: when, fanning out, migrating
branches of the tribe met the thunder of ocean surf, each
gave to this new marvel a separate name.
Of trees, they knew the birch and the beech and because,
much later, the writings of North Europe were scratched
on smooth beech boards, we get our English word book.
Biologists point out that all these animals and trees are
natives of the temperate zone. Many other signs point to
one possible location in Central Europe, which has roughly
the boundaries of the old Austrian Empire.
Gradually, pushed by overpopulation or invaders, the
"Indo-Europeans" began to move. The wanderings lasted
thousands of years and led them far afield. One branch was
to push Slavic up to the polar sea, another was to bring
Latin down to the Meditteranean, while still others were
to carry Celtic into what is today England and France, and
Germanic down to the Rhine's right bank and up into Scan-
dinavia.
We have inherited a rich legacy, one that tics us to many
nations. There is yet one more item: our English word God
comes from ancient GHUTOM, meaning "the Being that is
worshiped." The syllable .SAC meant .vwcred, then as now.
From PREK (to pray) down through Latin precari (to pray)
comes our word prayer.
Be sure that these Indo-European speech ancestors of
ours must have pondered the dim mysteries of their own
beginnings, even as do you (vi;)!
Our Native
Tongue,
Alive and Well
Despite some lunatic lunges into. pomposity, jargon and
fads, American English is really just growing up

BY RODERICK MACLEISH

"Just got some new skins," says one teen-ager to another

in a New York suburb.
"Lotsa bread?" asks his friend.
"Like nothing, man, nothing."
"1 dig."
Meanwhile, in a recent election campaign, a guberna-
torial candidate in an Eastern state complained of his op-
ponent, "He circumvents the desirability of meaningful con-
frontation-type interaction by refusing to talk to me in this
regard media-wise."
Believe it or not, these people are speaking the same
language, or at least two dialects of the same language—
commonly known as American English. The teen-ager was
telling his friend that he had got a bargain on a set of drums.
The gubernatorial candidate was explaining his inability to
entice his adversary into a television debate.
Whether Americans like these are speaking English cor-
rectly is a question that has had teachers, linguists, editors.
10
 Our Native Tongue, Alive and Well 11
writers and other experts on our language at one another's
throats. Often such authorities denounce some of the com-
monest words and phrases in current use. I disagree. I think
that our language is actually in rather good shape. It just
happens to be going through several absurd-sounding phases
at the same time. But this should hardly trigger alarm. For
it is just another in a long series of lunges into the unor-
thodox that have kept American English the marvelous,
unpredictable, zany and utterly useful language it is.
Americans have always mauled, twisted, improvised
upon and innovated in the language they brought from Eng-
land.* The first settlers did it because they had to. Con-
fronted with birds, animals and landscapes for which there
were no English names, they took terms directly from
American Indian languages—hickory, chipmunk, pecan,
hominy, raccoon, skunk, moose, opossum, caribou, squash.
At the same time, Indian expressions were translated into
English. The first Euro-Americans referred to themselves
as "palefaces," talked of "going on the warpath" and "bury-
ing the hatchet."
The next expansion of American English came with the
waves of immigrants to the New World. From Mexican
Spanish came the words chocolate, tomato and avocado.
Dutch settlers contributed boss, cookie and spook, while
German-Americans gave us sauerkraut, noodle and so on.
By the beginning of the 19th century, a whole new spo-
ken dialect had emerged—reflecting Americans' westward,
wilderness-taming, melting-pot experience. If in 1800 an
American had told an Englishman that he had cleared the
underbrush, built a log cabin in the backwoods and break-
fasted on johnnycake before hunting muskrats and bullfrogs
down near the rapids, the Englishman wouldn't have had
the slightest idea of what his American friend was talking
about.
American parents in the 1920s were equally bewildered
when their jazz-age kids erupted with expressions such as
"That's the cat's pajamas" and "Oh, you kid!" The jazz-
• M o r e than 30() m i l l i o n people use English as their first language today,
scattered across the world in a patlem originally given shape by the British
E m p i r e . I n e v i t a b l y , these people o f separate cultures have rearranged the
one m i l l i o n words o f the English language to suit their o w n needs.
22 WORD f OWER
agers were in turn nonplused when their children began
shrieking, "Hey Ba-Ba Re-Bop!" and "Beat me Daddy,
eight to the bar." And today's parents gape when their
shaggy youngsters come forth with "Just got new skins."
Yet such fanciful flights away from the loose standards of
American English all convey a good deal of insight about
us individually and as a nation.
The kids of the '20s were celebrating society's breakout
from smothering 19th-century formality: jazz music was as
good a symbol as any of the new emancipation. The smash-
bang language of the 1940s signaled a joyful recovery from
the Depression (itself immortalized in terms like "bread
line," and "the crash"). Today young white Americans are
adopting, wholesale, the language of black America. In the
process they are telling us that they identify and sympathize
with the struggle of black America to find its deserved place
in our society.
Meanwhile, some wonderfully articulate phrases are
swirling into our language What better describes the ten-
sion we all experience than the phrase "up tight"? We had
no precise word for lively, direct communication until "rap-
ping" appeared. If something is simply too splendid to de-
scribe, it is, truly, "out of sight," as today's kids tell us,
and when several people leave a group, they are, literally,
"splitting." (Black English is itself in evolution. "Funky"—
a word quite popular with today's young—used to mean
smoky or smelly. Now it means down-to-earth or real.
"Cop-out" originally meant to be arrested. Now it says that
you are disassociating yourself from something.)
Those of us over 30 tend to be irritated when we hear
our children stringing all of this together in a juvenile idiom.
That's natural: anybody is jumpy when surrounded by peo-
ple speaking a language he doesn't fully understand. But
just in case we become a little smug in the belief that we
are speaking normal, ordinary American English, here's
news for you. Millions of us are developing a decidedly
unusual language fad of our own. In the last 25 or so years,
we have begun to speak a sort of written English, whose
basic purposes are lo sound cultivated and to soften the
impact of what we say.
The faintly stilted talk of telephone operators: the airline
 Our Native Tongue, Alive and Weil 13

stewardess who says, "If you wish to purchase a beverage,

please indicate your selection on the form . . ."; the stiff,
dehumanized jargon of some radio and television announ-
cers—all are examples of this textbook tendency. Unfor-
tunately, it has nearly run amok (and that, in case you're
interested, is almost the only Malay word in the English
language).
Some warm, human words are vanishing from daily talk,
replaced by their written alternatives. "People" has become
"persons," for example. When someone says, "Eight per-
sons were given awards," it sounds more like a statistical
report than an event. "Home" has replaced "house.'' The
guy who constructs them is now called a "home builder."
(I fearfully await the day when Rover's backyard shed be-
comes a "dog home.")
According to Jacques Bar/.un, of Columbia University,
part of this new language fad can be traced to the influence
of science and technology. They have been pouring such
a torrent of new words and phrases into English that we
have decided that each new thing should have an elegant
new name. This has created what Barzun calls our "passion
for jargon." Thus, the garbageman has become a "sanitation
engineer," and the kid who isn't doing well in school—that
kid who used to be called dumb, lazy or troubled—is now
an "underachiever." Cemeteries have become "memorial
parks," prisons "houses of detention" and slums "the inner
city." Whatever events and conditions might be offensive
we now sensitively try to disguise. (Yet a rose by any name
is still a rose. One 84-year-old friend of mine blew up
recently when someone applied a new euphemism to him.
"Damn it!" he roared, "I'm not a senior citizen! / am an
old man\")
None of the interesting and far-out things Americans are
doing to their language really matter as long as we get the
message across to each other, argues one school of linguists
As State Department linguist James Bostain puts it, if you
can be understood, if you project the social image that you
want to, you are speaking correctly. Counters another
school: There is such a thing as proper English, and we
should all try to achieve it. Language specialist Elizabeth
Stone says, "There appears to be a prevalent notion in the
22 WORD f OWER
United States today that to be accepted in certain groups
one must watch one's speech to see that it isn't too good."
She does not go as far as President John Adams, who fancied
the setting up of an Academy of American English, but she
does call for a national effort to improve our language.
Still, to me, the messages pulsating out of the various
gyrations of current American English are, on the whole,
promising. If our young are displaying a personal sympathy
witn the cause of equality, if older people are developing
a greater sensitivity to one another's feelings, if technology
is enriching our vocabulary (and, by implication, our think-
ing and our vision), then the sometimes baffling, sometimes
unorthodox and sometimes strikingly original ways we
speak are optimistic signals. If, in the process, we engage
in some jawbreaking gobbledygook, no great harm is done.
For all of its oddities, American English is, without
doubt, increasingly influential around the world. To all of
us persons in our homes, that is out of sight news, man—
out of sight.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. I
Words of Lincoln

BY PETER FUNK
Abraham Lincoln, who spoke and wrote with consummate grace
and wit, put special stress on precision. The following 20 words
have been selected from his speeches and letters. How many of
them can you define correctly? Check the word or phrase you
believe is nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear
at the end of the test.
1. consecrate (kon' se krat)—A: to bury, B: beautify. C: sanc-
tify. D: shock.
2. paramount (par' a mount)—A: supreme. B: urgent. C:
large. D: valuable.
3. alloy (al' oy)—whatever A: calms. B: warns. C: impairs.
D: aids.
4. munificence (mu nlf' l sense)—A: lavish generosity. B:
courtesy. C: elegance. D: nobility of attitude.
5. judicious (ju dish' us)—A: wise. B: suitable. C: tactful.
D: shrewd.
6. trifling (trf fling)—A: foolish, B: insignificant. C: ridic-
ulous. D: irrelevant.
7. controvert (kon' truh vert)—A: to modify. B. be logical.
C: dissuade. D: dispute.
8. secede (se sed')—A: to relinquish. B: withdraw. C: give
up. D: follow.
9. unrequited (un re quit' ed)—A: not reciprocated. B: un-
necessary. C: hopeless D: unanswered
10. malice (mal' is)—A: sarcasm. B: bitterness. C: ill will. D:
evil.
11. insinuation (in sin u a' shun)—A: accusation. B: hint. C:
claim. D: falsification.
12. breach (brech)—A: reinforcement. B: secret. C: difficulty.
D: opening
15
22 WORD f OWER
13. 'perpetuity (pur pe tu' I te)—A: eternity. B: durability. C:
resilience. D: boredom.
14. coercion (ko er' shun)—A: trick. B: plea. C: pressure. D:
temptation.
15. misconstrue (mis con stroo')—A: to destroy. B: disfigure.
C: misinterpret. D: complicate.
16. despotism (des' po tiz'm)—A: cruelty. B: tyranny. C: in
flexibility. D: destruction.
17. ascertain (as er tan')—A: to question. B: reveal. C: ap-
prove. D: determine.
18. supersede (su per sed')—A. to achieve success. B: go be-
fore. C; add to. D: replace.
19. assiduously (as sid' u us le)—A: diligently. B: scathingly.
C: enthusiastically. D: helpfully.
20. entwine—A: to enchant. B: tie. C: attach. D: interweave.
ANSWERS
1. consecrate—C: To sanctify; set apart as sacred; as, "In a
larger sense we cannot. . . consecrate. .. this ground." Lin-
coln declared at Gettysburg. Latin consecrare (to make
holy).
2. paramount—A: Supreme; chief; the most important; as,
"My paramount objective is to save the Union." Old French
par (by) and amont (above).
3 alloy—C: Whatever impairs or reduces the purity of, as.
"They make no pretense of loving liberty and do not have
the base alloy of hypocrisy." Old French aloi (mixture).
4 munificence—A: Lavish generosity; as. "making known
your munificence and kind consideration." Latin munificus
(generous, liberal).
5. judicious—A: Wise; prudent; as. "your very patriotic and
judicious letter." Latin judicium (judgment).
6. trifling—B: Insignificant; so trivial as to be negligible; as,
"in some trifling particulars the condition of the race has
been ameliorated." Middle French trufle (deception).
7. controvert—D: To dispute; argue against; contradict or
deny; as. "It was intended to controvert opinions." Latin
controver'ere (to turn against).
8. secede—B: To withdraw from membership in a federation;
quit; as. "If one state may secede, so may another." Latin
secedere (to go away).
9. unrequited—A: Not reciprocated; not compensated for; not
 Word Power i estNo.17rr
returned in kind; as, "250 years of unrequited toil." Old
English un- (not), and English requite (to make return for).
10. malice—C: Active ill will; desir; to make others suffer; as.
"with malice toward none." Latin malus (bad).
U. insinuation—B: A hint; implication; subtle, indirect sug-
gestion: as, "Your insinuations of unfairness on my part are
unjust." Latin insinuare (to introduce by windings or turn-
ings).
12. breach—D: An opening or hole as when a wall is broken
through. Therefore, a situation calling for urgent action; as,
."to throw myself into the breach." Old French breche.
13 perpetuity—A: Eternity; the quality of lasting indefinitely
or being perpetual; as, "Perpetuity is implied in the fun-
damental law of all national governments." Latin perpetuus
14. coercion—C: Picssure; the application of force, as by
threats or intimidation; as, '.Would it be coercion also if
the state was forced to submit?" Latin coercere (to enclose,
shut in).
15. misconstrue—C: To misinterpret; as, "Judge Campbell
misconstrues." Middle English mis- (mistaken) and con-
struen (construe).
16. despotism—B: Tyranny; as, "When a man governs himself,
and also governs another man, that is more than self gov-
ernment—that is despotism." French despotisme.
17. ascertain—D: To determine by experiment, inquiry, etc.;
as, "if we ascertain what we differ about." Middle French
acertainer.
!8. supersede—D: Replace; supplant by being newer, better
or more effective; as, "Judge Douglas has seen himself
superseded in a Presidential nomination." Latin supersedere
(to sit above).
19. assiduously—A: Diligently: as, "I practiced law more as-
siduously than ever before." Latin assiduus (always sitting
near; hence, attentive).
20. entwine—D. To interweave; as, "the principle of 'liberty
to all.' entwining itself more closely about the human
heart. ' Middle English en- (in) and twynen (double or
1

tw isted thread)
VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
Your Words
Give You Away
For a better understanding of yourself and others, try
listening "between the lines"

BY JOHN KORD LAGEMANN

After a visit from a friend, my mother would review the

conversation in her mind, the pauses, inflections and choice
of words, then announce the real news the caller never
mentioned: "Henry wants to sell his house." "Frank is going
to marry Janie." "Young Mrs. Cole thinks she's pregnant
but isn't sure."
Mother was no mind reader, she was practicing a tech-
nique we now call "content analysis." It's a kind of sys-
tematic search for the small verbal clues that, when put
together, reveal a larger meaning: attitudes, intentions, be-
havior patterns, underlying strategy. As Ben Jonson wrote
more than 300 years ago, "Language springs out of the
inmost parts of us. No glass renders a man's likeness so
true as his speech."
Experts in business and science use highly developed
content-analysis techniques to measure changes in con-
sumer attitudes and to diagnose emotional conflicts. Gov-
ernments keep corps of analysts monitoring other nations'
18
 Your Words Give You Away 19
broadcasts and printed materials to extract useful intelli-
gence. Details that seem trivial by themselves have a way
of adding up, when classified and counted, to vital infor-
mation. I've found—as have many other people—that cer-
tain tricks of content analysis help you to read between the
lines of ordinary conversation.
FINGERPRINT WORDS. A word or group of words
that recurs frequently is one of the surest clues to who or
what is on a person's mind. As any parent knows, you can
easily tell which of your daughter's boy friends is becoming
the new favorite—sometimes before the girl herself is really
aware of it—simply by counting the number of times the
name is mentioned.
But the technique can have more subtle applications. For
example, verbal fingerprinting helped a young lawyer han-
dle a difficult client with whom other members of the firm
had been unable to get along. The young man collected all
letters and memos from the client in his firm's files. As he
read them he was struck by recurrent expressions and al-
lusions typical of a certain period of English literature.
Further investigation revealed the client as a prodigiously
well-read amateur scholar, a shy man who hid his sensitivity
behind a cantankerous manner. With this key to the client's
personality, the lawyer had no trouble in gaining his con-
fidence.
THE BIG PRONOUN. We instinctively notice how
often someone says, "1," "me," "my" and "mine." To most
of us, excessive use of the first person singular simply
means that the person is a bore—but it can mean something
more. "When one's automobile is out of order," says Dr.
O. Hobart Mowrer of the University of Illinois, "one is
likely to refer to it oftener. Likewise, when a person's
psychic equipment is grating and squeaking, it is under-
standable that his attention should be directed toward it
much of the time."
Counts made at the University of Iowa and the University
of Cincinnati demonstrate that hospitalized mental patients
use "I" oftener than any other word—about once even 12
words, three times as often as normal people. As these
patients recover, their use of "I" and "they" goes down,
and their use of "we" goes up.
22 WORD f OWER
THE JUDGMENT TEST. One way of recognizing a
person's values is by cataloguing the particular adjectives
he uses to express approval and disapproval. With one of
my friends the fundamental criterion is practicality: good
things he describes as "feasible," "applicable," "func-
tional"; things he doesn't like are "unworkable."
Several years ago a close friend of ours became engaged
to a man whose usual words of praise were "powerful,"
"strong," "overwhelming." Things he disliked were "weak,"
"tiny" or "insignificant." He seemed to judge everything
on the basis of size and power. Our friend, on the other
hand, was a woman of artistic interests whose value judg-
ments were mainly in terms of "beautiful" versus "ugly."
It was no great surprise when they found they "did not see
eye to eye," and broke the engagement.
IMAGES AND THEMES. The metaphors, similes and
analogies a person uses not only reflect his life experience
but tell you how he thinks. Individuals have certain dom-
inant themes, highly revealing of character. One man 1
know constantly uses images that suggest he is steering
toward a distant landfall through buffeting winds. His main
concern is to "keep his bearings" and "stay on course." He
urges friends to "state their position" and to be sure they
"know where they are going." A nautical background is
indicated—but, more than that, a whole philosophy of life.
HOW DO YOU FEEL? Psychologists Dr. John Dollard
of Yale and Dr. Mowrer devised a sort of emotional ba-
rometer by comparing the number of words a person uses
expressing discomfort of any kind—ill health, annoyance
or boredom—with the number of words which express re-
lief, comfort, fun or satisfaction. They use this "Discomfort-
Relief Quotient" to measure progress in the emotional ad-
justment of a patient undergoing treatment. If in the course
of a few minutes' casual conversation a man has used no
comfort words at all but has mentioned the "horrible"
weather, the "appalling" headlines, the "dull" plays bein^
written these days and the "aggravating" traffic situation,
he doesn't have to add that he is feeling out of tune with
the world.
A similar formula was developed by Dr. Harold Lasswell
of the Yale School of Law. He counted the number of
 Your Words Give You Away 21
favorable self-references in a person's speech and the num-
ber of self-derogatory references, and used the ratio as a
measure of self-esteem. Dr. Lasswell also counted the fa-
vorable and unfavorable references to others. Comparing
the two sets, he found that the person with high self-esteem
tends to be well disposed toward others, too.
GRAMMAR COUNTS. Verb tenses can provide a hint
as to how much a person dwells in the past as compared
with his concern for the present and his plans and hopes
for the future. When the past tense predominates it may
indicate melancholy or depression.
Passive versus active is another clue. A decided pref-
erence for passive constructions—"I found myself there"
instead of "I went there"—may reflect a feeling of impo-
tence. active constructions a sense of power and respon-
sibility.
ER . . . A H . . . . A doctor friend told me recently that in
taking the history of a new patient he sometimes learns as
much from the hesitations as from the direct answers.
"Occupation?" The person who's happy with his job usually
answers promptly. A long pause, a cough, laugh, throat
clearing or sniffle may indicate trouble in that department.
"Married or single?" Again, in this doctor's experience, a
hesitation can be meaningful.
Pauses may indicate tension or anxiety associated with
the words that follow. "I, er, ah, love you" means something
very different from a forthright "I love you."
Using clues like these, my friends and 1 have gained a
surer understanding of one another, and even of ourselves.
Content analysis will never replace reason or common
sense, of course. But it can supplement them, and some-
times reveal messages we would otherwise miss completely.
Are You a
Skid-Talker?
BY COREY FORD

"You can't blame me for making a mistake," my friend

Bunny said the other day. "After all, none of us are human."
I was trying to figure that one out when she added thought-
fully, "1 may be wrong but I'm not far from it."
Bunny is a skid-talker. Skid-talk is more than a slip of
the tongue. It's a slip of the whole mind. In effect, it puts
one idea on top of another, producing a sort of mental
double exposure—and my friend Bunny is a master of the
art. When her husband, a prominent Hollywood director,
completed a screen epic recently she told him loyally, "I
hope it goes over with a crash." She was very enthusiastic
after the preview. "It's a great picture," she assured every-
one. "Don't miss it if you can "
That's the insidious thing about skid-talk—you're never
quite sure you've heard it. Skid-language is like a time
bomb; it ticks away quietly in your subconscious, and sud-
dv*»}\\ a few minutes later, your mind explodes with the
22
 Are You a Skid-Talker? 23
abrupt realization that something about the remark you just
heard was a trifle askew.
"If George Washington were alive today," Bunny told
me once, "he'd turn over in his grave." On another occasion
she opened a debate with the challenging sentence, "For
your information, let me ask you a question."
The simplest kind of skid-talk consists of mixing words.
For example:
"Too many cooks in the soup."
"From time immoral."
"There I was, left holding the jackpot."
"It was so dark you couldn't see your face in front of
you."
"I want some hot-water juice and a lemon."
A devoted mother added another gem to my collection:
"I'm going to have a bust made of my daughter's head."
And a stranger whom 1 discovered feeding pigeons in Cen-
tral Park explained to me with quiet dignity: "I believe in
being dumb to kind animals."
Sometimes a skid-talker will turn an entire sentence in-
side out so effectively that the listener can't possibly set it
straight again. I keep wondering about a statement I ov-
erheard the other day at the station: "He tells me something
one morning and out the other." And I have yet to discover
what's wrong with Bunny's advice to a young married cou-
ple: "Two can live as cheaply as one, but it costs them
twice as much."
Bunny is a natural skid-zophrenic. "I'm a split person-
ality all in one," she describes herself happily. She lives
in a handsome country place of which she says dreamily,
"Isn't it pretty? The lake comes right up to the shore." "I
went to a wonderful party," she said of a recent celebrity-
studded banquet. "Everybody in the room was there." She
made sure to thank the hostess as she departed. "Darling,
that was the best dinner I ever put in my whole mouth."
Bunny's insults are equally bewildering. "I never liked
you, and I always will," she told a prominent screen star
frankly. And a perennially young starlet is still trying to
decipher Bunny's candid appraisal, "You're old enough to
be my daughter."
The best skid talk fuses two thoughts together, creating
22 WORD f OWER
a new shortcut which speeds up the language. I remember
a New Year's Eve party when Bunny became fearful that
the sounds of midnight revelry might disturb the neighbors.
"Don't make so much noise," she told the celebrants. "Re-
member, this isn't the only house we're in."
I had an affectionate note from Bunny recently. "Come
see us again soon," she wrote. "We miss you almost as
much as if you were here."
IT PAYS T O INCREASE YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 2
Relics of Old English
BY PETER FUNK

The following one-syllable words are living echoes of the fasci-

nating linguistic period from about 450 to 1150—the era of Old
English. The pithy vigor of these old words reflects the character
of the fierce Northern Europeans who braved hazardous seas intent
on plundering and conquering. Their talk would have been spare
and to the point, in the 20 test words below. Choose the word or
phrase nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear at
the end of the test.
1. hone—A: to mourn. B: hum. C: sharpen. D: whittle.
2. hulk—A: rotten tree stump. B: broken-down ship. C: pile
of debris. D: tumble-down barn.
3. saw—A: remedy. B: witticism. C: reference point. D: prov-
erb.
4. wield (weld)—A: to finagle. B: support. C: force upon. D:
exercise authority.
5. bight (bit)—A: post. B: meadow. C: porch. D: bay.
6. creed—a statement of A: belief. B: confidence. C: proof.
D: qualification.
7. girth—A: ornament. B; diameter. C: circumference. D:
knot.
8. crop—A: to winnow. B: bundle. C: steal. D: cut short.
9. bane—A: ignominy. B: affliction. C: ruler. D: regimen.
10. eke (ek)—A: to startle. B: fade. C: supplement. D: escape.
U. gnash (nash)—A: to rip. B: nibble. C: grind. D: grin.
12. font—A: statue. B: tower. C: pulpit. D: source.
13. quell—A: to tremble. B: suppress. C: hide D: alter.
25
22 WORD f OWER
14. faze-^A: to eliminate. B: disturb. C: blur. D: endanger.
15. shank—A: shin. B: joke. C: link. D: joint.
16. doff—A: to blunder. B: hitch. C: bow. D: take off.
17. lore—A: fascination. B: sentiment. C: knowledge. D: trap.
18 grit—A: biscuit. B: temper. C: spite. D: pluck.
19. deft—A: orderly. B: quirky. C: experienced. D: skillful.
20. wreak—A: to smell. B: soak. C: twist. D: inflict.

ANSWERS

1. hone—C: To sharpen; give an edge to; as, to hone a knife

for carving meat. Old English hart (a stone).
2. hulk—B; Broken-down ship; deserted wreck; now, any-
thing unwieldy. Old English hulc (ship).
3. saw—D: Proverb; a familiar homely saying; as, '"A bird
in the hand is worth two in the bush' is a saw we've all
heard." Old English sagu (a saying).
4. wield—D: To exercise authority, power or influence; make
full use of; as, to wield political power. Old English wealdan
(have power over).
5. bight—D; Bay formed by a curve in a shoreline; loop in
a rope. Old English byht (bend).
6. creed—A: Authoritative statement of belief; set of princi-
ples; doctrine; as, the Apostles' Creed in the Christian faith.
Old English creda (I believe), from Latin credo.
7. girth—C: Circumference; distance around something; as,
the enormous girth of a redwood tree. Also, a strap around
a horse to secure a saddle. Middle English gerth, akin to
Old English gyrdan (to encircle).
8. crop—D: To cut short; trim; as, "A printer crops the edge
of a page." Old English cropp (top, usually of a plant).
9. bane—B: Affliction; cause of harm or worry; as, "Inflation
is the bane of our times." Old English bana (murderer).
10. eke—C: To supplement by great effort; manage with dif-
ficulty; as, to eke out a living. Old English eac (increase).
11. gnash—C: To grind one's teeth in anger or distress. Related
to obsolete gnast, an Old English adaptation of Old Norse
gnaist (a gnashing of teeth).
12. font—D: Source; as, "Grandmother was a font of family
history." Old English font (basin for baptismal water) from
Latin fons (spring).
 Word Power Test No. 2 27
13. quell—B: To suppress; put down by force; as, to quell a
child's fears. Old English cwellan (to kill),
14. faze—B: To disturb; upset. Generally used in a negative
sense; as, not to be fazedby a problem. Old English fesian
(put to flight).
15. shank—A: Shin; leg from knee to ankle. Old English
sceanca (shin).
16. dofF—D: To take off; as, clothing from the body; raise: as,
to doff one's hat. Old English don of (remove),
17. lore—C: Knowledge; collection of facts and traditions
about a subject; as, Joseph Conrad's vast lore of the sea.
Old English lar.
18. grit—D: Pluck; unflinching courage or determination; as,
"The girl had true grit in overcoming obstacles." The basic
meaning is coarse sand, from Old English greet.
19. deft—D: Skillful or adroit; having a light, neat and sure
touch; as, to hit a golf ball with a deft stroke. Old English
gedaefte (mild, gentle).
20. wreak—D: To inflict vengeance or destruction on an en-
emy; to damage. Most frequently used in the phrase "to
wreak havoc." Old English wrecan (revenge, drive out).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—19 correct exceptional
18—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct ....... good
Plain
Thoughts on
Fancy Language
BY CLIFTON FADIMAN

Not long ago I bookwormed my way into a radio program

that involved talking about a Greek classic. The small stint
over, one of my associates, an eminent scholar, remarked
with a grin, "Nice to make a fast buck."
Now, scholarship and the "fast buck" are not natural
bedfellows and I found myself pondering the professor's
casual use of the phrase. Would it have been possible 25
years ago? Probably not. Fifty years ago? Surely not.
Today, however, the once stout barrier between "correct"
and colloquial speech has thinned to a gossamer membrane
Fresher, more picturesque than stiff-collar English, the ex-
perimental phrase often drives out the established one, to
become in turn standard speech.
All of us view language as we view matter, as something
to be manipulated into new, exciting, useful shapes. On the
whole the results have been fine. But this national talent
will sometimes go hog-wild. It's fun to play with words—
but not at the cost of clear communication.
u
 Plain Thoughts on Fancy Language 29
"What is fittest in language," writes Thomas Pyles in his
Words and Ways of American English, "has a way of sur-
viving, as the real McCoy, highbrow, crook, haywire, pan-
handle, roughneck. What is graceless or fraudulent or pon-
derously 'cute' ekes out a banal and colorless existence
among the silly, the sentimental and the addlepated.. . ."
You and I have set working thousands of useful inven-
tions, such as baby-sitter, soap opera, build-up. But we
have also, by thoughtless parroting, put in circulation a
certain amount of fraudulent new word-currency. Here's a
list which we may divide into a few convenient categories:
SHEEP-TALK: Sheep-talk flows from a fear of using
garden-variety English as against the latest fashionable sub-
stitute catch-phrase. I am talking sheep when every minor
verbal encounter becomes a hassle or when I overexercise
such trumpery jocosities as untaxed, what gives?, big deal,
look-see, wha hoppen? and oh brother!
THE ENFEEBLING INTENSIFIED There can be no
objection to the sound, honest American okay. Less honest,
however, is the current rash of emphatic substitutes for yes:
the jerky-brisk definitely!, the fake-commercial it's a deal,
the tiresomely bright-eyed you can say that again!
Other enfeebling intensifiers that enjoy a high degree of
dispensability include: frankly, candidly, basically and the
epidemic personally as in "I personally found it very ed-
ucational." The addition of personally does not remove
from I its presumed flavor of egotism. It merely weakens
the word and thickens the sentence.
THE LEARNED VULGARISM: Whenever people are
short on ideas they tend to use long words. Today this
disease has attacked us in a rather special form, as a con-
sequence of the popularization of science. We gain assur-
ance when we use allergy for dislike, schizophrenia for
mental eccentricities, philosophy for any notion or opinion,
psychology for any insight into mental process, complex to
denote a strong interest, compulsive for what is merely
habitual, and so on.
Writers with an imperfect scientific education, such as
myself, are much given to the learned vulgarism.
EXECUTIVE ENGLISH: Variety, the show-business
trade paper that has been responsible for a host of brilliant
22 WORD f OWER
additions to the vernacular, recently printed what it asserted
to be a memorandum circulated at one of the major tele-
vision networks:
"You will recall that we've been firming up this problem
for some time, and just in the nature of pitching up a few
mashie shots to see if we come near the green, I'd like to
express these angles:
"I think we should take a reading of the whole general
situation to see if it is being spitballed correctly so that we
can eventually wham it through for approval or disapproval
as the case might be. We've got to live with this for a long
time, and there are certain rock-bottom slants that we will
have to try on for size."
William H. Whyte, Jr., calls this the businessman's re-
bellion against bureaucratic gobbledegook. It is a rich hash
of metaphors drawn from sport (largely football), technol-
ogy, run-of-mine cliches, newspaper columns and the jar-
gon of "social scientists" and "social engineers." This "re-
verse gobbledegook," Mr. Whyte believes, enables the
speaker to conceal—with dynamic emphasis—the fact that
he has nothing to say, and imparts to him "an appearance
of savviness and general know-how."
Synthetic, its "punch" a delusion, this new jargon illus-
trates a statement made as far back as 1838 by James Fen-
imore Cooper: "The common faults of American language
are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity and a turgid
abuse of terms."
Of course I'm just thinking out loud, fellers, but that's
the pitch. 'Bye now. Be good.
A Word
With You, Miss
Thistlebottom
BY THEODORE M. BERNSTEIN

You remember Miss Thistlebottom. She was the eighth-

grade English teacher whose rules were supposed to make
our speech and writing models of clarity. "Don't split in-
finitives," she scolded. "Say, 7 shall,' not 'I will.' " Was
she right? Are the rules really so rigid? No, said Theodore
M. Bernstein, who for 20 years was assistant managing
editor of the New York Times.
"In your efforts to keep your pupils upright," he told
Miss Thistlebottom in his book. Miss Thistlebottom's
Hobgoblins, "you have sometimes bound them into a strait-
iacket. Now I would like to have some words with you."
Here are a few of those words.
AS FOLLOWS. Some people insist that when a plural
subject is involved, the phrase indicating a listing coming
up must be "as follow" rather than "as follows." For ex-
ample, "The provisions of the new tax bill are as follow."
They are wrong. For centuries, the idiom has been "as
follows," regardless of the number of the subject—presum-
Jl
22 WORD f OWER
ably an ellipsis of "as is set forth in the listing that follows."
The "as follow" advocates are guilty of overrefinement, like
the girl aspiring to social grace who tackles her olive with
a fork.
BEST FOOT FORWARD. Anyone who heard his Eng-
lish teacher say that a person should use the superlative
degree only when three or more things are being compared
would have to conclude that the phrase "best foot forward"
must refer to a dog, octopus or centipede. But no, it refers
to a human being, and as ancient idiom it is all right. If
you were to say, "Put your better foot forward," friends
would start looking around for commitment papers.
CONTACT. As a verb meaning to communicate with,
"contact" has drawn objections. But it is by no means un-
usual for a noun to be verbed. Moreover, the word is often
useful either because it replaces a longer locution, such as
"get in touch with," or because it is intentionally less spe-
cific than, say, "phone," "write" or "call on."
DIFFERENT FROM, DIFFERENT THAN. Teachers
insist on "different from," and when the words are followed
by a noun or pronoun there should be no deviation: "Women
are different from men"; "Her body is different from mine."
Exceptions are becoming acceptable, however, when what
follows is a clause, expressed or elliptical, and the use of
"different from" would be awkward: "The feeling of weight-
lessness affected him this time in a different way than ever
before."
-ED. Is it a "four-engined plane" or a "four-engine
plane"? A "teenaged girl" or a "teen-age girl"? In these
examples, either form is correct, although that is not true
of all such compounds. It is a matter of idiom. If there is
anything approaching a rule, it is that a noun formed into
an adjective describing an animate creature usually takes
the "-ed." Thus we have a "left-handed man," a "yellow-
bellied sapsucker," a "floppy-eared dog."
GRADUATED. Nitpickers hold that it is incorrect to
say, "He graduated from college." They are wrong. A stu-
dent can either "graduate from" or be "graduated by" a
college. It depends on whether you are thinking of his
achievement in completing his studies or the institution's
 A Word With You, Miss Thistlebottom 33
magnanimity in admitting him to a degree. Actually, "grad-
uated from" is now more common.
IT'S ME. If someone were to show an English teacher
a picture of her class an'd ask her to pick out a certain boy,
she would surely not say, "That's him in the center." She
would say, "That's he in the center." But what about the
first person pronoun? If someone asked her who was stand-
ing in the last row, might she not say, "That's me"? "It's
me" is certainly gaining, at least in spoken language, al-
though it is not altogether established.
ME, TOO. Your dinner partner says, "I'd like a
brandy," and you chime in, "Me, too." Grammatically you
are wrong, no matter how right you are in ordering brandy.
You should use the nominative case so that your sentence,
when filled out, would go, "I, too, would like a brandy,"
not "Me, too, would like a brandy." Let us acknowledge,
however, that at least in spoken English "Me, too" is idi-
omatic and acceptable, whereas "I, too" is grammatical but
fairly uncommon.
PEOPLE, PERSONS. Around the turn of the century,
grammarians adjured writers not to use "people" for persons
individually. Since then, "people" has gained greater lati-
tude. The emphasis should still be on the connotation of
individuality, however. If you write, "Fifty people were
present," you are thinking of the group, but if you write,
"Forty-nine persons were injured," you are thinking of 49
individuals. A general rule, at least in written language,
might be: Use "people" for large groups presented in round
numbers, "persons" for an exact or smaller number.
QUITE. Strictly speaking, "quite" means completely or
positively. ("He was quite wrong"; "It is quite the thing to
do.") Not quite so strictly speaking, "quite" is used to mean
rather or somewhat ("It is quite foggy in London") and
"quite a" is used to mean a substantial but not unlimited
quantity VQuite a number of dissenters were present").
These unstrictly-speaking meanings show every sign of
thriving and becoming acceptable.
'ROUND. Forget the apostrophe. In addition to being
a legitimate adjective and noun, "round" is a legitimate
preposition and adverb. Therefore save space and write "the
22 WORD f OWER
year round" and "we showed the visitors round." Needless
to say, "around" is perfectly good, too.
SHALL, WILL. Our teachers drilled into us that to
express simple futurity we should use "shall" in the first
person and "will" in the second and third persons, whereas
to express determination we should reverse that order. But
we quickly forgot the formula. The facts of usage are that
the distinction simply is not made, although "shall" occa-
sionally crops up to lend a touch of formality.
SPLIT INFINITIVE. If we do not boggle at "He favors
really getting to the bottom of it," why should we boggle
at "He wants to really get to the bottom of it"? Reputable
writers are now shaking off the shackles. Within the near
future the split-infinitive bugaboo may be finally laid to
rest.
THAT, WHO. A newspaper reader sometimes thinks
he has caught the paper in an error when he reads, "As is
true of many other individuals that the President has ap-
pointed . .." "Since when," he will write, "is 'that' rather
than 'who' permissible in referring to persons?" The answer
is: since the language was in its infancy. The King James
version of the Bible gave us many instances, such as
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly." "That" can refer to either persons or things.
Any further questions. Miss Thistlebottom?
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 3
Medical Terms
BY PETER FUNK
"I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes illness worth-
while," quipped playwright George Bernard Shaw. You in tum
might enjoy testing yourself on the following medical words se-
lected from Reader's Digest. Pick the word or phrase nearest in
meaning to the test word. Answers appear at the end of this test.
1. vascular (vas' ku lar)—related to A; slipperiness. B: blood
vessels. C. smallness. D: desiccation.
2. perforate (pur' fo rat)—A: to pierce. B: bind. C: close. D:
ooze.
3. hypochondriac (hi po kon' dre &k)—one who is A: short-
tempered. B: overactive. C: too anxious about health. D:
always dissatisfied.
4. comatose (ko' mi tos)—A: expansive. B: fearful. C: un-
conscious. D: indifferent.
5. platelet (plat' let)—A: glass dish. B: name tag. C: medical
dressing. D: clotting substance.
6. diuretic (dl u ret' Ik)—substance that stimulates A: eyes.
B: kidneys. C: extremities. D: lungs.
7. malinger (mS lin' ger)—A: to shirk. B: disobey. C: decline.
D: complain.
8. rubella (rod bel' uh)—A: a blush. B: emetic. C: herb. D:
disease.
9. vertigo (vur' ti go)—A. paleness. B. fear of falling. C:
dizziness. D: confusion.
10. atrophy (3' tro fe)—A: to harden. B: wither. C: freeze. D:
join.
11. dehydration (de hi dra' shun)—A: loss of fluids. B: sat-
uration. C: reduced pressure. D: equalization.
3S
22 WORD f OWER
12. therapeutic (ther uh pu' tlk)—A: stimulating. B: strong.
C: natural. D: curative.
13. diagnostic (dl 3g n6s' tlk)—serving to A: illustrate. B:
speculate. C: identify a disease. D: communicate.
14. intravenous (in tra ve' nus>—pertaining to A: connective
tissue. B: a vein. C: musculature. D: the heart.
15. psychosomatic (si ko so m3' tlk)—involving A: mind and
body. B: extrasensory perception. C: hypnotic healing. D:
body language.
16. trauma (trow' muh>—A: shock. B: paralysis. C: blockage.
D: outburst.
17. obese (o bes')—A: docile. B: slim. C: stout. D: coarse.
18. antibody (an' ti bdd e)—A: splinter group. B: gravitational
influence. C: that which worsens. D: immunizing agent.
19. toxic (tOk' slk)—A: bitter. B: foul-smelling. C: remedial.
D: poisonous.
20. dilate (df lat)—A: to spin. B: weaken. C: widen. D: push
out.

ANSWERS

1. vascular—B: Related to the vessels in a body or plant that

carry fluids such as blood, lymph, sap; as, to have a healthy
vascular system. Latin vas (small vessel; dish).
2. perforate—A: To pierce: puncture; as, a perforated ear-
drum. Latin perforare (to bore through).
3. hypochondriac—-C: One who is overly anxious about his
health and frequently imagines he has various; diseases.
Greek hypokhondrion (area under the breastbone once be-
lieved to be the seat of melancholy).
4. comatose—C: Unconscious; as if in a coma or stupor; le-
thargic. Greek koma (deep sleep). "The patient remained
in a comatose condition."
5. platelet—D: Small coin-shaped particle in the blood nec-
essary for clotting. From plate and -let (small).
6. diuretic—B: Medicinal substance that stimulates kidneys
to eliminate excess body water. Greek diuurin from dia
(through) and ourein (to urinate).
7. malinger—A: To shirk; pretend sickness to avoid work.
French malirtgre (sickly).
8. rubella—D: A mild contagious disease affecting young
 Word Power i est No. 37 rr
people; also called German measles. Latin rubellus (red-
dish).
9. vertigo-—C: Dizziness; the sensation that one's surround-
ings are whirling about; mental bewilderment. Latin vertere
(to turn).
10. atrophy—B: To wither; waste away. Greek atrophos
(poorly nourished) from a- (not) and trophe (nourishment).
11. dehydration—A: Excessive loss of water from the body.
Latin de- (from) and Greek hydor (water). "Long-distance
runners may suffer dehydration."
12. therapeutic—D: Curative; having healing qualities. Greek i
therapeuein (to nurse).
13. diagnostic—C: Concerning the identification of disease; as,
diagnostic procedures such as X rays or blood tests. Greek
diagignoskein (to distinguish).
14. intravenous—B. Directly into a vein; as, intravenous feed-
ing. Latin intra (within) and venous.
15. psychosomatic—A: Pertaining to a physical disorder caused
by emotional stress. Greek psyche (mind) and soma (body)
16. trauma—A: Emotional shock producing a lasting mental
effect; as, children undergoing the trauma of war. Greek
trauma (wound).
17. obese—C: The Latin obedere (to devour) gives us our word
for stout.
18. antibody—D.: An immunizing agent produced by the body
to fight off infections; as, antibodies stimulated by flu shots.
Greek anti (against) and body.
19. toxic—D: Poisonous; destructive. Greek toxikon (poison).
20. dilate—-C: To widen; make larger; expand; as, "The me- -
dicinal drops dilate the pupils of the eyes." Latin dilatare
(spread out, enlarge).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—19 correct exceptional
18—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
Like, I Mean,
You Know,
Right?
Here are six words you can communicate better without
BY RODERICK NORDELL

If only everyone talked the way we do in my household.

I mean... if only everyone... like... talked... you know
. . . the way we do . . . right?
It would be so m u c h . . . like . . . easier to. .. you know
. . . understand . . . right? If the 16th paragraph of the fed-
eral . . . you know . . . income-tax instruction had said:
" I f . . . like.., you qualify as a . . . you know . . . Certain
Married Individual Living Apart. . . right? . . . check
Single box . . . I mean . . . on Line 1 as .. . like . . . your
filing status... right? . . . unless you also qualify as Un-
married .. . you know . . . Head of Household. In that
case . . . like . . . check the Unmarried Head of House-
hold Box . . . right? . . . on Line 4."
Isn't it time for official language to catch up to this
common tongue, to these six little words—like, I mean,
you know, right?—which are taking the place of punctua-
tion and meaning in certain American families? 1 speak in
defiance of my wife, who . .. like . . . periodically tries
38
 Like, I Mean, You Know, Right? 39
to . . . you know . . . ban the persistent little fellows.
I mean . . . she has not been without. . . like . . . effect.
Especially on the telephone, for some reason, I have begun
to notice my "you know*' frequency. Swallowing the phrase
when I am aware of it in time, I wonder what the . . . you
know . . . person at the other end of the line thinks is hap-
pening.
Should one blame one's children as carriers of the six
little words? Certainly we are no match for them in imag-
inative placement and speed of delivery, for'they score even
with the difficult like-at-the-beginning-of-the-sentence play.
But their innovative usages would not take root if one
were not weak, weak, weak. Notice how all these words
are not assertive but defensive, apologetic, hedging. They
don't sharpen statements but round them down. They can
hardly be considered character-building.
In years past, the undefined "you know" was sometimes
used to express the inexpressible between people who
thought alike. Now it is a hopeful substitute for precise
utterance to strangers.
"Like" used to connect ideas. Now it replaces them.
"Right?" used to be a challenge. Now it is padding.
"I mean" must have meant something sometime.
Obviously, it is deplorable that these words have taken
over the language. But this doesn't mean we should wait
forever to recognize them. No, we must face facts and put
them in our books:
"Friends, Romans, countrymen . . lend me your ears . . . I
mean . . . I come to bury Caesar . . . right? . . . not to . . . you
know . . . praise him."
"By the shores of Gitchee . . . you know . . . Gumee,
"I mean . . . By the shining Big-Sea-Water. . . right?
"Stood the . . . like . . . wigwam of Nokomis,
"Daughter of the . . . you know . . . Moon, Nokomis."
"Like . . . fourscore and . . . you know . . . seven years
ago . . . right? . . . our fathers . . . like . . . brought forth . . . I
mean . . . on this continent a new . . . like . . . nation . . ."
Anyone, of course, is welcomc to disagree. I mean, like,
you know, right?
Ways to Write
Better Letters
BY J. HAROLD JANIS

A neighbor of mine recently wrote two contractors for bids

on a concrete driveway. Here's the beginning of one reply:
"Dear Mr, . I am offering you a special price because
I am having a slack season now. 1 have some debts to pay
and this work will be a big help to me."
The second began: "Dear Mr. : I can give you
a good, solid driveway with a six-inch bed of cinders and
three inches of concrete. Properly graded and drained, this
should last you 20 years without cracking."
The second man got the job. Why? Because he told my
neighbor what he wanted to know, not how much good the
job would do the contractor. He followed the first principle
of good letter-writing, think of your reader's problems, not
of your own.
The letters we write can spell the difference between
making and missing an important sale, between landing and
losing a job, between a yes or no from the girl of our
dreams.
40
 Ways to Write Better Letters 41
When applying for a job by letter, it is tempting for the
writer to talk exclusively about himself, his aims, his de-
sires. I have seen letters of application which began like
this: "Dear Sir: I am just the man you described in your
advertisement, and I am interested in a new job just now
because I am not satisfied with my present position.
This is a weak approach. A prospective employer is seldom
as interested in an applicant's need for the job as he is in
his own need for filling it.
The second rule for effective letter writing is: Be your-
self. The best letters are written as we would talk. The
windy artificial formulas are out of place. The businessman
who uses such phrases as "Yours of the 14th in hand
"Agreeable to your communication of July 23 . . . g i v e s
the impression that he's a pompous old egotist with no
friendly feeling for the person he's writing.
The next rule is: Be thrifty with words. Recently one of
my students began a letter for his boss like this: "In reply
to your letter calling attention to the fact that we sent you
the wrong number of two-tone men's oxfords, we wish to
apologize for our error." When I suggested that he cut out
every unessential word, he came back with this result: "The
error is ours and we're sorry." That letter said what it meant,
clearly, and omitted all unnecessary information.
My Aunt Clara lives in a small town in Oklahoma, and
it sounds like a wonderful place when she describes it. "It's
so warm for April," she wrote me last spring, "that the trees
are practically bursting into leaf, and old Mrs. Johnson is
in the back-yard swing next door thawing out her Arthur-
itis, as she calls it."
Clara's sister, Emily, lives in the same neighborhood,
and I got a letter from her last April, too. "You can't imagine-
how hot and dry and uncomfortable it is for early spring,"
she wrote. "This probably means another dreadful summer
and a drought. Poor Mrs. Johnson is very uncomfortable
from arthritis, and hardly ever moves any more."
It's easy to see why everyone prefers to hear from Clara.
S'ne follows another important rule: Accent the positive.
Even in writing a note of condolence it is possible to be
positive and comforting. Such expressions as "Our hearts
ache for you" are usually sincere, but hopeful, forward
22 WORD f OWER
looking ioeas can make such letters even more comforting
and helpful.
Here is a note of condolence a woman received from one
of her husband's colleagues: "'Dear Julie: Martha and I are
thinking of you today, and we know that with God's help
you are going ahead bravely. Down at the lab yesterday we
were talking about the project that you know was closest
to Bob's heart. Everyone is determined to carry it forward
with more energy than ever. You see, his work will always
be an inspiration, and we'll never feel that he's far from
our side."
In business letters this upbeat accent is extremely im-
portant. A building-materials supplier found that his new
type of shingle, although superior, was not selling as well
as an older style had. It turned out that the man handling
orders was writing the following letter to customers: "Dear
Mr. — : I am sorry to tell you we no longer handle the
kind of shingle you inquired about. We have, however, a
new style which may fit your needs."
This apologetic, negative approach was changed as fol-
lows: "Dear Mr. : I am happy to send you samples
of our new shingle, which comes in a wider range of colors
and textures than the shingle that you inquired about. It is
a great improvement on the old style, which it has replaced."
Both letters told the truth, but the second took a positive
approach. Sales began to rise immediately.
It is surprising how many letters disclose an unintentional
antagonism. The other day my wife received this note from
a store: "As you claim one of the cups you ordered arrived
with a broken handle, we will have to replace it." The
management presumably didn't doubt my wife's word, but
a sneaking accusation of dishonesty is implied in "you
claim." Why hadn't they just written: "We are sorry that
one of the cups you ordered arrived broken. Of course, we
will replace it immediately."
Some years ago I was asked to help improve the cor-
respondence of a number of agencies of the City of New
York. Many letters from city offices were intended to soothe
irate citizens, yet had the opposite effect. I discovered a
letter sent bv one department which said: "If you will send
 Ways to Write Better Letters 43
us a sample of your product, we will determine, its practical
value, if any."
I lectured on the need for making letters express a cour-
teous, helpful attitude. One man. after carrying on a long
argument by mail with a particularly angry taxpayer tried
the following: "Dear Mrs. Brown: Believe it or not, this
officc is here to help you with your problem."
In her next letter Mrs. Brown confessed that she had
been more irritated by the tone of the letters she had been
getting than by the problem she was trying to solve
Beyond all the rules, however, there is an indefinable
quality or tone in a letter which comes directly from the
personality of the writer. It can'! be taught, but it can be
learned. This letter, written by William E. Robinson, when
he was elected president of the Coca Cola Co , will show
what I mean: "Dear : You are a generous and
thoughtful friend to take the trouble to write me about my
new job. I deeply appreciate your good wishes, to which
I hope you may add a prayer or two. There are bound to
be occasions when 1 will need both. My thanks—and only
the best."
Notice the informality and the brevity. This letter says
no more than is necessary, yet there is no feeling of haste-
or abruptness. Given thought and care, every letter we write
can be similarly effective.
IT PAYS TO ENRICH YOUR WORD POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 4
People, Beasts and Places

BY PETER FUNK
The English poet William Cowper thought of word-lovers as hunts-
men
"... who chase
A panting syllable through time and space.
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark,
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark."
In the test below, you need not range quite that far back into
antiquity; yet each of these, words, if chased to its origin, will
prove to have sprung from the name or a characteristic of a person,
animal or place—real or imaginary. Check the word or phrase you
believe is nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear
at the end of this test.
1. tawdry (taw' dre)—A: dilatory. B: offensive. C: sandy-
colored. D: gaudily cheap.
2. amazon (am' 3 zon)—A: mythological god. B: wild animal.
C: tall, strong woman. D: skeptic.
3. Polly anna (pol e an' a)—one who is: A: old-fashioned. B:
cranky. C: invincibly optimistic. D: extremely cautious.
4. draconian (dra kd' ne an)—A: orderly. B: frightening. C:
harsh. D: benign.
5. Machiavellian Imik e S v£]' e an)—A: wicked. B: prac-
tical. C: straightforward. D: crafty.
6. boycott (boy' kot)—A: io accuse of wrongdoing. B: with-
draw from. C: refuse to deal with. D: keep silence.
7. meandering (me an' der ing)—A: complaining. B: mur-
muring. C: cascading. D: winding or turning.
44
 Word Power i est No. 45 rr
8. chauvinism (sho' v! nizm)—A: extreme partiality. B: con-
ceit. C: fairmindedness. D: piety.
9. forum (for' um)—A: recess. B: place of public discussion.
C: dispersion. D: small chamber.
10. babel (ba' b'l)—A: weight-lifting device. B: confusion of
voices. C: clear message. D: small gem.
11. hackneyed (hak*' ned)—A: fragmented. B: trite. C: un-
fashionable. D: compelling.
12. protean (pro' te an)—A: nutritious. B: fascinating. C:
changeable. D: deceitful.
13. spartan (spar' t'n)—A: austere. B: hardheaded. C: ener-
getic. D: forbidding.
14. panacea (pan a se' 5)—A: uproar. B: praise. C: cure-all.
D: overall view.
15. crestfallen (krest' faw len>—A: jubilant. B: impecunious.
C: dejected. D: fearful.
16. philander (fl lan' der)—to be a: A: spendthrift. B: frivolous
lover. C: donor. D: procrastinator.
17. Utopia (u to' pe a)—A: an ideal place. B: practical concept.
C: desired goal. D: lesion.
18. robot (ro' bot)—A: automatic device. B: skiff. C: any
machine. D: skilled technician.
19. shanghai (shang' hi)—A: to estimate. B: plunder. C: ab-
duct. D: free.
20. marathon (mar' a thon)—A: tedious repetition. B: long-
distance race. C: Greek temple. D: seasonal wind.

ANSWERS

1. tawdry—D: Anything tawdry is cheap and gaudy. Lace

neckpieces, named after St. Audrey, were sold at an annual
medieval fair. In time, the quality of lace became inferior
and the saint's name was shortened.
2. amazon—C: Any tall, strong woman. In Greek mythology
the Amazons were a race of female warriors.
22 WORD f OWER
3. Poliyanna—C: One who is invincibly optimistic. After
Po'hanna, young heroine of a novel by Eleanor H. Porter
(1868-1920).
4. draconian—C: Harsh; rigorous; severe; as. draconian pun-
ishment. After Draco, a strict Greek lawgiver in the 7th
century B.C., who prescribed death for almost every of-
fense.
5. Machiavellian—D: Crafty; deceitful; politically unscru-
pulous; as, Machiavellian schemes. From Niccolo Machia-
velli, 16th-century Italian diplomat.
6. boycott—C: To unite in refusing to have anything to do
with the products or services of a person or group. From
Capt. Charles Boycott, an Irish land agent ostracized by
tenants when he raised rents.
7. meandering—D: Winding or turning; as, a meandering
stream. From Maiandros, an ancient Greek river famous
for its winding course.
8. chauvinism—A: Extreme partiality; blind patriotism. From
Nicolas Chauvin, a soldier who worshiped Napoleon as a
hero without fault.
9. forum—B: Place of gathering for public discussion. After
the marketplace in Roman cities that were used for judicial
and public business.
10. babel—B: Confusion of voices, sounds, languages. From
the city and tower of Babel in the Bible (Gen. 11:4-9).
11. hackneyed—B: Trite; stale; as, a hackneyed slogan. Named
for the workaday riding horses from Hackney, a London
borough.
12. protean—C: Changeable; assuming different forms, as, a
protean actor. From Proteus, Greek sea god who was al-
ways changing form.
13. spartan—A: Austere; as. a spartan existence. From the
extreme plainness of Sparta, a Greek city-state.
14. panacea—C: Cure-all; remedy for all ills and difficulties.
Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, named one of his
daughters Panakeia (the all-healing); hence our word to-
day.
15 crestfallen—C: Dejected; dispirited; dowi.ast. From a
rooster's cres*. which literally droops when he loses a fight.
16. philander—B: To make love frivolously. Philander was
the name given to lovers in medieval romances and came
from the Greek philandros (one who loves).
 Word Power i est No. 47 rr
17. Utopia—A: An imaginaryideal place where all things are
perfect. From Utopia, a fictional country in the book of
that name by Sir Thomas More (1516). Greek ou (no) and
topos (place).
18 robot—A: Automatic device that operates with human skill;
a person who works mechanically. From the Czech robotnik
(slave), from robota (forced labor).
19. shanghai—C: Abduct; compel by force, fraud or trickery
From the practice of procuring sailors for long voyages,
perhaps originally to Shanghai, by kidnapping.
20. marathon—B: Long-distance race. In 490 B.C. 10,000
Athenians defeated 100,000 Persians at the battle of Mar-
athon. A Greek—running the first "marathon"—brought
the news to the city of Athens 26 miles away.

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
Classroom Classics
Schoolboy Howlers Which Make Examination Papers Lively
Reading

EDITED BY ALEXANDER ABINGDON

Definitions
Acrimony, sometimes called holy, is another name for
marriage.
Cubism is the rules of very young Scouts,
Filet Mignon is an opera by_ Puccini.
A hamlet is a little pig.
Hygiene is keeping clean when it is not essential.
A polygon is a man with more than one wife, preferably
living.
Teetotalers are boys who carry golf clubs. They are gen-
erally paid, except in Scotland.
Sinister means a woman who hasn't married.
Politics
The President has the power to appoint and disappoint
the members of his Cabinet.
A Conservative is a kind of greenhouse where you look
at the moort.
48
 Classroom Classics 49
Geography
The climate of Bombay is such that its inhabitants have
to live elsewhere.
The equator is a menagerie lion running around the earth
and through Africa.
Denver is just below the "o" in, Colorado.
They don't raise anything in Kansas but Alpaca Grass,
and they have to irritate that to make it grow.
History
Cleopatra ended a remarkable life rather curiously. She
was bitten by an aspidistra.
In preparation for the channel crossing, Caesar built 18
new vesuls vessils vesles botes.
1066 is in the ninth century because centuries always for
some reason or other fall back one. •
" Henry VIII had an abbess on his knee, which made
walking difficult.
The father of the famous Black Prince in English history
was Old King Cole.
Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen
she was a success.
Hygiene
For fainting: rub the person's chest, or if a lady, rub her
arm above the hand.
There are four symptoms of a cold. Two I forget and
the other two are too well known to mention.
Doctors today say that fatal diseases are the worst.
False doctrine means giving people the wrong medicine.
Miscellaneous
The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his
son to stand still and he obeyed hin.
After sinking a shaft 100 feet at the mine, they finally
struck bedpan.
Are We
Becoming
a Nation of
Illiterates?
BY VANCE PACKARD
i

A young man who calls himself Peter Doe gave the U.S.
educational system a bad case of the shakes. In 1974 he
sued the San Francisco Unified School District for half a
million dollars because it awarded him a high-school di-
ploma even though he was barely literate.
Tests both before and after graduation allegedly indicated
that he was reading at the fifth- or sixth-grade level when
he received his diploma. He contends that, in the outside
world of work, he quickly found himself handicapped by
deficiency in writing skills. He wanted to work as a clothing
salesman but, in applying for jobs, he found that he could
not cope with application forms.
Peter is a white, middle-class student who attended his
classes regularly and was not considered a disciplinary prob-
lem. What worries educators is that there are probably tens
of thousands of other high-school graduates like him. At
a conference of educators, lawyers and judges in Washing-
ton, D.C.. one judge warned that the case could bring down
a host of suits which might cost billions of dollars. That
seens plausible, for federal studies have discovered that
seven million school youngsters have severe reading prob-
lems.
S H O C K I N G S H O R T C O M I N G S . Peter Doe's case il
so
 Are W e Becoming a Nation of Illiterates? SI
lustrates a broad, worrisome trend: the general low state of
literacy and ability to write clearly among younger and older
people alike. And this at a time when the complexity of our
institutions calls for ever-higher literacy just to function
effectively. We must cope with insurance and employment
forms, applications for medical coverage, applications for
credit, auto-licensing forms—and so on and on If we can't,
we are what are known as "functional illiterates."
A survey by the Louis Harris organization found in 1971
that close to 19 million Americans over the age of 16 had
difficulty coping with minimal measures of literacy such
as application forms. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph
Company annually interviews tens of thousands of high-
school graduates for jobs. Forty percent who apply fail
because they can't read or write at the eighth-grade level.
For late-teenage students as a whole, the most dramatic
evidence of decline in literacy emerges from the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT), Each year more than a million high-
school seniors and juniors have been taking the SAT verbal
test, and their scores correlate quite consistently with both
their reading and their wfiting ability. For ten straight
years, the average score has been dropping. Over the past
decade it has dropped 35 points, or about seven percent.
Perhaps the most unflattering picture of the "reading
comprehension" of young Americans, however, emerged
from a survey conducted by the International Association
for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement in 1970.
When American youngs.ers are compared with the youth
of nine European countries on a standard-score basis,
American 14-year-olds ate in the top four, but our 10-year-
olds show up next to last.
Writing with easy clarity is crucial to our capacity to
formulate our thoughts or communicate on the job. Yet
ineptness at writing is found at all educational levels. The
most extensive study of writing ability ever undertaken is
under way in Denver at the federally funded National As-
sessment of Educational Progress. Its first national sampling
of nearly 100.000 Americans was an eye-opener. By age
13 only the best of the students could cope with the basic
conventions of writing. (This was aftei eight years of
schooling!) By age 17 about half the students could put
22 WORD f OWER
together simple sentences and express simple ideas in gen-
eral, imprecise language; but three quarters of them mis-
spelled at least one word, and more than half made errors
in choice of words.
Young adults, however, provided the biggest surprise.
When asked to write a letter to a public official opposing
or supporting the building of a highway interchange in their
community, 29 percent balked at even attempting the ex-
ercise.
WHY THE DECLINE? To explain the evident sag in
both writing and reading, I would advance seven principal
explanations.
1. Writing as an educational subject has lost status.
English composition was once taught from third grade
through college. Now it, like reading, is usually not taught
much beyond sixth grade, except as an option or as a re-
medial course.
There is a common assumption in schools that students
will somehow absorb writing skills while doing their work
in other courses. Thus, after grade six there is little testing
for literacy skills and, in most schools, papers are rarely
corrected for anything except the most glaring errors in
usage or spelling.
2. The growing use of multiple-choice questions for test-
ing reading, writing and other subjects. Multiple-choice
questions can be answered by making check marks, which
permits fast visual grading, and by punching holes in a test
sheet, which permits machine grading. But, by making
checks or punching holes, the student does not have to
choose his own words or organize his thoughts.
J The overloading of English teachers and instructors
with students. Tens of thousands of these mentors just don't
have time to give much individual attention to students
unless they work 70-hour weeks. They are typically held
responsible for teaching at least 150 students. Correcting
papers in a thoughtful, careful way takes a lot of time.
Under pressure, many teachers simply scribble a couple of
words of comment at the end of a theme.
4. The widespread sale of term papers on college cam-
puses. With the growing impersonality of large colleges,
firms selling term papers have been proliferating. A student
 Are W e Becoming a Nation of Illiterates? S3

can buy a ten-page paper for $29. But in the process he

deprives himself of the important practice of formulating
his own thoughts and putting them on paper.
5. Automatic promotion in schools, open admissions to
colleges. The fact of compulsory education has led many
school administrators in recent years to tolerate virtually
automatic grade promotions. This has lessened the pressures
on teachers to bear down on literacy skills. And the egal-
itarian concept that every youth who can drift up through
high school or its equivalent is entitled to have a try at
college has caused some big state institutions to throw open
their gates. Result: a multitude of students enter who are
reading at an eighth-grade level or lower.
6. A revolt against rules and established ways. As the
"hang-loose" ethic took hold among millions of young peo-
ple starting in the late 1960s, anything suggesting the value
of disciplined practice or respect for the "mechanics" of
writing was widely scorned. There was a shift to stress on
spontaneity, creativity and "feelings," with less concern
about conciseness or lucidity in writing. By 1972 the Coun-
cil for Basic Education concluded that permissiveness
"holds sway in the teaching of English today."
7. Finally, and perhaps most important, the unantici-
pated side effects of the telecommunications revolution.
Voice cassettes, television, video-tape machines and tele-
phones in every room have been applauded as marvelous
techniques for simplifying communication. Even books
now are being marketed in abbreviated form on voice cas-
settes. For millions, these devices are reducing much of the
need for frequent practice in reading and writing. Writing
is less in demand; some say it lacks "contemporary rele-
vance."
Polls have shown that most Americans now get most of
their news about the outside world from TV news programs
That is hardly as efficient as scanning hundreds of items
in a newspaper in far less time. Av Westin, executive pro-
ducer of ABC evening news, frankly concedes the short-
comings inherent in TV news He says: "/ know what we
have to leave out; if people do not read newspapers, news
magazines and books they are desperately uninformed."
TURNAROUND? Fortunately, enough people are be-
22 WORD f OWER
coming concerned about the low state of literacy in America
so that something is being done about it. The federal Office
of Education has launched a multi-million-dollar "Right to
Read" program in 31 states. The aim is to improve reading
skills in areas where they are not otherwise likely to de-
velop. Classes are being set up for adolescent dropouts and
in schools where a large number of students have serious
reading problems. The Peter Doe lawsuit has inspired San
Francisco to re-examine its reading requirements for high-
school graduation. New York City is abandoning its practice
of giving automatic promotion to virtually all students, and
no student will receive a diploma if he is more than a year
behind in reading.
Methods of teaching reading are changing. The predom-
inant way reading has been taught for many years in U.S.
schools is the "whole word" method. The reading texts
build on such whole words as "Dick and Jane go to the
store." According to critics such as the Council for Basic
Education, many first-grade readers in use today have only
about 350 words—yet the average first-grader has a listen-
ing vocabulary of about 15,000 words. The critics feel the
pupil can more swiftly learn to read most of those 15,000
words by the phonics approach. Under this method, used
by the television programs "Sesame Street" and "The Elec-
tric Company," they learn visually to recognize key ele-
ments used to build almost all words. For example, at, cat,
hat; or eat, meat, heat. About one American child in five
now in school is using phonics, and the number increases
each year.
Theie are today some widely accepted approaches for
improving writing skills, too. From third grade through
college, for example, study programs are being arranged
to assure that every student writes at least one page every
day. As far as possible, students have a choice of subject
matter, and their writing is checked for clarity and spelling
as well as context.
Finally, two major assessment programs agree that the
home where interesting reading materials are readily avail-
able plays a major role in a child's achieving a high state
of literacy. The home, therefore, is the place where we
should begin our crusade
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 5
English from Greece, Rome and Elsewhere

BY PETER FUNK
Scan this, list of words and you will get a quick tour of some of
the lands from which our words come: ancient Greece and Rome,
France, Italy and Old England. Check the word or phrase you
believe is nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear
at the end of this test.
1. amnesty (am' nes te)—A: pardon. B: international agree-
ment. C: ceasefire. D: diplomatic immunity.
2. futile (fu' til)—A: easy. B: useless. C: produciive D: frus-
trating.
3 elaborate (e lab' o rat)—A: to be fussy. B. decorate. C:
be elegant. D: develop.
4. deterrent (de t£r' ent)—A: cleansing substance. B: defense.
C: restraint of action. D: warning.
5. caldron (kol' dron)—A: tomb. B: barrier. C: whirlpool.
D: kettle.
6. resuscitate (re sus' I tat)—A: to withdraw. B' revive. C:
quiet. D: exhume.
7. callow (kal' 6)—A: tough. B: lacking depth. C: inexperi-
enced. D. sickly yellow.
8. trivia (triv' i a)—A: trifles. B: chatter. C: harmful material.
D: travel notes.
9. purport (pur' port)—A. concept. B: forecast. C: scope D:
meaning
10. cadaverous (ka dav' er us)—A: empty. B: gaunt. C: fright-
ening. D: huge.
11. denigrate (den' l grat)—A: to demean oneself. B. disavow
C: assign. D. defame.
12. virtuoso (vir tu o' so)—A: dilettante. B: good person. C:
expert. D. violinist.
55
22 WORD f OWER
13. tendentious (ten den' shus)—A: pompous. B: biased. C:
long-winded. D: belligerent.
14 cumulative (ku' mu la tiv; -lat iv)—A: steadily increasing.
B: cloud-like. C: fully developed. D: collected.
15 decorous (dek'o rus)—A: beautiful. B: proper. C: artistic.
D: modest.
16. ebullient (e bul' yent)—A: enthusiastic. B: stubborn. C:
forceful. D: swollen.
17. vandalism (van' dal iz m)—A: banditrv. B: vagrancy. C:
destruction. D: beggary.
18. leonine (le' o nin)—A: wild. B: haughty. C: flowing. D:
lion-like.
19. abridge (a brij')—A: to condense. B: arch or bend. C: join. .
D: cross.
20. skeptic (skep' tik)—A: dissenter. B: bigot. C: doubter. D:
heckler.

ANSWERS
1. amnesty—A: General pardon, as by a government, for past
offenses; as. to grant amnesty to all political exiles. Greek
amnestia (forgetfulness).
2. futile—B: Useless; fruitless; of no avail; as, a futile effort,
Latin futilis.
3. elaborate—D: To develop thoroughly; work out in detail;
as. to elaborate a housing plan. Latin elaborare (to work
out).
4. deterrent—C. Prevention oi restraint of action, as by fear
of consequences; as, a nuclear deterrent to aggression. Latin
deterrere (to frighten from).
5. caldron—D: Large kettle or pot; as. a boiling caldron of
unrest. Latin calere (to be warm).
6. resuscitate—B. To revive, especially from unconscious-
ness; as, to resuscitate a victim of electrical shock. Latin
resuscitare (to rouse again).
7. callow—C: Inexperienced; unsophisticated: immature:
(originally, of a bird: unfledged; lacking feathers to fly);
as. a callow student. Old English calu (bald).
8. trivia—A: Trifles; unimportant matters; as, a mind cluttered
with trivia. Latin trivium (crossroads).
9. purport—D: Conveyed or implied meaning; import; also.
 Word PowerTestNo.II57
substance; gist; as, the purport of a speech. Old French
porporter (to convey).
10. cadaverous—B: Gaunt; emaciated; corpseiike; as, a ca-
daverous patient. Latin cadaver (dead body)..
! 1. denigrate—D: To defame; cast aspersions on; malign; as,
to denigrate a public official. Latin denigrare (to blacken).
12. virtuoso—C: Expert; one having masterly skill or bril-
liance; as, a renowned piano virtuoso. Italian virtuoso
(skilled).
13. tendentious—B: Biased; partial; tending to favor a partic-
ular point of view; as, a tendentious reporter. Latin tendere
(to be inclined, tend).
14. cumulative—A: Steadily increasing; growing by successive
additions; as, cumulative knowledge. Latin cumulare (to
heap up).
15. decorous—B; Proper; exhibiting good taste; correct; as,
decorous behavior. Latin decor (beauty, grace).
16. ebullient—A: Enthusiastic; lively; exuberant; as, an ebul-
lient host. Latin ebullire (to bubble out).
17. vandalism—C: Malicious destruction or defacement of
public or private property; as, an outbreak of vandalism in
the schools. From Vandal, one of an ancient Germanic tribe
which in the fifth century sacked Rome.
18. leonine—D: Resembling or suggesting a lion; as, a leonine
head. Latin leo (lion).
19 abridge—A: To condense; shorten by omitting words with-
out changing or losing sense; as, to abridge a long novel.
Latin abbreviare (to shorten).
20. skeptic—C: Doubter; one who questions generally accepted
beliefs, doctrines or theories; as, a religious skeptic. Greek
skeptikos (reflective, thoughtful).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
Write the Way
You Talk
BY RUDOLF FLESCH

Ninety-nine percent of the people who come to my writing

classes were born non-writers and have stayed that way all
their lives. For them, writing has always been an unpleasant
chore; answering a simple letter looms ahead like a visit
to the dentist. But they have to do a certain amount of
writing in their careers. And knowing their writing was
poor, they decided to do something about it.
No doubt when you think about improving your writing,
you think of grammar, rhetoric, composition,—all those
dull things you learned year after year in school. But most
likely, these things are not your problem. You probably
have a pretty good grip on these essentials. What you need
is instruction in the basic principles of professional writing.
Why professional writing? Because you now write as
you did in school, unconsciously trying to please the teacher
by following the rales of "English composition." You're
not really writing a letter to the addressee, or a report for
your vice president. The pros—magazine writers, news-
58
 Wr ite the Way You Talk 43
papermen, novelists, people who write for a living—learned
long ago that they must use "spoken" English and avoid
"written" English like the plague.
TALK ON PAPER, The secret to more effective writing
is simple: talk to your reader. Pretend the person who'll
read your letter or report is sitting across from you, or that
you are on the phone with him. Be informal. Relax. Talk
in your ordinary voice, your ordinary manner, vocabulary,
accent and expression. You wouldn't say "Please be ad-
vised," or "We wish to inform you." Instead, something
like, "You see, it's like this," or "Let me explain this." One
helpful trick is to imagine yourself talking to your reader
across a table at lunch. Punctuate your sentences in your
mind, with a bite from a sandwich. Intersperse your
thoughts with an occasional "you know," or the person's
name.
So talk—talk on paper. Go over what you've written.
Does it look and sound like talk? If not, change it until it
does.
USE CONTRACTIONS FREELY. There's nothing
more important for improving your writing style. Use of
don't and it's and haven't and there's is the No, I style
device of modern professional writing. Once you've i -arned
this basic trick, you can start producing prose that ^ ili be
clear, informal and effective
Take the standard opening phrase: "Enclosed please
find." What's a better way of saying that? Simply.
"Here's"!*
LEAVE OUT THE WORD "THAT" WHENEVER
POSSIBLE. You can often omit it without changing the
meaning at all. Take this sentence: "We suggest that \ou
send us your passbook once a year." Now strike out that.
Isn't this better and smoother? Again, this is something we
do all the time in speaking
And while you're crossing out thats, also go 0:1 a which
hunt. For some reason people think which is a more elegant
pronoun. Wrong. Usually you can replace which by that.
or leave it out altogether—and you'll get a better, more
' Though m o . s t n : v examples are taken trom b u s m e n coTcsponden., c.
'he principles a p p l y to a l l type: o f writing.
22 WORD f OWER
fluent, more "spoken" sentence.
USE DIRECT QUESTIONS. A conversation is not
one-sided. One person speaks, then the other interrupts,
often with a question, like "Really?" or "Then what?" A
conversation without questions is almost inconceivable. So
use a question whenever there's an opportunity, and your
writing will sound more like talk.
You don't have to go out of your way to do this. Look
at what you write and you'll find indirect questions—^be-
ginning with whether all over the place. "Please determine
whether payment against these receipts will be in order."
No good. Make it: "Can we pay against these receipts?
Please find out and let us know."
Or take another sentence: "Your questions and comments
are invited." Again, this is really a question: "Do you have
any questions or comments? If so, please let us know."
There's nothing like a direct question to get some feedback.
USE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. A speaker uses /. we
and you incessantly—they're part of the give-and-take of
conversation. Everybody, jt seems, who writes for a com-
pany or organization clings desperately to the passive voice
and avoids taking the slightest responsibility. He doesn't
say we, never says /, and he even avoids using the straight-
forward you. So we find phrases like "It is assumed. . ."
"it will be seen . . ." "it is recommended. . . ." Or sentences
like: "An investigation is being made and upon its com-
pletion a report will be furnished you." Instead, write.
"We've made an investigation and we'll furnish you a re-
port."
Normally, when writing for an organization, there isn't
too much opportunity to say "I." But do use "I" whenever
you express feelings and thoughts that are your own. Often
it's better to say "I'm sorry" or "we're pleased," than "we're
sorry" or "we're pleased." And call the addressee you. The
idea is to make your writing as personal as possible.
IT'S ALL RIGHT TO PUT PREPOSITIONS AT
THE END. For 50 years, English-language experts have
unanimously insisted that a preposition at the end is fine
and dandy H. W. Fowler, in A Dictionary of Modern Eng-
lish Usage. 1926, defends it enthusiastically unci cites ex-
amples from Shakespeare and the Bible to Thackeray and
 W r ite the Way You Talk 43
Kipling. Yet schoolteachers still tell pupils they should
never commit such a wicked crime.
Put the preposition at the end whenever it sounds right
to do so. Instead of "The claimant is not entitled to the
benefits for which he applied," write "The claimant isn't
entitled to the benefits he applied for." Remember, gram-
matical superstitions are something to get rid of.
SPILL THE BEANS. There's a natural tendency in all
of us to begin at the beginning and go on to the end. When
you write a letter, it's the easiest way to organize your
material. The trouble is, it's hard on the reader. He has a
problem, or a question, and wants to know whether the
answer is yes or no. If he has to wait until you're willing
to tell him, his impatience and subconscious resentment
will increase with every word. Rather than stumbling your
way through some awkward introduction, start right in with
the most important thing you want to get across. Plunge
right in.
Re:. . .
Gentlemen:
in reference to the above collection item, which
you instructed us to hold at the disposal of the ben-
eficiary, we wish to advise that Mr. Ling has not
called on us, nor have we received any inquiries on
his behalf.
The above information is provided to you in the
event you wish to give us any further instructions in
the matter.
Cross out everything up to the words "Mr. Ling." Then
the letter becomes (with a few other minor changes):
Re. . . .
Gentlemen:
Mr. Ling hasn't called on us, nor have we had any
inquiries on his behalf. Do you have any further in-
structions?
22 WORD f OWER
You see what this does? Once the unnecessary verbiage
is cleared away, the letter becomes downright elegant.
WRITE SHORT, SNAPPY SENTENCES. The ordi
nary reader can take in only so many words before his eyes
come to a brief rest at a period. If a sentence has more than
40 words, chances are he's been unable to take in the full
meaning. So break those long sentences apart, 20 words at
most. It's usually quite easy to see where one idea leaves
off and another begins. Then try writing really short sen-
tences every so often, and watch your letters and reports
wake from their customary torpor.
USE SHORT WORDS. Long, pompous words are a
curse, a curtain that comes between writer and reader. Here
are some familiar sayings as they would appear in a business
letter. "In the event that initially you fail to succeed, en-
deavor, endeavor again." "All is well that terminates well."
Everybody has his own pet pomposities. Banish them
from your vocabulary. Replace locate with find; prior to
with before; sufficient with enough; in the event that with
if. After those simple substitutions, weed out such other
words as determine, facilitate and require whenever they
show up. You'll find that it's possible to live without them.
And you'll learn to appreciate the joys of simple language.
WRITE FOR PEOPLE.. By far the most important
thing is to give your letters just the right human touch.
Express your natural feelings. If it's good news, say you're
glad; if it's bad news, say you're sorry. Be as courteous,
polite and interested as you'd be if the addressee sat in front
of you. Some human beirg will read your letter and. con-
sciously or unconsciously, be annoyed if it is cold, pleased
if you're courteous and friendly.
A bank got a letter from a customer who'd moved from
New York to Bermuda. He wrote to make new arrangements
about his account. The bank's answer started; "We thank
you for your letter advising us of your change of address."
Now really! How stony and unfeeling can you get? 1 would
at least have said something like "I noted your new address
with envy."
You'll find there are rewards for improving your written
work. This is the age of large organizations-where it's easier
 Wr ite the Way You Talk 43

to catch the eye of a superior by what you write than by

what you say or do. Write the way I suggest and your stuff
will stand out. Beyond the material rewards are more per-
sonal ones. When you write a particularly crisp, elegant
paragraph, or a letter that conveys your thoughts clearly
and simply, you'll feel a flow of creative achievement.
Treasure it. It's something you've earned.
A Civil Tongue
High crimes and misdemeanors are being visited on American
English, mourns this observer, and few of us can escape
impeachment

BY EDWIN NEWMAN
A civil tongue means to me a language that is not bogged
down in jargon, not puffed up with false dignity, not studded
with trick phrases that have lost their meaning.
It is not falsely exciting, is not patronizing, does not
conceal the smallness and triteness of ideas by clothing
them in language ever more grandiose, does not seek out
increasingly complicated constructions.
It treats errors in spelling and usage with a decent tol-
erance but does not take them lightly. It is direct, specific,
concrete, vigorous, colorful, subtle and imaginative when
it should be, and as lucid and eloquent as we arc able to
make it. It is something to revel in and enjoy.
Unfortunately, it is also only a dream, for an ironic thing
is happening in the United States. As we demand more and
more personal openness from those in public life, our lan-
guage becomes more and more covered, obscure, turgid,
ponderous and overblown.
Nelson Rockefeller, for example, when asked whether
he would be nominated at the 1976 Republican convention,
said, "1 cannot conceive of any scenario in which that could
eventuate."
64
 A Civil Tongue 65
Won't things improve when the younger generation of
politicians takes over? No.
California's Gov. Edmund Brown. Jr., 39, asked whether
his 1976 Presidential candidacy was really aimed at 1980,
replied, "My equation is sufficiently complex to admit of
various outcomes." Declining to ride to a money-raising
dinner in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, he explained, "I
cannot relate to that material possessory consciousness,"
and used an unwashed Ford instead.
Stuffiness and fake erudition are being substituted for
reality and clarity. Instead of teachers encouraging our
schoolchildren, according to a study in the Journal of Ed-
ucational Psychology, teachers are "reinforcing" the chil-
dren by a process of "emission." The educational advantage
;n saying emitting reinforcers rather than encouraging chil-
dren—or, for that matter, calling a teacher a facilitator or
enabler, a teaching period a module, and a classroom a
learning station—escapes me.
Fortunately, practitioners of a civil tongue do exist. A
reporter asked APL-CIO head George Meany about the elec-
tion of November 1974. What was the people's mandate?
Said Meany: "I don't believe in this mandate stuff. A guy
runs for office and gets elected. All of a sudden he's got
a mandate. Two less votes and he's nothing."
A civil tongue knows when to remain silent. In Septem-
ber 1974, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada decided
not to come to the United Nations ar.d speak because he
had nothing sufficiently important to say. At the Democratic
convention in 1976. a reporter asked eight-year-old Amy
Carter whether she had a message for the children of
America. Said Amy: "No." Such gestures deserve more
notice.
1 once went to Sauk Centre. Minn., for a television story
about a festival honoring Sinclair Lewis, who was born
there. A local resident said of a task that was facing us.
"It's more than the horse can pull.' vVe city boys thought
that amusingly bucolic, but HI seven words it's hard to say
more.
Usually our use of words is extravagant. The waste has
'two cuu:,es. One is the feeling that rn idea is more eifective
i! it is repeated and reinforced I his is why Jimmy Carter
22 WORD f OWER
says that he had a "deeply profound" religious experience.
(At any rate, I want to believe that that is why 1 would
hate to learn that he thought that deep and profound are
different.) In 1975, Sen Charles Percy of Illinois warned
fellow Republicans against choosing a Presidential nominee
not in the "centrist mainstream" of U.S. politics. Dr. .John
Lungren, looking after Richard Nixon, said in January
1975, "He still tires and fatigues very easily."
The second cause of waste in our use of words is an
apparent failure to understand what they mean If it knew
what surprise meant, the New York Times could not run a
headline about an "unexpected surprise" from Japan. Lt.
Gen. James F. Hollingsworth, former U.S. commander in
South Korea, said that if the North Koreans attack, "our
firepowei will have a tremendous impact on their ground
troops, breaking their will to fight in addition to killing
them."
The sports and business worlds make their contributions
to the nonsense around us. Broadcasters tell us about the
baseball team "with the worst record won and lostwise,"
about the football player who incurs a penalty and becomes
the "guilty culprit." An airline stewardess urges her pas-
sengers to "have a nice day in Cincinnati or wherever your
final destination may be taking you." And an investment
company writes: "We have exceptional game plan capabil-
ities together with strict concerns for programming suc-
cessful situations."
American English, drawing on so many regional differ-
ences, so many immigrant groups, and such a range of
business, farming, industrial, athletic and artistic experi-
ences, can have an incomparable richness. Instead, high
crime? and misdemeanors are visited upon it. and those who
commit them do not understand that they are crimes against
themselves. The language belongs to ail of us. We have no
more valuable possession.
Foreigners often have a peculiar talent for using English
in an original way. After an earthquake in Italy, a local
resident described the scene. "Dogs were complaining." he
said, "and animals were shouting." 1 am trying not to shout,
but I am complaining. Civilly. Most of the time
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR WORD POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 6
Words From Reader's Digest

BY PETER FUNK
The following test words have been taken from articles in
Reader's Digest. Check the word or phrase you believe is
nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear at the
end of this test.
1. parochial (pa ro' kl a!)—A: religious. B: limited. C: per-
taining to teaching D controversial.
2. euphoria (u fd' ri a)—A: sense of well-being. B: vague-
ness. C: enthusiasm. D: loss of memory.
3. implicit (im pits' it)—A: accurate. B: obvious. C. under
stood. D: subtle.
4. remorse (ri mors')—A: self reproach. B: vengeance. C:
:

pity D: pride.
5. aura (aw' ra)—A: crown. B: atmosphere C: setting. L)
piety.
6. curfew fkur' few)—A: vespers. B: warning. C: restrictive
regulation. D: bell tower.
7. provocative (pro vok' a tiv)—A: noisy. B: pleading. C:
cranky. D: stimulating.
8. dexterity (deks ter' i te)—A: adroitness. B: precision. C:
superficiality. D: vigor.
9. ephemeral (e fern' er al)—A: luminous. B: fragile. C:
short-lived. D: oblivious.
10. vituperative (vT tu' per a tiv; -a tiv) —A: abusive. B: ugly.
C: explosive. D: touchy
U. enigma (6 nig' ma)—A: nonsense B: complication C:
puzzie D: blemish.
12. petrify (pet' ri fi)—A: to worry. B. bewilder. C: pre.serve.
D: harden.
67
22 WORD f OWER
13. 'quadrant (kwod' rant)—A: fourth of a circle. B: square
dance. C: courtyard. D: singing group.
14. collegial (kd le' ji al)—relating to A: ancestral descent. B:
assembly of. diverse fragments. C: security for debt. D:
group of colleagues.
15. indigent (in' dl jent)—A: native. B: poor. C: angry. D:
sick.
16. matrix (ma' triks)—A: representative. B: mold. C: older
woman. D: church vestibule.
17. propitious (pro pish' us)—A: ridiculous. B: favorable. C:
pushy. D: foreshadowed.
18. infringe (in frinj')—A: to encircle. B: decorate. C: add to.
D: encroach.
19. gregarious (gre gair' e us)—A: sociable. B: talkative. C:
casual. D: jovial.
20. contingent (kon tin' jent)—A: adjoining. B: dependent. C:
agreed upon. D: strict.
ANSWERS

1. parochial—B: Confined or restricted to a parish, hence

limited in scope or outlook; narrow; as, a parochial view-
point. Latin parochia (parish).
2. euphoria—A: Sense of well-being or elation, often unac-
counted for, as. to experience frequent spells of euphoria.
Greek euphoros (healthy).
3. implicit—C: Understood, though not expressed; implied;
as, an implicit agreement; also, absolute: unquestioning; as,
implicit faith. Latin implicare (to involve).
4. remorse—A: Self-reproach; intense anguish caused by
guilt. Latin remordere, from re (again) and mordere (to
bite). Your conscience "bites back" at you.
5. aura—B: Characteristic atmosphere or aspect; subtle ra-
diance or air about a person or thing; as, an aura of success.
Greek aura (air).
6. curfew—C: Regulation ordering persons off the streets and
closing business establishments at a specified hour. Middle
French covrefeu (to cover the fire)—a nightly signal during
the Middle Ages to bank the hearth fire.
7. provocative—D: Stimulating; tending to excite, stir up or
move profoundly; as, a provocative play. Latin provocare
(to call forth).
 Word Power Test No.II69
8. dexterity—A: Adroitness; skill and ease in using the hands;
mental skill or quickness. Latin dexter (skillful).
9. ephemeral—C: Short-lived; fleeting; transitory; as, ephem-
eral popularity. Greek ephemeras (lasting a day).
10. vituperative—A: Abusive; scolding; railing; as, a vituper-
ative rabble-rouser. Latin vituperare (to blame, abuse in
words).
11. enigma—C: Puzzle; riddle; baffling problem; inscrutable
or mysterious person. Greek ainigma, from ainissesthai
(to speak in riddles).
12. petrify—D: To harden; convert into stone or stony sub-
stance; also, to confound or paralyze; as. to petrify with
fear. Middle French petrifier (to turn to stone).
13. quadrant—A: One fourth of a circle; any of the four parts
into which a plane is divided by two lines that intersect
each other at right angles. Latin quadrans (fourth part).
14. collegia!—D: Relating to a collegium or group of col-
leagues, each of whom has equal power and authority; as,
a collegial board of trustees. Latin collega (colleague).
15. indigent—B: Poor; needy; as, indigent Eskimo children.
Latin indigere (to want, need, stand in need of).
16. matrix—B: Mold within which anything develops or is
contained. Late Latin matrix (womb).
17. propitious—B: Favorable; advantageous; opportune; as, a
propitious moment. Latin propitius.
18. infringe—D: To encroach or trespass upon a right, pre-
rogative or territory of another; violate; as, to infringe a
treaty, patent or copyright. Latin infringere (to break off).
19. gregarious—A: Sociable; tending to associate with others:
as, man's gregarious impulses. Latin gregarius (belonging
to a herd or flock).
20. contingent—B: Dependent for effect on or liable to mod-
ification by something that may or may not occur; as. a
contingent legacy. Latin contingere (to happen)

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
Was
Paul Revere a
Minute-person?
BY JACQUES BARZUN

Last spring, 1 received a committee report signed with two

names. Each was identified as Co-chairperson. This des-
ignation was not new to me, but the pathos of attaching
such a label to live fellow workers struck me with fresh
force.
Obviously, the reason for using person was to avoid
man, now felt to be the sign of an arrogant imperialism.
In the background, no doubt, was the further wish to con-
firm equality by insisting on our common humanness. With
that last intention no one will quairel. But man, in chairman
and elsewhere, still means and, etymologically. always has
meant person. As far back as the Sanskrit manus. the root
man means human being, with no implication of sex. The
German Mann and Mensch, the Latin homo (from which
derives the word human—and the humanness that we so
passionately seek) originally denote the kind of creature we
all are. Homo sapiens means male and female alike. Unless
limited by context, mankind means and has always meant
humanity entire.
70
 Was Paul Revere a Minute-Person? 71
The present urge to tamper with familiar usage is fool-
ishly misdirected. Recently, a colleague gave a new sec-
retary a note to type. He found it perfect, except for a
mysterious three-letter space after the puzzling word spokes.
When he gingerly asked the girl to explain, she replied
quietly that she belonged to a group that had vowed never
to type in full the words chairman, spokesman and the like.
Does the embargo extend to woman?
No one denies that words are powerful symbols of feeling
and attitude and, as such, solid parts of the social structure.
That is why from time to time it seems as if to change the
structure one need only change the words. The trouble is
that language is too subtle, and the force of common speech,
set in its course by the generations, sweeps the censor away
like a twig in a torrent. Suppose you get rid of chairman
and spokesman by dint of not typing them. What will you
do with minuteman or Frenchman? "Paul Revere was a
minuteperson." Honestly!
Person is not a word to cherish. In mid-career at Rome,
it certainly had associations with the emptiness of a mask—
persona. In French, indeed, it often means nobody: "Who's
there?"—"Personne." Who does not feel that in its ano-
nymity the word is disagreeably hoity-toity: "There is a
person at the door"? Sound and length unsuit it for spon-
taneous use in dozens of ordinary places: "Yes, it's a person-
made lake." "She had to be personhandled to break up the
quarrel." If English is thus in need of revision and reform,
the task ahead is formidable. Must man-of-war be warper-
son?
Within the great treasury of terms and their combina-
tions, all of us equal and emancipated human beings must
accept the rough with the smooth. We must understand that
the "brotherhood of man" does not exciude our beloved
sisters; that the potent formula Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
cannot be revised to end with either Sorority or Personality;
that mankind in modern usage is not the opposite of wom-
ankind; that we are all fellowman and feUowmen together.
Even if all the women typists of the world should with-
hold the last syllable of spokesman, their success would
hardly legislate the reforms they are after. Important goals
must be fought for on their own grounds. Demand equal
 22 WORD f OWER
pay for equal work and the world will come to it.
I conclude, on the source of history and etymology, that
"Madam chairman" is a correct and decent appellation. The
man in it denotes either sex, and therefore the key word
means precisely chairperson. For my part, 1 shall continue
to use it unless stopped by the chair herself—or a chair
itself.
Watch Your
Language!
by t h e o d o r e m. b e r n s t e i n
Can you spot the misused word in this sentence: "After a series
of fits and starts the stock market eked out a gain "? For years
the late Theodore Bernstein, assistant managing editor of the
N e w York Times, campaigned for better writing in a peppery
house organ called Winners & Sinners. Here are extracts. And
what did Bernstein find wrong with that sentence about the stock
market? See his remarks about "eke" below.

a m i d , a m o n g . "Firemen groped among the wreck-

age."
"Among means in the midst of countable things. When
the things are not separable, the word is "amid" or "amidst."
a s w e l l a s . "He, as well as the producer, are Broad-
way newcomers."
"As well as" is a subordinating, not a coordinating, con-
junction; it is not the equivalent of "and." Therefore, its
73
22 WORD f OWER
presence does not make the subject plural. The sentence
should read, " . . . is a Broadway newcomer."
CIRCLE. "Thousands had circled around the bier."
Strike out "around."
CLIMAX. "The drop in popularity of the larger engine
reached its climax last September."
"Climax," which comes from a Greek word meaning
ladder, refers to an ascending series. A low point cannot
be a climax.
CONCLAVE. "Secret Conclave Winds Up Discus-
sion."
The word "conclave" (based on the Latin "clavis," mean-
ing key) originally referred to a room that could be locked,
and now means a secret or private meeting. "Secret" is
redundant; therefore, omit it.
CONVINCE. "Three persons tried to convince her to
take her seat on the plane."
"Persuade" would be the proper word in this construc-
tion. "Convince" may be followed by an "of" phrase or a
"that" clause, but not by a "to" infinitive. "Convince" has
the meaning of satisfy beyond doubt by appealing to reason.
"Persuade" has the meaning of inducing or winning over
by appealing to reason and feeling.
EKE. "After a series of fits and starts the stock market
eked out a gain."
"Eke" has Anglo-Saxon roots meaning to increase or
add. When you eke something out, you add to it or sup-
plement it. What is eked out is not the thing that results but
the original stock or supply. In short, "eke out" does not
mean "squeeze out," as the quoted sentence suggests.
END RESULT. "The end result of segregation and lack
of compulsory education for Africans ..."
An end result is conceivable in the working out of a
mathematical problem in which there are intermediate re-
sults, but in everyday English an end result is simply a
result.
IN TERMS OF. The phrase "in terms of" has a fine,
learned sound. But usually it signifies nothing. "He could
not have been thinking in terms of the job he was to take."
What is meant here is "about the job."
 Watch Your Language! 75

i n t o . "He dived in the river and swam in the direction

of the woman."
If he dived in the river, he was already in the water
before he performed the action; "in" denotes merely posi-
tion. The required word here is "into."
l o c a t e d . "The canyon is located about 60 miles
northwest."
To locate is to find or fix the position of something. The
use of "located" for "situated" is a catachresis. Often, as
in the example cited, no word at all is necessary.
m u t u a l . "Their mutual interest in guns has provided
an informal means of instructing youngsters."
"Mutual" has the connotation of reciprocal: If Jones re-
spects Smith and Smith respects Jones they have a mutual
respect. However, if Jones and Smith are both interested
in guns, that is not a mutual but a common interest.
p o d i u m . "President Ayub gripped the podium as he
answered questions."
Toehold? A podium is a platform or dais that you stand
on or sit on. Therefore you don't grip it, as you would a
lectern.
r e i t e r a t e . "Dr. Brode reiterated the suggestion he
made last December."
"Iterate," which is not in general use, means to say or
do a second time or often; "reiterate" means, therefore, to
say or do over and over again. "Repeat" or "restate" is the
better word for a first echo.
r e p u l s e . "Some students are repulsed by the thought
of going into debt for an education."
To be repulsed is to be beaten or driven back. The desired
word is "repelled," which conveys the idea of aversion.
t r o v e . "A Pre-lnca Trove Is Found in Peru."
Know what a trove is? It's something that's found.
v i a . "Attack would entail simultaneous delivery, via
missiles or bombers, of nuclear weapons."
"Via" means by way of (in a geographical sense), not
by means of.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 7
To LOOK and Dance and Read and Listen

BY PETER FUNK
These words come from current reviews of movies, theater, dance,
books and music. If some of the words are new to you, take one
or two each day and use them. A lawyer gave me the secret of
his rich vocabulary: "1 deliberately overuse a word for a few days,
and that helps me to remember it." Select the word or phrase
nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear at the end
of this test.
1. protege (pro' tuh zha)—A: original thinker. B: heir. C: one
who is helped by another. D: mentor.
2. ingenue (an zha noo')—A: apprentice. B: clever person.
C: naive girl. D: dowager.
3. quotidian (kwo tid' e un>—A: daily. B: shared. C: meas-
ured. D; repetitious.
4. premier (prl mir', -myir'; pre' me ur)—A: most important.
B: inconspicuous C: splendid. D; unspoiled.
5. plaudit (plaw' dif)—A: commonplace statement. B: gra-
cious response. C: incisive question. D: enthusiastic ap-
proval.
6. grotesque (gro tesk')—A: symmetrical. B: bizarre. C: un-
forgivable. D: strong.
7. callow (kal o)—A: tough. B: inexperienced. C: superficial.
D: sickly.
8. swivet (swiv' uf>—A: agitation. B: repose. C. connection.
D: tiny animal.
9. egocentric (e go sen' trik)—A: peculiar. B: self centercd.
C: limited. D: circular.
>0. prehensile <pri hen' s'l)—Formed to A: coil around any-
thing. B: stretch. C: aid in survival. D: produce energy.
1. imprecation (im pruh ka' shun)—A: threat B: curse. C:
consequence. D: benediction.
7* '<
 Word Power Test No.II7
12. blather (bbth' isr)—A: to tell a secret. B: !alk foolishly.
C: cry noisily. D; gossip.
13. pedantry (ped' 'n ?reV—A: irritating s:ownes».*tS: osten-
tatious display of learning. C sound judgment. D: igno-
rance.
14. bogus (bo' gus)—A: false. B: inferior. C: spooky. D: ex-
tra.
15 posit (po7' it}—A: to bafi'ie. B: displace. C; assume. D:
discover.
16. gull—A: to soothe. B: soas\ C: dream. D: deceive.
17. surrogate (sur' uh gat)—A: substitute. B: accused. C; au-
thenticated D: protected
18. moment (mo' munt)—A: concurrence. B: importance. C:
xlarity. D: quickness.
19. bibulous (bib' u lus>—A: humorous. B: officious. C: ad
di.:£ed to alcohol. D: gamilou
20. inordinately (in or' d'n it le>—A: rarely. B: unexpectedly .
C: excessively. D: unsuitably.
ANSWERS
1. protege—-C: One whose career is helped by another more
influential person Latin protcgerc (to protect). "The young
actor became the director's protege."
2. ingtoue—C; An actress playing the role of a naive, in-
nocent or inexperienced girl. French ingenu (unsophisti-
cated).
3. quotidian—A: Daily; recurring each day, especially what-
ever is ordinary; as, to rccord quotidian experiences. Latin
quotidianus, from quotidic (daily).
4. pretv.ier—A: Most important; foremost. French from Latin
primarius (of the first rank). "He ranked as Germany's
premier conductor."
5. plaudit—D; Any enthusiastic expression of approval or
praise; as, "He won plaudits for his dancing " Latin plau-
dit?, literally a request for applause (clap your hands!; from
plaudere (to applaud).
6. grotesque—B: Bizarre. Old Italian grottesca (cave paint-
ing).
7. callow—B; Inexperienced; immature; resembling young
birds lacking flying features, as a callow musician. Old En-
glish calu (bald).
8. swivel—A; State of agitation or annoyance. "The TV pro-
7S 22 WORD f OWER
ducers •are in a swivet about the Emmy awards." Origin
unknown.
9. egocentric—B: Self-centered; evaluating everything only
in relation to oneself; as, a difficult, egocentric artist. Latin
ego (I) and centrum (center).
10. prehensile—A: Formed to coil around or grasp hold of—
as a tail, hand or, metaphorically, the mind. "Retailers eye
King Kong's potential with prehensile enthusiasm." Latin
prehendere (to seize).
11. imprecation—B: Curse; vengeful wish that a calamity be-
fall another. Latin imprecatio (act of praying),
12.
blather—B: To talk in a foolish, babbling way; as, "The
characters acted like blathering romantic idiots." Old Norse
blathr.
13. pedantry—B: Ostentatious or boring display of learning
and slavish attention to unnecessary details. Italian pedan-
teria.
14. bogus—A: False; not genuine; as, bogus revelations about
the political system. (Originally an apparatus for making
counterfeit money.)
15 posit—C: To assume; affirm something is true; as, "Saul
Bellow posits the importance of the novel." Latin positus
(placed, put).
16 gull—D: To deceive, trick or defraud; as. "He has been
gulled into dating Carrie." Perhaps from dialectical gull
(young bird, silly fellow).
17 surrogate—A: Substitute; having the authority to act for
another; as, "They filled the role of surrogate parents."
Latin surrogatus.
18 moment—B: Importance; having outstanding significance,
consequence, or value; as, a publishing event of great mo-
ment. Latin momentum (movement),
19 bibulous—C: Latin bibulus means fond of drinking; hence,
a bibulous adventurer is one addicted to drink,
20 inordinately—C: Excessively; immoderately; as, "The art-
ist Cfizanne became inordinately timid." Latin inordinatus
(disorderly)
vocabulary ratings
20—19 correct .. exceptional
18—15 correct .. ... excellent
14—12 correct .. . good
How To Argue
The best way is to listen
BY STUART CHASE

Suppose a stranger tries to pick a quarrel with you, at a

cocktail party, let us say, or a conference. He comes up
and says: "I hear you like labor unions; well, they are
nothing but a lot of rackets!"
Suppose further that you have a long and honorable re-
cord as an impartial student of labor problems, which makes
this pretty close to an insult. What are you going to do?
There are three obvious things to do—and one not so
obvious. You can hit him. You can turn your back and walk
away with as much dignity as you can summon. You can
say: "You don't know what you're talking about!" and start
a slam-bang argument. This will probably draw a crowd
like a soapbox debate, and like such debates it will get
precisely nowhere.
These are the normal courses of action, but this time,
in the interests of peace, and of science, suppose you try
an experiment. Stand your ground, put on as reasonable an
expression as can be mustered, and say nothing at all.
Your man looks surprised, but soon rallies to the attack:
"Pegler is dead right when he says unions are all run by
racketeers!"
79
so Word p o w e r
You continue to keep your foot hard on the brake. The
essence of the experiment is to refuse to argue on big general
statements, where nobody knows what the. other fellow
means. "Well," you say, "that's one point of view. Tell me
some more."
Your man blinks and clears his throat. He is plainly
disconcerted. "Well—er—Pegler ought to know, oughtn't
he?" Now he is moving.from offensive to defensive. If you
are tempted to follow up the advantage, resist the tempta-
tion.
"Go ahead," you say, "I'm listening." And you are lis-
tening. You are trying to determine what makes him act
this way. Did a labor union once give him a rough deal?
Or what?
Your man opens his mouth, closes it, and goes into
neutral. "Well, some people think they're rackets; what do
you think?" This is the signal that the experiment has been
successful! The attack has fizzled out. The man who came
to back you into a corner is now asking your opinion. You
can leave him disarmed, or you can continue the experi-
ment. Suppose you tell him about a case of racketeering
which you personally investigated. "A very bad business."
(You have swed his face by admitting he has a case; some
unions are indeed rackets.) "But now take the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers, who even endorse bank loans sometimes
to employers who are in trouble. One could hardly call that
racketeering?"
Since you have listened to him. he is now willing to
listen to you. He admits that the Amalgamated is a re-
sponsible union. He admits that he may be a little preju-
diced. You can then discuss various other cases without
emotion, on their merits. Both of you learn something which
neither of you knew before. No fisticuffs, no enemies, no
shouting, and no backing down on your part.
This ingenious technique was first outlined to me by S.
I. Hayakawa. I have used it on a number of occasions with
considerable success.
The essence is in listening. Don't hit, don't contradict,
don't cave in or turn the other cheek. Just say; "Tell me
some more, I'm listening."
Bernard Shaw once said that the degree of emotion in
 How To Argue 81
a controversy varies inversely with knowledge of the sub-
ject. And usually the offensive does have very few facts
with which to back up its emotion! (1 find that most attackers
run out of gas in about three minutes.)
When you accept your attacker as a human being with
a legitimate point of view, his self-confidence is not threat-
ened; he will eventually try to find out what you think, and
may go quite a way to agree with you.
Thank You,
William Shakespeare!
BY GUY WRIGHT

I doubt that there's anyone reading this who goes through

a normal day's conversation without quoting Shakespeare.
Once in a while we realize we're doing this, but most of
the time we lift his lines to season our speech and sharpen
our opinions without the slightest thought of the source.*
When you call a man a "rotten apple," a "blinking idiot"
or a "popinjay" . . . When you say he "bears a charmed life"
or is "hoist with his own petard" . . . When you proclaim
him "a man of few words" .. .
When you speak of "cold comfort," "grim necessity,"
"bag and baggage," the "mind's eye," "holding your
tongue," "suiting the action to the words". . . When you
refer to your "salad days" or "heart of hearts" . . . When you
deplore "the beginning of the end," "life's uncertain voy-
age" or "the unkindest cut of all". . .
•Some of the expressions have changed a bit with everyday usage, but
even these can be easily traced to the master.
82
 Thank You, William Shakespeare! 83
By golly, you're quoting Shakespeare!
When you use such expressions as "poor but honest,"
"one fell swoop," "as luck would have it," "the short and
the long of it," "neither here nor there," "what's done is
done"...
When you say something "smells to heaven" or is "Greek
to me," or it's a "mad world" or "not in my book" .. .
When you complain that you "haven't slept a wink" or
that your family is "eating you out of house and home,"
or you've "seen better days" . . .
When you speak of a coward "showing his heels" or
having "no stomach for a fight" . . .
When you nod wisely and say, "Love is blind"... or
"Truth will come to light" . . . or "The world is my
oyster".. .
You are borrowing your bon mot from the Bard. Shake-
speare was the greatest cliche inventor of all time. Without
him to put the words in our mouths, we would be virtually
tongue-tied, and the English language would have a lean
and hungry look.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
No. 8
Noun?:—Airborne and Not
BY PETER FUNK
Nouns can stay down to earth, or they can fly. They can embody
the substantia! tiling—house, chair, car. Or they can take wing
and capture abstractions—freedom, affection, faith. The following
20 nouns are of both kinds: the earthbound and the airborne, the
concrete and the abstract. Check the word or phrase that you
believe is nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear
at the end of this test.
1. sensibility (sen si bit* I te)—A: tenderness. B: daintiness.
C: impracticality. D: sensitivity.
2. irruption (i rup' shun>—A: interference. B: altercation. C:
a bursting in. D: hiatus.
3. procrastination (pro kras ti na' shun)—A: prediction. B:
uncertainty. C: postponement. D: harshness.
4. array (5 ra')—A: impressive display. B: mixture. C: va-
riety. D: kaleidoscope.
5. token—A: symbol. B: attempt. C: clue. D: suggestion.
6. malfunction (mal funk' shun)—A: change. B: mistake. C:
defect. D: difference.
7. windfall—A: row of bushes and trees. B: calm. C: gale.
D: good fortune.
8. crotchet (krdtch' it)—A. gear box. B: forked junction. C:
valise. D: eccentricity.
9. denizen (den'T z£n)—A: inhabitant. B: fugitive. C: debtor.
D: poet.
10. largess (lar jfis')—A: bulkiness. B: exaggeration C: gen-
erosity. D: grandiloquence.
U- rubric (rod' brik)—A: proverb. B: oddity. C: ruralism. D:
instruction.
84
 Word Power Test No.II95
12 leeway (le' wa)—A: leisure. B: permissiveness. C: course.
D: flexibility.
!3. perimeter (pg rim' £ ter)—A: outer boundary. B; propor-
tion. C: zone. D; parade ground.
14. symbiosis'(sim bl 5' sis}—A: isolation. B: mutual depend-
ence. C: compromise. D: representation.
15. euphemism (u' f£ mis'm)—A: praise. B: inoffensive
expression. C: cheerfulness. D: prudery.
16 allegiance (a le' jans)—A: worship. B: loyalty. C: respect.
D: friendship.
17. humility (hu mil' T te}—A: modesty. B: hauteur. C: em-
barrassment. D: deviousness.
18. animosity (an f mds' I te)—A: active resistance B. live-
liness. C: concord. D: strong dislike.
19. extravaganza (ek strav a gan' za>—A: spectacular show.
B: falsification. C' profligacy. D: over-reaching.
20. credentials (kri den' shalz)—A: testimonials B: talents.
C: compliments. D: beliefs.

ANSWERS
1.sensibility—D Sensitivity; awareness; the capacity to be
strongiy moved emotionally. Latin senstbilis (perceptive,
intelligent).
2. irruption—C: An explosive bursting or rushing in; as, an
irruption of vandals into city schools. Latin irrumpere (to
break in).
3. procrastination—C: Postponement; habitually putting off
or delaying. One who is guilty of procrastination makes
his work a matter "for tomorrow." Latin procrastinatus;
pro (forward) and eras (tomorrow).
4. array—A: An impressive display of people or objects; an
orderly grouping. Medieval Latin arredarc (to put in or-
der).
5 token—A; Symbol or sign of authenticity. A gift may He
a token of friendship. Old English tacen (to provide with
means of identification).
6. malfunction—C: Defect; failure to function in the usual
way. French mal and function.
7. windfall—D: Sudden profit or good fortune. Old English
wind and fall—i.e.. ripe fruit blown down by the wind.
8. crotchet—D An eccentricity, stubborn notion, as, "If you
22 WORD f OWER
have a crotchet about stuffy rooms, you probably sleep with
a window open." Old French crochet (a small hook).
9. denizen—A: Inhabitant or habitual visitor; as, "The red-
wing blackbird is a denizen of swamps." Old French denzein
(native inhabitant).
10. largess—C: Generosity; often the ostentatious giving of
gifts; as, the largess of Washington lobbyists. Old French
large (generous).
11. rubric—D: Instruction; brief commentary; custom; eccle-
siastical rule. Latin ruber (red). Medieval monks used red
ink for headings in prayer books.
12. leeway—D: Flexibility; latitude; additional time or space;
as, leeway of an extra week to complete a job.
13. perimeter—A: Outer boundary of an area; as, the perimeter
of a circle. Greek peri (around) and metron (measure).
14. symbiosis—B: Mutual dependence between different or-
ganisms. Greek symbiosis (living together).
15. euphemism—B: An inoffensive expression; roundabout
word substituted for another to avoid giving offense. "He
passed away" is a euphemism for "he died." Greek eu-
phemizein (to speak favorably).
16. allegiance—B: Loyalty to a government, person, cause.
Old French ligeance (obligations of a serf to his master, or
liege).
17. humility—A: Modesty; as, "St. Francis of Assisi exem-
plified humility, for he was free of arrogance and was self-
effacing." Latin humus (earth).
18. animosity—D: Having a strong dislike; as, "The animosity
between the. two hockey teams led to a brawl." Latin ani-
mositas (high spirits)
!9. extravaganza—A: A spectacular and elaborate show. Ital-
ian estravaganza (extravagance).
20. credentials—A: Testimonials; evidence of one's qualifi-
cations; as, a doctor's medical credentials. Latin creden-
tial (giving authority).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—19 correct exceptional
18—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
Alphabet You'll
Like These Puns
BY JOHN S. CKOSBI'C

But on'/ the reader can judge. Are these plays on words
fair or foul? Do they add up to a cruel—or sleight—sentence
of punishment?

a a k d v a r k : Heavy labor. "It's aardvask, but it pays

well."
AMAZON: "You can pay for the eggs, hut the Avn.i7.on
me."
BACKWARD: Hospital section for sacroiliac cases
BIGAMIST: Italian fog.
BlIDGIE: Mother's whistler.
CACHE:
pounded on hisIr, friend's
desperation,
door. the
"TheCzechoslovakian n •dgc;
Russian police .vnc alter
87
22 WORD f OWER
me!" he cried. "Can't you please cache a small Czech?"
CATGUT: Our dog got fleas, but our catgut kittens.
DAIS: When the platform collapsed in the middle of his
lecture, the professor picked himself up, sighed and said,
"Some dais are like that!"
DUET: Pity the man who couldn't find anyone to sing
with! He went out and bought a duet yourself kit.
EARL: When his lordship's crew mutinied during a
storm, they poured the earl on the troubled waters.
EDIFICE: Sign on a junkyard fence- "Edifice wrecks."
FAULT: After a major earthquake in northern Califor-
nia, a group of concerned citizens set up the San Andreas
Fund, proving that Californians can be generous to a fault.
GALLEON: Before cars were invented, Spaniards were
able to go for thousands of miles on a galleon.
HEARSE: The undertaker ordered a new vehicle—in
light blue, this time. He thought it time to try a hearse of
a different color.
HIMALAYA: "Yesterday was Father's birthday so
Mother made Himalaya cake."
IGLOO: Material used to keep an ig from falling apart.
INCONGRUOUS: Where U.S. laws are made.
INFIDEL: The Vatican is not inclined to believe infidel
Castro
JOYCE, JAMES: "Last night 1 chose to read a new
book; it turned out to be an unfortunate Joyce."
KERCHIEF: Gesundheit:
LAPSE: What we get when we sit down.
LATH: In choosing a carpenter to install iaths, always
pick a slow and careful man because he whose iaths last,
iaths best.
 Alphabet You'll Like These Puns 89
MACHIAVELLI: I know a tailor who will Machiavelli
good pair of pants for $30.
MEDICATION: The guru refused to let his dentist
freeze his jaw because he wanted to transcend dental med-
ication.
MELANCHOLY: A dog that won't eat anything but
cantaloupes.
MENAGERIE: The equator is a menagerie lion running
around the earth.
NEWT: He was really a salamander but no one newt.
NICHOLAS: "But, Joe, I can't marry you. You're pen-
niless." "That's nothing, the Tsar of Russia was Nicholas."
OPPORTUNE: Any well-known operatic melody.
PACE: Male jogger to female jogger: "My pace or
yours?"
PARANOIA: One mental-hospital patient to another,
pointing to the two psychiatrists doing ward rounds: "Don't
let that paranoia."
QUART: People who drink before they drive are putting
the quart before the hearse.
REBATE: Put another worm on the hook.
RINGLEADER: The first one in the bathtub
SHED: As the critic wrote of the stripper: "Some things
are better left unshed "
TEUTONIC: Not enough gin.
THESIS: Professor's cryptic comment on a returned
college essay: "Thesis awful."
THONGS: What Thinalra things
URN: Q. What's a Grecian urn? A. Oh, about 20 drach-
mas a week after taxes.
VERSE: Just remember—no matter how bad these puns
may be, they could be verse!
¥0 WORD POWER
WANTON: The miniskirt was tried and found wanton.
XENOPHON: How Cyrus the Younger kept in touch
with home office.
YEW: "I cedar hedge is growing." "Yes, it's all up to
yew."
ZINC: The battery would not have been invented if
someone hadn't stopped to zinc
ZINNIA: The florid American farewell: "I'll be zinnia!"
Anything Goes,
Verbalizationwise
CONDENSED FROM NEWSWEEK
It used to be called gobbledygook, or just plain double-
talk. N o w it has achieved the status of a fine art.

Once confined to Madison Avenue and Foggy Bottom, jar-

gon, euphemisms, circumlocutions and other high-flown
forms of linguistic obfuscation have now become as per-
vasive as pollution. From Sari Antonio "people express-
ways" (sidewalks) to New York City (where a garage me-
chanic advertises himself as an "automotive internist"), the
word is out that anything goes, verbalizationwise.
Physicians are starting to call pep pills "activity boost
ers." Preschoolers are now enrolled in "early-learning cen-
ters," where they orbit between their "pupil stations" (desks)
and the "instructional materials resource center" (library).
In a letter to shareholders, Litton Industries attributed a
decline in profits to "volume variances from plan" (strikes)
Much of the word pollution results from a tropistic re-
action to a disagreeable truth. This creates a growing need
for sugar-coated palliatives. Vietnam popularized "grad-
ualism." "infrastructure" and "defoliation," while prompt
ing one State Department official to suggest that U.S. bomb
91
22 WORD f OWER
ing pressure on the enemy "should be mainly violins, but
with periodic touches of brass" (more selective than mas-
sive). British satirist David Frost is a veteran observer of
the genre. As he sees it, the term "strategic withdrawal"
usually means a rout; a "phased withdrawal" is a rout with
insufficient transport.
Nowhere has the art of obfuscation been more refined
than in the drawing up of administrative proposals. An
officer for the New York City Planning Commission says
the cardinal rule is never to mention money. '"Resources'
is the prime subsiitute, although 'allocations' and 'appro-
priations' are also popular. 'Resources' is also esthetically
pleasing, because it suggests the act of digging up and forms
a truly Miltonic phrase when preceded by 'overburdened
municipal.'"
A second rule is to fluff up a proposal with the sort of
euphemisms that bestow an aura of importance without re-
vealing anything specific. An application from a small
southern California college for a federal grant states; "It is
not simply a cross-disciplinary venture or an interdiscipli-
nary venture; it is a pandisciplinary venture and this, of
course, is the nature of all real experience."
Even the high priests of the newtime religion play the
game, especially when they are called on for personal com-
mitments. As theologian Robert McAfee Brown notes, lead-
ing statements like "I believe . . ." have given way to the
more anonymous "The Judeo-Christian tradition affirms. . ."
Only the Supreme Deity knows where it will all be fin-
alized—or, for that matter, what it all means.

H O W T O W I N A T WQRDSMANSHIP

After years of hacking through etymological thickets at the U.S.

Public Health Service, a 63-year-old official named Philip Brough-
ton hit upon a sure-fire method for converting frustration into
fulfillment (jargonwise). Euphemistically called the Systematic
Buz/. Phrase Projector, Broughton's system employs a lexicon of
30 carefuiiy chosen "buzzwords":
 Anything Goes, Verbalizationwise 93
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
0. integrated 0. management 0. options
1. total 1. organizational 1. flexibility
2. systematized 2. monitored 2. capability
3. parallel 3. reciprocal 3. mobility
4. functional 4. digital 4. programming
5. responsive 5. logistical 5. concept
6. optional 6. transitional 6. time-phase
7. synchronized 7. incremental 7. projection
8. compatible 8. third-generation 8 hardware
9. balanced 9. policy 9. contingency
The procedure is simple. Think of any three-digit number, then select the
corresponding buzzword from each column. For instance, number 257
produces "systematized logistical projection," a phrase that can be dropped
into virtually any report with thatringof decisive, knowledgeable authority.
"No one will have theremotestidea of what you're talking about," says
Broughton. "But the important thing is that they're not about to admit it."
IT PAYS T O ENRICH v O U R W O R D POWER ®

Word
Test No 9
Living Latin

BY PETER FUNK
Far from being a dead language, Latin lives in a high proportion
of English words, but often in disguised form. The 20 words in
this lest have come down to us from the days of Caesar virtually
unchanged in spelling or meaning. And so have many othe:s.
Even such commonly encountered words as senator, campus, liq-
uor, pastor and animal—all exactly the same as the Latin—confirm
what aii enduring element it is in our modern usage. Check the
word or phrase nearest in meaning. Answers appear at the end
of this test
!. placebo (pluh se' bo)—A: familiar location. B. hideaway.
C: peace offering. D: harmless pill.
2. status (stS' tus; sta tus}—A: position. B: legislation. C:
cdict. D: fashion.
3. opus (6' pus)—A: legal document. B: garden tool. C; a
particular procedure. D: work or composition.
4. won sequitur (non sek' wl 'ur)~A demand. B: limit. C:
irrelevant remark. D: without influence.
5 latitude Uat' T tude)—A: diversity of opinion. B: time zone.
C: range or scopc. D: periphery.
6. opprobrium (6 pro' bre um>—A: praise. B: burden. C:
cruelty. I): disgrace.
7. ultra—A: noteworthy. 3: different. C: excessive. D: neg-
ligible.
8 terminus (tur' mf nus)—A: short period of time B: fin
ishing point. C: starting point. D: interruption.
9. detritus ide tri' tus)—A: scaffolding B: race track C:
alternate route. D debris.
10. tuber ttu' ber)—A: swollen toot. B: musical instrument.
C: measuring tool. D: greeting.
94
 Word Power T e st No. I I 95
11. tediuui (te' de um)—A: excitement. B. nostalgia. C: par-
adox. D: boredom.
12. de facto (de fak' to)—A: actual. B: stopgap. C: dated. D.
unfounded.
13. radius (ra' de us)—A: type of curve. B: beam of light. C:
distance from a center to the edge. D. radioactive mineral
14. impetus (im' pe tus)—A: oversight B: stimulus. C; irn- >
patience. D: hindrance.
15. mores (mor' az: mor' ez>—A: genus. B. descendants. (':
apologies. D; customs.
16. regimen (fSj' T men)—A: poli'icai faction. B: body of
troops. C: dictatorship. D: systematic approach to health.
17. interim (in' ter irn)—A: eternal. B: temporary C; timely.
D: open.
18. nominal (nom* i n'l)—A: having a name in common. B:
in name only. C: pertaining to an average. D: gradually
changing.
19. clamor (kl&m' or)—A: dampness. B: outcry C: concilia-
tion. D: disorder.
20 nonplus—A: to dumfound. B: ar.ger. C: withdraw. i>: be
neutral.
ANSWERS

1 placebo—D: Harmless pill; as, 'The patient did i>ot kr.ow

his pill was nicely a placebo." Literally, "i shall piease."
2. status—A; A person's relative position in sociely measured
by wealth, prestige, star.dirig; as. 'The awaid enhanced the
musician's status." Also, a condition or situation; as. to
report on the status of trade negotiations.
'3. opus—D- A work or composition, especially in music a.-ui
numbered in the order of publication; as. Chopin's prrlud«\
opus 28, number 16.
4. nou sequftur—C; Literal!) . "it does no , follow", therefore,
1

an irrelevant remark, or a conclusion thit dots not follow

from the evidence; as, "It is a .ion icqwtur to relate the
number of cats and does to the rainfall "
5. latitude—C: Kar.ee or scope; a Aide variety ol cstoices as,
lo be allowed latitude in bohavior and dress.
6. opprobrium—D: Disgrace, dishonor wrought about by
shameful conduct; as, "He resigned from the .'Vsioency
under a cloud of (tpprobnum
96 22 WORD f OWER
7. ultra—C: Excessive in the extreme; going beyond the noi-
mal limits or range; as, an ultra liberal,
8. terminus—B: Finishing point; goal; terminal; as, "The air-
line terminus was London."
9, detritus—D: Debris; accumulation of disintegrated mate-
rial; as, "Leaves, branches ... this detritus gets mixed with
the soil on the forest floor."
10. tuber—A: Swollen, fleshy root; potato; as, "This homely
tuber—the potato—is the world's most important vegeta-
ble."
II. tedium—D; Boredom; monotony; as, "CB radio is widely
used to relieve freeway tedium."
12. de facto—A: Actual; in reality; as, a de facto government,
13. radius—C: Distance from a center of a circle to the edge;
as, three lakes within a radius of five miles. {Spoke of a
wheel.)
14. impetus—B: Stimulus to activity; driving force; as, "Reg
gie Jackson's enthusiasm is an impetus for the team."
15. mores—D: The traditional customs, manners and morals
of a group or community; as, the mores of the Kentucky
mountain people.
regimen—D: Systematic manner of living to improve or
16.
maintain one's health by diet, exercise, routine; as, the
regimen of a professional athlete.
17 interim—B; An interim job or committee is temporary,
provisional or for the time.
nominal—B: In name only; not actually true or real; as,
18 a nominal leader; also, very slight or insignificant; as, a
nominal price.
clamor—B; Outcry; shouting; noisy expression of dissent
19 or approval: as, the clamor of the angry crowd protesting
the new highway route.
nonplus—A: To dumfound. When we are nonplused by a
20 situation, we are so startled that temporarily we are incap-
able of further action. Won "no" and plus "further.")

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
The Meaning
Manglers
BY JAMES THURBER

Something central and essential in the mechanism of mean-

ing began losing its symmetry last summer. At first I thought
the fault must be in myself, some flaw of comprehension
or concentration, aggravated by the march of time. Then
J realized one June afternoon at a cocktail party in Bermuda
that the trouble was largely female, or at least seemed to
originate in that sex, like so many other alarming things.
At this party, a woman from the Middle West began
telling me about some legal involvement her daughter and
son-in-law had got into. She ended her cloudy recital on
a note of triumph. "So finally they decided to leave it where
sleeping dogs lie,'' she said.
I was upon it in a moment. "How perfectly charming of
them both, dear lady," I cried. "One can only hope the
barristers for the other side will tumble for it. hook, line
and barrel. To be sure, they may overtake it in their stride,
in which case may the devil pay the hindmost."
Upon this my companion cautiously withdrew to the
safer company of younger minds.
97
22 WORD f OWER
The charmingly tainted idiom of the lady of the sleeping
dogs must have infected other members of her circle, among
them a beautiful young woman who told me, "We are not
going to hide our heads in the sand like kangaroos." This
twisted and inspired simile was just what ray harassed un-
derstanding and tortured spirits needed. Whenever I think
I hear :he men coming with the stretcher or the subpoena,
I remember those kangaroos with their strange and enor-
mous rear quarters protruding from the earth, and ! am
ready to face anything ;,gam.
It was only a fortnight later, at a cocktail party in New
York, that the proud mother of a young man who had just
completed his first year as a history teacher sat down beside
me and leaped into a discussion of history professors in
general. "It is not easy to make them colleagues," she said
"They are always looking down each other's noses."
I let my awareness deal w ith this troubled idiom for a
long moment before replying. "At least," 1 said, "when
there is so much smoke one knows one is in Denmark. But
be of good cheer. I can fairly see the butter melting in their
mouths now."
Ours is a precarious language, as every writer knows,
in which the merest shadow line often separates sense from
nonsense. One linotyper became co-author of a-piece of
mine by introducing a bear into the story. He simply made
one out of a bead that was lying around in the middle of
the narrative. This set me to brooding, and for weeks I lay
awake at night playing unhappily with imaginary havoc
wrought by single-letter changes in the printed word: "A
stitch in time saves none. . . . There's no business like shoe
business. . Lafayette, we ate here. . . . Don, give up the
ship."
In Martha's Vineyard last August—is there something
about islands that fogs the clarity of speech?—' fell into
conversation with an actress 1 had known in my Greenwich
Village or devil-may-care days, and we began counting our
Village friends of 30 years ago. One, it turned out, was stili
living in the same old place. "Her apartment was broken
into so often, she finally had to have it burglarized " mv
friend told me.
My aging mind had to turn that over several times. "You
 The Meaning Mangiers 99
mean there's a company that burglarizes apartments now?"
I finally demanded "What do you do—call them up and
tell them when you won't be home?"
My companion eyed me warily. "You don't have to not
be home," she said.
"Most people are not home when their apartments are
burglarized," I told her. "Are you sure she didn't have the
place just alarmed?"
"1 don't know what you're talking about," said my old
friend, moving away.
I am back at my home in Connecticut now, Our com-
murity in the foothills of the Berkshires wears a special
radiance in the person of a French lady whom I shall call
Renee. Ren6e is mistress of what 1 call not the dangling
participle but the dazzling participle, often, when excited,
using it in place of the past tense.
"How did you like the concert at Tanglewood last night?"
1 asked her one day.
"I was fascinating," she said.
Renee is always fascinating. She is a social critic, too,
and 1 am a fond collector of some of her rarer pronounce-
ments, of which my favorite is this: "The womans are
stronger at the bottom."
Some 15 years ago, our usually tranquil community was
violently upset by the attempted murder of a woman. The
state police questioned us all, and did not come off very
well with Renee.
"One thing I am certain of," a detective said to her.
"Somebody in this town is guilty."
"So am 1," said the innocent and wonderful Renee.
The cop stared at her. "Where do you live?" he asked.
Renee. who was.standing on her front porch, waved a
hand at her house and said, "I am leaving here."
The harassed police officer gave her another long and
rueful look, sighed, and said, "So am I," and went away.
Why Johnny
Can't Write
BY MERRILL SHEILS

If your children are attending college, the chances are that

when they graduate they will be unable to write ordinary,
expository English with any real degree of structure and
lucidity. If they are in high school and planning to attend
college, the chances are less than even that they will be
able to write English at the minimal college level when they
get there. If they are not planning to attend college, their
skills in writing English may not even qualify them for
secretarial or clerical work. And if they are attending ele-
mentary school, they are almost certainly not being given
the kind of required reading material, much less writing
instruction, that might make it possible for them eventuaily
to write comprehensible English. Willy-nilly, the U.S. ed-
ucational system is spawning a generation of semi-literates.
Nationwide, the statistics on both reading and writing
grow more appalling each year. The United States, says
poet Karl Shapiro, "is in the midst of a literary breakdown."
Historian Jacques Barzun concludes, "We have ceased to
think with words."
100
 Why Johnny Can't W r ite 101
The evidence is massive. Firms seeking secretaries who
can spell and punctuate, or junior executives who can write
intelligible reports, complain that college graduates no
longer fill tl c bill. "Errors we once found in applications
from high-school graduates are now cropping up in forms
from people with four-year-college degrees," says a per-
sonnel official for the Bank of America. At the University
of California at Berkeley, where students come from the
top 12.5 percent of high-school graduates, nearly half of
last year's freshmen were so seriously deficient at organ-
izing their thoughts o.i paper that they were forced to enroll
in remedial courses nicknamed "bonehead English." And
when the Association of American Publishers prepared a
pamphlet to help college freshmen get the most from their
textbooks, it had to be rewritten from a twelfth-grade level
to a ninth-grade level so that students could understand it.
DOWN THE TUBE. The breakdown in writing has
been in the making for years. The causes range from in-
adequate grounding in the basics of syntax, structure and
style to the popularity of secondary-school curriculums that
no longer require the wide range of reading all students
must have if they are to learn to write clearly. Educators
emphatically agree that a student who cannot read with true
comprehension will never learn to write well. "Writing is,
after all, book-talk," says Ramon Veal, associate professor
of language education at the University of Georgia's College
of Education. "You learn book-talk only by reading."
The judges in the National Assessment of Educational
Progress study, a panel of English teachers and scholars
from across the country, suggest that most people tested
have been strongly influenced by the simplistic spoken style
of television E.B. White, New Yorker magazine essayist,
puts it this way: "Short of throwing away all the television
sets, 1 reaHy don't know what we can do about writing."
No one has yet produced a thorough study of the effect of
TV on a generation of students raised in its glare, but on
at least two points most language experts agree: time spent
watching television is time that might otherwise be devoted
to reading; and the passiveness of the viewing—'letting the
television become one's main environment," in the words
of Barzun—seems to have a maikedly bad effect on a child's
22 WORD f OWER
active pursuit of written skills. "The TV keeps children
entertained," complains Albert Tillman, director of a writ-
ing clinic at the University of Illinois "It does not demand
that thev take active part in their learning."
"PRESTIGE" DIALECT. Even the effects of televi-
sion might be counteracted if students were required to learn
the written language in the classroom. There, hawever,
overcrowding and increased workloads have led many
teachers to give up assigning essays and to rely, instead,
on short-answer exercises that are easier to mark. As a
result, many students now graduate from high school with-
out ever having had any real practice in writing.
The 1960s also brought a subtle shift of educational
philosophy away from the teaching of expository writing.
Many teachers began to emphasize "creativity" in the Eng-
lish classrooms and expanded their curriculurns to allow
students to work with contemporary media of communi-
cation such as fiim, videotape and photography. Even where
writing is still taught, the creative approach discourages
insistence on grammar, structure and style, in the belief that
rules stifle spontaneity. Elliott Anderson, professor of Eng-
lish at Northwestern University, reports that many high-
school teachers have simply stopped correcting poor gram-
mar and sloppy construction.
In the opinion of many language experts, another group
ot villains are educators who misuse the principles of "struc-
tural linguistics." The stmctural linguists contend that the
spoken idiom is superior to the written and that there arc
no real standards for any language apart from the way it is
commonly spoken Teachers under their influence believe
that there is no need for students to study formal language
rules. Philologist Mario Pei warns that much of academia
is now controlled by those who preach "that the only lan-
guage activity worthy of the name is speech on the collo-
quial, slangy, even illiterate plane."
The pervasive influence of the stmctural linguists, cou-
pled with the political activism of the past decade, has also
led many teachers to take the view thai standard English
is just a "prestige" dialect among many others, and that
insistence on its predominance constitutes an act of rep>es-
sion by the white middle class. This attitude ignores the
 Why Johnny Can't Wr ite 103
likelihood that students who do not have the opportunity
to master standard English will also lose the chance at
higher-ranking jobs where standard English does prevail.
"Prestige" dialect or not, standard English is in fact the
language of American law, politics, commerce and the vast
bulk of American literature. To deny children access to it,
argue traditionalists, is in itself a pernicious form of oppres-
sion.
How to stop the rot in writing skills is a matter of in-
creasingly vigorous debate. The late James Knapton, a for-
mer supervisor of remedial English at Berkeley, who quit
the university in disgust eight years ago when officials
dropped the school's essay requirement for admission, be-
lieved that the first step must be to teach the English teachers
themselves how to write. Knapton's point is well taken.
According to an officer of the National Council of Teachers
of English, it is now possible for an aspirant who wants to
teach high-school English to go all the way through high
school, college and advanced-education degrees without
having taken a single course in English composition since
che ninth grade.
Some researchers estimate that more than 50 percent of
the nation's secondary-school English teachers did not spec-
ialize in English at all during their college years. School
officials in Maryland were horrified by the results of a recent
study which showed that hajf of the teachers who apply for
English-teaching jobs in Montgomery County fail a basic
test of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
CLOSING THE GAP. In 1974, educators in San Fran-
cisco decided to do something about the teaching gap. The
University of California's Berkeley/Bay Area Writing Proj-
ect invited teachers from nine California counties to spend
a five-week summer session with a coalition of Berkeley
professors. Five days a week, eight hours a day, the teachers
studied current research on writing, examined practical ap-
proaches to teaching it, developed curriculum material and
wrote extensively on their own. Each then returned to his
school district to offer similar training to his colleagues.
The workshop was such a success that it was repeated last
summer and, as a result, 31 Bay Area school districts have
funded their own writing workshops, and a consortium of
22 WORD f OWER
California colleges and universities is considering plans for
more such programs.
In other areas, a number of schools have come up with
their own methods of improving writing skills. At Phillips
Academy in Andover, Mass., the traditional fou' years of
required English courses have been replaced with a school-
wide requirement for competence in reading and writing.
Every student, regardless of his grade level, must take the
course—called, simply enough, "Competence'^—until he
passes it. The premise, says headmaster Theodore Sizer,
is elementary: "Until a youngster can demonstrate that he
is competent in reading and writing, you just cannot pass
him along to more advanced studies."
Television is being appraised as a teaching tool in some
places. Since it is here to stay, a number of concerned
teachers and researchers are beginning to suggest that it be
used to promote—not replace- ine study of the written lan-
guage. "Kids spend three to rour hours watching TV every
day," says Peter Almond, who has been studying children
and television for the Carnegie Council on Children. "Why
not learn to use it more wisely?" Almond reports that many
of the best teachers already assign reading and writing ex-
ercises based on television shows their students watch.
THE RIGHT TO WRITE. Educators agree that it is
absolutely essential to make students write. "That's the only
way they learn," says Eunice Sims, coordinator of English
for the Atlanta school sy stem. "Let them write about what-
ever interests them and teach from that. You can always
move a student from essays on street fighting to essays on
Shelley."
Despite the laudable efforts of some individual teachers,
however, very little improvement in the writing skills of
American students is likely unless the entire educational
Establishment recaptures the earlier conviction that the writ-
ten language is important. One thing that is clearly needed
is a renewed emphasis on reading as both a discipline and
a diversion. Written language—with its fixed, essential
rules—remains the only effective vehicle for transmitting
and debating a culture's ideas, values and goals. If it is
placed at the mercv of - ery new colloquialism, then we
will soon find ourselves back in Babel.
 Why Johnny Can't W r ite 115
"Learning to write is the hardest, most important thinj.
any child does," says Carlos Baker, professor of English
at Princeton University. "Learning to write is learning to
think." Adds semanticist S. I. Hayakawa, "You don't know
anything clearly unless you can state it in writing."
IT PAY'S T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
No. 10
Advertising Words
BY PETER FUNK
Advertisers choose their phrases with skill and great care. The
words may come fast but they don't necessarily, or always, come
easily. All 20 of the following words were taken from recent
advertisements in Reader's Digest. Pick the answer you think is
right. Answers appear at the end of this test.
1. invert (in vert')—A: to swerve. B: cause to slope. C: turn
upside down. D . distract.
1

2. redemption (re demp' shun)—A: sale. 8: gift or contri-

bution. C. protection. D: act of buying back.
3. console (c6n' sol)—A: tent. B: merry-go-round. C: cabinet.
D: style of car.
4. parquetry (par' k£ ire)—A: dessert. B: game. C: cast iron.
D: inlaid woodwork.
5. uncanny (un can' nei—A: amusing. B: mysterious. C
thoughtless. D: guileless.
6. compendium (com pen' de um)—A: summary. B: large
desk. C: assurance. D: counterweight.
7. ingestion (in jes' chun)—A: pain or discomfort B: over-
crowded state. C: eatmg. D: arrival
8. foibie 'Joy' b'l}-~A'. artifice. B: personal fault. C: attitude.
D. witticism.
9. decade fdfik' ad)—A: disintegration. B: tricc. C: rhythmic
tone D: group uf ten.
10, poignant (pom' van!)—A: •deeply m .vmg B: witty. C:
obscure. D: savory
U. nebulous (neb' u lus)—A: indefinite. B: voracious C:
opaque. D: indifferent.
IM
 Word Power Test No. I I 107
12. component .'com po' nent)—A: part. B: arrangement. C:
niche. D: combination.
13. nubby (nub' e)—A: affectionate. B: chic. C: childlike. D:
lumpy.
14. tort—A: remark. B: harmful act. C: legal torm D gesture
15. effervescent (ef ur ves' 'nt)—A: alluring B: bubbling. C:
laundering. D: crystal-clear.
16. caption (cap' shun)—A: joke. B: definition. C: title. D:
problem.
17. prone (pron)—A: rigid. B; persistent. C: predisposed. D:
protective.
18. finite (ff nit)—A: crucial. B: limited. C: precise D: ev
erlasting.
19. occlusive (6 kloo' slv)—that which A: discriminates. B:
outrages. C: distinguishes. D: shuts off.
20. contend (con tend')—A: assert. B: approve. C: quibble.
D- contradict.
ANSWERS

1. invert—C: To turn upside down or inside out; reverse.

"Invert the cake onto a serving dish." Latin invertere (to
turn over, transpose).
2. redemption—D: Buying back; exchanging coupons or
stamps for a premium or prize. Latin redemptio.
3. console—C: Radio, phonograph or TV cabinet designed to
stand on the floor. French.
4. parquetry—D; Inlaid woodwork forming a pattern, often
of contrasting woods; as, a simulated parquetry top. French
parquet (little park; small enclosure).
5. uncanny—B: Mysterious; eerie; as, the uncanny predic-
tions of a seer. Scottish.
6. compendium—A: Short, comprehensive summary. Latin
compendere (to weigh together); as, a compendium of useful
information.
7. ingestion—C: Eating; the taking in of anything; as, the
ingestion of vitamins. Latin inge^ere (to carry; pour in).
8. foible—B: A slight, easily excusable persona! fault or id-
iosyncrasy; as, our follies and foibles. Originally a fencing
term, referring to the weak part of a sword. French.
9 decade—D: Group of ten; period of ten years. Greek deka
(tenV
22 WORD f OWER
10. poignant—A. From Latin pungere (to prick); thus, emo-
tionally moving in a painful, penetrating «vay; as, poignant
memories.
11. nebulous—A: From the Latin nebula (cloud, mist). Indef-
inite; vague; unclear. "The problem of insecurity is nebu-
lous."
12. component—A: A main part of a whole; as, top-quality,
factory-tested components. Latin componere (to put to-
gether).
13. nubby—D; Lumpy, having a rough, knotted surface. Re-
lated to nub (knob, lump) from Middle Low German knobbe
(knob). "Start with nubby textured drapery."
14. tort—B: Harmful act (such as injuring property or a rep-
utation) for which a civil suit can be brought. "Such time
lags are an indictment of the ptesent tort system." Latin
torquere (to twist).
15. effervescent—B: Bubbling up; foaming; as, unsurpassed
effervescent action. Also lively; sparkling. Latin efferves-
cere (to boil up).
16. caption—C: Title; short description of a picture in a pub-
lication; as, captions that are stories in themselves. Latin
capere (to take, seize).
17. prone—C: Predisposed; as, students in their cavity-prone'
years. Latin pronus (inclined forward).
18. finite—B: Limited; having certain boundaries; as, the
world's finite petroleum reserves. Latin finire (to finish).
19. occlusive—D: Shutting off; obstructing; as, "It sets up an
occlusive seal." Latin occludere.
20. contend—A; To assert; maintain. Latin contendere (to
strain, exert).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—19 conect exceptional
18—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
Don't Give Up
on English
BY WILL STANTON

The English language is like a woman's wardrobe—full of

things she can't use, and yet the one thing s{ie needs she
can't find.
For instance, we don't have a good general interrogative
like the French N'est-ce pas? One possibility is the word
Right? The trouble is, people who start using it can't stop.
"So, I'm driving down the street, right? And there's this
big truck, right? Now, I'm not going to hassle any truck,
right?"
And how do you contract Am I not? Amn't I? Ain't I?
Aren't I? I can't use any one of these without feeling like
a simpleton, so I'm forced back to Am I not. Right?
Then there are words which have been kicking around
the language for centuries without ever doing a lick of
honest work. Take adumbrate, which means to foreshadow
or reveal, to overshadow or conceal, to outline in a shadowy
way—or to reveal some, conceal some. It's like a dispenser
that puts out salt, pepper, napkins and maple syrup all at
once.
109
120 WOJ*D POWER
There are combinations of words that don't make sense.
Raise means to build up; raze means to tear down—as, for
instance, by burning up. Which means burning down.
Fasten is the opposite of loosen. But unfasten and un-
loosen art* the same. If you look over something, you give
it a gocK ic .. If you overlook it, you don't look at it at
all. If you .sersee it, you give it a good look again.
Then there's the way we pat words together. You hear
a cuddlesome girl referred to as honey lamb—as if a young
sheep dipped in honey was something you might like to
hug.
When a person does something stupid, we call him a
dumb bunny. Like if he gets out of a warm bed to go outside
in the wet bushes and hide Easter eggs. True, it's the bunny
who gets credit for this idiocy, but who actually does it?
And what do you suppose the bunny is doing meantime?
Okay.
Tlie English language is constantly changing, and it's
not the experts who change it. It's the dummies who don't
know any better.
The word awful used to mean something awe-inspiring
like a cathedral. When a new church was built, everybody
would go to see how awful it was. Sunday after Sunday.
The kids would maybe rather have fooled around down at
the creek or over at some girl's house. But no, back to the
old cathedral. "You ever see such an awful church?" they'd
say. "No, I've seen churches, but this takes the cake for
awful." And they would cross their eyes and make gagging
sounds, and the word acquired the meaning it has now.
According to the rules, you shouldn't end a sentence
with a preposition. This is a rale 1 don't believe in. A
preposition at the end gives a sentence zing—shows where
it's at. My son seems to share the feeling. One time I went
up to his room to read him a bedtime story and took the
wrong book He said, "What did you bring that book I
didn't want to be read to out of up for?"
English has a rale that says two negatives make a pos-
itive. This may be all right for maih, but it's a little un-
realistic in practice. Let's say you ask a girl for a date and
she says, "1 don't want nothing to do with you, no time,
no way." To an English professor she means yes. This may
 Don't Give Up on English 111
be one reason so many scholars wind up overcautious.
Two words that cause a lot of trouble are lie and lay.
You can lay your head down or lay yourself down, but you
can't just lay down. Unless it's the past tense. If you lay
down half a second ago, that's fine. But right now you're
not laying, you're lying. When the change takes place I
don't know—and try explaining it to somebody from Al-
bania.
Sit down and set are just as bad. A setting hen sits on
the eggs. When she's laying, she's not lying—she's sitting
again. Tbe only time a chicken lies down is when it's dead.
Just looking at a chicken, you'd never guess it led such a
complicated life.
Don't get me wrong. I have no patience with people who
say English is a "dying" language. That's not the word to
describe it at all. The words you might use to describe
English are the same ones you might apply to your wife:
charming, exasperating, enchanting, maddening, unreason-
able, beloved.
Beware These Word-
Traps!
BY THEODORE M. BERNSTEIN

Can you spot the misused word in the following sentence?

"It gentles the smoke by traveling it farther." Maybe this
one will help you: "We can sleep 20 people in the house
in a pinch, but we can eat only 12." For many years Theo-
dore M. Bernstein, assistant managing editor of the New
York Times, campaigned against such misuse of our lan-
guage. Here are extracts from his book. The Careful Writer.
A.D. Anno Domini means in the year of our Lord, and
its abbreviation should not, therefore, be affixed to the name
of a century. "The sixth century A.D " would mean the
sixth century in the year of our Lord, which is preposterous.
Write "the sixth century after Christ" or, better still, just
"the sixth century ."
ADAGE. "The press secretary recalled the old adage—
'vote early and often.'" An "adage" is a long-established
saving; therefore the "old" is redundant.
"ARBITRATE, MEDIATE. They are not interchange-
able. "Arbitrators" hear evidence, act as judges. "Media-
tors" act as go-betweens to work out an agreement, but lack
the authority of ultimate decision.
112
 Beware These Word-Traps! 113
ATTORNEY, LAWYER. "Lawyer" designates one
who practices law. "Attorney" refers to one who is desig-
nated by another to transact business for him. An attorney
may or may not be a lawyer, but a lawyer is an attorney
only when he has a client. It may be that the desire of
lawyers to appear to be making a go of their profession has
accounted for their leaning toward the designation "attor-
ney."
AVERT, AVOID. "The second war was different," said
a British prime minister. "I don't think anything could have
avoided it." Not true. Switzerland "avoided" it {i.e., kept
clear of it, shunned it). J"he prime minister meant that he
did not think anything could have "averted" it (i.e., pre-
vented it, warded it off).
BLATANT, FLAGRANT. In "blatant" the emphasis
is on noise; "blatant" means obnoxiously loud. "Flagrant"
means openly evil or scandalous.
CAREEN, CAREER. "Careen" means to tilt or heel
over: "The yacht careened sharply at the first buoy." "Ca-
reer" means to move at high speed: "Out of control, the car
careered into the children."
FLAIL, FLAY. "Who is to stay that ham-like hand
when it flays away?" "Flay" means to tear the skin off.
"Flail" means to whip or flog.
FLAMMABLE. Identical in meaning with inflamma-
ble, the variant "flammable" has for some year:, been pushed
forward by fire underwriters. They argue—and no doubt
with justice-—that many people, on picking up a can of
cleaning fluid labeled inflammable, believe the fluid will
not burn. If it will save a single burned eyelash, by all
means let's have "flammable."
GAMBIT. In chess, the word refers to opening moves
in which a piece is sacrificed to obtain a strategic advantage.
Derivatively, it means a concession to get things started.
It does not mean any opening move, or merely a maneuver
in the course of a game. If a lad wooing a lass invites her
to dinner, it is not a "gambit"' if he in addition invests his
hard-earned pay in orchids and champagne in the hope of
a later return, it is.
GENDER. "Gender" is a grammatical term. It is not a
substitute for "sex" (but, then, what is?).
114 WOJ*D POWER
KNOT. 'The carrier Wasp is limping home at eight
knots an hour." "Knot" is a unit of speed: one nautical mile
an hour. Therefore "an hour" should never follow "knots."
MECCA. "The Yiddish Art Theater, which was a Mecca 1

for Jewish theatergoers on New York's Lower East Side..."

For Jews a Mecca yet! Which proves that a cliche can be
explosive in the hands of the unwary.
NEAR-RECORD. "New York City registration, which
ended last night, set a near-record." This is like saying,
"The team scored three near-touchdowns." A similar ex-
ample is this headline: "Near-Riot Is Averted at Hudson."
What actually took place was, pprhaps, a near-riot; what
was averted was a full-fledged riot. '
NON SEQUITURS. Irrelevancies often result from a
writer's desire to work in a piece of information and his
incapacity to determine where it should go. "Born in Des
Moines, Mr. Tuttle joined Philip Ruxton in the business of
making printing ink." No wonder a reader wrote to the
newspaper: "Born in Waukegan, 111., I get damn sick of
non sequimrs." •
PROPORTIONS. "A building of huge proportions.",
"Proportions" expresses a relationship of one part to an-
other, or of parts to the whole. It has nothing to do with
size. A better word would be "dimensions" or "size."
SELF-DEPRECATING. One can "depreciate" (belit-
tle) oneself, but cannot normally "deprecate" (protests
against, disapprove of) oneself.
SELF-MADE. A "self-made" man is a man who has
made himself. But "The bulk of Mr. Getty's fortune is self-
made"? Maybe that's what is meant by "an independent
income."
STRANGLED. "He was found strangled to death."
Delete "to death." That's what "strangled" means.
ZOOM. Originally an aviation term, "zoom" denotes
rapid upward motion. The following sentence is therefore
incorrect: "Melville zoomed down the incline." The writer
may have had in mind the word "swoop." "Swoop" is usu-
ally down.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
No. I I
Moderately Difficult Words

BY PETER FUNK
This collection of moderately difficult words will confirm the
belief that the multi-syllable Greek and Latin words borrowed by
English vastly enrich our tongue. But they also present barriers
to students, spellers and test-takers. In the list below, most of
which are from classic languages, check the word or phrase that
you think is nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear
at the end of this test.
1. categorical (kat 6 gor' I kal)—A: orderly. B: absolute. C:
stubborn. D: authoritative.
2. proviso (pro vT zo)—A: sanction. B: directive. C: stipu-
lation. D: substitute.
3. constraint (kon strant')—A: restraint. B: compactness. C:
intensity. D: aloofness.
4. genial (jen' yal)—A: spontaneous, fl: easygoing. C: ingra-
tiating. D: affable.
5. accost (5 kost')—A: to charge. B: address. C: equip. D:
ambush.
6. unorthodox (un or' tho doks)—A: false. B: unsuitable. C:
relaxed. D: not conventional.
7. inalienable (in al' yen a b'l)—A: unassailable. B: conflict-
ing. C: irrevocable. D: irreconcilable.
8. reappraisal (re a pia' zal>—A: revaluation. B: concise sum-
mary. C: survey. D: retaliatory act.
9. savor (sa' ver>—A: to encourage. B: anticipate. C: relish
D: try.
10. credulous (kred' u lus)—A: skeptical. B: rash. C. honest
D: naive.
11. repetitive (rc pit' 1 tiv)—A: boring. B: pmiiient. C: re-
peating. D: irritating
its
116 WOJ*D POWER
12. ruminate (roo ml nat)—A: to reflect. B: wander. C: talk
at random. D: reside in the country.
13. rescind (r6 sind')—A: to admit error. B. retreat from a
position. C: apologize and make amends. D: repeal or ab-
rogate.
14. advocate (ad' vo kat>—A: to demand. B: agree to. C:
continue. D: recommend.
15. maverick (mav' er ik)—A: dissenter. B: miscreant. C: wild
animal. D: deserter.
16. protocol (pro' to kol)—A: statecraft. B: formal ceremony.
C: code of etiquette. D: official record.
17. interrogate (in ter' o gat)-—A: to frighten. B: detain. C:
bury. D: question.
18. circuitous (sir ku' I tus)—A: rounded. B: indirect. C: con-
fusing. D: crooked.
19. lesion (le' zhun)—A: injury. B: fastening. C: throng. D:
division.
20. belittle (be lit' ''>—A: to badger. B: disparage. C: mock.
D: demote.

ANSWERS

1. categorical—B: Absolute; unqualified; without reservation;

as, a categorical statement. Greek kategoria (affirmation).
2. proviso—C: Stipulation; clause in a contract stating a con-
dition or requirement; as, to add a cancellation proviso.
Latin proviso quod (provided that).
3. constraint—A: Restraint; repression of one's true feelings;
as, to debate the issue with constraint. Latin constringere
(to constrict).
4. genial—D: Affable; kindly; cheerful; as, a genial host.
Latin genialis.
5. accost—B: To address; approach and speak to; speak first
to; as, to accost a stranger. Middle French accoster.
6. unorthodox—D: Not conventional: breaking with tradition;
as. unorthodox dress. Greek an- (not), and orthodoxos
(having a right opinion).
7. inalienable—C: Irrevocable; that cannot be taken away,
transferred or surrendered: as, inalienable rights. French
inalienable.
8. reappraisal—A: Revaluation: new or fresh appraisal; as.
 Word Power Test No. I I 117
a reappraisal of one's objectives. Middle French re- (again)
and aprisier (to set a value on).
9. savor—C: To relish; taste or enjoy thoroughly; as, to savor
success. Latin sapere (to taste).
10. credulous—D: Naive; overready to believe or trust; as, a
credulous audience. Latin credulus, from credere (to be-
lieve).
11. repetitive—C: Repeating; marked by needless repetition;
as, repetitive writing. Latin repetere (to repeat).
12. ruminate—A: To reflect; ponder at length; as, to ruminate
on past errors. Latin ruminare (to chew over again).
13. rescind—D: To repeal or abrogate; make void. Latin res-
cinder e (to cut away).
14. advocate—D: To recommend publicly; plead in favor of;
support; as, to advocate a nationwide anti-pollution pro-
gram. Latin advocare (to summon).
15. maverick—A: Dissenter; nonconforming individualist; as,
a political maverick. After Samuel A. Maverick, a Texas
pioneer who did not brand his cattle.
16. protocol—C: Code of diplomatic etiquette and precedence;
as, to be seated according to protocol. Greek prdtokollon.
17. interrogate—D: To question formally and systematically;
as, to interrogate a prisoner. Latin interrogare.
18. circuitous—B: Indirect; roundabout; as, a circuitous route.
Latin circuitus, from circumire (to go round).
19. lesion—A: Injury; impairment: damage to the body; as. a
lesion in a tendon. Latin laedere (to injure).
20. belittle—B: To disparage; decry; speak slightingly of; as,
to belittle an opponent's record.

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct excellent
17—15 correct good
14—12 correct fair
A Tip on
Straight Thinking
by s t u a r t c h a s e

In an English law court the attorney for the defense was

handed a note by his partner: "No case. Abuse the plaintiff's
attorney." The defendant was guilty on the evidence, so the
best his attorney could do was to try to confuse the jury by
making a reprehensible character out of the lawyer on the
other side.
This type of argument has been around a-long time—so
long indeed that it has a Latin name, argumentum ad hom-
inem. This means to switch the argument from the issue to
the man, and might be freely translated, "Get personal."
If a case is hard to attack on its merits, attack the character
of the man in charge.
The power to reason accurately has been called the chief
glory of man. Every day, almost every hour, by an aston-
ishing process inside the brain, we form opinions and make
decisions. Our conclusions can be good, bad or indifferent,
depending on how we have learned to think.
Wise men over the centuries have- identified about 20
118
 A Tip on Straight Thinking 119
varieties of false and phony reasoning. Argument ad hom-
inem easily heads the list.
About a century ago Darwin and Huxley evolved the
principles of evolution. Many religious people were shocked
and tremendous opposition developed. Bishop Wilberforce
was especially shocked, and in a public debate asked Hux-
ley: "Are you descended from a monkey on your grand-
mother's or your grandfather's side?" This classic example
of ad hominem brought down the house. Rather than debate
the scientific evidence, the Bishop evaded the issue by
resorting to a crack about Huxley's ancestors.
Some years ago I was asked to testify in a legal action
in Bridgeport, Conn. I had been working on population
trends in the United States, and a committee wanted me to
apply the formulas to forecast the growth of Bridgeport.
The case had to do with a new city reservoir. The lawyer
for the other side began by questioning my figures. This
was right and proper. Finding no serious discrepancies, he
shuffled his notes, took a step in my direction and de-
manded, "Mr. Chase, were you ever a Technocrat?"
What this had to do with the population prospects of
Bridgeport was a trifle obscure; but it was intended to dis-
credit me as a witness. Technocrats were supposed to be
crackpots. I said I'd never been a Technocrat. At the peak
of the Technocracy craze, I went on, I had written an article
about it. Thus I managed to meet this ad hominem squeeze
play, but plenty of other witnesses do not.
There are all sorts of ad hominem cases. We all have
heard the complaint that Smith's plan for traffic control in
our town can't be any good because Smith never went
beyond grade school. This conclusion saves us the trouble
of studying the plan. We all know the father who laughs
off Junior's idea as to why the family car coughs like a
wounded gorilla. The notion must be worthless, Father
thinks, because Junior is still so very junior. But he may
have a passion for internal-combustion engines.
Theie is another Latin term which links up here: non
sequitur, "it does not follow." Because a man has his faults
it does not follow that what he has produced, sponsored or
is associated with is worthless. By the same token, because
120 WOJ*D POWER
the man is beyond praise, it does not follow that his every
idea is too good to be looked into.
Ad hominem, once grasped, alerts us to many pitfalls in
thinking. Presently we can spot it snarling up television and
radio discussion programs, news stories, editorials, political
speeches—especially political speeches. We find it reap-
pearing in the arguments of our family and our friends. But
let me warn you not to be overzealous in correcting family
and friends. Start slowly, as in a golf swing. Nobody likes
to be told he doesn't know how to think. What one of us,
however, isn't glad to be able to think a little straighter?
To avoid faulty, unfair and sometimes disastrous deci-
sions, squeeze the personality out of an issue. Stop and ask:
"Is the idea sound, regardless of its origin? Am I judging
the matter on its merits, or am 1 getting personal?"
Masters
of Babble
by j a m e s p. d e g n a n

The scene is my office. I am at work, doing what must be

done to help cure a disease that, over the years, I have come
to call straight-A illiteracy. 1 am interrogating, 1 am cross-
examining, I am prying and probing for the meaning of a
student's paper. The student is a college senior with a
straight-A average, an extremely bright student who has
just been awarded a coveted fellowship for postgraduate
study. He and I have been at this for an hour.
"The choice of exogenous variables in relation to mul-
ticolinearity," I hear myself reading from his paper, "is
contingent upon the derivations of certain multiple corre-
lation coefficients." I pause to catch my breath. "Now that
statement," I address the student—whom I shall call, a!-
legorically, Mr. Bright—"that statement; Mr. Bright—what
on earth does it mean?"
Mr. Bright, brow furrowed, tries mightily. Finally, com-
bining our mental resources, we decode it. We discover
what he is trying to say, what he really wants to say, which
is: "Supply determines demand."
Over the past decade or so, I have known many coilege
seniors suffering from "Bright's disease." It attacks the best
minds, and gradually destroys the critical faculties. During
122 WOJ*D POWER
the years of higher education, it grows worse, reaching its
terminal stage, typically, when its victim receives his Ph.D.
Obviously, the victim is no ordinary illiterate. He would
never turn in a paper with misspellings or errors in punc-
tuation; he would never use a double negative or the word
irregardless. Nevertheless, he is illiterate, in the worst way.
He is incapable of saying, in writing, simply and clearly,
what he means.
The ordinary illiterate might say: "Them people down
at the shop better stock up on what our customers need, or
we ain't gonna be in business long." Not our man. Taking
his cue from years of higher education, years of reading the
textbooks and professional journals that are the major
sources of his affliction, he writes: "The focus of concen-
tration must rest upon objectives centered around the knowl-
edge of customer areas so that a sophisticated awareness
of those areas can serve as an entrepreneurial filter to screen
what is relevant from what is irrelevant to future commit-
ments." For writing such gibberish he is awarded A's on
his papers and the opportunity to move, inexorably, toward
his Ph.D.
The major cause of such illiteracy is the stuff the straight-
A illiterate is forced to read during his years of higher
education. He learns to write gibberish by reading it, and
by being taught to admire it. He must grapple with such
journals as the. American Sociological Review, journals
bulging with barbarous jargon, such as "ego-integrative
action orientation." In such journals, two things are never
described as being "alike." They are "homologous" or
"isomorphic." Nor are things simply "different." They are
"allotropic." In such journals, writers never "divide" any-
thing. They "dichotomize" or "bifurcate."
Sociology has long been notorious for producing illit-
erates of all kinds, but such supposedly more literate and
humane disciplines as philosophy, and even English, turn
them out as well If the potential victim majors in English
with an emphasis on linguistics, it will be almost impossible
for him to emerge with literacy intact. He will habitually
read such masters of babble as Dr. Noam Chomsky or Dr.
Zellig S. Harris. From Chomsky's Syntactic Structures:
"When transformational analysis is properly formulated we
 Master, of Babble 123
find that it is essentially more powerful than description in
terms of phrase structure, just as the latter is essentially
more powerful than description in terms of finite-state Mar-
kov processes that generate sentences from left to right."
Or from Dr. Harris's renowned text, Structural Linguistics:
"Another consideration is the availability of simultaneity,
in addition to successivity, as a relation among linguistic
elements."
Such reading reduces the student's mind to gruel. His
capacity to think degenerates, and, with it, his capacity to
write readable English.
From time to time, visionaries and radicals have tried
to do away with straight-A illiteracy but, obviously, to little
effect. Yet the cure is simple. The various academic dis-
ciplines need to recognize the homely truth that the one
thing they share, and must share if they are to communicate
with one another, is a common language—a language with
conventions and standards that determine whether it is being
used well or badly. These criteria are available in such
civilized (but, these days, apparently unused) sources as
Fowler's Modern English Usage and the standard diction-
aries .
Writing veil means writing simply, clearly, vividly and
forcefully, whether such writing is done by a philosopher
or an engineer. If one has nothing to say, one should refrain
from using thousands of words to say it; pretentious non-
sense is not profundity.
These truths are painful for many. As one of the many
straight-A illiterates 1 have known once explained, "If 1
followed your advice, I could never write the 5000-word
term papers I am regularly assigned; I could never get a
fellowship to graduate school, or a contract to do a textbook
or a decent job in business or government. What you're
asking is just too much. Think what it would do in the
universities alone. It would wipe out hundreds of courses
and all of the colleges of education. And think what it would
do to the economy; thirk of the depression it would cause
in the paper and ink and business-machine industries; think
what would happen in the publishing business; think of ail
the secretaries who would be out of work. No, I'm sorry,
literacy might be okay, but I can't afford it."
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 12
Book Words

BY PETER FUNK
This collection of words comes from books, and shows it. There
is something lofty and impressive about "book words". They seem
to go about in formal attire, unlike the shirt-sleeves words of
everyday talk. In the list below, check the word or phrase that
you think is nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear
at the end of this test.
1. accede (ak sed')—A: to reach. B: achieve. C: assent. D:
go beyond.
2. proponent (pro po' nent>—A: adversary. B: interpreter. C:
dissenter. D: advocate.
3. gradation (gra da' shun)—A: gradual change. B: place-
ment. C: evaluation. D: measuring mark.
4. interstice (in ter' stis)—A: legal ban. B: narrow space. C:
dividing line. D: insert.
5 reproof (re proof')—A: rebuke. B: warning. C: lampoon.
D: duplicate.
6. paean (pe' an)—A: peasant. B: offering. C: song of praise.
D. heathen.
7. countermand (kour. ter mancl'>—A: to strengthen B: pro-
hibit. C: smuggle. D: revoke.
8. blazon ^bla zun)—A: to publicize. B: burn. C: smooth.
D: mark.
9. expiate {cits' pi at}—A: to speed up. B: atons for. C: make
clear. D; forgive.
!Q. concentric ikon sen' triki—A: round. B: condensed. C:
having a common center. D: simultaneous
II verit) (ver i te)—A conceit. B: assortment. O guar?ntee.
D: truth
12. modulate (mod' Q iat)—A: to update. B; regulate C: in-
tervene. D. compromise.
124
 Word Power Test No. I I 125
13. cupidity (ku pid' I te)—A; stinginess. B: infatuation. C;
curiosity. D: greed.
14 adventitious (ad ven tish' us)—A: helpful. B: favorable.
C: accidental. D: timely.
15 pastoral (pas' tor al)—A: rural. B: sentimental. C: historic.
D: isolated.
16 on tenterhooks (ten' ter hooks)—A: detained. B: cautious.
C: anxious. D: having resilience.
17 kinetic (ki net' ik)—A: collective. B: pertaining to motion.
C: psychic. D: related by blood.
18 transfix (trans fiks')—A: to close up. B: substitute. C:
impale. D: redo.
19 descry (de skri')—A: to catch sight of. B: describe. C:
complain. D: belittle.
20 caprice (ka pres')—A: illusion. B: whim. C: grace. D:
practical joke
ANSWERS

1. accede—C: To assent; consent; yield, often under pressure;

as, to accede to terms of a peace settlement. Latin accedere
(to approach).
2. proponent—D: Advocate; one who makes a proposal; as,
the proponent of a broad conservation program. Latin pro-
ponere (to put forth).
3. gradation—A: Gradual change by regular degrees or
stages; as, the distinct gradations of 'he solar spectrum.
Latin gradus (step).
4. interstice—B: Narrow space between things or parts; chink;
crevice; as, the moss-filled interstices of the old wall. Latin
intersistere (to stand between).
5. reproof—A: Rebuke; expression of mild disapproval; as,
conduct warranting parental reproof. Old French reprover
(to reprove).
6. paean—C: Song of joyful praise or triumph; as, a paean
to freedom. Latin paean.
7. countermand—D: To revoke or reverse, as a command;
cancel; as, to countermand an order for merchandise. Mid-
dle French contremander.
8. blazon—A: To publicize widely; exhibit conspicuously;
also, to deck; adorn; as, to blazon the town with posters.
Middle French blason.
126 WOJ*D POWER
9. expfate—B: To atone for; make amends for; as, to expiate
an offense. Latin expiare.
10. concentric—C: Having a common center, as circles within
one another; as, concentric circles on the water. Latin com-
(together) and centrum (center).
i t. verity—D: Truth; true statement; accurate fact; as, to chal-
lenge the verity of a witness's testimony. Latin verus (true).
12. modulate—B: To regulate; soften; tone down; adjust to an
appropriate quality or volume; as, to modulate one's voice.
Latin modulari (to measure).
13. cupidity—D: Greed; avarice; inordinate desire for wealth
or possessions; as, the cupidity of irresponsible pre-emptors
of our natural resources. Latin cupere (to desire).
14. adventitious—C: Accidental; occurring unexpectedly or in
other than the usual location; as an adventitious weed. Latin
adventicius (coming from the outside).
15. pastoral—A: Rural; having the simplicity and charm of
country life; as, a quiet, pastoral scene. Latin pastor (herds-
man).
16. on tenterhooks—C: Anxious; a state of suspense, as though
"stretched." Latin tendere (to stretch) and Old English hoc
(hook). A tenterhook is a hook for fastening cloth on a
tenter, a stretching frame.
17. kinetic—B: Pertaining to motion and the forces associated
with motion; lively; as, the kinetic excitement of ice hockey.
Greek kinein (to move).
18. transfix—C: To impale; pierce through; immobilize as if
by piercing; as. to be transfixed with horror. Latin trans-
figure.
19. descry—A; To catch sight of; discern by careful scanning
something distant and difficult to view; as, to descry the
misty mountain peak. Old French descrier.
20. caprice—B; Whim; Impulsive or unpredictable change
without apparent reason; as, the caprice of the weather.
Italian capriccio.

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exception^
17—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
There's a
Meaning Here
Somewhere
BY EDWIN NEWMAN

The day is not far off when someone about to join his family
will excuse himself by saying that he does not want to keep
his micro-cluster of structured role expectations waiting.
True, I came upon this gem of social-scientific jargon
in London, but that only shows how far our influence has
spread and how determined the British are to join the
Americans at the kill when the English language finally is
done to death. Asphyxiation will be the cause, with the
lethal agent gas This is the gas which, added to evidence,
produces evidentiary material, and which, escaping from
a Secret Service spokesman, turned former President Ford
and his micro-cluster of structured role expectations into
protectees. At that, protectee is better than a similar gov-
ernment word, escapee, which is used—misused—to mean
somebody who escaped.
• "To what do you attribute your escape " 7

"I am a fast runnee."

The chief current protectee of the Secret Service is not
127
128 WOJ*D POWER
a gross offender—or offendee—against the language,
though he once identified inflation as "the universal enemy
of one hundred percent of our people." Alan Greenspan,
chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, had a bit
more to say about the same subject: "Thus, once the infla-
tion genie has been let out of the bottle, it is a very tricky
policy problem to find the particular calibration and timing
that would be appropriate to stem the acceleration in risk
premiums created by falling incomes without prematurely
aborting the decline in the inflation-generated risk premi-
ums. This is clearly not an easy policy path to traverse but
it is the path which we must follow."
Greenspan was speaking in Washington, a city where
a scarcity of money is routinely referred to as a tight resource
environment and where, after an experiment with fish in
which all the fish died, the Atomic Energy Commission
said, "The biota exhibited one-hundred-percent mortality
response."
Thrust is also a word much in vogue today. A dean of
a university department of home economics (no longer
called home economics but family resources and consumer
sciences) told an interviewer that in her previous job, in the
Office of Education in Washington, most of her work had
been in "conceptualizing new thrusts in programming."
Conceptualizing thrusts, or articulating them, is what we
have come to expect from the social sciences. In that world,
a sociologist will feel that he has advanced the cause of
knowledge by classifying murder and assault as escalated
interpersonal altercations; an applicant for a grant for tech-
nical training will write, "A quality void in technical ca-
pacity constrains achievement"; and teachers who encour-
age children will be said to emit reinforcers. It was a social
scientist who wrote that knowledge that is transmitted from
person to person qua knowledge is called intersubjectively
transmissible knowledge or, for the sake of brevity, trans-
missible knowledge. Making knowledge something of a
bridge over the river qua.
I do not wish to overlook the contribution of business
to wrecking the language. B. Altman, in New York, has
issued this invitation: "Sparkle your table with Cape Cod
classic glassware." As it happened, I did not have time to
 There's a Meaning Here Somewhere 129

sparkle my table because I was busy following instructions

given in another advertisement and was accessorizing my
spacious master bedroom with oil paintings and, in the
words of another advertisement that appeared in The New
Yorker, "making beautiful happen to [my] window treat-
ments . . ." Some days, I wish I could just make clean
happen to my window treatments.
When it comes to making language mushy and boneless,
the British are perhaps not quite as resourceful as the
Americans. For instance, ptaywright William Douglas-
Home, writing to The Times of London, said that the Con-
servative Party "should be plugging, day in, day out, the
tnie facts about taxation." True facts are, of course, the
only kind of facts available—but see what a press release
for an American television program does with them: "The
facts hew to actuality." True facts. The facts hew to ac-
tuality. No contest.
But don't cheer, folks. Soon, also, no language.
The Most Nerve-
Shattering Word
in the Language
BY H. ALLEN SMITH

Lullaby. Golden. Damask. Moonlight. Do these, words

seem esthetically attractive to you? They have appeared
with some regularity on lists of "the ten most beautiful
words in our language." Along with luminous, and hush,
anemone, mother and various others. These lists appear
from time to time in the public prints. But I can't recall
ever seeing a list of the ten ugliest words in the language.
Almost every literate person has in his head an agglom-
eration of words that can cause him to wince, and even
shudder, such as agglomeration. 1 lay claim to several
hundred of the ugiies. Mulcted almost nauseates me. 1
cringe in the face of albeit, and/or, yclept, obsequies, whi-
lom, and tinsmith. Want to hear a real ugly word? Ugly.
Bi t my own nomination for the meanest and low-down-
est and ugliest word of them all is "Oh." Said twice, with
maybe a hyphen, this way: "Oh-oh " In its maximal ugli-
ness. it is customarily spoken softly with inflections that
would curl the toes of a sandy-land mule.
130
 The Most Nerve-Shattering W o r d in the Language 131

Something is wrong, let us say, with the engine of your

car. You take it to the garage. The mechanic lifts the hood
and pokes around a bit and then you hear him murmur,
'Oh-oh.' The wretched creature says it in such a quietly
dramatic manner that you know instantly that your whole
motor has to be derricked out and thrown away and a new
one put in.
Consider our friends, the dentists. Most of them have
enough gumption (beautiful word!) to conceal their opinions
and judgments, but sometimes you'll run across one who
forgets his chairside mariner. He'll be inspecting a big molar
in the back, and suddenly he'll say, "Oh-oh." Or he'll come
out of his darkroom carrying an X ray taken a few minutes
earlier, and he'll put it up against the light, and he'll look
at it briefly, and then his head will give a jerk and he'll
say, "Oh-oh " You know at once, without ESP, precisely
what is meant. Out. All of them. From now on, plates. No
apples. No corn on the cob. No a lot of things.
Physicians as a general thing have schooled themselves
carefully to conceal any sinister condition they may find
during an examination. Yet I have run across one offender
in my checkered medical career. He was giving me the
annual checkup. He took my blood pressure and tapped me
for knee jerks and scratched me on the bottoms of my feet
for God knows what and stethoscoped me front and back
and had me blow into a machine to test my "vital capacity"
and then he turned the electrocardiograph loose on me As
he studied the saw-toothed dossier on my heart, his brow
crinkled and I heard him say, quite softly, "Oh-oh." Every-
thing inside of me suddenly bunched together in one large
knot.
"What is it?" I demanded. "Whad you find there?"
"It's nothing, really," he said
Nothing' Cancer of the heart is nothing? It had to be at
least that.
"I heard you say 'Oh-oh.'" I told him. "Come on. Tell
me. I'm a man. I can take it. Let me have it straight.'"
"Okay," he said, and 1 steeled myself and began to turn
chicken. "I said 'Oh-oh' because," he went on, "I just
happened to think that 1 haven't made out my tax return
yet, and the deadline is tomorrow."
132 WOJ*D POWER
I quit him the next day. I can't use a doctor who is
mooning over his income-tax return while he is looking at
the record of my frightful heart disorders. I don't want a
doctor ever to say "Oh-oh" in my presence, unless perhaps
he has dropped his sphygmomanometer on the floor and
busted it. Even in that contingency I think he should employ
a more masculine expression. I would.
"Oh-oh" is the most frightening, nerve-shattering locu-
tion to come into general usage since Noah Webster's day.
It should surely be forbidden by federal statute.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 13
From the Writings of Margaret Mead
BY PETER FUNK
The late Margaret Mead, one of the world's foremost anthropol-
ogists, was keenly aware of the vital role language plays in a
culture, and was herself a skilled writer and lecturer. She used
the following words in her autobiography, Blackoerry Winter
Pick the word or phrase you believe is nearest in meaning to the
key word.
Check your results at the end of this test.
1. juxtapose (juk' sta poz)—to place A: beyond. B: opposite.
C: side by side. D: above.
2. antidote (an' ti dot)—A: epithet. B: short story. C: remedy.
D: a proceeding.
3. sacrosanct (sSk' ro sankt)—A: peaceful. B: sacred. C;
mundane. D: painful.
4. admonition (ad mo nish' un)—A. reproof. B: pardon. C:
award. D: amazement.
5. stymie (stf me)—A: to delay. B: shorten. C. handicap. D:
block.
6. ruse (rooz)—A: a taunt. B: illusion. C: shrewdness. D:
trick.
7 parody (par' o de)—A. ploy. B: comparison. C: imitation.
D: repetition.
8. differentiate (diff uh ren' she at)—A: to protest. B: note
differences between. C: estrange. D: shift.
9. premise (prSm' is)—A. assumption. B: outline. C: com-
mitment. D: irrefutable fact.
10. replicate (r£p' II kat)—A: to establish. B: demonstrate. C:
substitute. D duplicate
! I. impertinent (ini pur' ti nen!>--A: irritable. B thoughtless.
C: skeptical. D: impudent.
133
134 WOJ*D POWER
12. contrapuntal (con tra pun' t'l)—A: aggressive. B; pre-
senting contrasting elements. C: showing poor sense. D:
eccentric.
13. discern (di sum';—A: to perceive. B: scatter. C. scrutinize.
D: put together.
14. precursor (pre kur' sur)—A: pursuer. B: hunch. C: foe.
D: forerunner.
15. utilitarian (u til i tair' e un)—A: heat-producing. B: un-
imaginative. C. comprehensive. D: practical.
16. artifact (ar' ti fact)—an object that is A: natural. B: an
exact copy. C: man-made. D synthetic.
17. prevision (pre vizh' un)—related to A: food supplies. B:
ideals. C: foresight. D: idolatry.
18. pander—A: to comfort. B: cater to others' weaknesses. C:
take unlawfully. D: implore.
19. stance—A: culture B: jungle hut. C: forest. D: posture.
20. rife (rif)—A: prevalent. B: competitive. C: divided. D:
sharp.
ANSWERS

1. juxtapose—C; To place side by side. From French. "Past

and present were juxtaposed."
2. antidote—C: Remedy to counteract a poison or any un-
wanted condition; as, an antidote to a humdrum life. Greek
antidoton from anti- (against) and doios (given).
3. sacrosanct—B: Sacred; holy; inviolable. Latin sacrosanc-
tus. "The dwelling was sacrosanct."
4. admonition—A: Friendiy reproof: mild warning or re-
minder. Latin admonere.
5. stymie—D. In golf, to place a ball in the way of another
ball on a putting green, figuratively, to block. Scottish or-
igin. "Our plans were stymied."
6. ruse—D: Trick or stratagem intended to dcceive. Old
French reuscr (to turn aside; detour so as to throw dogs off
the scent)
7. parody—C: Any humorous or mocking imitation; as. his
recourse to sarcasm and bitter parody. Greek paroidia
(countersong).
S. differentiate—B: To note differences between similar ele-
ments. Latin differentia (difference).
9. premise—A; Assumption or belief on which an argument
 Word Power Test No. I I 145
or conclusion is based; as, to keep one's premises clear.
Latin praemittere (to send on ahead).
10 replicate—D: To duplicate; copy; repeat. Latin replicare
(to fold back; review).
11. impertinent—D: Impudent; rude: as, an impertinent reply.
Latin impertinens from in- (not) and pertinere (to reach
out).
12. contrapuntal—B: Presenting contrasting elements in mu-
sic, stories, etc. Italian contrappunto (pointed against).
13. discern—A: To perceive mentally or visually; to make a
distinction; as, to discern a pattern. Latin discernere (to
distinguish).
14. precursor—D; A forerunner that indicates future events or
paves the way for achievements of others; predecessor; as,
the unconscious mind in man's precursors. Latin praecur-
rere (to run before).
15. utilitarian—D: Practical; pragmatic; as, a utilitarian re-
lationship. Latin utilis (useful).
16. artifact—C: A man-made object such as a tool or weapon.
Latin ars (skill) and facere (to do).
17. prevision—C: Foresight; foreknowledge; prophecy or pre-
diction, as, his prevision of the electronic revolution. Latin
praevisus, from prae videre (to foresee).
18. pander—B: To cater to or exploit the weaknesses or worst
desires in others; as, to pander to their greed. From the
mythical Greek Pandaros, characterized in medieval stories
as a go-between in love affairs.
19. stance—D: Posture; way of standing. Figuratively, one's
intellectual or emotional attitude; as, the stance of American
Indians. Old French estance (position).
20. rife—A; Prevalent or widespread, suggesting a rapid in-
crease of something undesirable. Old English ryfe (abun-
dant).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—19 correct exceptional
18—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
As Silly
as a Simile
3Y JANE GOODSELL

146
As easy as what? As pie? Listen, it's hard work to make
a good pie. Even a not-so-good one can take the better part
of a morning, what with all that mixing and flouring and
rolling and fitting and crimping, not to mention preparing
the filling and cleaning up afterward. Easy as pie, my eye!
A memory like an elephant's? Elephants are just as for-
getful as anybody else, the only difference being that a poor
memory is no great handicap to them. What'does an ele-
phant have to remember?
As sure as shoot in' . . . as funny as hel! . . . as blind as
a bat. . . who dreams up these expressions anyway? They're
easy to use—because everyone understands what they
mean, even though they don't mean anything. But, as An-
atole France rightly pointed out, "If 50 million people say
a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.''
Yet, at their best, similes have a right-on-target sharpness
that makes language come alive By aptly comparing one
thing to another, they create word pictures that flash on the
 As Silly as a Simile 137
mind in perfect focus: as fresh as the morning dew, as dry
as dust, as bright as a new penny, as free as the breeze.
These similes are deft, explicit and precise.
Then there are the similes that aren't quite top-drawer,
but which hang together reasonably well, give or take a bit
of slack:
AS QUICK AS A WINK. On condition that it's a quick
wink and not the suggestive, slo-o-o-w as molasses type,
currently in vogue
AS WHITE AS A SHEET. This used to be a sensible
simile, so maybe it's worth preserving for old times' sake.
But if you've patronized a white sale lately, you've doubt-
less noticed that bed linen comes in every color of the
rainbow—plus candy stripes and psychedelic prints.
AS PLAIN AS DAY. Whatever this means, it's too
vague to argue about.
AS PRETTY AS A PICTURE. We-ell, maybe. Some
pictures are pretty, paintings of one-eyed ladies and tomato-
soup cans notwithstanding.
While not quite as sound as a dollar (a non-inflationary
dollar, that is), these similes are more or less rational. But
when a figure of speech makes no sense, it has no business
being one. Like, for example:
AS EASY AS TAKING CANDY FROM A BABY.
Easy for whom? Separating a baby from a lollipop requires
the hardheartedness of the Marquis de Sade. Less steely
candy-snatchers turn to jelly when subjected to the infant's
anguished sobs and Fist-beating fury.
AS WARM AS TOAST. Of all things to pick as an
example of warmth! By the time a slice of toast has been
transferred to a plate, spread with butter and maybe a bil
of marmalade, "as cool as toast" would be more like it.
AS CUTE AS' A BUG. This is a conipiiment? Judging
from the vast quantities of insecticide purchased annually,
there's a lot of anti-bug sentiment around. While I can't
speak for everybody, I'd say the average person is less
inclined to chuck a bug under the chin than to spray it. A
bug who feels snag in a rug is living in a fool's paradise.
AS RIGHT AS RAIN. On rare occasions—when it
comes after a four-month drought or in lieu of a predicted
blizzard—rain is right as right can be. But under ordinary
138 WOJ*D POWER
circumstances it's no cause for celebration On the contrary,
it infuriates golfers, irks birdwatchers, enrages baseball
fans, agitates mothers-of-the-bride and vexes ordinary cit-
izens who left their umbrellas at home.
AS BROWN AS A BERRY. Although I'm no horti-
cultural expert, I'd say offhand that berries come in every
col ir but brovvn. Is there such a thing as a brown berry?
If this rare item exists (Where? On the upper slopes of Mt.
Kilimanjaro?), it still seems a farfetched example to rep-
resent such a common, everyday color.
These similes are as wrong as rain at a garden wedding,
and as hard as pis to forge? even if you have a memory as
short as an elephant's. Matter of fact, the whole simile
situation is in apple-pie disorder, as anyone who isn't as
dull as a button will agree.
I Know
Whatcha Mean
BY CLIFTON FADIMAN

Dr. Ellsworth Barnard, while visiting lecturer at Bowdoin

College, proposed that high schools throughout the country
revamp their English courses to teach rules "that conform
to actual usage." Dr. Barnard went on to say, "Anything
is all right if it fits the occasion and expresses the intended
thought." The New York Times, reporting this pronounce-
ment from the college once attended by Hawthorne and
Longfellow, headed the dispatch: P R O F S A Y S B U M F.NOLISH
AIN T i>0 BAD AFTER Al l.
There seems little doubt that the Levelers, increasingly
backed by the authority of the 1.earned, have won their war.
Our language has been made safe for democracy. What
would, let us say in Mr Hoover's time, have been thought
of as illiteracy has been promoted to the rank of homespun
American. The Levelers' thesis is now generally accepted,
as our tongue is at any point merely the product of an
infinity of small folk-initiated changes, the nasty notion of
"correctness" falls to the ground, and there, we may well
139
140 WOJ*D POWER
say, it lays. Things get easiei" every day; we never had it
so good.
The leaders of the Levelers are the mass-communicators,
particularly in radio and television. Perhaps, bowing to the
inevitable, it is time to make Televenglish retroactive: that
is, to revise the English of the past much as the Stalinists
revised the history of the Russian revolution. Just as the
latter substituted Stalin for Trotsky, so ought we to substi-
tute the Winstonian* "like" for the fascist-reactionary-im-
penalist "as." (Example: Like the hart panteth after the
water brooks, so panteth my sou! after' thee.—King David)
And perhaps it is best to bow, not rear the head (in fact,
it is best not to use the head at all) when you hear Billy
Graham's benediction: "And may the Lord bless you real
good."
Do not feel bad when you hear the broadcaster say he
feels badly. Just remember that ail men are created equally.
When the friendly emeee shyly confides to his millions of
listeners that he feels nauseous, do not misinterpret this as
self-criticism. Applaud the Televenglish teacher who reit-
erates that Ford Is America's Winningest Car, who de-
scribes gorilla warfare and who reports that so-and-so flew
into Chicago today.
From here on we should accept with equanimity the
Levelese law by which the originally jocular becomes the
universally mandatory. Thus, always say Longtime no sec.
How's about a drink? He's srared but good. Those kind
of-people are high-type fellas, just like you and I, and you
can say that again.
Some time ago. on a TV show dealing with words, I was
properly taken to task by a distinguished professor of Eng-
lish because i objected to the rate at which rounds were
being dropped from the language, fie informed me that such
snobbish purism had :io basis in logic. To be consistent,
for instance, i should pronounce gossamer :.•> goose sum-
mer. of which the vvord is a contraction
i accepted the rebuke, both io my scholarship and ;o iny
character Hereafter 1 shall speak Televenglish. If I wish
;o be helpful 1 shall be kwope.tive. Traveling by air will
*"Wmston tastes good, :i<ce a cigaretti* should. '
 t
I Know Whatcha Mean 141
become fling; the state of being safe will become scurty
(u as in cure). And, as more and more New Yorkers ax-
change the distasteful you will in favor of the elegant yizzle
(yizzle have to see Radio City), I shall follow their lead.
One of my correspondents, Miss Esther L. Johnson,
sends me a paragraph lifted from an editorial comment in
an old Youth's Companion, dated March 1, 1923. It reads;
There are several engaging thoughts as to what the
outcome of the widespread use of radio will be. Not
the least pleasing of them is the idea that thousands
of boys and girls will listen for an hour or more a day
to a fair sort of spoken English, clearly enunciated.
• Youth is quick and imitative. Let us hope that on the
waves of the ether may come lessons that will enlarge
• our vocabulary and improve our pronunciation.
How pleasant for Miss Johnson and for us all that it has
taken only 40 years for this pious hope to become a shining
reality.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER®

Word Power
No. 14
Headliners—News in a Nutshell

BY PETER FUNK
A good headline is the ultimate condensation—giving you the
essence of a news report at a glance. The key words in the fol-
lowing test have been taken from newspaper headlines. Check the
word or phrase you believe is nearest in meaning to the key word.
The correct answers appear at the end of this test.
1. flex (fleks)—A: to separate. B: flip. C: bend. D: relax.
2. insurgent (in sur' jent)—A: rebel. B: eccentric. C: emi-
grant. D: spy.
3. rift—A: ridge. B: tide. C: turmoil. D: split.
4. medley (m£d' le)—A. mediocrity. B: hodgepodge. C: mys-
tery. D: smoothness.
5. impropriety (im pro pri' £ te)—A: improper conduct. B:
candor. C: thoughtlessness. D: poverty.
6. quandary (kwon' da re)—A: state of uncertainty. B: large
constellation. C: rambling discourse. D: a measurement.
7. purge (purj)—A: to submerge. B: thrust. C: cleanse. D:
swirl.
8. bewail (be wal')—A: to scourge. B: besmirch. C accuse.
D: iament.
9. renege (re nig')—A: to snub. B: go back on your word.
C: dominate. D: renegotiate.
10. scrutinize (skroo' U nlz)—A. to scrub thoroughly. B: join
tightly C. examine carefully. D: ignore.
11. relic (rfil' Ik)—A: talisman. B: rarity. C: common item. D:
historic object.
12. perky (per' ke)—A: pretty. B: smart. C: spirited. D: hu-
morous.
13. defector (dc fek' tor)-—One who A: destroys. B: deserts
C: advocates. D: deprograms.
142
 Word Power Test No. I I 143
14. plebeian (pie be' an)—A: hermit. B: bigot. C: aristocrat.
D: common man.
15. monitor (m6n' T tor)—One who A: scolds. B: warns. C:
maintains. D: patrols.
16. composite (k6m p6z' it)—A: compound. B: fake. C: solid.
D: helical.
17. scenario (se ner' e 6)—A: lasso. B: panorama. C: diorama.
D: synopsis of a play.
18. beguile (be gll')—A: to confuse. B: envy. C: charm. D:
paralyze.
19. rivet (riv' it)—A: to fasten firmly. B: tear apart. C: be
curious about. D: complete.
20. remedial (re me' de ul)—Pertaining to A: averaging. B:
recycling. C: remedying. D: speeding.

ANSWERS

1. flex—C: Bend or tighten. Latin flectere (to bend). "Con-

gress Will Flex its Foreign Policy Muscle."
2. insurgent—-A: Rebel; one who revolts against authority.
Latin insurgens (rising up against). "Union Insurgent Put
Down by Meany."
3. rift—D: Split; break in friendly relations. Of Scandinavian
origin. "New Wealth Brings Marital Rift."
4. medley—B: Hodgepodge; mixture of unrelated items. Old
French meslee (mixed). "Jazz Festival Produces a Medley
of Sound."
5. impropriety—A. Improper conduct; unsuitable remark.
Latin improprius (improper). "Improprieties Suspected at
Bridge Tournaments."
6. quandary—A: State of uncertainty or doubt. Perhaps a
contraction of Latin quando dare (when to give). "Moscow
Book Fair Poses Quandary' for U.S. Publishing Houses "
7. purge—C: To cleanse; expel. Latin purgare. "Chinese
Purge Radical Group of Four.''
8. bewail—D: To lament; cry or complain. Middle English
biwailen. "Consumers Bewail Rising Prices."
9. renege—B: To go back on your word, repudiate Latin
renegare (to deny again). "TV Star Charges Network Re-
neged on Vow."
10. scrutinize—C: To examine with close attention to details.
144 WOJ*D POWER
Latin scrutari (to search). "Mayor Promises to Scrutinize
Budget Practices."
11. relic—D: Historic or sacred object. Latin reliquiae (re-
mains). "Architectural Relics Falling Victim to Air Pollu-
tion."
12. perky—C: Spirited; jaunty. Perhaps from Old Norman
Frenchperquer (to perch). "Nation's Economy Grows More
Perky."
13. defector—B: One who deserts a party or cause, especially
to join the opposition. Latin deficere (to desert). "Soviet
Defector Arrives in Paris."
14. plebeian—D: A common man. Latin plebeius (of the com-
mon people). "Peanut Butter, Food for Plebeians."
15. monitor—B: One who warns, reminds, advises. Latin mon-
ere (to warn). "Group to Act as Monitor of City Judicial
System."
16. composite—A: Compound made up of various separate
parts. Latin componere (to put together). "Composite In-
dexes Indicate Shift in Spending Priorities."
17. scenario—D; Synopsis of a play; screenplay; outline of
proposed events or steps to accomplish an objective. Latin
scaenarium from scaena (stage). "One Candidate's Scen-
ario for Re-election."
18. beguile -C; To charm; captivate. "Miss Universe Beguiles
City." From be- and guile (deceit); hence, the original
meaning: to trick.
19. rivet—A: To fasten, fix, or engross one's attention. Perhaps
from Latin ripare (to make a ship fast to the ripa, or shore).
"Televised Sports Rivet Interest of Millions."
20. remedial—C: Supplying a remedy; often, helping to im-
prove reading or study skills. Latin remedium (remedy).
"Justices Order More Remedial Classes in Local Schools."
VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct .. excellent
14—12 correct good
Neither Black
Nor White
BY STUART CHASE

On a famous radio program the moderator used to hold up

a ball for the studio audience to see. "What color?" he
would ask. "White," they would answer. Then he turned
the ball around and asked again. "Black," they said. Every
question, he continued, has two sides, and we ought to hear
both
But the ttouble with this is that a great many questions
which perplex us today have more than two sides. Whenever
we force a problem which contains various shades of gray
into a rigid pattern of black or white, we create a serious
roadblock to straignt thinking.
John and Mary are being divorced. Their friends line up
in two camps. One group declares that it is his fault. ;he
other that it is her fault. But—perhaps both of them are to
blame, or perhaps the fault lies with neither Forces beyond
'he control of John and Mary may he causing them to sep-
arate—physical factors, for instance, making children an
impossibility.
145
146 WOJ*D POWER
There are many sides to a broken marriage, not just two.
All should be taken into account. Experts call this type of
situation "many-valued." Many-valued questions cannot be
intelligently decided on a simple either-or basis.
"Women are bad drivers!" says Roe, contemplating an-
other bill for a crumpled fender. His friend Doe disagrees:
"You're wrong. They're good drivers—better than men!"
What are the facts? Statistics of accidents indicate that
in some respects women are better drivers than men, in
others, worse. Women probably crumple more fenders, but
mile for mile have fewer crashes involving fatal injury. The
debate is meaningless as it stands—entertaining perhaps,
but without profit.
Once we grasp the implications of that turning ball, we
begin to watch for black-or-white arguments by others and
by ourselves. We come to enjoy the mental adventure of
finding them, like hidden reefs. Next we try to determine
when they are warranted and when they are not.
Living things, most of us believe, are either "animal"
or "vegetable." Careful biologists, however, have discov-
ered an organism called Euglena, which digests food like
an animal and employs photosynthesis like a plant. Asci-
dians, though classed as animals, produce cellulose, which
has long been considered a unique property of plants.
Either-or thinking will not fit Euglenn or the Ascidians.
Similarly, the old philosophical debate, "Which shapes
character—heredity or environment?" is a misleading cast-
ing of data into either-or terms. Scientists have found that
both heredity and environment shape character. An excel-
lent inheritance can be ruined by unfortunate associates; a
mediocre collection of genes can develop, with careful up-
bringing, into quite a man. The pursuit of scientific truth
is a many valued proposition. Scientist avoid either-or
thinking.
As we tackle our personal and political problems, it helps
to adopt this approach of .the scientists. Black-or-white
thinking can be positively dangerous in some situations. A
noted columnist, for example, speaking of the part played
by Nehru and other "neutralists" in the cold war, said re-
cently: "They are not for us; therefore they are against us;
therefore they are Communists." Good heavens! We have
 Neither Black Nor White 147
enough real Communists against us, from Leningrad to
Hanoi, without taking on the whole neutralist world of
perhaps a billion people!
In problems calling for specific action, the final decision
may have to be a black-or-white, yes-or-no vote. But it is
likely to be a wiser vote if we first review all important
facts from a multivalued point of view.
Our town held a zoning hearing the other day to discuss
whether a man should be allowed to open a toy shop in an
area zoned for residences. The hearing quickly degenerated
into a hassle between those who held that Little Business
was good for rural towns, and those who were positive it
was bad. The questions of how the toyshop might look, of
possible hardship to the applicant, of what a zoning variance
now might mean in the future—all were forgotten. The
debate, stimulating as it might have been to the contestants,
contributed little to an equitable solution of the specific
problem before the meeting.
The current world is full of similar discussions, largely
meaningless unless the variables involved are given fair
consideration. You have encountered plenty of these dis-
cussions: private schools vs. public schools; city living vs.
country living; amateur sports vs. professional; little busi-
ness vs. big; states rights vs. federal government; freedom
vs. regimentation.
This last has been around for a long time. As a two-
valued debate, one side says that we must have complete
freedom or submit to slavery. But a wise judge saw the trap
when he remarked: "Your freedom to swing your arms ends
where my nose begins." Even the most liberal society im-
poses restrictions on how citizens shall behave.
There are at least three good reasons why we so often
accept either-or thinking:
(1) We (especially we Americans) feel that we live under
pressure and must get things decided fast. "Make up your
mind, Mac!"
(2) Most people are mentally lazy. It is easier to select
black or white than to judge the various shades of gray. It
saves analysis, fact-finding.
(3) Linguists report that the structure of the English lan-
guage—indeed of all Indo-European languages—tends to
148 WOJ*D POWER
force us into the two-valued approach. We are brought up
to think in opposites such as: clean vs. dirty, long vs. short,
hero vs. villain, body vs. mind, true vs. false, good vs.
bad, life vs. death. It takes an effort, accordingly, to bring
in the intermediate tones.
But if we make the effort we shall be rewarded. We will
tackle our problems more surely, and render our decisions
more justly.
I Keep
Hearing Voices
BY CORNELIA OTIS SKINNER

It comes as a shock suddenly to discover in oneself some

eccentricity of behav ior which one may have had for years
without ever before being aware of it. Take voices, for
instance. I find, to my fascination, that many persons, my-
self in particular, have a curious collection of varying
voices.
I don't mean accents picked up during exposure to re-
gional pronunciation. (I return from a trip through the South
with an accent of Georgia peach-fuzz, while 24 hours in
London finds me as British as a Trafalgar lion given the
power of speech.) I refer to the tone and manner of delivery
we use on specific occasions.
For example, the ways in which people address the el-
derly. It seems to be a universal conclusion that to be ad-
vanced in years means ipso facto to be advanced in deafness.
Whoever is presented to, say, a venerable old gentleman
starts conversing in a deferential bellow. The opposite ap-
proach is the hospital voice of muted concern coupled with
I4»
150 WOJ*D POWER
a note Of awe indicating that to grow old automatically
means to grow holy.
1 have a woman cousin who is a chipper 89 and when
I've introduced people to her I have watched them shake
her hand as if it might be a fragile bluebell and speak to
her with the solemn reverence of addressing a saint not long
for this world. Actually the old girl is about as fragile as
a sturdy oak, has probably just downed a double whisky-
sour and is rarin' to get to the Canasta table.
Certain variations in voices seem to be peculiar to male
behavior—as the looking-forward-to-breakfast halloo, par-
ticularly on Pullman trains at an early hour when you're
trying to sleep. As they march Indian file through your car,
the leader calls out in the cry of a lumberjack poling in
turbulent rapids. " O H BOY! A M I LOOKING FORWARD TO
THAT CUP OF COFFEE!" Each member of the doughty crew
clarions a yes siree what isn't he going to do to those ham
'n eggs, and another wants jubilantly to know what the
betting is on old W. G. here having himself a big stack of
pancakes.
Women are not without their own peculiar noises of
enthusiasm. Take, for example, the chance meeting of for-
mer schoolmates after the hiatus of years. All of a sudden
the staggering fact dawns that the one is . . . not surely Mary
Smith!!' and the o t h e r . . . it isn't possible, Sally Jones!!!
The emotion of recognition is expressed in the mounting
melodies of gleeful and slightly hysterical sirens—and 1
don't refer to the sort who sat on rocks and lured mariners
with dulcet sounds.
Then there is the delivery the female uses when talking
to her own child in the presence of company. Plunging into
a dewy-eyed motherhood act, she lilts out sweet suggestions
such as "Isn't it time we went to beddy-bye?" while what
she'd like to say, and what the child expects her to shrill
out, is "You little pain-in-the-neck, get the hell up to bed!"
Even when the child grows older the mother employs a
parlance suggestive of a Victorian elocution mistress giving
the proper reading of "Birds in their little nests agree." As
my own son once rudely summed it up, "For Pete's sake,
Mom, when you're talking about me do you have to sing?"
Then there is the conspiratorial voice, often used when
 I Keep Hearing Voices 151
there is no need for secrecy, as in the case of that husband-
and-wife code exchange toward the end of a social gath-
ering: the husband rises and, in the manner of a second-
story man passing the signal to his partner, mutters, "I think
we'd better be . . , " and she, rising cautiously, echoes the
sinister .password "Yes, we'd better be. . ." What should
be so hush-hush about making the simple announcement
that it's late and they ought to go home?
Of the barnyard imitations and birdcalls women employ
when addressing household pets, it is almost too embar-
rassing to speak. A shameless weakness for dogs releases
from me a flow of baby talk and babbling asininities. My
dogs don't seem to mind my gurgling endearments, but my
family does. My parakeet voice is also pretty dreadful,
being a stream of baby jargon in a falsetto soprano, giving
the effect of a leaking steam valve. In fact, all domestic
animals appear to reduce me to a state of infantilism, and
I have even heard myself addressing a police horse as though
it were swaddled in diapers and cooing in a bassinet.
I am aware that I have a voice of cheer full of ersatz
sunshine that makes its nauseating appearance when I am
suddenly confronted by the children of my friends—young
creatures on whom I've not set eyes for years. This voice
with hypocritical eagerness utters banalities like "How's the
new math teacher?" or "Your dad says you're coming along
just fine with your surfboard!"
Only a week ago I shared a train seat with an attractive
young woman who turned out to be the daughter of former
neighbors. I didn't recognize her until she introduced herself
saying that she was Penelope E. I immediately came out
with a loud "Why Penny Pen!" and pumping her hand with
splendid vigor exclaimed, "Last time I saw you, you were
covered with poison ivy!" What she was covered with then
was discomfort. Obviously she hadn't been called by the
distressing nickname in years. However, she smiled indul-
gently and replied politely to my elephantine inquiries as
to how was the family, did she enjoy school and mercy it
wasn't possible that she had graduated from college! Shortly
Penny Pen, under pretext of smoking a cigarette, sought
refuge in another car.
Another locution I have recently discovered is my doctor
 2 WOJ*D POWER
voice. Not the confiding mutter used in situations of illness
or consultation, but the one I catch myself using when I
meet one of the medical profession socially. Possibly out
of a desire to give the impression that I have no need for
his professional services, I talk with great animation in
tones vibrant with radian' health. If he happens to be a
psychiatrist also, 1 have the disquieting feeling that the chair
I am sitting on is about to let down into a couch and that
my every gesture is indicative of deep-rooted neuroses. The
result is a careful enunciation to show how frightfully nor-
mal I am.
However, there is nothing to equal my talking-with-a-
foreigner delivery. And I do not refer to someone who
speaks only a foreign tongue, with whom one decides the
only means of communication is through a bellow of Eng-
lish. I mean the cultured linguist who speaks my language
with far greater elegance than I. If through the perfection
of his Oxford verbiage there comes the slightest hint of
foreign accent. I slow down to LP speed, mouthing each
syllable with meticulous deliberation and using the basic
words of a First Primer. It is the form of painstaking per
oration William Penn must have used when explaining his
treaty to the Indians.
Then there is my chatting-with-clergymen parlance. The
sudden sight of a clerical collar makes me go right into my
voice of piety: a combination of the hostess of a Cape Cod
tea shoppe and Beth in Little Women, hushed and not a
little hallowed, as though we were about to step into the
next room and view the remains. It is somewhat reassuring
to note that others carry on conversations with parsons in
the same funereal manner. It must be one of the more doleful
exactions of the dedicated life.
Finally there is my losing-interest voice, which is less
a voice than a fade-out. This creeps slowly upon me during
some interminable tete-a-tete with, say, a golf enthusiast
or someone just back from Europe and determined to present
an unillustrated travelogue. What issues from my mouth is
quite mechanical; in fact, 1 usually have no idea what I am
saying. This is disturbing for it creates that eerie sensation
of standing outride yourself and listening to a complete
stranger.
 I Keep Hearing Voices 153
This listening to myself is making me uncomfortably
self-conscious. Perhaps i had better stop enumerating all
my varying forms of speech.
Perhaps, as a matter of fact, in certain situations it might
be best for me to stop speaking altogether.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR WORD POWfcR ®

Word Power
Test No. 15
The Sporting Life

BY PETER FUNK
In this selection of words from the sports columns of the daily
press, check the word or phrase you believe is nearest in meaning
to the key word. Answers are at the end of this test.
1 effectuate (6 fek' tu at)—A: to accomplish. B: begin. C.
practice. D. end.
2. perceptive (per sep' tiv)—A: wise. B: alert. C: discerning.
-D: precise.
3. syndrome (sin' drdm)—A: council. B: combination of
symptoms. C: fetish. D: monopoly.
4. fastidious (fas tid' i us)—A: revelation. B. pithy saying.
C: perfect example. D: fussy.
5. apotheosis (a poth e o' sis)—A: revelation. B; pithy saying.
C: perfect example. D rhetorical address.
6. pristine (pris' ten; pris ten')—A: beautiful. B: prudish. C;
shining. D: fresh and untouched.
7. forbearance (for bear' ans)—A: patience. B: foresight. C:
stubbornness D: inherited traits.
8. codicil (cod' uh s'l)—A: tabulation. B. summary. C: sup-
plement. D: international agreement.
9. hybrid (hi' brid)—A. pure. B; carefully selected. C: mixed.
D; hardy.
10. sully (sul' e)—A: to ridicule. B. leap forth. C: deceive. D:
tarnish.
11. blatant <bla' tant)—A: conceited. B. unpleasantly noisy.
C: brutal. D: openly hostile.
12. sanguinary (sang' gwt nair e)—A: optimistic. B: listless.
C; overwhelming. D: bloody.
13. peregrination (per £ gri na' shun)—A: land measurement
B: uncertainty C. travel. D. scheme.
154
 Word Power Test No.II15
14. obloquy (ob' lo kwe)—A: abusive language. B: state of
being forgotten. C: discussion. D; burial rite.
15. mettle (met' '1)—A; mood. B; courage. C: sternness. D:
belligerence.
16. infraction (in frak' shun)—A: small portion. B: collision
C: oversight. D: violation.
17. lethal (le' thai)—A: deadly. B: mean. C: murky. D:
heavy.
18. contemptuous (kon temp' tu us)—A: cynical. B: scornful.
C: arrogant. D: uncivil.
19. perennial (per en' l al)—A. early. B: infrequent. C. per-
sistent. D; spreading.
20. finesse (fi nfo')—A: sleight of hand. B: insight. C: ending.
D: skill.

ANSWERS

1. effectuate—A: To accomplish; bring about; as, to effectuate

changes in spring-training rules. Latin efficere.
2. perceptive—C; Discerning; sensitive; capable of sympa-
thetic understanding intuitively or through keen observa-
tion; as, a perceptive coach. Latin percipere (to feel, grasp).
3. syndrome—B: Combination of symptoms characteristic of
a particular abnormality; as, a pitcher's shoulder-arm syn-
drome. Greek syndrome.
4. fastidious—D: Fussy; hard to please; overly exacting; as,
fastidious attention to details. Latin fastidiosus.
5. apotheosis—C: Perfect example, highest development; fi-
nal form; as, the apotheosis of versatility. Greek apotheosis,
from apotheoun (to deify).
6. pristine—D; Fresh and untouched; unspoiled; unpolluted;
primitive; as, a pristine trout stream Latin pristinus (ear-
ly).
7. forbearance—A: Patience, self-control; restraint; leniency;
as, to view minor offenses with forbearance. Old English
forberan
8. codicil—C: A supplement; usually a later addition to a will,
modifying or revoking it Latin codex (a book made of wood
blocks)
9. hybrid—C: Mixed; blended; composed of diverse elements;
as, platform tennis—a hybrid derivative of tennis, jai alai
I Si WORD POWER
and ballroom dancing. Latin hybnda (offspring of a mixed
union).
10. sully—U: To tarnish; stain; blemish; as. to sully the team's
record French souilkr (to soil).
11. blatant—B: Unpleasantly noisy; loud and vulgar; as. a
blatant crowd of spectators. Latin blatire (to chatter).
12 sanguinary—D: Bloody; marked by bloodshed; as, a san-
guinary free-for-all. Latin sanguis (blood)
13. peregrination—C: Travel; wandering; as, the basketball
team's early peregrination. Latin peregrinari (to travel).
14. obloquy—A: Abusive language; public defamation; cal-
umny; as, to heap obloquy on the referee. Latin obloqui
(to speak against, abuse, chide).
15. mettle—B: Courage, spirit; stamina; as, to test a rookie's
mettle. Middle English metel (metal, mettle).
16 infraction—D: Violation; breaking; as, an infraction of
racing regulations. Latin infringere (to break off).
17. lethal—A: Deadly; fata!; devastating; as a lethal southpaw
Latin letum (death).
18. contemptuous—B: Scornful; showing disdain or contempt;
as, to be contemptuous of the hecklers. Latin contemptus.
19 perennial—C: Persistent; enduring; recurring regularly; as.
perennial champions. Latin perennis (lasting).
20. finesse—D: Delicate skill or artistry in performance-; adroit
maneuvering in a difficult situation; as, a hockey player's
finesse. Middle French///? (fine).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct . excellent
14— 1.2 correct good
The Delicate
A r t of Asking
Questions
BY JOHN KORD LAGEMANN
For getting t o the heart of the matter, professional nave
developed special skills and techniques invaluable to _ every-
one

Americans, it has been said, fondly believe they have three

natural-born skills—making Jove, playing poker and inter-
viewing. The fact is. however, that each of these "natural''
skills cast be improved. And not the least to benefit by study
and application is the last: the art of obtaining information.
No matter who we are or what our way of lite, ii has
become increasingly important to discover w hat people feel
and think--about almost every subject under the si::.. Wher.
we hire someone or apply for a job. when we discuss our
work w i t h a boss or a subordinate, w h e n we see our doctor,
our banker or the children's teacher, wc interview ant; are
interviewed. liven when we talk wiih husband, wife, cbiJ-
dren, friends, we are often in the pusjuon of t>e interviewer,
trying to eet beneath the surface atw! Una out *h**t 'ec;'.l\
happened or what someone ready thinks.
How can we do this more successfully? A number .»!
techniques, developed bv experts, are u^ful.
R E C O G N I Z E THAT EVERY ENCOUNTER IS
"EMOTIONAL." There is no such thing as ar. mper;-ovti ;

Ii7
158 WOJ*D POWER
meeting of minds. Look inward: there's a human awareness,
an exchange of feelings, with the waiter who takes your
luncheon order, the clerk who adds up your bill at the
supermarket, the unseen person at the other end of a tele-
phone wire. (Witness the difference, the /'mpersonality of
it, when the telephone voice turns out to be recorded.)
But to enter into any real give-and-take we have to let
down our defenses. "Every human encounter is an emo-
tional experience in which we risk some of our self-esteem,"
said the pioneer psychiatrist Dr. Harry Stack Sullivan.
"Under stress of that anxiety, people may become suspi-
cious or resentful or downright hostile."
How can we penetrate this defensiveness and find the
answers we seek?
MAKE YOUR PURPOSE CLEAR. "When you start
asking questions," says the noted pollster Dr. George Gal-
lup, "the other person immediately wonders, 'Why does he
want to know?' Unless your purpose is clear, he may be
reluctant to talk or he may seize the opportunity to tell you
all about his problems."
When you go to your doctor for an examination, the
situation is self-defined and the doctor can ask you intimate
questions which you would resent from anyone else. Jn
applying for a loan, though, you accept questions from a
banker that you would resent from your doctor It's a matter
of defining the situation, and a clearly understood agenda
lessens the natural anxiety that otherwise impedes the flow
of information.
How often have you said, "But why didn't you tell me
what you were after?" Once at a party someone I'd never
seen before started questioning rne about an old friend. How
long had I known him? What did I think of this and that
thing he had done When I asked a little huffily what busi-
0

ness he had checking up, he said, "Oh. Lord, didn't vou

know'. I'm his brother!"
5

RESPOND TO EXPRESSIONS OF FEELING. This

is a powerful tool which many professional counselors -
clinica' psychologists, doctors, ministers—have learned to
use in getting to the bottom of personal problems that people
bring to them. Instead of trying to reassemble the facts (who
said or did what to whom) or to give specific advice, they
 The Delicate Art of Asking Questions 159

listen for and encourage all expressions of feeling, however

faint or fleeting. Statements that begin 'T feel" or "1 wish"
or "I don't care if," the interviewer acknowledges, perhaps
by repeating their content. Or he may just note, "You feel
very strongly about that, don't you?" or "Is that so?" Having
such feelings recognized, without judgment or criticism,
often has an almost magical effect in making a person open
up. The truth comes out, and with it, often, self-insight.
A friend in the hospital told me about one of his room-
mates, Sanderson, who had upset the whole floor with his
constant petty complaints and even threats of lawsuit. The
head nurse and the resident doctor tried to question him in
detail about his grievances but could get nowhere. Finally
an intern got to the root of the trouble.
"They don't care what happens to me," Sanderson said.
Quietly, the intern rephrased the statement: "It seems to
you the nurses don't really care."
"It's as if the whole world had turned against me," Sand-
erson said.
"It makes you feel lonely," said the intern, again re-
sponding to the feeling instead of impatiently brushing it
aside to get at "the facts."
That was what the patient needed, someone who paid
attention not merely to his ailments but to him. He opened
up and talked at length. Most of the things that annoyed
him were trifles, and, now that someone understood, the
unavoidable inconveniences no longer upset him.
People skilled in human relations—notably, those women
credited with "feminine intuition"—have always used this
potent technique of listening for emotional overtones. Often
in this way they achieve a true understanding so fast that
it baffles the purelv fact-or • ted.
1

LEARN THE ART Ol OPEN-END. Don't ask too

many questions. Instead of the cross-examination approach,
professional interviewers nowadays often start just by get-
ting people talking—about the weather, sports, anything.
And for depth interviewing they have developed the open-
end question, which does not restrict the other person but
iets him assume the initiative and carry the conversation
wherever he likes.
A teacher I had in College used this technique skillfullv
160 WOJ*D POWER
to release ideas and talents within his students. Instead of
just lecturing, he would bring up a point developed in some-
thing we'd read, then ask one of us. "How about that?" or
"What do you think?" By responding with an occasional
"hmm," or a flickering smile or a puzzled frown, he would
keep us on that elusive rainbow path that leads to an original
idea. We frequently had the experience of discovering that
we knew more than we thought we knew.
DON'T TELL THE OTHER PERSON WHAT TO
SAY. According to expert pollsters, "feedback" from the
interviewer's own predilections or wishes i the greatest
single source of error in public-opinion polls. Quite un-
consciously we throw out clues that suggest what we want
people to say. That's why a top executive often has a hard
time avoiding yes-men. Fathers often run into the same
trouble when they try to find out just what their children
are up to.
"In polls, some of the best respondents are teen-agers,"
says Pearl Zinner, of the National Opinion Research Center
of the University of Chicago. "This always amazes parents,
who say, "They never talk to us that openly.' The reason
frequently is, of course, that the children feel they must
doctor reports of their thoughts and activities, to avoid un-
pleasantness."
WATCH YOUR WORDING. Finding in the other per-
son just what you expected to find usually means that you
are putting words into his mouth. At a birthday party for
e:ght-year-oids, 1 saw the guest of honor reach for the last
piece of candy while asking "Nobody wants any more
candy, do they '" Adults are hardly more subtle
Because of this human tendency, "question building" for
professional polls has become an an in itself. ' Tricky or
badly constructed questions can push or mislead others into
giving completely false answers," says Stanley L. Payne,
author of the book The Art of Asking Questions.
Suppose you are measuring opinion for and against a
certain political project. You could ask. "Should the s>'ate
issue bonds for the money?" Or you could ask.. "Should the
state go into debt for this?" As Payne points out. both may
present the issue accurately, but one question is loaded to
produce favorable answers, the other to arouse opposition.
 The Deiicate Art of Asking Questions 161
A name can inject an emotional charge into an issue.
"Do you agree with President Johnson (or Eisenhower)
t h a t . . . " is one way of loading a question. "Do you agree
with the Red Chinese t h a t . . . " is loaded to draw a high
percentage of "No" answers. Questions that ask if people
are for something always get more favorable answers than
those which ask if they are against something.
PROTECT THE OTHER PERSON. Detective novels
and courtroom dramas usually show an interview as a due!
of wits in which the object is to probe for the other person's
weak spots. In real life, detectives, lawyers, social workers
and others who have to ask for sensitive information gen-
erally follow the opposite rule—they lead to strength. The
reason: looking for weaknesses always puts the other per-
son's guard up. Recognizing a strength creates a bond.
Protecting the other person's pride is a vital part of get-
ting information. As economist Stuart Chase points out,
"Veteran interviewers in an unemployment survey would
never ask, 'You're not working now, are you?' but rather
'Are you looking for a job right now, or waiting for a
while?' " An expert marriage counselor does not ask. "What
do you and your wife quarrel about?" but, "When conflicts
arise, how do you trv to settle them?"
START WHERE THE OTHER PERSON IS. Be
ginners," says Dr. Leslie A. Osborn of the University of
Nebraska College of Medicine, "often rush into an area of
feeling where the other person is not yet ready to admit
them. They sometimes build up so much resistance they
never even get close."
A worried heart patient, for example, may have to dis-
cuss the effects of his illness on his work and his family
before he can plunge into an objective discussion of symp-
toms. A woman preoccupied with immediate problems of
children and household cannot be expected to shift focus
instantly and give a pollster meaningful views on foreign
policy or abstract an. It is up to the interviewer to find out
what is on the other person's mind and to start from there,
for the shortest distance between two subjects or points of
view may well be the long way around.
The successful interview, more like a good conversation
than an interrogation, leaves the interviewed person feeling
162 WOJ*D POWER
somehow heartened and uplifted. Why? Red Barber, after
30 years of successful interviewing for radio and TV, says,
"The Greeks had a word for it—agape (ah' gah pa). It's
one of the most wonderful words man possesses, and it
means broadly 'to have concern for'."
To have concern for the other person, and show it, is
the rule that makes all the others work.
The
Baffling World
of Psychobabble
BY R. D. ROSEN
A new style of talk is abroad in the land, and the more it
says the less it seems to mean

Confession is the new handshake.

These days it seems that everyone belongs to the cult of
candor, that everything must be spoken and that everyone
speaks the same dialect. Are you relating? Good. Are you
getting in touch with yourself? Fine. Exactly how heavy
are those changes you're going through? Doing your own
thing? Is your head screwed on straight? Are you going to
get your act together? Are you a whole person or only a
fraction thereof ?
One hears it everywhere, like endless panels of a Jules
Feiffer cartoon. In restaurants, distraught lovers lament,
"I just wish I could get into your head." A man on a bus
turns to his companion and says, "I just got back from the
Coast. What a different headset!" A California group ther-
apist intones, "You gotta be you 'cause you're you and you
gotta be, and besides, if you aren't gonna be you who else's
gonna be you, honey? This is the Aquarian Age and the
time to be yourself, to love one's beauty, to go with one's
process."
163
164 WOJ*D POWER
Let's call this psychological patter "psychobabble;" a
spirit which tyrannized conversation in the 1970s. It is dif-
ficult to avoid, and there is often an embarrassment involved
in not using it, somewhat akin to the mild humiliation ex-
perienced in Paris by American tourists who cannot speak
the native tongue. Psychobabble is now spoken by magazine
editors, management consultants, sandal makers, tool and
die workers, chiefs of state, Ph.D.s in clinical psychology,
and just about everyone else.
Its specific origins can only be hinted at. On one level,
it seems to have emerged toward the end of the '60s, dis-
tilled from the dying radical/liberal dialects of activism and
confrontation, absorbing some black-ghetto phrases along
the way. But its roots are also planted in today's popular
therapies—encounter groups, sensitivity training, primal
scream, etc.
Of course, this is not the first time in our history that
psychological ideas have so dominated national conversa-
tion. Previously, in-the '40s and '50s, Freudian tenns—
repression, sublimation, wish fulfillment and the like—
were glibly used by people as if they really understood
Freud and what he was talking about.
The new psychobabbiers, however, don't even seem to
know the terms of Freudian or any other organized body
of psychological theory. Their jargon seems to free-float
in an all-purpose linguistic atmosphere, killing off the very
spontaneity, candor and understanding it pretends to pro-
mote.
Uptight, for instance, is a word used to describe an
individual experiencing anything from mild uneasiness to
a clinical depression. To ask someone why he or she refers
to another as being hung up elicits a reply that reveals
neither understanding nor curiosity: "Well, you know, he's
just, well, hung up."
And the terms are used recklessly. One is no longer
fearful; one is paranoid. Increasingly, people describe their
moody acquaintances as manic-depressives, and almost
anyone you don't like is psychotic or at the very least
schized-out.
Many people express the view that this new psycho-
 The Baffling W o r l d of Psychobabble I6S

babble is a constructive retreat from obfuscating clinical

terms. But, if so, it is only a retreat into a sweet banality,
a sort of syrup poured over conversations to make them go
down easier.
What appears to be occurring in the therapeutic culture
of the '70s is the suppression of natural declarative speech
itself, the suppression of language in its richest, most as-
sociative, most unpredictable, revealing, hence therapeutic,
form. The erosion of written and spoken English has been
widely documented during the last several years, but per-
haps nowhere does that damage seem more inhibiting than
in the way some people talk—or rather fail to talk—about
themselves.
Psychobabble represents the rejection of narration in fa-
vor of psychological ad copy:
"I'm really into my anger right now," she says.
"That's okay," he replies "That's your space. Go with
the anger."
"Yeah, but I ieel a lot of hostility toward you and 1 fee!
that I want to get that out."
"That's coo!. That's the space you're in. 1 can understand
exactly where you're coming from. I've been there."
"'Still, you've really been on my case and I have all this
anger that 1 want ;o share with you."
"Like I said, that's cool. I want to tell you that I ac-
knowledge your anger and that I acknowledge you."
"Good, 1 get that it's okay to be angry with you."
Consider for a moment a society in which psychobabble
has become what passes for ordinary language. Anyone left
m this society with an ear for nuance and a sense of history
would have a harder and harder time trying to elicit what
used to be called meaning from the reign of platitudes. The
modern range of experience, far from being expanded,
would be diminished by the prevalence of verbal labels.
!n a world dominated by psychobabble, everyone would
he getting their empty heads together in the intolerably banal
here and now. Everyone would be engaged in a sort of
Perpetual emotional filibuster unconsciously designed to
prevent any real issues from coming to a vote.
It probably will go away eventually. Unfortunately, in
166 WOJ*D POWER
the meantime, attempts at real dialogue often turn into psy-
chobabble. Let's get back to self-awareness, psychological
responsibility ana the central importance of language.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 16
How Cicero Made Adjectives
BY PETER FUNK
When a Roman orator like Cicerv wanted to turn a Latin verb into
an adjective, he used an ending that has come down to us as
"-ant" or "-ent," depending on the spelling of the original verb.
Each adjective in the test below has one or the other of these
endings, each intended to show that some action or quality is being
described. It takes a skillful speller to keep "-ant" words and
"-ent" words straight—but that's a tax we're still paying to the
language of ancient Rome. Check the word or phrase that you
believe is nearest in meaning to the key word below. Answers
appear at the end of this test.
1. stagnant (stag' nant)—A: muddy. B: quiet. C: oppressive.
D: stale or foul.
2. fervent (fer' vent)—A: enthusiastic. B: languid. C: restless.
D: impressionable.
3. reticent (ret uh sent)—A: aloof. B: uncertain. C: modest.
1

D: reserved.
4. indolent (in' duh lent)—A: lenient. B: lazy. C: easygoing.
D: diligent.
5. belligerent (be lij' uh rent)—A: hostile. B: cranky. C:
noisy. D: insulting.
6. flagrant (fla' grant)—A: aromatic. B: openly scandalous.
C: spiteful. D: careless. '
7. insolent (in' s6 lent)—A: conciliatory. B: coarse. C: caus-
tically witty. D: haughty and contemptuous.
8. apparent (3 pir' ent)—A: obvious. B: tentative. C: explicit.
D: illusory.
9. nascent (na' sent)—A: knowledgeable. B: starting to de-
velop. C: unlimited. D: aged.
10. dormant (dor' mant)—A: relaxed. B: hidden. C: peaceful.
D: inactive.
167
168 WOJ*D POWER
11. fragrant (fra' grant)—A: sweet-smelling. B: fractional. C:
noisome. D: delicate.
12. insolvent (in s5!' vent)—A: difficult to solve. B: unsettled.
C: bankrupt. 1>. sticky.
13. translucent (trans lu' sent)—A: murky. B: crystalline. C:
pure. D: semi-transparent.
14. pertinent (pur' ti nent)—A: relevant. B: auxiliary. C: quick
to respond. D. cheerful.
15. indignant (in dig' nant)—A: angry. B: touchy. C: informal.
D: cordial.
16. fluent (flu' ent)—A: speaking easily. B: indecisive. C:
changeable. D: highly intelligent.
17. migrant (ml' grant)—A: restless. B: poor. C: shiftless. D:
wandering.
18. exorbitant (eg zor' bl tant)—A: threatening. B: excessive.
C: ridiculous. D: odd.
19. prudent (prod' dent)—A: flamboyant. B: fussy. C: overly
modest or proper. D: wisely careful.
20. benevolent (be nfiv' uh lent)—A: thoughtful. B: cheerful.
C: kind. D: wrathful.

ANSWERS
1. stagnant-—D: Stale or foul; lacking vitality; as, stagnant
water, or a stagnant imagination. The Latin stagnare means
to form a pool. (All of these test words come from Latin.)
2. fervent—A: Enthusiastic. Fervere (to glow or boil). When
you experience a fervent desire, you have an intense warmth
of feeling or great zeal.
3. reticent—D: Reserved; saying little; as. "The statesman
was reticent about his private life." Reticere (to keep si-
lent).
4. indolent—B: Lazy; disliking work. From m- (not) and 4o-
lere (to suffer pain). Perhaps an insight into how the ancients
viewed work!
 Word Power Test No. I I 169
5. belligerent—A: Aggressively hostile or fond of fighting;
warlike; as, "A belligerent attitude makes peace negotia-
tions difficult." Bellum (war) and gerere (to wage),
6. flagrant—B: Openly scandalous or disgraceful; notorious.
Flagare (to blaze, glow). A flame is easily seen; thus, a
flagrant disregard for the law is clearly visible,
7. insolent—D: Haughty and contemptuous; disrespectful; as,
"The insolent tax official irritated everyone." Insoiescere
(to become haughty).
8. apparent—A: Obvious; plain to see; easily perceived; as,
"The poet's wife was his apparent inspiration." Apparere
(to become visible).
9. nascent—B: Just starting to develop. Nasci (to be bom).
A nascent idea, therefore, is one that just came to mind,
1Q; dormant—D: Inactive. Dormire (to sleep) Hence, a dor-
mant volcano, or a dormant talent, is "sleeping" or quies-
cent.
ir fragrant—A: Sweet-smelling; having a pleasant odor; as,
a fragrant rose. Fragrare (to emit an odor),
12, insolvent—C: Bankrupt. Solvere first meant "to set free."
So, if a person is insolvent, he is "not free," but bound by
his debts.
13. translucent—D: Semi-transparent; letting light pass, but
diffusing it so that objects on the opposite side cannot be
distinguished. Frosted glass is translucent. Translucere (to
shine through), from trans (across) and lucere (to shine),
14, pertinent—A: Relevant; related to the matter being con-
sidered; apt; as, a pertinent question. Pertinere (to reach
to).
15 indignant—A: Angry at whatever is unjust, unfair or dis-
graceful; as, an indignant speech. Late Latin indignari (to
be angry because of some unworthy act),
16 fluent—A: Speaking easily. Fluere means "to flow." When
you speak or write,fluently,your words flow smoothly and
easily.
17 migrant—D: Wandering; roving; a migrant worker moves
from place to place. Migrare (to migrate),
18 exorbitant—B: Excessive beyond what is normally ex-
pected and proper; extravagant; as, exorbitant demands.
Church Latin exorbitare (to deviate) comes from ex (out)
and orbita (wheel-rut, track).
i n WOJ*D POWER
19. prudent—D: Wisely careful. A prudent administrator is
cautious, discreet, foresighted. Providere (to see at a dis-
tance).
20. benevolent—C. Kind, generous; desiring whatever is good
for others. Bene (well) and velle (to wish). A benevolent
uncle wishes you well.

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct .. .excellent
14—12 correct good
Oh, Waddle I Do?
A plaintive plea for rediscovery of the lost art of diction
BY JANET AGLE
Only yesterday (when I was a. child) enunciation was given
rigorous attention. Woe betide the child, for instance, who
failed to sound the first "c" in arctic! Now diction is one
of the lost arts—and the problem is at its most acute with
my own children.
The boys were watching television the other day when
the phone rang. "Dad says dough way form," one of them
reported. "Sgonna be late."
When the children were younger, I thought indulgently
that age would cure their difficulties, and I looked forward
to the time when we could exchange thoughts freely. Now
it is apparent that the situation has worsened alarmingly.
An uncle gave one of the boys a present. "Gee!" said
my son happily. "He sure is a jenner sky!" (My child feels
sorry for kids who don't have any answer uncles.)
To follow our boys' games you need a special glossary.
They play war with mock hang gemades. Sometimes they
knock out the turt gunner, but usually someone escapes in
171
172 WOJ*D POWER
a pair shoot. For ammunition they use tense balls.
My difficulties are not confined to my own family. The
taxi driver says that he'll stop in front of the lawner mat.
The cleaning woman announces that a tradesman cheed her
of a dollar. It is strange, I'm told, that the salesgirl cannot
be found; she was there a mindigo.
Everywhere our language is being whittled down; old,
familiar s>51ables have disappeared. Consider "just." "He
sieft," for instance, or, "I swashed my hair and can't do a
thing with it." And "have not" is almost obsolete. "I ham
seenum," the doctor's secretary told me this morning. "I
sgot here myself."
1 was relieved when the College of Carnals, having se-
lected a new Pope, was not heard of so frequently. But I
still jump when the butcher suggests poorhouse steak.
I am a voice in the wilderness, and my cry is always the
same; an incredulous "What?"
My husband gives me Utt!e sympathy. "Try paying at-
tention,"' he suggested recently.
"Oh, waddie 1 do?" 1 said suddenly. "Half the time 1
canner stand what's going on."
"What?"
I looked at him coldly. "Smatter?" I asked. "Can CHF.ER
me?"
Why Did They
Call It Thatl
BY GARY JENNINGS

The English who scratched out the early settlements on the

eastern rim of this continent—my own ancestors among
them—-all seem to have been hungry, thirsty, weary or
peevish. It shows in the place names they foisted on us.
Witness the several Bread Loaf and Sugar Loaf Mountains,
Martha's Vineyard, Cape Comfort, Troublesome Creek
Stingray Point got its name when Capt John Smith foolishly
;

picked up a live sting ray—and regretted it. The colonists

were plain people, and given to plain juiceless names like
Skinquarter and Mulch (in Virginia), Buzzard's Bay, and
mountains called Pignut, Wart and Pimple.
Other expatriate Englishmen, knowing which side of the
ocean their bread was buttered on, named settlements for
kings, queens and princelings—or creditors. Still others,
homesick, used the names of the towns they had left. Nor-
folk, New Castie, Southampton—all yearningly face name-
sakes across the water.
Many an American community still wobbles under the
173.
174 WOJ*D POWER
weight of an erroneous or ambiguous appellation. Massa-
chusetts owes its Marblehead to some marblehead who
couldn't recognize the rock as granite. In Iowa there is a
little town called Mystic. Nothing occult about it, just a
tidied-up rendition of the remark made by the first migrants
who came there to work the coal mines: "This is a mistake."
The harbor city of Newport News, Va., whose name puzzles
everybody, was originally the new (or second) port founded
by the brothers Newce.
Stephen Vincent Beriet, who wrote, "I have fallen in
love with American names, the sharp names that never get
fat," had to delve deep inland to find sharp names like
Medicine Hat, Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat. The trappers,
traders, scouts and prospectors who escaped westward from
the sissy £ast called a spade a spade, and a mountain shaped
like an outhouse, Outhouse Mountain. To them we owe
Death Valley, Hungry Horse, Massacre Rocks, Gouge Eye,
Rum River, Gunsight Hills. Yet not all of their names were
riproarers; some have the ring of discovery, or the remi-
niscence of a lifesaving oasis, or the serenity of the whis-
pering wilderness—Bonanza, Eureka, Sweetwater, Sweet-
grass, Ten Sleep, Sleepy Eye and Dreaming Creek.
Inevitably the civilizers and the nice-namers moved in,
and some sharp names got jettisoned for the sake of "prog-
ress." Scranton doesn't sound like much of a refinement
unless you know that it once suffered under the rousing
cognomen of Skunk's Misery. Portsmouth, N.H., before
it genuflected to the original in England, was Strawberry
Bank. But Marthasville, Ga., didn't lose anything when the
Western & Atlantic Railroad picked it for a terminus and
insisted it adopt the coined name of Atlanta. And New
York's Storm King Mountain certainly sounds more rugged
and Peer Gyntish than it did as Butter Hill.
Several years ago the crossroads hamlet of Tightsqueeze,
Va., changed its name to Fairview. The citizens, thrilled
at having got into the news for probably the first time in
history, immediately switched the name back to Tight-
squeeze and thereby got into the news again.
Toward the close of the 19th century, when the pesky
Indians had all but vanished, America suddenly decided
that their venerable languages would make splendid new
 Why Did They Call It Thai! 175
place names. But these tongues feature thorny hedges of
consonants separated by gutters of grunts. The noble Red
Man would never recognize some of the "Indian" names
on the map today.
Translating the original lingo into such license-plate po-
etry as Land of the Sky-Blue Waters calls for considerable
contortions, because the Indian words seldom meant any-
thing poetic. Mississippi means not Father of Waters but
only Big River; Cjiesapeake means the same; both Ohio and
Allegheny mean simply Good Waters. The Ojibwa's word
she-ka-gong, or Chicago, meant Stinking River. If the In-
dian words had any semantic virtue, it lay in their occasional
portmanteau capacity. For instance, Stuykson (Tucson)
somehow managed to mean Village of the shaded Spring
at the Foot of the Mountains.
More evocative than the English are the mellifluous
names of the French-explored fringes and the far Southwest
where the Spanish settled. A French trapper could be con-
fronted by ar forbidding escarpment of Wyoming crags and
somehow be reminded of His mistress's grand tetons—while
one of Shakespeare's countrymen, roaming the gentle Blue
Ridge, could come upon a truly lovely-shaped hill and see
only a Hogback. Where the Franciscan \Vould find an ar-
royo, or the Jesuit a coulee, the Puritan espied a plain gully.
If the Spanish had not inspired the sonorous name, Grand
Canyon, we would probably be calling it today That Ditch.
Of course the conquistadores and missionaries weren't
infallibly imaginative. Both French and Spanish explorers
were wont to name a new place for the saint on whose day
it was discovered. But under the sun of southern California
those soft Sans and Santas—Ynez, Ysabel, Juan de Cap-
istrano—-seem irreplaceably right. When our third-largest
city was just a flyspeck on the map, it bore the wonderfully
resounding title of EI Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina
de Los Angeles de Porciuncula—The Town of Our Lady
the Queen of the Angels of the Little Allotment of Land.
And now we clip it in the slothful modern manner to a
contemptuous L.A.!
A French or Spanish place name in America, though it
may be simply descriptive, has a glamour lacking in its
English counterpart. Prairie du Chien is a much swanker
186 WOJ*D POWER
address than would be Dog Field, Wis. The Malheur River
is more inviting than it would be as the Bad Luck River.
Boca Raton, however it got the name, is easier for the
Florida Chamber of Commerce to promote than Mouse
Mouth would be.
In some places, a foreign name has stuck unrecognized.
Ozark is simply a phonetic spelling of Aux Arks—a clipped
French expression meaning "at the place of the Arkansa
tribe." And the Lemon Fair River was named by a Ver-
monter trying to pronounce Les Monts Verts.
A handful of Dutch place names around Nieuw Am-
sterdam, or New York, still glitter with originality: the
Murderkill River, memorializing an Indian fight; Hell Gate,
or Hellegat; and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, where a Hollander
swore he would swim the dangerous crossing "in spite of
the devil."
By way of contrast, consider the prosaic names inflicted
in more "enlightened" times—from Ada, Okla., to Zook,
Kan. Pennsylvania has enshrined the sooty god Industry in
such towns as Trucksville and Factoryville. The demon
Yaketty-Yak is evidently worshiped in both Telegraph and
Telephone, Texas. And in 1950, Hot Springs, N.M., con-
vulsed itself into Truth or Consequences.
The logical conclusion is that we might improve the
whole map by wiping it clean and starting over. Perhaps
hold contests for the best name to replace Ho-ho-kus, N.J.,
or Weed, Calif. And yet. . . and yet there are at least a
couple of classic, high-sounding names worth preserving.
In the course of my research for this article, I found there
is a community named Gary in each of six states and a
Jennings in eight.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 17
Political Vocabulary
BY PETER FUNK
Every occupation has its particular vocabulary, and politics is no
exception. During elections, certain words crop up more fre-
quently than at other times. If you were listening to a candidate
and the following 20 words were used, how many of them would
you know? Check the word or phrase you believe is nearest in
meaning to the key word. Answers are at the end of this test.
1. ethnic (eth' nik)—of or relating to A: principles. B: dis-
crimination. C: nationality or race. D: medicine.
2. faction (fak' shun)—pertaining to A: inflexibility. B: a
majority. C: clique. D: influence.
3. anachronistic (& nak ro nis' tik)—A: specialized. B: po-
litical. C. out-of-date. D: odd.
4. ideology (i de 51' o je)—A: creativeness. B: image worship.
C: unquestioning trust. D: beliefs.
5. contender (kon tend' er)—one who A: accuses. B: de-
mands. C: defies. D: competes.
6. incumbent (in kum' bent)—A. oppressor. B: negotiator.
C: officeholder. D: critic
7. acclamation (ak la ina' shun)—A: agreement B: adapta-
tion. C: gathering. D: wild applause.
8. fratricide (frat' ri sid)—A: meeting of like-minded persons.
B: being on friendly terms. C: act o( killing a brother D:
exaggerated patriotism.
9. Populist (pop' u list)—A: rural progressive. B: political
^iraddler. C: conformist. D. birth-control advocate.
!0. mandate (man' dat)—A: deadline. B: authoritative order.
C: clearly defined position. D: strong inclination.
' 1. consensus (ken sen sus)—A: general agreement. B: sum-
mary C: official count. D. recommendation.
177.
178 WOJ*D P O W E R
12. disavow (dis S vow')—A: to repudiate. B: lie. C: condemn.
D: insist.
13. gerrymander (jer' e man der)—A: to alter unfairly. B:
invalidate. C: make excuses. D: be fickle.
14. demagogue (dem' 2 gog)—A: sovereign. B: one advocating
violence. C: dictator. D: political agitator.
15. telegenic (tel i jen' ik)—A: scientifically inclined. B: at-
. tractive on television. C: farsighted. D: disinterested.
16. bloc—A: group. B: obstacle. C: diagram. D: formation.
17. polarization (pd lar T za' shun)—A: neutralizing force. B:
related to the arctic. C: a gathering around opposing ex-
tremes. D: fluctuation.
18. junket (jun' kit)—A: illegal practice. B: travel. C: short
speech. D: ineffective legislation.
19. pork barrel—A: emergency policy. B: free gifts. C: bribes
and graft. D: funds for local improvements.
20. radical (rid' I k'l)—one who is A: extreme. B: unreason-
able. C: an anarchist. D: dangerous.

ANSWERS

1. ethnic—C: Relating to nationality or race, or to character-

istics of people possessing a common heritage; as,.Irish,
Negro, Polish and other ethnic groups. Greek ethnos (race,
tribe).
2. faction—C: A clique working for its own ends; as. a new
sense of cooperation between party factions. Latin factio
(a making or doing).
3. anachronistic—C: Out-of-date; belonging to a former age
and now inappropriate. Greek anachroniiein (to refer to a
wrong time).
4. ideology—D: Beliefs and ideas that form the basis of a
political, economic or social system; as; "He appears ide-
ologiccily elusive." French ideologic.
 Word Power Test No. I I 179
5. contender—D: One who competes for position; as, "This
man is the best-qualified contender." Latin contendere (to
strain, exert).
6. incumbent—C: Currently in office; as, the incumbent Pres-
ident. Latin incumbere (to lie or lean upon).
7. acclamation—D: Wild applause; as, "The Presidential can-
didate was nominated by acclamation." Latin acclamare
(to cry out).
8. fratricide—C: Killing a brother, relative, countryman; as,
"The party engaged in fratricide over the choice of a nom-
inee." Latin fratricida, from frater (brother) and caedere
(to kill).
9. Populist—A: A rural progressive desiring greater govern-
ment action. From a small farmers' movement in 1892.
Latin populus (of the people).
10. mandate—B: Authoritative order; expressed will of voters.
When we give someone a mandate to clean up corruption,
we symbolically place the problem in his hands. Latin man-
dare (to commit to one's charge).
il consensus—A; General agreement; as, the consensus of
party professionals. Unchanged from the Latin.
12. disavow—A: To repudiate; refuse to claim responsibility
for; as. "He disavowed his plan to cut federal spending."
• Old French desavotter.
13. gerrymander—A: To alter a voting district unfairly. From
Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, whose party
in 1812 changed a district's lines in Essex County. (Its
changed shape resembled a salamander:.)
14. demagogue—D: Political agitator; one who plays on emo-
tions and prejudices to gain power. Greek demagogos
(leader of the people).
15. telegenic—B; Attractive on television; as, "It helps can-
didates to be telegenic." A new word from Greek tele (far
off) and genie (producing, bom).
16. bloc—A: Group; combination of persons, parties or nations
united for a common purpose; as, mobilizing the communist
bloc. French bloc (block, lump, the whole lot).
17. polarization—C: A gathering of people around opposing
viewpoints; as, the polarization of the community over bus-
ing. From positive and negative charges around opposite
poles in an electric field.
18. junket—B: Travel; disparaging term referring to a govern-
ment official's trip at public expense. Italian giuncata (a
cream cheese).
180 WOJ*D P O W E R
19. pork barrel—D: Government funds used to ingratiate Con-
gressmen with their constituents; as, "The Rivers-and-Har-
bors Bill is a pork barrel that has developed hundreds of
projects." A colloquial farm term.
20. radical—A; One who holds extreme views and advocates
far-reaching reforms. Latin radicalis (deeply rooted).

vocabulary ratings
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct ..excellent
14—12 correct good
There Is Magic
in a Word of
Praise
BY FULTON OURSLER

A Broadway comedian once had an excruciating nightmare:

he dreamed he was telling stories and singing songs in a
crowded theater, with thousands of people watching him—
but no one laughed or clapped.
"Even at $100,000 a week," he says, "that would be hell
on earth."
It is not only the actor who needs applause. Without
praise and encouragement anyone can lose self-confidence.
Thus we all have a double necessity: to be commended and
to know how to commend.
There is a technique in giving a compliment, a right way
to go about it. It is rio real compliment, for instance, to
praise a man for some obvious attainment. Use discernment
and originality. "That was a wonderfully convincing speech
you made tonight," a gracious woman once said to a busi-
nessman. "I could not help thinking what a fine lawyer you
would have made." The merchant flushed like a schoolboy
at the unexpected character of the tribute. As Andre Maurois
181.
182 WOJ*D POWER
once remarked: "The general did not thank me when I talked
to him of his victories, but his gratitude was unbounded
when a lady mentioned the twinkle in his eye."
No one, great or obscure, is untouched by genuine ap-
preciation. Yale's renowned English professor, William
Lyon Phelps, related: "One hot summer day I went into a
crowded railroad dining car for lunch. When the steward
handed me the menu, I said, 'The boys in the kitchen cer-
tainly must be suffering today!' The steward looked at me
in surprise. 'People come in here and complain about the
food, kick about the service and growl about the heat. In
19 years you are the first person who has ever expressed
any sympathy for the cooks back there in the kitchen.' What
people want," Phelps concluded, "is a little attention as
human beings."
In that attention, sincerity is essential. For it is sincerity
that gives potency to a compliment. The man coming home
after a hard day's work who sees the faces of his children
pressed against the windowpane, waiting and watching for
him, may water his soul with their silent but golden opinion.
The simple principles of the art of praise—to realize the
human need for it, to compliment sincerely, and to train
ourselves to look for the praiseworthy—help rub off the
sharp edges of daily contact. And nowhere is this more true
than in marriage. The wife or husband who is alert to say
the heartening thing at the right moment has taken out
valuable marriage insurance.
Women seem to have an instinct for such things; they
look at life, so to speak, through their hearts. After his
marriage, on February 23, a bridegroom remarked, "I will
never forget our wedding anniversary. It will always be the
day after Washington's birthday." "And I," his bride an-
swered, "will never forget Washington's birthday. It will
always be the day before we were married."
Children especially are hungry for reassurance, and the
want of kindly appreciation in childhood can endanger the
growth of character; it can even be a lifetime calamity. A
young mother told the Rev. A. W. Beaven of a heartaching
incident:
"My little daughter often misbehaves and I have to re-
buke her. But one day she had been an especially good girl,
 There Is Magic in a Word of Praise 183
hadn't done a single thing that called for reprimand. That
night, after I tucked her in bed and started downstairs, I
heard her sobbing. Turning back, I found her head buried
in the pillow. Between sobs she asked, 'Haven't I been a
pretty good girl today?'
"That question," said the mother, "went through me like
a knife. I had been quick to correct her when she did wrong,
but when she had tried to behave I had not noticed it. I had
put her to bed without one word of appreciation."
The same principle—using the kind word—is potent in
all human relationships. In my boyhood in Baltimore, a
new drugstore opened in the neighborhood, and old Pyke
Barlow, our skilled and long-established pharmacist, was
outraged. He accused his young rival, of selling cheap drugs
and of inexperience in compounding prescriptions. Finally
the injured newcomer, contemplating a suit for slander,
went to see a wise lawyer, Thomas G. Hays. "Don't make
an issue of it," Hays advised. "Try kindness."
Next day, when customers reported his rival's attacks,
the new druggist said there must be a mistake somewhere.
"Pyke Barlow," he told them, "is one of the finest phar-
macists in this town. He'll mix emergency prescriptions
any hour, day or night, and the care he takes with them sets
an example for all of us. This neighborhood has grown—
there's plenty of room for both of us. I'm taking Doc's store
as the pattern for mine."
When the older man heard these remarks—because com-
pliments fly on the winds of gossip quite as fast as scandal—
he could not wait to meet the young fellow face to face and
give him some helpful advice. The feud had been wiped
out by sincere and truthful praise.
Wherever human beings gather, thoughtfulness is needed.
In a group conversation the Tfind person will help everyone
to feel a part of the discussion. A friend once paid this
tribute to Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour as a dinner
host: "He would take the hesitating remark of a shy man
and discover in it unexpected possibilities, would expand
it until its author felt he had really made some contribution
to human wisdom. Guests would leave walking on air,
convinced that they were bigger men than they had
thought."
194 WOJ*D POWER
Why do most of us leave unuttered some pleasant truths
that would make others happy? It would help if we remem-
bered more often that "a rose to the living is more than
sumptuous wreaths to the dead." A charming old gentleman
used to drop in at an antique shop near Conway, N. H., to
sell merchandise. One day after he left, the antique dealer's
wife said she wished they had told him how much they
enjoyed his visits. The husband replied, "Next time let's
tell him."
The following summer a young woman came in and
introduced herself as the daughter of the salesman. Her
father, she said, had died. Then the wife told her of the
conversation she and her husband had had after her father's
last visit. The visitor's eyes filled with tears. "How much
good that would have done my father!" she exclaimed. "He
was a man who needed reassurance."
"Since that day," says the shopowner, "whenever I think
something nice about a person, I tell him. I might never
have another chance."
As artists find joy in giving beauty to others, so anyone
who masters the art of praising will find it blesses the giver
as much as the receiver. It brings warmth and pleasure into
commonplaces and turns the noisy rattle of the world into
music.
Something good can be said about everyone. We have
only to say it.
One Man's Mede
A master o f words outs the Eng'ish language' through some
punishing exercises

BY CLIFTON FAIHMAN

There is something to be said against puns. They upset the

dignity of speech, cut the ground of logic from under us.
We groan not only to convey disapproval but to cover dis-
comfiture.
To a great practitioner a pun is language on vacation,
but to the nonpractitioner it may seem more like language
in agony. The candid Jovcr of puns wiJi admit this charge.
He will cheerfully confess to a preference for language
under stress, as Daii prefers a melted watch to the correct
time.
Let us take a few test cases: In Animal Crackers, Groucho
Marx recalled that when shooting elephants in Africa he
found the tusks very difficult to remove—adding, however,
that in Alabama the Tuscaloosa. To the contrapuPtaiist such
a statement is quite irrelephant; to the propunent ii is pJeas-
ing because it shows what language can produce under
pressure, in this case language showing both marks of strain
and the strain of Marx
185.
186 WOJ*D POWER
I will give you another. Once, on a television show,
George S. Kaufman got himself mired in the word euphe-
mism. After playing with it for a few seconds he turned to
his fellow panelist Sam Levenson, declared, "Euphemism
and I'm for youse'm," and closed the discussion. Now this,
like-Tuscaloosa, was pure purposeless play, art for art's
sake, like doodling, whittling, singing in the bath. Mr.
Kaufman of course is no less a master of the meaningful
pun. One remembers his anguished cry at the poker table:
"I'm being trey-deuced!" Among the greatest wordplays of
all time is his unsettling remark that what is one man's
Mede is another man's Persian.
Impromptu Puns, though not generally the finest, often
supply the purest pleasure. Once when I was emceeing the
quiz show Information Please, the experts were required
to identify a certain Middle Eastern potentate. John Gunther
confidently supplied the correct answer. "Are you Shah?"
I ventured. "Sultanly," he replied. Such Impromptus are
successful for the unrecapturable moment only; you cannot
judge them in cold blood any more than you can grade
fragrances by memory.
Hie simplest pun is based on the reuse of a word with
a slight shift in meaning: S. J. Perelman's "Doctor, I've got
Bright's disease and he's got mine." Or take Sydney Smith's
famous remark. Observing two housewives screaming at
each other across a courtyard, he remarked that they would
never agree because they were arguing from different prem-
ises.
Slightly more complicated is the homonym. Here the
words match in sound but not meaning. When the homonym
is imperfect a certain wild touch of imagination is often
present. Like: "The audience strummed their catarrhs"
(Alexander Woollcott) or "The things my wife buys at auc-
tion are keeping me baroque" (Peter De Vries).
So far, we have been considering only single puns, de-
pending on one word. We approach structural complication
when we get to double puns. Here is a well-constructed one
from S. J. Perelman's movie, Horse Feathers. The secre-
tary, who has been holding a caller at bay in the anteroom,
warns Groucho, "Jennings is waxing wroth," to which
 One Man's Mede 187
Groucho replies, "Never mind. Tell Roth to wax Jennings
for a while."
When the homonyms require a double take from the
listener they acquire some of the uncanny charm of echoes.
Here is a first-rate doublet of this sort by Franklin P. Adams:
"Take care of your peonies and the dahlias will take care
of themselves."
Polar to the Impromptu Pun is the Set-up or Circum-
stantial Pun. It is a blend of narrative and wordplay, based
on an imaginary, contrived situation, and it may be polished
till it gleams. I offer a classic by Bennett Cerf.
It seems that a relative and namesake of Syngman Rhee,
visiting our country to learn the magazine business, got a
job on Life. On his first assignment, however, he lost him-
self in the mazes of New York City. It took several days
to track him down. At last the Missing Persons Bureau
investigator found him in a Third Avenue bar and cried in
relief, "Ah, sweet Mr. Rhee, of Life, at last I've found
you!"
A mere half-century ago the ability to pun via Latin was
common, if not compulsory, among the well-educated.
There is the reputed instance of Sir Charles James Napier's
message to the British War Office after his capture of Sind
in India. He is supposed to have telegraphed one word—
peccavi—which, as the class knows, is Latin for "I have
sinned."
To enjoy any art properly we learn to discriminate, in-
clining neither to wholesale rejection nor to uncritical ac-
ceptance. If we leam to avoid the mechanical, and to ap-
preciate the genuinely good, then I think we may agree with
James Boswell that, "a good pun may be admitted among
the small excellencies of lively conversation."
 IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER ®

Word Power
Test No. 18
The Lore of Bench and Bar
BY PETER F I N K

In this list of verbs heard frequently in courts of law, check the

word or phrase you believe is nearest in meaning to the key word.
Answers are at the end of this test.
. 1. militate (mil' i tat)—A: to make less severe. B: challenge.
C: have weight or influence. D: arbitrate.
2. extol (eks tol')—A: to flatter. B: acknowledge. C. deprive
of. D: praise.
3. substantiate (sub stan' shi at)—A: to confirm. B: indicate.
C: substitute. D: emphasize.
4. badger (baj' er)—A: to beat B: pester C. dig into. D:
exhaust.
5. cavil (kav' il)—A'. to find fault. B: ridicule. C: dissemble.
D. humble oneself.
6. subvert (sub vert')—A: to replace. B: divide. C: sink. D:
overthrow.
7. jeopardize (jep' er diz)—A: to unbalance. B: wear away.
C: endanger. D: belittle.
8. commandfeer ikom an der )—A: to commit. B: take pos-
session of. C: destroy. D: redirect.
<3. exhort (eg zoit')—A: to urge. B: try hard. C: tamper with.
D: shake down.
!0. mollify (mol' i fi)—A: to deny. B: change. C: pacify. D:
subdue.
11. brandish (bran' dish)—A: to burn into. B: browbeat. C.
torment. D: wave threateningly.
12. incriminate (in krim' T nat)—A: to resist authority. B:
accuse. C: imprison. D: rebuke.
188.
 Word Power Test No. I I 189
13 confound (kon found')—A: to perplex. B: probe deeply.
C: frustrate. D: split up.
14. nullify (nul' I fi)—A: to retract. B: make ineffective. C:
eliminate. D: numb.
15. ingest (in jest')—A: to joke. B: disgorge. C: absorb. D:
force in.
16 evade (e vad')—A: to rub out. B; lurch. C: glance off. D:
avoid.
17. ravage (rav' ij)—A: to rage. B: devastate. C: take by storm.
D: torture.
18 lacerate (las' er at)—A: to nurse. B: scold. C: bruise. D:
tear.
19. contend (kon tend')—A: to struggle. B: face boldly. C:
plead. D: demand.
20. prevaricate (pre var' i kat)—A: to put off. B: quibble. C:
lie. D: forestall.

ANSWERS
1. militate—C: To have weight, influence or effect; as, cir-
cumstances that militate against a fair trial. Latin militare
(to serve as a soldier).
2 extol—D: To praise lavishly; glorify; eulogize; as, to extol
the character of the accused. Latin extollere (to lift up),
3 substantiate—A: To confirm; establish by proof or evi-
dence; verify; as, to substantiate one's claim of innocence.
Latin substare (to stand firm).
4. badger—B: To pester; harass or annoy persistently; bait;
as, to badger a witness From the once popular sport of
harassing badgers with dogs.
5 cavil—A: To find trivial faults with; raise frivolous or pic-
ayune objections to; carp; as, to cavil at ar, investigator's
methods. Latin cavillari.
subvert—D: To overthrow from the foundation; ruin; cor-
6.
rupt by undermining morals, allegiance or faith; as, a plot
to subvert the government. Latin subvertere (to turn from
beneath).
7, jeopardize—C: To endanger; imperil; expose to loss, injury
or risk; as, to jeopardize one's career. Old French jeu parti
(divided game).
8 commandeer—B: To take forcible possession of; seize for
200 WOJ*D POWER
public or military necessity; as, to commandeer a citizen's
car. Old French comander.
9. exhort—A: To urge or advise earnestly; spur on; incite; as,
to exhort a jury to show compassion. Latin exhortari (to
encourage).
10. mollify—C: To pacify; soothe; soften the temper of; as, to
mollify an angry crowd. Latin molliflcare, from mollis
(soft).
11. brandish—D: To wave,or shake threateningly; flourish
menacingly; as, to"brandish a gun. Old French brand
(sword).
12. incriminate—B: To accuse of or connect with a crime;
implicate; as, to incriminate a suspect. Latin incriminare,
from crimen (crime).
13. confound—A: To perplex; bewilder; mix up; as, to con-
found people with legal double-talk. Latin confundere (to
pour together, confuse).
14. nullify—B; To make ineffective, useless or valueless; an-
nul; as, to nullify a contract. Latin nullificare, from nullus
(none).
15. ingest—C: To absorb; take in for digestion, as food into
the stomach; as, to ingest relevant facts. Latin ingerere (to
carry in).
16. evade—D: To avoid; turn aside; avert; as, to evade a crucial
question. Latin evadere (to get off, escape).
17. ravage—B: To devastate; lay waste; plunder; as, a face
ravaged by grief. Middle French ravir (to ravish).
18. lacerate—D: To tear or rend roughly; mangle; as, to lac-
erate the skin; also, to cause acute mental pain to; distress.
Latin lacerare (to tear).
19. contend—A: To struggle; strive or vie in competition, or
against difficulties or obstacles; as, to contend with prej-
udice. Latin contendere (to strain, exert).
20. prevaricate—C: To lie; stray from the truth; speak equiv-
ocally; as, to prevaricate under cross-examination. Latir
praevaricari (to walk crookedly).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
Watch Your
Language!
BY THEODORE M. BERNSTEIN

How well do you use words? When you talk, write a letter
or compose a memo to the boss, do you say what you mean?
If you think you do, look at the following common errors
culled from the pages of the New York Times.
ADVANCE PLANNING. "With a little advance plan-
ning, culinary chores for Easter can be simplified." Planning
is the laying out of a future course; "advance" is therefore
superfluous.
ANOTHER. "New York's public schools will greet their
890,700 boys and girls today . . . another 331,000 will at-
tend the parochial schools." "Another" means "one more
of the same kind." Thus "another" would be correct here
only if the second figure were the same as the first figure.
Why not use "more"?
AS THE CROW FLIES. "Karachi, Pakistan, is 2300
miles from Ankara, Turkey, as the crow flies." This once
shiny figure of speech antedates aviation days and is mighty
tarnished now. Why not "by air" 9

I9T
lf>2 WORD POWER
BRING TO A HEAD. "The matter was brought to a
head last Monday." This is not only a cliche but a repulsive
one. To bring to a head means to suppurate, or cause pus
to form.
BY MEANS OF. "The spindle is rotated by means of
a foot pedal." Generally, "by" will serve nicely for "by
means of."
CENTER. "The strikers' grievances center around va-
cation provisions." The verb "center" means "to be collected
or gathered to a point." Therefore, use "center on" or "center
in," but not "center around."
CHAIN REACTION. "Jackie Gleason's unrehearsed
fall set off a chain reaction of thousands of local and long-
distance telephone calls." "Chain reaction" does not mean
a great quantity; it means a process in which a cause pro-
duces an effect that in turn becomes a cause, and so on.
CLAIM. "Mr. Casper claimed that a college degree was
a business necessity." "Claim" should not be used as a
synonym for "say," "assert" or "declare" except when there
is at issue an assertion of a right or title.
COLLISION. "Mr. Crotty was changing a tire when
a second car smashed into his automobile. The collision
ruptured the gasoline tank." When two things collide, they
strike against each other; both are in motion. No collision
here; it was the "crash" or the "impact."
COMPRISE. "He gave the names of four books that
comprised the body of Roman civil law." "Comprise"
means "contain, embrace, include, comprehend." Thus, the
whole comprises the parts, but not vice versa. What is
wanted here is "compose," "constitute" or "make up."
CONTINUALLY. "When McSorley's finally closes its
swinging doors, the oldest place in town that has been
continually in the business will be Pete's Tavern." The word
here should be "continuously." "Continual" means over and
over again; "continuous" means unbroken.
DILEMMA. "The question is basically the common
suburban dilemma: Should construction of apartments be
allowed in former one-family areas?" A dilemma is a sit-
uation entailing a choice between two distasteful alterna-
tives. There was no suggestion here of such alternatives.
Use "problem" or "predicament."
 Watch four Language! 193
FLAUNT. "Secretary Dulles charged the South Korean
government with 'unilateral action' flaunting the authority
of the United Nations command." "Flaunt" means to wave
or to make a boastful display. "Flout," which the writer had
in mind but couldn't quite reach, means to treat with con-
tempt.
FORTUITOUS. "So Tobin wound up with the Lions,
who already had an ace quarterback in Bobby Layne. Never
was a more fortuitous deal made." "Fortuitous" means
"happening by chance"; it does not mean fortunate.
FOUNDER. "The schooner foundered and apparently
sank in heavy seas." If it foundered, it sank—because that's
what "foundered" means. The word has a built-in sink.
INFER. "Was 1 attempting to belittle a great American
writer when I inferred that Moby Dick is overstuffed?" To
infer is to deduce; to imply (which is here the intended
meaning) is to signify or to hint.
IN ORDER. "The United States and France have inv ited
Yugoslavia to send a military mission to Washington in
crder to discuss defensive planning." Delete "in order,"
unless you are being paid by the word.
INTRIGUE. "He has always "been intrigued by big prob-
lems." This use is best avoided on at least two grounds.
First, it is an erroneous borrowing fro.n French, in which
the word means "puzzle"; second, "intrigue" has become
a kind of fuzzy, all-purpose word to express meanings for
which there are already perfectly good, precise words like
"interest." "pique" and ' excite."
LESS. "He could get even less games than did Hoad."
The general rule is to use "less" for amount and "fewer"
for number.
LIVID. "Provoo's lace became livid. He leaned for-
ward, banged his fist on the witness box and shouted."
'Livid" means either black-and-blue or the color of lead.
It does not mean vivid or red.
MASTERFUL. "In a masterful display of seaman
ship . . ." The distinction in good current usage between
masterful" (imperious, domineering) and "masterly" (skill-
ful, expert) is worth preserving.
PINCH HITTER As a synonym for "substitute" or
"replacement," the phrase is a weary cliche. In addition.
194 WOJ*D POWER
it usually is misused. In baseball, of course, a pinch hitter
is a player sent to bat because his manager believes he will
do a better job in the circumstances than the man he is
replacing. A tenor hastily inserted in the cast to replace a
singer who is indisposed is not a "pinch-hitting tenor." He
is not expected to do as good a job as the missing star,
much less a better one.
PREPARATORY. "As the former Far Eastern com-
mander reviewed his service in the Orient preparatory to
leaving for Paris . . . " The review in no sense prepared him
for his departure; what the writer meant was simply "be-
fore."
RAVISHING. "Elm Beetle Infestation Ravishing Thou-
sands of Trees in Greenwich." Insex? Keep your mind on
your work. The word you want is "ravaging."
R E A S O N . . . BECAUSE. "He said the reason he had
broken down was because liis mother had died two days
before the hearing." "Reason" and "because" have the same
connotation. Eliminate one or the other.
TRUE FACTS. "No matter what the true facts of the
situation are . . . " Delete "true"; there are no such things as
false facts.
-WISE. "Saleswise, the new candies are doing well."
Slapping the suffix "-wise" onto words promiscuously and
needlessly is, at the moment, a fad. Help stamp it out.
My, O Myopia!
BY CORNELIA OTIS SKINNER

Long running in New York City was a highly successful

musical called Applause. The only fault I could find with
this smash hit was its title, which was to be seen all over
town. I invariably read it as Applesauce.
All my life I've been prone to read words incorrectly.
As a girl, I commuted weekly by train to a nearby town for
piano lessons. At either end of the day coach was a large
printed notice which I deciphered as "Spitting Is Awful."
Years passed before I discovered the rightful reading of this
admonition.
My newspaper misreading usually occurs in the early
morning when, bleary of eye and mind, 1 scan the headlines.
Thus, some years ago, while sipping coffee, I read, "De-
mons to Convene in Indianapolis"—which produced a mo-
mentary wobble of my cup. I could see swarms of these
creatures milling about a hotel lobby in their traditional red
costumes, lining up for their name badges at tables presided
over by smiling, satanic ladies. Halfway through this day-
195.
 6 WOJ*D POWER
dream, I gianced again at the headline to realize that the
forthcoming convention would be made up merely of "De-
mos"—a space-saving typesetter having eliminated the
"crat."
Orice, on a plane trip, I was reading a magazine article
by Pearl Buck. In a moment, one of those enchanted sen-
tences caught my eye. It went: "At dawn we set forth in
sedan chairs whose poles rested on the shoulders of bare-
backed Chinese beavers." How extraordinary! I thought
The Chinese beaver must be a good deal larger than ours,
and is obviously capable of being domesticated. At that
point, the plane went into one of those inexplicable shud-
ders, which jolted me into losing my place. When I found
it again, I realized that Mrs. Buck and her party had been
earned by Chinese bearers.
This tendency to transform words into something that
they are not would undoubtedly be of significance to a
psychiatrist, but I don't want to be told what it implies.
Besides, I sometimes find the errors rather diverting. One
day on a New York bus around Eastertime, 1 read in an
overhead ad: "All our food is personally supervised by
rabbits." Now, really! I thought. What won't the Madison
Avenue boys resort to next? I imagined the Easter Bunny
supervising the making of huge batches of chocolate eggs.
Glancing again, I saw instead a Star of David and the ko-
sher-market ad announcing that all its food was "personally
supervised by rabbis." This, of course, was as it should
be-—but I still think the mental picture of a rabbit presiding
over a candy kitchen is more colorful.
I might resort to the pretext that the majority of the words
1 misread are in small print, and that my eyesight is not
what it was. However, I make the same mistakes in boldface
newspaper advertisements. Last winter, a sports shop an-
nounced in oversized letters that it was CALLING ALL SKIERS
TO ATTEND OUR GIANT SALE ON TERMINAL UNDERWEAR T h e
ad, with its ominous note of impending disaster, started me
thinking about all those intrepid winter-sports enthusiasts
arising in the dark of a frigid morning and deliberately
getting into their terminal underwear prior to venturing forth
to the snowcapped heights. Their we-who-are-about-to-die
frame of mind, while courageous, struck me as incompre-
 My, O Myopia! 197

hensible. Even the subsequent discover)' that their under-

wear is thermal hasn't dissuaded me from the opinion that
most skiers are crazy.
It is a comfort to run across others who have similar
reading failings. For example, a dear friend of mine who
is a crossword-puzzle fiend phoned me not long ago, saying,
"You spend a lot of time in London. What is the district
in which they drink illy-gally?"
"Drink what?" I asked.
"Illy-gally," she answered. "You know, it's one of those
whimsical British names like shandygaff or cockaleekie "
I asked her how it was used. She replied in the tones of
one addressing a backward child. "It simply says, 'District
in London where one may drink illy-gally."'
"How do you spell illy-gally?" I persisted.
"Why, i-1-1. . ." There was a pause, in which she said,
"Oh . . ." Then she went on: "e-g-a-l-l-y."
I said nothing. ,
"You see," she continued quite crossly, "the word came
at the end of a line, and if you ask me that's no way to
hyphenate a harmless little word like 'illegally.'"
I'm rather sorry there is no such drink as illy-gally. I
was beginning to enjoy the prospect of my next visit to
London. 1 am sorry, too, that a convention of demons was
never held in Indianapolis. If these visual delusions are
abnormal, they at least give way to fantasies which are
sometimes more entertaining than the actual printed words.
That is why I would never dream of going in for any course
in remedial reading.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER®

Word Power
No. 19
High School Specials

BY PETER FUNK

The words in the following list appear frequently in tests given

to high-school students. Check the word or phrase you believe is
nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear at the end
of this test.
1. indignity (in dig' ni te)—A: penalty. B: humiliation. C:
blame. D: rebuke.
2. abstract (ab strakt'; ab'-)—A: theoretical. B: confused. C:
indefinite. D: unrealistic.
3. brackish (brak' ish)—A: backward. B: having a foul odor.
C: salty. D: weedy.
4. heyday (ha' da)—A: excitement. B: special event. C: com-
edy. D: peak period.
5. efface (6 fas')—A: to degrade. B: erase. C: mar. D: avoid,
6. cerebral (se re' bral)—A: formal. B: perceptive. C: impres-
sionable. D: relating to the brain.
7. solecism (s61' & sgz'm)—A: plausible but fallacious argu-
ment. B: grammatical error. C: wise saying. D: comfort.
8. nonentity (non en' tf te)—A: trifle. B: mystical being. C:
insignificant person. D: minor.
9. succulent (suk' u lent)—A: greedy. B: tasty. C: juicy. D:
soft.
10. musty (mus' te)—A: moldy. B: gloomy. C: acrid. D:
grubby.
11. itinerant (l tin' er ant)—A: irregular. B: temporary. C:
poor. D: traveling.
198.
 Word Power Test No. I I 199
12. defray (de fra')—A: to pay. B: pull back C: tatter. D: go
around.
13. medallion (mg dal' yun)—A: souvenir. B: precious metal.
C: religious relic. D: large medal.
14. duplicity (du plis' T te)—A: repetition. B: artlessness. C:
double-dealing. D: cleverness.
15. caricature (kar' I ka tur)—A: biographical sketch. B: car-
toon likeness. C: eccentricity. D: personality trait,
16. heinous (ha' nus)—A: abominable. B: obscure. C: trea-
sonable. D: ugly.
18. fettle (fet' '1)—A: condition. B: shackle. C: humor. D:
problem.
19. lineage (lin' e ij)—A: chain of command. B: prestige. C:
ancestry. D: rigging.
20. undue (un du')—A: undisciplined. B: usurious. C: pre-
mature. D: unjustified.

ANSWERS

1 indignity—B: Humiliating treatment; offense against one's

dignity or self-respect; outrage; as, to subject POWs to one
indignity after another. Latin indignus (unworthy),
2. abstract—A: Theoretical; lacking specific factual in-
stances: difficult to understand; abstruse; as. an abstract
philosophical concept. Latin abstrahere (to draw away,
withdraw).
3 brackish—C: Somewhat salty; unpleasant-tasting; not
drinkable; as, brackish bay water. Dutch brak (salty),
4 heyday—D: Peak period; time of greatest strength, pros-
perity or success; as, the heyday of the whaling industry,
5 efface—B: To erase; obliterate; also, to withdraw (oneself)
from attention; make (oneself) modestly inconspicuous; as,
a shy child trying to efface herself in the group. Middle
French effacer.
6 cerebral—D: Relating to the brain or the intellect; ap-
pealing to intellectual appreciation; as, cerebral discourses.
Latin cerebrum (brain).
7. solecism—B: Grammatical error; minor blunder in speech;
also, a breach of etiquette or decorum. Greek sotoikos
(speaking incorrectly).
200 WOJ*D POWER
8. nonentity—C: insignificant person; one who is wholly un-
distinguished in character, talents or achievement: as a po-
litical nonentity. Latin nan- (not), and entitas (being).
9. succulcnt—C: Juicy; full of freshness or richness; as, a
succulent cut of meat. Latin succulentus, from succus
(juice, sap).
10 musty—A: Moldy; smelling of dampness and decay; as,
a musty cellar.
>1. itinerant—D: Traveling from place to placc: making a reg-
ular or seasonal circuit; as, an itinerant fruit picker. Latin
itinerari (to journey).
12. defray—A. To pay; provide for payment of; reimburse; as,
to defray tr?vel expenses. French defrayer.
13. medallion—D: Large medal; tablet or panel in a wall or
window bearing a figure in relief, a portrait or an ornament;
as, a commemorative medallion. French medaillon.
14. duplicity—C: Double-dealing; deliberate deception in speech
oi action belying one's true thoughts or intentions; as, to
practice duplicity. Lain duplex (twofold, double).
15. caricature—B: Cartoon likeness achieved by exaggeration
and often ludicrous distortion of a peculiar feature or char-
acteristic; as, the art of caricature. Italian caricare (to
load).
16. heinous—A: Abominable; extremely wicked, hateful or
shockingly evil; as, a heinous murder. Middle French kai-
rieus. from haine (hate).
17. emit—B: To give off; send out; utier; as, to emit a roar
Latin emittere (to send out).
18. fettle—A: Condition; state of fitness, health, spirit.-.; a->. to
be in fine fettit. Middle English fetlen (to shape, se in -

order).
19. lineage—-C: Ancestry; line of descent or tradition; back-
ground, origin: as, a custom of ancient lineage. Old French
ligne Ume of descent).
20. undue—15: Unjustified; immoderate: ctcessivc. as. the un-
due waste of natuial resource*. Midifle English undent.

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17 -15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
"Englisch As
She Is Goodly
Spocken"*
BY NINO LO BELLO

Fractured English is the name of the game It's ftm to play,

and all you have to do is travel with pad at the ready ,Here
is a sampling from my flip-of-the-tongue collection gathered
abroad, beginning with an Italian doctor's sign: Specialist
in Women and Other Diseases.
Even the British, who speak English themselves, muff
one occasionally, as in this hospital sign in London: Visi-
tors. Two to a Bed and Half-an-Hour Only. Or this linguistic
lapse: Our Establishment Serves Tea in a Bag Like Mother.
One hotel in France lists an egg on its menu as extract
of fowl. It can be ordered peached or sunside up.
Then there is the dentist in Istanbul whose doorway pro-
claims: American Dentist, 2th Floor—Teeth Extracted By
Latest Methodists. At least he picked the right floor.
The problem extends to communist nations courting tour-
ists. In Belgrade's state-owned skyscraper hotel, the Slav-
ija, the elevator instructions vay: To move the cabin push
" F r o m a sign in the Netherlands advertising a Dutch-English g r a m m a r

201
202 WOJ*D POWER
button of wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more
persons, each one should press number of wishing floor.
Posted in another Yugoslav hotel: Let Us Know About Any
Vnficiency Well As Leaking On The Service. Our Utmost
Will Improve.
I found this piece of prose in the office of one of Czech-
oslovakia's state travel bureaus: Take One Of Our Horse-
Driven City Tours—We Guarantee No Miscarriages. And
these lifesaving instructions aboard a Soviet ship in the
Black Sea: Help savering apparata in emergings behold
many whistles! Associate the stringing apparata about the
bosoms and meet behind. Flee then to the indifferent life-
savering shippen obediencing the instructs of the vessel
chef.
On the elevator door in a Romanian hotel I found my
all-time favorite: The lift is being fixed for the next days.
During that time we regret that vou will be unbearable.
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER®

Word Power
Test No. 20
A Nosegay of Look-Alikes
BY PETER FUNK

In this list of paired words, similar enough in form to be confusing, .

check the word or phrase you believe is nearest in meaning to the
key word. Answers appear at the end of this test.
1. censor (sen' ser)—A: to scold. B: delete. C: fabricate. D:
deceive.
2. censure (sen' shure)—A: to reject. B: suppress. C: blame.
D: remove from office.
3. expatiate (eks pa' she at)—A: to enlarge upon. B: recon-
cile. C: lavish. D: atone.
4. expatriate (eks pa' tre at)—A: to disqualify. B: enjoin. C:
disown. D: exile.
5. tortuous (tor' tu us)-^-A: slow. B: arduous. C: winding.
D: cautious.
6. torturous (tor' tur us)—A: rough. B: morally irregular. C:
sluggish. D: painful.
7. presentiment (pre zen' ti ment)—A: composure. B: pre-
monition. C: alarm. D: donation.
8. presentment (pre zent' ment)—A: presentation. B: hunch.
C: verdict. D: authorization.
9. adverse (ad vurs')—A: dangerous. B: obstructive. C: up-
side down. D: unfavorable.
10. averse (a vurs')—A: talkative. B: frustrating. C: unwilling.
D: preventive.
11. credible (kred' I b'l)—A: believable. B: superstitious. C:
gullible. D. skeptical.
203.
204 WORD POWER
*

12. creditable (kred' it a b'i)—A: plausible. B: desirab/e. C:

risky. D: praiseworthy.
13. factious (fak' shus)—A: caustic. B: relating to a contentious
group. C: manufactured. D: pointed.
14. fractious (frak' shus)—A: unruly. B: splintered. C: crooked.
D: frail.
15. hypercritical (hi per krit' I ka!)—A; deceitful. B: over-
critical. C: fearful. D: seriously ill.
16. hypocritical (hip o krit' i kal)—A: mistrustful. B: fussy.
C: insincere. D: overly concerned with health.
17. affect (5 fekt')—A: to influence. B: upset. C: emote. D:
conclude.
18. effect (6 fekt')—A: to modify. B: bring about. C: devise.
D: regulate.
19. presumptive (pre zump' tiv)—A: hopeful. B: insolent. C:
probable. D: decisive.
20. presumptuous (pre zump' tu us)—A: hasty. B: bombastic.
C: inferred. D: arrogant.

ANSWERS

1. censor—B: To delete, alter or ban after official examina-

tion; as. to censor news. Latin censere (to assess).
2. censure—C: To blame; criticize; reprimand officially; as,
to censure a legislator. Latin censere.
3. expatiate—A: To enlarge upon; elaborate; speak or write
at length or in detail; as, in expatiate on the fuel problem.
Latin expatiari (to digress).
4. expatriate—D: To exile; banish; also, to renounce alle-
giance to one's native land. Latin expatriare (to leave one's
own country).
5. tortuous—C: Winding; full of twists and turns; as, a tor-
tuous mountain trail; also, devious; as, tortuous reasoning.
Latin torque re (to twist).
6. torturous—D: Cruelly painful; agonizing,,causing torture;
as, hours of torturous worry. Latin torquere
7. presentiment—B: Premonition; foreboding; a feeling that
something is about to happen. Latin praesentire (to perceive
beforehand).
 Word Power Test No. I I 105
8. presentment—A: Presentation; a formal statement to an
authority of a matter to be dealt with; as, a presentment
returned by a grand jury on the subject of organized crime.
Latin praesentare (to present).
9. adverse—D: Unfavorable; opposed to one's interests; an-
tagonistic; as, adverse criticism. Latin advert?re (to turn
toward).
10. averse—C: Unwilling; reluctant, hesitant; as, to be averse
to getting up early. Latin avertere (to turn away from).
11 credible—A: Believable; entitled to confidence; trustwor-
thy; as, a credible witness. Latin credere (to believe).
12. creditable—D: Praiseworthy; deserving credit or esteem;
as. a creditable performance. Latin creditus, "that which
is believed," from credere.
13. factious—B: Relating to or caused by a contentious group
or groups, as, a political party split by factious disputes.
Latin factio (faction).
14. fractious—A: Unruly; hard to manage; refractory; as. a
fractious horse. Latin frangere (to break).
15. hypercritical—B: Overcritical; marked by excessive fault-
finding; captious; as, a hypercritical book review. Greek
hvper- (over), and kritikos (able to judge),
16. hypocritical—C: insincere; relating to one who professes
qualities or virtues he does not have. Greek hypocrites
(actor, pretender).
17. affect—A: To influence; produce a noticeable reaction, re-
sponse or change in; as, areas affected by the tornado. Latin
afficere (to exert an influence).
18. effect—B: To bring about; achieve; produce; as, to effect
a cure. Latin efficere (to bring about).
19. presumptive—C; Based on probability or presumption;
supposed; providing grounds for reasonable opinion or be-
lief; as, presumptive evidence. Latin praesumere (to antic-
ipate, suppose, take for granted).
20. presumptuous—D: Arrogant; unduly confident; over-
weening; taking liberties; as, a presumptuous manner. Latin
praesumere.

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct excellent
14—12 correct good
216.
The American
Language
BY H.L. MENCKEN

The first Englishman to notice an Americanism sneered at

it aloofly, thus setting a fashion that many of his countrymen
have been following ever since. He was one Francis Moore,
a ruffian who came to Georgia in 1735, and the word that
upset him was bluff, in the sense of "a cliff or headland
with a broad precipitous face." He did not deign to argue
against it; he simply dismissed it as "barbarous," and for
nearly a century, when it was printed at all in Great Britain,
it was set off by sanitary quotation marks. But, in 1830,
the eminent Sir Charles Lyell used it shamelessly and from
that day to this it has been a respectable if somewhat un-
familiar word in England.
Its history is the history of almost countless other Amer-
icanisms. They have been edging their way into English
since early colonial times, but only after running a gantlet
of opposition. After the Revolution, that opposition took
on the proportions of a holy war. Never an American book
came out that the English reviewers did not belabor its
 The American Language 207
vocabulary violently. Even serious writers like Jefferson,
John Marshall, Noah Webster, and John Quincy Adams got
their share. Jefferson's crime was that he had invented the
verb to belittle. It was, one may argue plausibly, a very
logical, useful, and perhaps even nifty word, and 75 years
later the prissy Anthony Trollope was employing it without
apology. But in 1787 The London Review roared: "What
an expression! It may be an elegant one in Virginia, but all
we can do is to guess at its meaning. For shame, Mr.
Jefferson! Freely we forgive your attacks upon our national
character; but for the future spare, we beseech you, our
mother tongue!"
The underscoring of guess was a fling in passing at
another foul Americanism. It was the belief of most Eng-
lishmen then, as it is today, that the use of the verb in the
sense of to suppose or assume originated in this country.
It is actually to be found, in that meaning precisely, in
Measure for Measure; nay, in Chaucer. To advocate offers
another example. It appeared in English in the dark back-
ward and abysm of time, but during the 18th century it
seems to have dropped out of general use. Toward the end
of the century it came into vogue in this country, and soon
made its way back to the land of its birth. It was received
with all the honors proper to an invasion of Asiatic cholera,
the reviews denouncing it as loutish, "Gothic," and against
God.
The heroic struggle to keep Americanisms out of Britain
still flourishes. A few years ago the Rt. Rev. Cyril Henry
Gelding-Bird, Assistant Bishop of Guildford and Archdea-
con of Dorking, was charged before the Famham (Surrey)
magistrates with applying speed-cop to a member of the
mobile police. His Lordship denied with some heat that he
had used the term, or anything else so unseemly, but the
magistrates apparently concluded that he must have let it
slip, for they took a serious view of his very modest ad-
venture in speeding, fined him £10, and suspended his
driving license for three months.
Whenever an Americanism comes publicly into question
in England, there are efforts to track down its etymology,
with results that are sometimes extremely bizarre. In Jan-
uary, 1935, for example, the London Morning Post opened
208 WORD POWER
*

its columns to a furious discussion of the verb-phrase, to

get his goat. I content myself with one of the explanations:
"Among the Negroes in Harlem it is the custom for each
household to keep a goat to act as general scavenger. Oc-
casionally one man will steal another's goat, and the house-
hold debris then accumulates to the general annoyance."
The truth is that to get his goat seems to be of French origin,
and in the form of prendre sa chevre, has been traced back
to the year 1585.
Occasionally, of course, genuine Americanisms are
claimed as really English. In 1934 even the learned Dr. C.
T. Onions, one of the editors of the great Oxford Dictionary,
succumbed to the madness by offering to find in the dic-
tionary any alleged Americanism that a reporter for the
London Evening News could name. The reporter began dis-
creetly with fresh (in the sense of saucy), to figure (in the
sense of to believe or conclude), and to grill (in the sense
of to question), and Dr. Onions duly found them all. But
when the reporter proceeded to rake-off, the editor had to
admit that the earliest example in the dictionary was from
an American work, and when boloney and nerts were hurled
at him he blew up with a bang.
In the modern Englishman there seems to be very little
of that ecstasy in word-making which so prodigiously en-
grossed his Elizabethan forebears. Shakespeare alone prob-
ably put more new words into circulation than all the English
writers since Carlyle, and they were much better ones. The
ideal over there today is not picturesque and exhilarating
utterance, but correct and reassuring utterance. At its best
it shows excellent manners and even a kind of mellifluous
elegance; indeed, the English, taking one with another, may
be said to write much better than we do. But what they
write is seldom animated bv anything properly describable
as bounce. It lacks novelty, variety, audacity.
Herein lies the fundamental reason for the introduction
of so many Americanisms into British English. They are
adopted in England simply because England has nothing
so apt or pungent to offer in competition with them. His
Lordship of Guildford did not apply speed-cop to the mobile
policeman as a voluntary act of subversion; he let it slip for
the single reason that it was an irresistibly apposite and
 The American Language 209
satisfying term. And so with other Americanisms. Con-
fronted by the same novelty, the Americans always manage
to fetch up a name for it that not only describes it but also
illuminates it, whereas the English, since the Elizabethan
stimulant oozed out of them, have been content merely to
catalogue it. There was a brilliant exemplification of the
two approaches in the early days of railways. The English
called the wedge-shaped fender that was put in front of the
first locomotives a plough, which was almost exactly what
it was, but the Americans gave it the bold and racy appel-
lation of cow-catcher. For the casting which guides the
wheels from one rail to another the English coined the
depressingly obvious name of crossing-plate; the Ameri-
cans, setting their imaginations free, called it a frog. The
American movie is much better than the English cinema;
so is radio than wireless, though it may be Latin, and shock
absorber vastly better than anti-bounce clip, and bouncer
than chucker-out, and chain store than multiple shop. Con-
fronting the immensely American rubberneck, Dr. J. Y. T.
Greig of Newcastle could only exclaim "one of the best
words ever coined!" And in the face of lounge lizard, Hor-
ace Annesley Vachell fell silent like Sir Isaac Newton on
the seashore, overwhelmed by the solemn grandeur of the
linguistic universe.
One finds in current American all the characters and
tendencies that marked the rich English of Shakespeare's
time—an eager borrowing from other languages, a bold and
often very ingenious use of metaphor, and a fine disdain
of the barricades separating the parts of speech. We had
already a large repertory of synonyms for jail, but when the
word hoosegow precipitated itself from the Spanish juzgado
somewhere along the Rio Grande it won quick currency.
Bummer, coming in from the German, is now clipped to
bum. Buncombe, borrowed by the English as bunkum, has
bred bunco and bunk and to debunk at home.
There are constant complaints in the English newspapers
about the appearance of lawless American novelties in the
parliamentary debates, and in discourses from the sacred
desk. They begin to show themselves also in belles lettres.
They even pop up in the diatribes that revile them; the
Englishman, conquered at last; can no longer protest against
210 WOJ*D POWER
America/iisms without using them. If only because of the
greater weight of the population behind it, the American
form of English seems destined to usurp the natural lead-
ership of British English, and to determine the general
course of the language hereafter. But its chief advantage
in this struggle is the fact that its daring experiments lie in
the grand tradition of English, and are signs of its incurable
normalcy and abounding vigor.
Name-Changing
—It's the Custom!
Most people don't realize how common name-changing
is in this country. To a French count who renounced his
name and title, it's one of our overlooked freedoms.

BY TED MORGAN

When I became an American citizen in February 1977, 1

renounced my title (I was a count in France) and changed
my name to Ted Morgan. Sanche de Gramont, my ancestral
name, identified me by national origin and social class. I
wanted to make my name rather than inherit it. Just as 1
was choosing-my nationality, 1 wanted to choose my name.
Several years before, a friend of mine who is a whiz at
anagrams had drawn up a list of 19 possible names from
the nine letters in de Gramont. In addition to Ted Morgan,
it included Tom Danger, Rod Magnet, Monte Drag, Mo
Dragnet and R. D. Megaton. I felt that Ted Morgan was
forthright and practical, a name telephone operators and
desk clerks could hear without flinching. Morgan was some-
one you could lend your car to. He would return it with a
211.
212 WOJ*D POWER
full tank of gas. Dogs and small children liked him. Editors
knew that if he was not always brilliant, at least he was on
time. And so, Ted Morgan.
At the naturalization ceremony, 30 other applicants for
citizenship also changed their names. This was not unusual.
Indeed, most people don't realize how common name-
changing is in this country. It's one of the overlooked free-
doms.
In America, changing your name is part of the culture,
going back to the Indians, who changed their totemic names
according to accomplishment. A chief of the Blackfeet Pie-
gan tribe, for instance, known as Spotted Elk, changed his
name to Chief of the Bears after leading a successful war
party. A change of name was like a promotion.
Sometimes the change was less formal. Early German
settlers names, for example, were often casually anglicized
on their arrival. The Rockefellers were originally Rock-
enfellers from the lower Rhine. Did Ezra Pound, Herbert
Hoover and General Pershing know that their people were
Pfunds, Hubers and Pfoershings? Does Walter Cronkite
know that his ancestral name is Krankheit?
Sometimes the abrasion of everyday speech simply wore
down odd names. The De La Noyes, Huguenots from Hol-
land, became Delanos. Boncoeur became Bunker. General
Custer was the descendant of a Hessian mercenary named
Kuester. Lincoln may have come from a family of Link-
horns.
But just as often, the change was deliberate. Paul Re-
vere's father changed his name from Apollos Rivoire
"merely on account that the bumpkins pronounce it easier."
The evangelist Billy Sunday translated his name from his
German immigrant father's Sonntag.
Shaking off an ethnic encumbrance was one reason for
a change of name, but not the only one. Here are a few
more.
ACCIDENT. When Vice President Walter Mondale's
family came here from Norway, their name was Mondal.
A clerk at Ellis Island added an "e," and one in Minnesota
filled out the name on some homesteading forms as Mon-
dale. To avoid any difficulties proving ownership, the fam-
ily adopted the changed version.
 Name-Changing—It's the Custom! 213
FLIGHT. In America, people disappear all the time.
They are casualties of the success ethic, or have had an
overdose of family life, or are suffering from an identity
crisis. People say they are going to the corner store for
cigarettes, and step out into another life. It's easy enough
to change one's name.
RIDICULE. A classic example is that of George Phil-
pott, who in 1888 petitioned for a change of surname. He
explained that he had a "cumbersome and mirth-provoking
name . . . which suggests to that punning portion of the com-
mon public, many and annoying calembours upon utensils
more or less intimately connected with the household." His
petition was granted. '
MOVIE NAMES. The right name is part of the dis-
covered-in-the-drugstore success story. Would Marilyn
Monroe have made it as Norma Jean Baker? In the laby-
rinthine minds of Hollywood producers, she needed that
extra lift, that booster rocket, and so joined the queens of
alliteration.
IMPRESSIVE NAMES. One example of a name that
works is Learned Hand—for a judge. Not only is the judicial
solemnity built in, but it v\as his real name (Learned was
his mother's family name). Sometimes a slight alteration
is in order, however. Thomas W. Wilson dropped his first
name to become Woodrow Wilson, and Hiram Ulysses
Grant (nicknamed "Useless" as a boy) became Ulysses S.
Grant.
The doctoral thesis on the correlation between name-
changers and over-achievers has yet to be written. Would
Fred Friendly have reached the CBS executive suite as Fer-
dinand Wuchenheimer? Would Mike Nichols have charmed
Broadway and Hollywood as Michael Igor Peschkowsky ?
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. Sometimes history
intervenes. During World War II, several Hitlers applied
for name changes. But not Master Sergeant Paul Hitler who
said, in effect, "Let the other guy change his!"
What it' a nun wanted to change his obscure nar.ie for
one made fajnous by 'he patina of history and the glitter
of wealth'' This is what .Harry H. Kabotchnik decided to
io in 1023 when he petitioned She court oi change it to
Cabot. The illustrious New England Cabots filed suit to
214 WOJ*D POWER
prevent him. The objection was overruled by the court on
the ground that there was nothing in the law to prevent the
adoption of a famous name. Kabotchnik was merely short-
ening his name. The Cabots should be flattered that their
name had been chosen. They could now talk, not only to
God and the Lowells, but to Kabotchnik.
In similar fashion, immigrant Abraham Bitle changed
his name to Biddle—and I changed mine to Morgan. There
was a $25 naturalization fee, with no extra charge for the
name change. It was the bargain of the century. I had a new
name and a new feeling of self.
There is a gravestone in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley
that says: "Here lie the remains of John Lewis, who slew
the Irish Lord, settled in Augusta County, located in the
town of Staunton, and furnished five sons to fight the battle
of the American Revolution." Not being able to claim any
comparable achievements, I think I would want my grave-
stone to read: "Here lie the remains of Ted Morgan, who
became an American."
IT PAYS T O ENRICH Y O U R W O R D P O W E R ®

Word Power
Test No. 21
Words Ending in "ite"
BY WILFRED FUNK
Surprisingly few words ending in ite are nontechnical, useful to
know ahd hence not worthy test words. Before you begin this test,
write down definitions of those words you think you know. Then
check the word or phrase you believe is nearest in meaning to the
key word. Answers are at the end of the test. .
1. erudite (fir' 66 dite or fir' u dite)—A: proud. B: secret. C:
learned. D. courteous.
2. contrite (kon trite' or kon' trite)—A: narrow-minded. B:
repentant. C: restricted or hemmed in. D: uncertain.
3. requite (re quite')—A: to repay. B: complete. C: demand.
D: need.
4. mite (mite)—A: precious stone. B: strength. C: a small
object. D: probability.
5. indite (in dite')—A: to introduce. B: charge with a crime.
C: put into words or writing. D: insult.
6. anchorite (ang' kuh rite)—A: a hermit. B: a hard type of
stone. C: a cruel burden. D: a durable metal.
7. cite (site)—A: to memorize. B: point out with a. finger. C:
see clearly. D: quote.
8. sprite (sprite)—A: a small pole. B: an elf or spirit. C: good
cheer. D: mischief.
9. satellite (sat' 6 lite)—A: a sparkling. B: a ruler. C: a gem.
D: a servile attendant.
10. tripartite (try pahr' tite)—A: shared by three parties. B:
sharply disputed. C: widely separated. D: seriously at-
tempted.
11. respite (res' pit)—A: breath. B: ill will. C: fatigue. D: an
interval of rest.
2IS
216 WOJ*D POWER
12. trite (trite)—A: impudent. B: clever. C: commonplace. D:
brief.
13. incite (in site')—A: to cut off. B: arouse or stir up. C:
perceive the inner nature of a thing. D: commence.
14. parasite (par' 5 site)—A: a disease. B: a hanger-on. C: a
loss of motion and feeling. D: an insect exterminator.
15. elite (2 leet')—A: state of being worn out with age. B:
speed. C: the best people. D: unwholesomeness.
16. recondite (rek' un dite or re kon' dite)—A. carefully sur-
veyed. B: exhaustive. C: difficult to comprehend. D: of
high character.
17. rite (rite)—A: a solemn ceremony. B: justice. C: straight-
ness. D: a cleansing.
18. apposite (ap' uh zit)—A: appropriate or fitting. B: highly
unpleasant. C: on a higher level. D: self-assertion.
19. ignite (ig nite')—A: to shun. B: set on fire. C: strengthen.
D: anger.
20. expedite (ex' pfi dite)—A: to experiment. B: agree to. C:
speed up. D: start out or begin.
ANSWERS
1. erudite—C: From the Latin eruditus, (learned); scholarly;
as, "He was erudite in the arts, but totally impractical in
business affairs."
2. contrite—B: Repentant; conscience-smitten; as, "He was
pathetically contrite for having given offense." From the
Latin contritus (bruised).
3. requite—A: To make return; to pay back as for a benefit
or injury; to recompense; as, "The wicked requite evil with
evil."
4. mite—C: A small object; small amount; as, "He gave a
mere mite of his fortune to charity."
5. indite—C: To put into words or writing; to compose; as
"to indite a letter or poem." The Latin in (in), and dictare
(to declare).
6 anchorite—A: A religious recluse; a hermit. Originally
from the Greek anachorein, meaning "to retire."
7. cite—D: To quote; to refer to specifically; to mention as
an illustration; as, "Please cite one authority who will sup-
port your argument." The Latin citare (to summon).
8. sprite—B: An elf or spirit; as, "She seemed more like a
fairy sprite than a human being." Originally from the Latin
spiritus (breath).
 Word Power Test No. I I 217
9. satellite—D: A servile attendant; as, "The king was sur-
rounded by fawning satellites." From the Latin satelles (an
attendant).
10. tripartite—A: From the Latin tripartitus (divided into three
parts). Hence, shared by three parties; as, "These nations
negotiated a tripartite treaty."
11. respite—D; An interval of rest or of relief from suffering;
as, "Sometimes there seems to be no respite from worry."
The Latin respectus (a delay).
12. trite—C: From the Latin trims (rubbed). Hence, worn out
by continuous use; hackneyed; as, "He made a trite com-
ment about the weather,"
13. incite—B; From the Latin incitare (to arouse or stir up);
to stimulate to action; as, "He tried to incite the peopfe, to
rebel."
14. parasite—B: An organism living in or on another onanism,
and so, by extension, a person who lives lazily at another's
expense; a hanger-on; as, "He was a parasite who Jived on
his brother's earnings." The Greek parasitos (eating at the
table of another). *'
15. elite—C: A French loan word meaning the best people; the
choicest part of a society or group; the pick; as, "He fought
in an elite regiment."
16. recondite—C: We speak of recondite studies or writing
when they are profound and not easy to understand. The
Latin reconditus (profound).
17. rite—A: A solemn or religious ceremony performed in a
prescribed manner; as, "The priest performed the last rites."
The Latin ritus (religious custom).
18. apposite—A: From the Latin appositus (appropriate and
fitting); relevant; suitable; as, "His remarks were most .ap-
posite and to the point."
19. ignite—B: To set on fire; to kindle; as, "A spark would
ignite the dry forest." From the Latin ignis (fire).
20. expedite—C: To speed up a process; to hasten the progress
or anything; as, "The quartermaster must expedite sup-
plies." From the Latin expeditus (unimpeded).

VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct excellent
17—15 correct .... good
14—11 correct fair
Accuracy Is a
Winner's Policy
BY EVAN HILL

The electrician wiring my new house worked swiftly and

efficiently. But [ asked him, "Couldn't you put those outlets
in closer to the floor? Six inches down, perhaps, where they
won't be so conspicuous?"
He shook his head. "No," he said, "it's the code—the
electrical code. They've got to be this height."
"State law?" I asked.
He nodded. "Town, too."
Next day I made a few telephone calls. Our state building
code did not specify anything about the height of outlets.
Our little town did not even have a building code. What
the electrician referred to must have been just a local con-
tractor's custom.
What difference did it make, six inches up or down? Not
much, perhaps. Still, the electrician had been inaccurate
about a matter in which he should be expert, and so had
undercut my trust in him. If he made an obvious error like
that, that I could see, what might be hidden behind the
218.
 Accuracy Is a Winner's Policy 219
walls where I couldn't check? And what about the accuracy
of the bill?
Our safety and sense of well-being—our life, in fact—
depend on the degree to which we can trust the accuracy
of the people we deal with. For example: In July 1971, a
jumbo 747 jet was damaged on takeoff in San Francisco.
Fortunately, no one was killed, although there were serious
injuries. Later, the pilot testified that the flight dispatcher
had told him his runway was 9500 feet long. Which it was;
however, mostly because of construction work, only 8400
feet were available. Th'a led to a miscalculated takeoff
speed and the accident. Investigators thus came down to
the use of incorrect takeoff speed, resulting from a series
of irregularities, tiny pieces of misinformation, or lack of
information. Every day thousands of passengers stake their
lives on the gamble that bits of information vital to their
safety will be transmitted with absolute, scrupulous accu-
racy.
Rocket scientist Hans Gruene recalls an incident during
the 1950s when he was working on the Redstone Rocket.
During an investigation following the failure of a Redstone
mission, an engineer discovered a mistake made unknow-
ingly while he was working on the rocket, and immediately
reported his findings to Wernher von Braun, the head of
the project. Instead of the expected reprimand, von Braun
rewarded him—because, he said, it was vital to know just
what had gone wrong.
The degree of accuracy maintained in the space program
is illustrated by a statement von Braun made several years
ago: "The Saturn 5 has 5,600,000 parts Even if we had a
99.9-percent reliability, there would still be 5600 defective
parts. Yet the Apollo 4 mission flew a 'textbook' flight
with only two anomalies occurring, demonstrating a reli-
ability of 99.9999 percent. If an average automobile with
13,000 parts were to have the same reliability, it would
have its first defective part in about 100 years."
Inaccurate or. imprecise language can lead to diplomatic
incidents, or, conceivably, even to war. The English dip-
lomat Sir Harold Nicolson decried "the horrors of vague-
ness." He wrote, "The essential to good diplomacy is pre-
cision. The main enemy is imprecision."
220 WOJ*D POWER
The charge of the Light Brigade, that famous 19th-cen-
tury disaster, has been attributed to vague and misunder-
stood orders. Lord Ragtan's aide may have compounded
the confusion when he transmitted the order to Lord Lucan
and gestured vaguely as to which guns were to be attacked.
As a result, the Light Brigade rode into the very center of
the Russian army rather than against a redoubt where the
Russians, in disarray, were removing their guns. Whatever
the reason, of the 609 British cavalrymen who made the
charge, only 198 returned.
In every endeavor, precision counts. During the Olym-
pics in Munich in 1972, two American athletes were dis-
qualified because their coach had inaccurately interpreted
the timetable and did not schedule his men's arrival cor-
rectly.
When my Uncle George remarked that a man "kept a
dull ax," that was about as severe a condemnation as he
could muster. And he applied that phrase to others besides
woodsmen. I thought of Uncle George's saying when I
worked on a newspaper with a photographer who labeled
a picture of the White Mountains of New Hampshire as the
Canadian Rockies. We laughed when he said it was just an
error. Some error—3000 miles. I suspected I'd have to
check every picture identification, and I was right.
Accuracy can never be overdone. A magazine editor
once asked me if I knew a certain famous man who needed
help with his writing.
"Yes, I know him," I said. "But I'm not sure he knows
me. I have visited with him at least six times, and each time
he needs to be introduced to me."
The editor exchanged a look with a colleague. "We
asked," he said, "because you had told us you knew him,
but when we telephoned him, he said he'd never heard of
you. Now we understand." And I got the assignment.
Few executives consider accuracy a special virtue—they -
just expect it. The makers of loose and exaggerated state-
ments may seem to get more attention, but the habit of
accuracy casts a long shadow ahead. Its users are trusted,
relied on, and so become obvious candidates for respon-
sibility. After all, if you have a choice between a guess
man and a fact man, which do you trust?
 Accuracy Is a Winner's Policy 221
Inaccuracy irritates all kinds of human relationships The
man at the party who doesn't introduce us accurately per-
haps doesn't care very much about us. How many husband-
wife tempers have been lost on a Sunday drive because the
copilot said a vague "That way," instead of "Next left" or
"Straight ahead"? But accuracy in all our dealings sweetens
relationships, averts misunderstandings and helps keep the
peace.
How can we develop the art of accuracy? Here are some
pointers.
1. Facts: do your homework. We live in a time of ihe
instant opinion, the prefab argument and the pseudo-statis-
tic. For example, we all "know" that Catholics have more
children per family than Protestants. Actually, in America,
Baptists have the highest birth rate; the birth rate among
Catholics is, in fact, only a negligible fraction higher than
among Protestants. .We all "know" that one divorce leads
to another. The fact is that more than 95 percent of all
persons divorced have been divorced only once and, typi-
cally, either marry again and stay married—or do not re-
marry.
Facts are not always known or easy to interpret. But we
must do our homework so we at least know what the facts
are thought to be. Further, we must give proper weighting
to all the relevant facts, not "picking our cases" and ignoring
those that weaken our position.
2. Precision: develop the reference-book habit. Accu-
racy is not just a matter of facts; it is also correct spelling,
punctuation, grammar, measurement, context, relevance—
in a word, precision. I learned this from my first city editor,
who taught me that a door is not a doorway; that ' no injuries
were reported" does not mean "there were no injuries"; that
a man charged with burglary is not necessarily a burglar.
As Dr. Richard Asher told aspiring medical writers in
the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Look
up everything you quote. You may be certain there is a
book called Alice in Wonderland, and that it mentions a
'Mad Hatter'; that there is another book called Alice
Through the Looking Glass: that Sherlock Holmes said,
'Elementary, my dear Watson'; and that in the Bible story
222 WOJ*D POWER
of Adam and Eve, an apple is mentioned. In all five cases
you are wrong!"*
Finding what is true is not always easy. New York Times
correspondent C. L. Sulzburger reports that once he played
cards with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Averell Harriman,
Alfred Gruenther and Dan Kimball, U.S. Secretary of the
Navy, while they discussed the memoirs of James Forrestal,
first Secretary of Defense. They all had attended a meeting
referred to in the book, and each agreed that Forrestal's
account was wrong. "But when I asked what, then, was the
true version, all promptly disagreed."
Similar situations occur all the time. And to discover the
facts then requires that we carefully weigh conflicting evi-
dence and build one observation on another. This takes
discipline, as well as a healthy skepticism. The accurate
person will more often withhold his judgment than hazard
a wild guess. He is more willing than most to say, honestly,
"I do not know."
At its best, accuracy is a painstaking, caring, patient and
reasonable faculty of mind. And ultimately it is creative,
too. For it not only looks up facts, it discovers them in the
first place.

*The first ijook cited was originally Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

It refers only to the "Hatter," never to the "Mad Hatter." The other Alice
book is Through the Lookiug-Glass. The Holmes passage runs: '"Excel-
lent," said I; 'Elementary.' said he." Finally. Genesis mentions no apples.
Cracking the
Real-Estate Code
As most people have learned to their dismay, real-
estate language often needs translation. Here's a handy
guide to what those alluring phrases really mean.

BY R I C H A R D L I P E Z

HOUSES—U.S.A. HOUSES—U.S.A.
COLONIAL: built'prior to LEISURE HOME: habita-
the second Eisenhower Admin- ble during July and August
istration RANCH: egg box wearing
GRACIOUS COLONIAL: a cowboy hat
you can't afford it RAISED RANCH, ranch set
VICTORIAN: draity on a slope
223.
224 WORD
*
POWER

HOUSES—U.S.A. HOUSES—U.S.A.
CHALET: ranch set on a FAMILY ROOM: basement
steep slope with 100-watt light bulb
OLDER HOME: lists dis- NEEDS SOME FIXING UP:
concertingly to the southwest leg of bathtub protruding
COMFORTABLE: small through kitchen ceiling needs
polishing
COZY: teeny-weeny
BROOK ON PROPERTY:
CUTE: itsy-bitsy goes through the cellar
IMMACULATE: kitchen DESIRABLE CORNER:
walls not as greasy as the pit comer
floor at Ralph's Garage
ENTRANCE FOYER: door
PATIO: spot near back door
where cement truck overturned MANY EXTRAS: recent
owners left behind rags, coat
PIAZZA, porch hangers, half a bottle of cough
GLEAMING BATH- syrup
ROOM: bathroom NICE NEIGHBORHOOD:
VANITY BATHROOM: and let's keep it that way!
bathroom with a table nailed to ONLY 15 MINUTES
the wall FROM . . . : only 40 minutes
CARRIAGE HOUSE: ga- from...
rage leaning against '48 Dodge SEEING IS BELIEVING:
CONVENIENT TO SHOP- seeing is believing
PING: bay window overlooks MAKE AN OFFER: say
an A&P parking lot something amusing
$300 TO HEAT: $780 to
heat
IT PAYS T O ENRICH YOUR W O R D POWER®

Word Power
No. 22
The French All Around Us BY PETER FUNK
The English language has been said to be French badly pro-
nounced. This hyperbole carries a measure of truth. The invasion
of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1066 caused French to
become our language of government, law and the military. Once
English-speakers got the habit of borrowing, the process never
stopped. Even today, the word detente confirms that we are still
making withdrawals from the great riches of French. English has
taken all of the words in this test—and thousands of others—from
the French. Check the word or phrase you believe is nearest in
meaning to the key word. Answers are at the end of the test.
1. clairvoyance (kiair voy' ans>—A: suggestibility. B: claritj
of mind. C: statement of fact. D: extraordinary insight.
2. chalice (chal' is)—A: lightweight fabric. B: Swiss-style
house. C: goblet. D: ornament.
3. facile (fas' il)—A: effortless. B: flexible. C: candid. D:
spontaneous.
4. embezzle (em bez' 1)—A: to decorate. B: praise. C: muzzle.
D: steal.
5. lavish (lav' ish)—A: servile. B: sizable. C: excessively
generous. D: widespread.
6. mirage (ml rahzh')—A: unexplained event. B: artificial
stimulus. C: conundrum. D: optical illusion.
7. ogre (o' gur)—A: bore. B: rumor. C: tool. D: monster.
8. menagerie (mS naj' er e)—A: side show. B: collection of
wild animals. C: establishment. D: kennel.
9. jostle (Jos' I)—A: to tease. B: endanger. C: temporize D:
shove.
10. fief (fef)—A: territory one controls. B: musical instrument.
C: social blunder D: stolen goods.
11. jaunty (jawn' te)—A: lighthearted B: venerable. C: ear-
nest. D: jocose.
235.
226 WQRD POWER
12. ragout (rS goo')—A: a stew. B: dance. C: fabric. D: dis-
turbance.
13. cliche (kle sh£')—A: hasp. B: trite saying. C: convenience.
D: reverie.
14. posture (pos' chur)—A: hypothesis. B: stance. C: belief.
D: conceit.
15. aplomb (5 plom')—A: poise. B: contentment. C: corpu-
lence. D: pardon.
16. memoir (mem' wahr)—A: a secret. B: revelation. C: rem-
iniscence. D: reminder.
17. posterity (pos ter' I te)—A: antiquity. B: future genera-
tions. C: rump. D: good fortune.
18. bastion (bass' chun}—A: illegitimacy. B: insouciance. C:
dungeon. D: stronghold.
19. lampoon (lam poon')—A: mountain sheep. B: satire. C:
spear. D: tableau.
20. brusque (brusk)—A: curt. B: vague. C: conciliatory. D:
efficient.
ANSWERS

1. clairvoyance—D: Extraordinary insight; abili'y to "see"

what is not normally within our perceptions; as, to possess
a clairvoyance for spotting economic trends. French clair
(clear) and voyant (seeing).
2. chalice—C: Goblet; cup used for Holy Communion wine.
"The priest held up the silver chalice." Medieval French.
3. facile—A: Effortless; moving with ease; as, the facile fin-
gers of a pianist; a facile wit. Old French.
4. embezzle—D: To steal money entrusted to one's care; as,
"The treasurer embezzled thousands of dollars." Old French
embesillier, en (an intensive) and besillier (to destroy).
5. lavish—C: Excessively generous in spending or giving;
prodigal; as lavish gifts or lavish use of water. Medieval
French lavasse (a downpour of rain) from laver (to wash).
6. mirage—D: Optical illusion involving, reflection; as, the
mirage of a lake in the desert where no water exists. French
mirer (to look at).
7. ogre— D' Monster; brutal person; in fairy talcs, a man-
eating giant. French, possibly from Latin Orcus (god of
death or hell).
8. menagerie—B: Collection of wild animals; as, a circur
1

menagerie. Old French menage (household).

 Word Power Test No. I I 227
9. jostle—D: To shove roughly; push; as, to jostle someone
in a line. From Old French jouster (a combat on horseback
between two knights).
10. fief—A: Territory or domain that one controls or dominates.
"A century ago, the city of New York was Boss Tweed's
personal fief." Old French fief (fee, feudal estate).
11. jaunty—A: Lighthearted and carefree; having a stylish self-
confidence. "The child gave the men a jaunty nod." French
gentil (genteel, gentle).
12. ragout—A: A well-seasoned meat-and-vegetable stew.
Apparently, 17th-century Frenchmen believed a ragout
could awaken jaded palates. French ragouter (to revive the
taste).
13. cliche—B: Trite saying. From clicher, French term for a
stereotype (printing plate to reproduce many copies). The
expression "hit the nail on the head" is a cliche.
14. posture—B: Stance; bearing; pose. "Who knows what Na-
poleonic postures our Presidents take in front of White
House mirrors?"
15. aplomb—A: Poise; self-assurance; self-confidence; as, to
face a difficult situation with aplomb. From Old French a
plomb (being perpendicular according to a plumb line).
16. memoir—C: Reminiscence; a personal record; an intimate
biography; as, Jack Valenti's memoir of Lyndon B. John-
son. French memoire.
17. posterity—B: The future or succeeding generations; prog-
eny. "... and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity..." Medieval French posterite.
18. bastion—D: Stronghold; any well-defended position. "Chi-
cago, a bastion of Teamster strength." Old.French bastille
(fortress).
19. lampoon—B: Satire. A 17th-century French drinking
song—lampons (let us drink)—during which ribald jokes
were composed; hence a ridiculing; as, Daumier's pictures
lampooning lawyers.
20. brusque—A: Curt; abrupt in manner and speech; as, the
guard's brusque reply. French, from Italian brusco (sour-
tasting).
VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—18 correct exceptional
17—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
"Everything Begins
With a Pencil"
BY JEROME BRONDFIELD

We use them to do sums, prepare marketing lists, leave

phone messages, record errant golf scores—or just to doodle
with. We casually swipe them off other people's desks, stir
drinks with them, prop up plants with them, print adver-
tising and political slogans on them. We lose, discard 01
simply sharpen them away at a profligate rate. Some 2.5
billion of them (enough to circle the world 11 times at the
equator) are manufactured and sold annually in the United
States alone.
But you get the idea, right? There has just never been
anything as downright useful as the plain old pencil. If you
doubt it, think what the world was like without the modern
pencil, which has been with us less than two centuries. The
ancients—those few who mastered their cultures' writing
forms—used exquisitely tiny brushes or reeds dipped in
crude inks. (The Romans called their brush penicillus, or
"little tail," from which comes "pencil.") The goose-quill
pen was introduced in Europe in the sixth century.
228.
 "Everything Begins With a Pencil" 229
A millennium rolled by. Then, in 1564, a violent storm
blew down a large tree near Borrowdale in Cumberland,
England. A mass of black, mineral-like substance was ex-
posed where the tree's huge roots had been: a mother lode
of plumbago, or "black lead." It was, simply, the purest
graphite ever uncovered in Britain.
Local shepherds used pieces of the stuff to brand their
sheep. But before long, sharp townsmen were cutting it into
sticks and hawking them on London streets as "marking
stones," for tradesmen and merchants to use on their crates
and baskets. Then, in the 18th century, King George II
seized the mine in Borrowdale and began operating it as a
Crown monopoly. (Graphite, it seems, was indispensable
in the precision shaping of cannon balls.) So zealous was
the Crown in protecting its goodies that Parliament made
it a hanging offense to poach graphite from the mine or its
peripheral deposits in the surrounding countryside. The
mine was worked only a few months a year to keep supply
down and price up, and laborers were searched before leav-
ing the mine shaft.
Early graphite marking sticks had two glaring deficien-
cies. They stained the hand and they broke easily. Some
unknown genius solved the messiness by winding string
around the entire length of the stick and unwrapping it as
the graphite wore down. The brittleness problem was solved
in 1761 by Kaspar Faber, a Bavarian craftsman and part-
time chemist, who mixed powdered graphite with sulfur,
antimony and resins, and molded the resulting glop into
sticks that, when pounded into shape, hung together much
better than pure graphite. All the pencil needed now was
a proper casing for the slender, so-called lead. (There is no
true lead in pencils; while that metal does leave a mark—
along with their penicillus the Romans used a lead disk,
which they rolled along the papyrus to mark a black line
to guide their writing—it has always been too scarce, hard
to refine and expensive to be adapted into a writing instru-
ment).
In 1790 Napoleon Bonaparte was upset to find that the
war he had launched to overrun Europe was depriving him
of one of his favorite gadgets from Germany and England:
graphite pencils. In fact, the French bureaucracy, and the
230 WORD
*
POWER
Napoleonic war machine itself, had come to depend heavily
on the pencil. Nicolas Jacques Conte, a leading French
chemist and inventor, was ordered to take whatever French
graphite could be found and begin turning out pencils.
Whether inspired by fear of failure or by the prospect of
great reward, Contd hit the jackpot.
To meager French supplies of inferior graphite, he added
clay as an extender, and fired the mix in a kiln. Everything
adhered better than anyone had dreamed possible. The bak-
ing process turned the mix into the world's marking stick—
one that stood up under reasonably rough usage. Moreover,
by controlling the amount of clay mixed with the graphite,
he could produce his "lead" in gradations from hard to soft,
which made lines ranging from light to heavy black.
Then came the War of 1812, which cut America off from
its British supply of pencils. No matter what it was mixed
with, inferior U.S. graphite just wouldn't hold firm inside
the rough-hewn wooden casings then used.
Now William Monroe, a Concord, Mass., cabinetmaker
and tinkerer of pure Yankee strain, became the man of the
moment. In his shop he made machinery which could turn
out standardized, narrow wooden slats about six or seven
inches long. Each slat was meticulously machine-grooved
along its entire length to precisely half the thickness of a
slender cylinder of molded graphite. Monroe then glued the
two sections of grooved, tight-fitting wobd around the
graphite. And there it was—the first modern pencil! Cheap,
convenient, marvelously portable, this new tool was quickly
embraced by the army of clerks, artisans and managers
spawned by the Industrial Revolution, Goose quill and ink
became second banana.
The standard seven-inch pencil turned out today can draw
a line 35 miles long, write at least 45,000 words, and survive
17 sharpenings down tQ a two-inch butt. It is usually at-
tached, with a brass-colored metal ferrule, to a small nubbin
of rubber mixed with pumice for erasing power. Yellow is
the favorite color for the casing. Manufacturers have tried
other colors—green, black, blue—but these have never sold
as well.
One pencil maker ran a test stunt. He supplied a large
user with 500 yellow pencils and 500 green ones. Within
 "Everything Begins With a Pencil" -231
weeks there came complaints about the greens: The points
broke too easily. They were difficult to sharpen. They were
scratchy. Or they smudged. But the pencils were identical,
except for the color!
The modern pencil is made of some 40 different mate-
rials. The best graphite comes from Sri Lanka, Madagascar
and Mexico, the best clay from Germany. Rubber for the
eraser tips comes from Malaysia, wax from Brazil. Egg-
size flint pebbles, used in the tumbling machines which mix
the graphite and clay, come from Belgian and Danish
beaches.
Virtually all the wood used for pencil casings comes
from the 200-year-old California aromatic-incense cedar,
found mainly in the High Sierra. Its wood has a straight
grain, uniform texture and relative softness which make it
ideal not only for precision sawing but for staining and
waxing, and for sharpening. The cedar logs are squared
(three inches by three inches) and dried. Then they are cut
again into slats five millimeters thick—half the thickness
of a pencil—70 wide and 185 long. These slats are stained
and waxed, then shipped to pencil manufacturers—ready
to be grooved, inserted with graphite and glued together.
In this way, more than 300 different kinds of pencils are
produced—including one that surgeons use to outline the
operating field on a patient's skin. As someone once said,
Everything begins with a pencil, whether it's the design
of a couturier's'gown, a battleship, a baseball glove or a
nuclear theory." Indeed, the common, ordinary pencil just
may be the most underrated, overlooked intellectual tool
in die history of mankind. Right up there next to the human
brain.
Long Live The Book!
by e r n e s t o. hauser

What is a book? Part matter and part spirit; part thing and
part thought—however you look at it, it defies definition.
Its outward form, essentially unchanged in nearly 2000
years, is a design as functional as, say, the pencil or the
glove; you can't improve on it. Yet, by its nature, the book
is loftier than the common objects of this world. It is a
vehicle of learning and enlightenment, an open sesame to
countless joys and sorrows. At a touch, our book springs
open, and we slip into a silent world—to visit foreign
shores, to discover hidden treasure, to soar among the stars.
In 1971, by a unanimous decision of its 128 member
nations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated 1972 as the first
International Book Year. The fact that the ensuing salutes
were worldwide was only too appropriate, for the book is
the end product of a unique conjunction of endeavors, made
independently in far-flung corners of the globe. It is as if
all mankind had conspired to create it.
232.
 Long Live The Book! 233
The Chinese gave us paper. Phoenicia brought forth our
alphabet. To Rome we owe the format of the book; to
Germany, the art of printing from movable type. Britain
and the United States perfected book production. Today,
15,000 finished books roll off high-speed presses in just
one hour, and we find it hard to visualize the bookless world
of our forebears, hard to imagine the enormous effort that
lies behind the saga of the book.
In the beginning, there was only the spoken word. Then,
to entrust his thoughts to a more lasting medium than mere
memory, man took to drawing pictures representing things.
Perhaps the oldest picture-script originated some 6000 years
ago in Mesopotamia. Its images—bird, ox, ear of barley—
were scratched into soft clay tablets, .then baked hard for
preservation.
But such writing was a cumbersome affair, mainly used
for priestly documents and public records. What "literature"
there was—such as heroic poems—depended almost totally
on word-of-mouth transmission. The quick Mediterranean
mind, awakening to a new culture, demanded a better way
of harnessing the spoken language. Shortly before the 9th
century B.C., the Phoenicians—swift seafarers, sharp trad-
ers and good record-keepers—began breaking spoken
sounds into their basic elements, and shuffling the resulting
"letters" to form words. I can recall the thrill I felt when,
wandering among the ruins of the Phoenician port of By-
blos—now in Lebanon—I saw the rudimentary inscription,
hewn into the rock wall of a royal grave shaft, which stands
as the world's oldest alphabetic writing. Soon the alphabet
was seized upon by the Greeks, who gaye letters .more
convenient shapes and added the still misting vowels.
No sooner had man taught himself to spell than a new
problem raised its head. What to write on? Leather, tree
baric, leaves and wax tablets had all proved unsatisfactory.
In Egypt, for some 2500 years before Year One, texts had
been inscribed on brittle sheets made from the pith of a Nile
Delta water plant, papyrus. The use of this material grad-
ually spread through the Mediterranean world. Usually,
several papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll
that could accommodate a lengthy text. (One 135-foot scroll
containing the picture-script account of the deeds of Pharaoh
234 WOJ*D POWER
Ramses III is still extant.) But what a clumsy thing to read!
The scroll, wrapped around a wooden stick, had to be held
in the right hand, while the left slowly unwound it to reveal
the next column of writing. Nevertheless, the royal library
at Alexandria—destroyed in the 4th century B.C. by some
unknown catastrophe or act of war—is believed to have had
no fewer than 700,000 scrolls.
Relatively fragile, papyrus invited rivalry. In wealthy
Pergamum, on the coast of Asia Minor, scribes wrote on
specially prepared sheep, goat or calf skins. This fine, pel-
lucid stationery, tougher than papyrus and foldable, came
to be known as parchment. Shortly after Year One, an
unknown Roman scribe with a sense of compactness took
a stack of thin parchment sheets, folded them, and fastened
them together at the spine. Thus, the book was bom. Likely
-as not, its earliest promoters were Rome's Christians. To
them, it was essential to preserve the Scriptures in the most
lasting medium—and parchment didn't wilt when handled.
Moreover, when one wanted to hunt up a reference, chapter
and verse, a book was a lot handler than a scroll.
So it came about that, all through Europe's Dark Ages,
an army of devoted monks, ensconced behind monastery
walls, hand-copied the torn and shredded writings of the
past on sturdy parchment sheets. Without their toil, the
literary glories of ancient Greece and Rome, along with
vital texts that shaped the Christian faith, might have been
lost forever. It frequently took years to finish copying a
thick tome, and many a sore-eyed monk, before putting
away his goose quill, penned a sigh of relief on the final
page: "Thank God I have finished!"
Meanwhile, in distant China, tradition has it that a gentle-
man named Ts'ai Lun, vexed at the wasteful use of costly
silk as a writing material, reported to Emperor Ho-ti that
a far cheaper substance could be made by pounding rags,
tree bark and old fishing nets into a pulp, skimming thin
layers off the top, and drying them, liius, in the year 105
A.D., paper enters our story—to remain, for six centuries,
a closely guarded secret of the East. It wasn't until some
Chinese papermakers were captured by marauding Arabs
that the pliant, blossom-white, enduring marvel took th<*
world by storm.
 Long Live The Book! 235
The Occident saw the next major breakthrough. In 1439,
a stubbornly determined German craftsman, Johann Guten-
berg, began experimenting with a substitute for handwrit-
ing. If he could cast the letters of the alphabet in reusable
metal type, then arrange them, in a mirror pattern, into
words, lines and columns on an even-surfaced plate, an
imprint taken frotn this plate would make one page. In place
of one painstakingly handwritten book, he would be able
to run off on his "press" as many imprinted books—exact
copies of each other—as he wished.
Laboriously, Gutenberg put together his first page plates,
each one composed of more than 3700 signs and letters.
With die help of a hand-worked wooden press that he had
adapted from the wine press of his native Rhineland (and
which remained unchanged for the next 350 years), he
started printing in a rented workshop in Mainz. It took three
years to turn out some 190 copies of the Gutenberg Bible
of 1455. (Today 47 copies still survive, 14 of which are
in the United States. One of the finest, worth an estimated
$3 million to $10 million, is on display in the Library of
Congress.)
With Gutenberg's remarkable invention, book prices
dropped 80 percent overnight, and learning to read became
worthwhile. A mere half-century after Gutenberg's exploit,
every major European country except Russia was printing
its own books. It was as if floodgates had been opened.
Some 520,000 titles were published in the 16th century,
1.25 million in the 17th, two million in the 18th and eight
million in the 19th. Today, more than 500,000 titles come
off the presses in a single year, adding up to an estimated
seven billion individual books.
These eye-popping figures to the contrary, there are those
today who predict the disappearance of the reading habit.
Canadian professor and commentator Marshall McLuhan,
for one, has argued that mass media—films, radio, tele-
vision—involve us more completely, and hence impart their
message more directly, than the familiar lineup of black
letters on the printed page.
Be this as it may, the book has shown considerable
fighting spirit in the face of the new threats. Book-club
business has erupted into a stampede, and paperbacks are
246 WOJ*D POWER
bought off store shelves as fast as they are put there. Indeed,
exposure to the electronic media seems to have created a
new desire to "curl up with a good book." And, as we turn
its pages at our convenience, going back in leisurely fashion
over a passage we've especi&lly enjoyed, or skipping a little
here, a little there, we are "involved" more intimately, and
completely than we could be with any other medium yet
invented.
Man's thoughts and dreams, his knowledge and his as-
pirations, are stored in books—wealth to be tapped by all
who so desire. From the first wobbly picture-script to
quicker-than-the-eye offset presses, the book has come a
long, arduous way, propelled by the genius and persistence
of many individuals and nations. Indeed, all humanity has
reason to be proud of the book, for it shows us at our very
best. Long live the book!
IT PAYS T O ENRICH Y O U R W O R D P O W E R ®

Word Power
No. 23
The Joy of Self-Improvement

by p e t e r f u n k ,

In a recent jubilant letter, a reader wrote that he had been going

over the word tests in 30 back issues of the Digest, to prepare for
a scholarship test. It worked! He scored outstandingly well on the
vocabulary-based test, and got the scholarship. Building a more
powerful vocabulary can benefit you as well. Begin with the words
below, which have appeared in Digest articles. Choose the word
nearest in meaning to the key word. Answers appear at the end
of this test.
1. aspire (5 spir')—A: to end. B: animate. C: dream. D: aim
for.
2. sonar—apparatus to A: detect something in the air. B: lo-
cate objects under water. C: measure rain. D: anticipate
earthquakes.
3. cosset (k6s' it)—A: to bind. B: encourage. C: pamper. D:
protect.
4. precipitate (pre sip' I tat)—A: to obscure. B: cause to
separate. C: weaken. D: flirt.
5. egalitarian (e gal T tair' e an)—A: gallant. B: democratic.
C: French-style. D: dignified.
6. substantive (sub' stan tlv)—A: practical. B: essential. C:
successive. D: replaceable.
7. indomitable (in ddm' I tuh b'l)—A: meek. B: unconquer-
able. C: tireless. D: overbearing.
8. countervail—A: to counterbalance. B: correct. C: argue
with. D: complain
9. disproportionate (dis pro por' shun it)—A: varying. B:
rarefied. C: unworkable. D: disparate.
237.
238 WOJ*D POWER
10. aberration (ab ur a' shun)—A: deviation. B: falsehood.
C: injury. D: disgrace.
11. expertise (ex per tez')—A: flexibility. B: fussiness. C: skill.
D: ease.
12. accentuate (ak sen' choo at)—A: to indicate. B: specify.
C: affect. D: emphasize.
13. cadge (kaj)—A: to enclose. B: track. C: trick. D: beg.
14. motivation (mo tl va' shun)—A: incentive. B: obstacle. C:
ambition. D: tendency.
15. regenerate (re jdn' 6 rat)—A: to re-create. B: make
younger. C: supplant. D: sanctify.
16. acrid (ak' rid)—-A: dry. B: painful. C: nauseating. D: pun-
gent.
17. chagrin (shah grin')—A: mockery. B: disgust. C: annoy-
ance. D: unpleasantness.
18. progeny (prOj' 6 ne)—A: a genius. B: offspring. C: growth.
D: unpleasantness.
19. empirical (em plr' I k'l)—A: based on experience. B: hav-
ing visions of power. C: proud and disdainful. D: relying
on theory.
20. obelisk (6b' uh lisk)—A: archaic word. B: ancient riddle.
C: pagoda. D: stone pillar.
ANSWERS
1. aspire—D: To aim for, in the sense of striving toward
excellence. Latin aspirare (to breathe upon).
2. sonar—B: An apparatus that locates underwater objects by
sending out high-frequency sound waves. An acronym from
SO(und) N(avigation) A(nd) R(anging).
3. cosset—C: To pamper; coddle. English dialectal cosset (pet
lamb).
4. precipitate—B: To cause a partially soluble substance to
be separated out from a liquid and deposited in solid form.
Latin praecipitare (cast headlong). "Seawater precipitates
minerals across the ocean floor."
5. egalitarian—B: Democratic; advocating equal political,
economic, social and legal rights for everyone. French
egalite (equality).
6. substantive—B: Relating to what is essential; directly bear-
ing, on a matter; as, a substantive argument. Old French
substantif (self-existent).
 Word Power Test No.II249
7. indomitable—B: Unconquerable; persevering; refusing to
be overcome by difficulties. Latin indomitabilis (untama-
ble).
8. countervail—A: To counterbalance; offset; as, the coun-
tervailing effect of a new weapons system. Old French
contrevaloir.
9. disproportionate—D: Disparate; out of proportion with
regard to size, form, value or number. From dis (reverse
of) and proportion.
10. aberration—A: Deviation; departure from whatever is or-
dinary or normal. Latin aberrare (wander; go astray).
11. expertise—C: Skill; expert knowledge; know-how. French.
12. accentuate—D: To emphasize; stress. When someone ac-
centuates die positive, he heightens, sharpens or intensifies
the non-negative aspects. Latin accentus (accent).
13. cadge—A: To beg; sponge; as, to cadge money. Possibly
from Middle English cadger (peddler).
14. motivation—A: Incentive; inducement or a stimulation.
"His motivation is the simple desire to be rich." Latin mo-
tivus (serving to move).
15. regenerate—A: To re-create by new growth; as, "Each year
the stag regenerates its molted horns." Also, to cause to
be spiritually reborn. Latin regenerare (to reproduce).
16. acrid—D: An acrid taste or smell is pungent, shaip, irri-
tating. Latin acer (sharp, cutting).
17. chagrin—C; Annoyance or vexation caused by a failure,
disappointment or humiliating incident. "With chagrin she
realised her mistake." Old French graignier (to sorrow).
18. progeny—B: Offspring; descendants; as, "AH the eld man's
progeny were interested in his will. Old French progenie,
from Latin.
19. empirical—A: Based on direct or practical experience
rather than theory. From Greek Empirici, an ancient as-
sociation of physicians who treated illness pragmatically.
20. obelisk—D: Four-sided, tapering stone pillar with a pyra-
mid-like top. "The Washington Monument is an obelisk "
Greek obeliskos.
VOCABULARY RATINGS
20—19 correct exceptional
18—15 correct ...excellent
14—12 correct good
Words That Have
Appeared In
These Tests

aberration, 238 animosity, 85

abridge, 56 antibody, 36
abstract, 198 antidote, 133
accede, 124 aplomb, 226
accentuate, 238 apotheosis, 154
acclamation, 177 apparent, 167
accost, 115 apposite, 216
acrid, 238 array, 84
admonition, 133 artifact, 134
adventitious, 125 ascertain, 16
adverse, 203 aspire, 237
advocate, 776 assiduously, 16
affect, 204 atrophy, 35
allegiance, 85 aura, 67
alloy, 15 averse, 203
amazon, 44 babel, 45
amnesty, 55 badger, 188
anachronistic. 177 bane, 25
anchorite, 215 bastion, 226
 Words That Have Appeared in These Tests 251
beguile, 143 component, 107
belittle, 116 composite, 143
belligerent, 167 concentric, 124
benevolent, 168 confound, 189
bewail, 142 consecrate, 15
bibulous, 77 consensus, 177
bight, 25 console, 106
blatant, 154 constraint, 115
blather, 77 contemptuous, 155
blazon, 124 contend, 107, 189
bloc, 178 contender, 177
bogus, 77 contingent, 68
boycott, 44 contrapuntal, 134
brackish, 198 contrite, 215
brandish, 188 controvert, 15
breach, 15 cosset, 237
brusque, 226 countermand, 124
cadaverous, 55 countervail, 237
cadge, 238 credentials, 85
caldron, 55 credible, 203
callow, 76 creditable, 204
caprice, 125 credulous, 115
caption, 107 creed, 25
caricature, 199 crestfallen, 45
categorical, 115 crop, 25
cavil, 188 crotchet, 84
censor, 203 cumulative, 56
censure, 203 cupidity, 125
cerebral, 198 curfew, 67
chagrin, 238 decade, 106
chalice, 225 decorous, 56
chauvinism, 45 de facto, 95
circuitous, 116 defector, 142
cite, 215 defray, 199
clairvoyance,'225 deft, 26
clamor, 95 dehydration, 35
clicM, 226 demagogue, 178
codicil, 154 denigrate, 55
coercion, 16 denizen, 84
collegial, 68 descry, 125
comatose, 35 despotism, 16
commandeer, 188 deterrent, 55
compendium, 106 detritus, 94
242 WOJ*D POWER
dexterity, 67 factious, 204
diagnostic, 36 fastidious, 154
differentiate, 133 faze, 26
dilate, 36 fervent, 167
disavow, 178 fettle, 199
discern, 134 fief, 225
disproportionate, 237 finesse, 155
diuretic, 35 finite, 107
doff, 26 flagrant, 167
dormant, 167 flex, 142
draconian, 44 fluent, 168
duplicity, 199 foible, 106
ebullient, 56 font, 25
efface, 198 forbearance, 154
effect, 204 forum, 44
effectuate, 154 fractious, 204
effervescent, 107 fragrant, 168
egalitarian, 237 fratricide, 177
egocentric, 76 futile,55
eke, 25 genial, 115
elaborate, 55 gerrymander, 178
elite, 216 girth, .25
embezzle, 225 gnash, 25
empirical, 238 gradation, 124
enigma, 67 gregarious, 68
entwine, 16 grit, 26
ephemeral, 67 grotesque, 76
erudite, 215 gull, 77
ethnic, 177 hackneyed, 45
euphemism, 85 heinous, 199
euphoria, 67 heyday, 198
evade, 189 hone, 25
exhort, 188 hulk, 25
exorbitant, 168 humility, 85
expatiate, 203 hybrid, 154
expatriate, 203 hypercritical, 204
expedite, 216 hypochondriac, 35
expertise, 238 hypocritical, 204
expiate, 124 ideology, 177
extol, J88 ignite, 216
extravaganza, 85 impertinent, 133
facile, 225 impetus, 95
faction, 177 implicit, 67
 Words That Have Appeared in These Tests 243
imprecation, 76 malinger, 35
impropriety, 142 mandate, 177
inalienable, 115 marathon, 45
incite, 216 matrix, 68
incriminate, 188 maverick, 116
incumbent, 177 meandering, 44
indigent, 68 medallion, 199
indignant, 168 medley, 142
indignity, 198 memoir, 226
indite, 215 menagerie, 225
indolent, 167 mettle, 155
insinuation, 15 migrant, 168
insdlent, 167 militate, 188
insolvent, 168 mirage, 225
insurgent, 142 misconstrue, 16
interim, 95 mite, 215
interrogate, 116 modulate, 124
interstice, 124 mollify, 188
intravenous, 36 moment, 77
invert, 106 monitor, 143
irruption, 84 mores, 95
itinerant, 198 motivation, 238
jaunty, 225 munificence, 15
jeopardize, 188 musty, 198
jostle, 225 nascent, 167
judicious, 15 nebulous, 106
junket, 178 nominal, 95
juxtapose, 133 nonentity, 198
kinetic, 125 nonplus, 95
lacerate, 189 non sequitur, 94
lampoon, 226 nubby, 107
largess, 84 nullify, 189
latitude, 94 obelisk, 238
lavish, 225 obese, 36
leeway, 85 obloquy, 155
leonine, 56 occlusive, 107
lesion, 116 ogre, 225
lethal, 155 on tenterhooks, 125
lineage, 199 opprobrium, 94
lore, 26 opus, 94
Machiavellian, 44 paean, 124
malfunction, 84 panacea, 45
malice, 15 pander, 134
244 WOJ*D POWER
'paramount, 15 propitious, 68
parasite, 216 proponent, 124
parochial, 67 protean, 45
parody, 133 prot£g£, 76
parquetry, 106 protocol, 116
pastoral, 125 proviso, 115
pedantry, 77 provocative, 67
perceptive, 154 prudent, 168
peregrination, 154 psychosomatic, 36
perennial, 155 purge, 142
perforate, 35 purport, 55
perimeter, 85 quadrant, 68
perky, 142 quandary, 142
perpetuity, 15 quell, 25
pertinent, 168 quotidian, 76
petrify, 67 radical, 178
philander, 45 radius, 95
placebo, 94 ragout, 226
platelet, 35 ravage, 189
plebeian, 143 reappraisal, 115
poignant, 106 recondite, 216
polarization, 178 redemption, 106
Pollyanna, 44 regenerate, 238
Populist, 177 regimen, 95
pork barrel, 178 relic, 142
posit, 77 remedial, 143
posterity, 226 remorse, 67
posture, 226 renege, 142
precipitate, 237 repetitive, 115
precursor, 134 replicate, 133
prehensile, 76 reproof, 124
premier, 76 requite, 215
premise, 133 rescind, 116
presentiment, 203 respite, 215
presentment, 203 resuscitate, 55
presumptive, 204 reticent, 167
presumptuous, 204 rife, 134
prevaricate, 189 rift, 142
prevision, 134 rite, 216
pristine, 154 rivet, 143
procrastination, 84 robot, 45
progeny, 238 rubella, 35
prone, 107 rubric, 84
 Words That Have Appeared in These Tests 255
ruminate, 116 telegenic, 178
ruse, 133 tendentious, 56
sacrosanct, 133 terminus, 94
sanguinary, 154 therapeutic, 36
satellite, 215 taken, 84
savor, 115 tort, 107
saw, 25 tortuous, 203
scenario, 143 torturous, 203
scrutinize, 142 toxic, 36
secede, 15 transfix, 125
sensibility, 84 translucent, 168
shanghai, 45 trauma, 36
shank, 26 trifling, 15
skeptic, 56 tripartite, 215
solecism, 198 trite, 216
sonar, 237 trivia, 55
spartan, 45 tuber, 94
sprite, 215 ultra, 94
stagnant, 167 uncanny, 106
stance, 134 undue, 199
status, 94 unorthodox, 115
stymie, 133 unrequited, 15
substantiate, 188 utilitarian, 134
substantive, 237 Utopia, 45
subvert, 188 vandalism, 56
succulent, 198 vascular, 35
sully, 154 verity, 124
supersede, 16 vertigo, 35
surrogate, 77 virtuoso, 55
swivet, 76 vituperative, 67
symbiosis, 85 wield, 25
syndrome, 154 windfall, 84
tawdry, 44 wreak, 26
tedium, 95
 IT PAYS TO ENRICH^
YOUR WORD POWER'
Wards a r c o u r most familiar and useful tools, the first wc
learn to use, and the most essential for success and
happiness. This delightful collection of articles, puzzles,
tests and stories for the entire family is the fun and
fctrimrinj «t]r enrich and enlarge your mastery of the
a n of language!
R E A D E R ' S DIGEST P A P E R B A C K S
Informative
Entertaining
Essential
W A T C H FOR T H E S E O T H E R S
Tbr Art of lj*mg
"i Am Joe's Body"
Tests and T«asen
Sards of the PiUt
The Living World of S, ft art
I nforgellMt <~J\irj(Un
Dr.trrta ttt Km! Lite *

ISBN 0-U25-0571fc-X