Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English - Softcover

Partridge, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393317099 ISBN 13: 9780393317091

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997

Synopsis

An updated edition of a useful, entertaining guide to picking the right words (and avoiding the wrong ones).

Which is preferred - nom de plume, pseudonym, or pen name? What are neologisms, disguised conjunctions, and fused participles? Language enters into almost every part of human life and yet it is all too often misused: directness and clarity disappear in a whirl of clichés, euphemisms, and wooliness of expression.

Janet Whitcut has revised Eric Partridge's popular reference book to reflect the language of well-informed writers, readers, and speakers today. She has also added a section to the book entitled "Vogue Words," which includes words that have acquired a new power and influence.

About this title

Review:

Eric Partridge was a master of linguistic scholarship. Author of A Dictionary of Cliches, Shakespeare's Bawdy, and many others, Partridge's Usage and Abusage, first out in 1942, was last updated by him in 1973, six years before his death. But life and language tick on, even without Partridge. Now, Janet Whitcut has revised his classic to keep up with the 1990s. One is reminded that "ablution is now intolerably pedantic" for "hand washing," that errata should be confined to corrections in books, and that precipitously (very steeply) should not be misused in the place of precipitately (violently hurried). The entry on punctuation runs for pages and is lucid, literate, and lively. The "Vogue Words" section is completely updated and provides today's connotations for words and phrases from academic to yuppie, rounding out a scholarly reference that maintains the Partridge standard.

About the Author:

The late Eric Partridge was the author of many classic books on the English language.

Janet Whitcut has contributed to many publications including The International Encyclopedia of Lexicography and The Oxford Thesaurus.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0393317099
• ISBN 13: 9780393317091
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Whitcut Janet