USAGE AND ABUSAGE: A Guide to Good English

by Eric Partridge ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Of course, I might as well acknowledge that I am a pushover for books dealing with words, as such. I love dictionaries and books of quotations, and Fowler is my daily companion. Now comes this, which may well give Fowler a close race. Eric Partridge, though handling his material from the English viewpoint, concedes an American viewpoint, and has a co-editor, Professor W. Cabell Greet, who annotates and comments on American usage. The arrangement is alphabetical, whether the individual item is a brief definition of usage (or a dogmatic denial of its place), or whether it is a subject that demands expansion, such as cliches, elegancies, euphemisms, fused participles, idioms, jargon, slang, word order, precis writing, puns, similes, group names, use of the subjunctive, tautology (to name some among many). He quotes opinions freely from other authorities, Fowler, Weseen, OED, and so on. It should prove an essential tool to all who care.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0393317099

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1942

Categories: NONFICTION