Quite Literally

Problem Words and How to use Them

Wynford Hicks

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781134361656
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Creative Writing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This is a guide to English usage for readers and writers, professional and amateur, established and aspiring, formal trainees and those trying to break in; students of English, both language and literature, and their teachers.

In Quite Literally, Wynford Hicks answers questions like:

• What's an alibi, a bete noire, a celibate, a dilemma?
• Should underway be two words?
• Is the word 'meretricious' worth using at all?
• How do you spell realise - with an s or a z - and should bete be bête?
• Should you split infinitives, end sentences with prepositions, start them with conjunctions?
• What about four-letter words, euphemisms, foreign words, Americanizms, clichés, slang, jargon?
• And does the Queen speak the Queen's English?

The advice given can be applied to both formal speech - what is carefully considered, broadcast, presented, scripted or prepared for delivery to a public audience - and will even enhance your everyday languange too!

Practical and fun, whether to improve your writing for professional purposes or simply enjoy exploring the highways and byways of English usage, readers from all walks of life will find this book both invaluable and enjoyable.

S

s

the letter s is sometimes added before a vowel but not a consonant (antiques expert but antique shop, dealer; features editor but feature writer) in writing as in speech. To add the s before the consonant is not wrong but unnecessary.

saccharin, saccharine

saccharin is a substitute for sugar; saccharine means sugary, both literally and metaphorically.

sacrilegious

not sacreligious; the word, which comes from sacred, has nothing to do with religion.

safe see haven

Sahara desert

strictly speaking, there should be no desert here since the word sahara is Arabic for desert.

St Thomas’s hospital

in London, needs the s after the apostrophe since it is sounded in speech (although the hospital itself doesn’t use it).

saleable

not salable

salon, saloon

a salon is a French living or reception room, particularly a grand one, a social gathering (eg of writers) in such a room and the place where hairdressers and beauticians operate. A saloon is a public room on a ship and a bar in the US, particularly in westerns. In Britain the saloon (or lounge) bar is the comfortable alternative to the public bar and a saloon car is an oldfashioned term for an enclosed one.

salubrious, salutary, sanitary

all refer to health but are used differently. Salubrious is literary for healthy and pleasant to live in (a salubrious district); salutary is mainly metaphorical and means beneficial (he learnt a salutary lesson); sanitary is used of cleanliness, freedom from infection and public health, and specifically of drainage and sewage disposal; also of sanitary towels etc used by women during menstruation.

salvoes

is the plural of salvo meaning a volley of shots but salvos is the plural of the (less common) word salvo meaning reason or excuse.

sanatorium

not sanitarium, sanitorium, for room or building for sick people

sanction

the dominant sense of sanction as a noun is economic action taken by one or more states against another state (the UN imposed sanctions on Iraq). Another, less common and almost opposite, meaning is official approval (the US and Britain sought UN sanction for their war against Iraq). Confusingly, sanction as a verb usually means authorise (her parents sanctioned the marriage) but occasionally impose sanctions on, penalise (he was sanctioned for his behaviour).

Advice: use sanction as a noun to mean action against not approval; to avoid confusion don’t use sanction as a verb.

sangfroid

coolness, self-possession, is one word.

sarcasm

a sarcastic remark is a sneer intended to cause pain or at least discomfort. It is usually ironical; that is, the words used have a different meaning from their surface one: ‘Looking for something?’ to somebody who has just tripped and fallen over. Keep the word sarcasm for sneers which have a suggestion of irony. See also: irony.

sari, sarong

sari not saree for the Hindu woman’s traditional body-covering garment; a sarong is a length of cloth worn as a skirt by men and women in Malaysia and Polynesia, and now a western woman’s light dress, particularly for the beach (also worn by David Beckham).

sauternes

a sweet white wine, comes from the district of Sauternes, a village south of Bordeaux.

savannah

not savanna for tropical grassland. Savannah in Georgia (and Tennessee) has the h although Americans prefer savanna for grassland.

save

is literary for except (they were all rescued save one).

scallop, escalope

scallop not scollop or escallop for the shellfish, shallow pan or dish, decorative edging; an escalope is a thin, boneless slice of meat, particularly veal.

scan

can mean either glance at (he scanned the football results as they ate) or examine carefully (he scanned the document several times); it also means (of verse) to conform with the rules of metre (this line doesn’t scan). Use with care.

scare quotes

are quote marks used round slang or clichés to distance the writer from the expression (some ‘cowboys’ failed to fix my roof). To be avoided unless you wish to give the impression of being a fussy academic writer.

scarves

is the plural of scarf.

schadenfreude

no caps or italics, is pleasure in the misfortune of others.

schizophrenia, schizophrenic

schizophrenia is a psychotic mental illness marked by delusions. The adjective schizophrenic is sometimes used to disparage people and organisations said to show contradictory ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z
• Further Reading