Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage (4th edition)

摘要

Any reader over 50 years of age with a traditional British education may find this fourth edition of Fowler's an uncomfortable read at times. Many of our favourite betes noires are now considered to be acceptable by this font (or fount) of wisdom, and those prescriptivists who still fret about them are exposed on numerous occasions as outdated pedants. The key of course is that language changes, and this is a dictionary of usage, based on "the unparalleled resource of the Oxford English Corpus", which contains over 2.5 billion words collected in the twenty-first century from sources from throughout the English-speaking world. A prime example is Decimate, which once meant "to remove one in ten", but now the usage of "to remove a large proportion" is deemed acceptable. Outraged of Nethy Bridge will get little sympathy from the editor, Jeremy Butterfield, who in the entry for Avail, advises: "Purists can make up their own minds whether to follow the trend or stick to tradition". And once you have made this decision, you can revel in exploration of this fascinating, educational and amusing book.