A dictionary of contemporary American usage, by Bergen Evans and Cornelia Evans

by Bergen Evans and Cornelia Evans

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B001GUHFVA
• Release Date: January 1957
• Publisher: Random House
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The usage dictionary as literature

That this splendid book (I have the eighth printing from 1957) is out of print and indeed quite dated in many respects (e.g., the word "Negro" was then standard usage) is a shame since it is an excellent work on how to use the language with elegance, grace and precision.Like most usage dictionaries it consists of word entries presented alphabetically followed by comments on the word or words in question. These comments often amount to little essays on how to write effectively or how to distinguish between similar words, or how to feel about certain words, and when (and if) it is acceptable to use certain words or phrases. As such this book belongs to an earlier era when there was no question about the prescriptive nature of a usage guide, while notions of frequency were clearly secondary to judgments about use made by experienced and careful writers.This was a treasure and delight to me when I first read it as a young writer eager to develop a sophisticated and convincing style. Indeed I read it from cover to cover; and, although it may not always be obvious, the Evanses noticeably improved my style. I took special delight in their many admonitions against the use of cliches. To be honest they overdid it a bit, condemning hundreds of phrases as hackneyed, overworked, trite, stale, shopworn, moth-eaten, etc. until they ran out of adjectives and had to resort to clever and humorous circumlocutions to get across their message. Here is the way they treat the (over)use of Shakespeare's "alas, poor Yorick!":It is sad that "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy" should be known to us only through such a threadbare quotation. Alas, indeed, poor Yorick! There is another line from Hamlet that should always be uttered after this one: "What, has this thing appear'd again tonight?" Or, if one perceives that it is about to be spoken, appeal to the speaker's better nature: "Refrain tonight, and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence." And if he does forbear: "For this relief, much thanks."The subject of cliches did not leave me until I encountered the lyrics of Bob Dylan. Initially I was underwhelmed and then amazed at how many cliches he could pack into any given song. And then at some point a light dawned on me and I realized that Dylan had invented a new poetic device: expression by cliche! Instead of using mere words in metaphorical and rhythmic ways, he used familiar phrases. Oh my, my, my what would the Evanses have thought?One of the things that the Evanses do that is not done in usage books much anymore is to make distinctions of usage between words that are not necessarily confused but have different shades of meaning or connotation. Thus one entry is for "inquire; ask; demand; question." Most people for whom English is the native language can use these words appropriately and would say that the bank robber "demanded" the money, not that he "asked" for it. (And certainly not that he "inquired" about it.)