Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English

Partridge's classic guidelines for writing standard English and explanations of usage differences are updated for the nineties with articles on sexism and vogue words

The first edition of this book was published in 1942 and became a classic reference on the use of the English language. Whitcut has updated this edition for the 1990s but left much of Partridge's original wit and wisdom intact. She also kept many of his original examples and citations to other works, so this new edition still seems somewhat dated. That said, this style manual in dictionary form, interspersed with essays on various topics (including "standard English," "jargon," and "euphemism"), is by turns entertaining and informative. An updated list of vogue words includes such entries as "backlash," "crash," and "syndrome." This book would do well in reference for answering quick questions such as the difference between "can" and "may," both of which "express the idea of permission." It is also interesting to browse. Recommended for informed readers.
Lisa J. Cochenet, Winfield P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

First published in 1942, this classic work by noted British lexicographer Partridge, who died in 1979, has been updated by Whitcut. Recent editions had included American usage, but more has been added here, for example, the difference in use of specialty and speciality. The list of vogue words is almost totally new; Whitcut added born-again and ethnic and dropped Bolshevism and ego and id. The entry Muhammad notes that Muslim is the correct form for believers, not Muhammadan, as in previous editions (but the entry Mecca still says it "is a place of religious pilgrimage for Muhammadans" ). The entry Jew is an improvement over the offensive Semitic; Hebraic, Hebrew; Jewish. The entry black replaces Negro, and a racist example has been removed from the list of similes. But most of the book is still pure Partridge; witness the witty entries Johnsonese and wooliness, for example, which have not been changed. Most entries have not been updated; many still quote examples from newspapers and magazines of the 1930s and 1940s. Libraries with an earlier edition of Partridge on their shelves will be happy to replace it with this new one, and language mavens will still find it interesting reading. For public and high-school libraries, though, it is still too British and too dated to be the first choice for a usage guide. Webster's Dictionary of English Usage (Merriam-Webster, 1989) is a better alternative. Sandy Whiteley ((Reviewed ^May 01, 1995^))