Usage and Abusage : A Guide to Good English

Partridge, Eric [ed]

ISBN 10: 0140510249 / ISBN 13: 9780140510249

Published by Penguin, London, 1974

About this Item

378pp. Reading/reference copy in sound condition. Margiins age-toned.

Seller Inventory # CF460

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Usage and Abusage : A Guide to Good English
• Publisher: Penguin, London
• Publication Date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140510249
• ISBN 13: 9780140510249
• Binding: paper wrappers
• Edition: reprint
• Condition: V.g.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature

About this title

Synopsis

Provides guidelines for writing standard English and explains usage differences

Review

Eric Partridge was a master of linguistic scholarship. Author of A Dictionary of Cliches, Shakespeare's Bawdy, and many others, Partridge's Usage and Abusage, first out in 1942, was last updated by him in 1973, six years before his death. But life and language tick on, even without Partridge. Now, Janet Whitcut has revised his classic to keep up with the 1990s. One is reminded that "ablution is now intolerably pedantic" for "hand washing," that errata should be confined to corrections in books, and that precipitously (very steeply) should not be misused in the place of precipitately (violently hurried). The entry on punctuation runs for pages and is lucid, literate, and lively. The "Vogue Words" section is completely updated and provides today's connotations for words and phrases from academic to yuppie, rounding out a scholarly reference that maintains the Partridge standard.