A Dictionary of Cont..

differentiate 136
mistake. As he knew very well, diqerenr than
can be found in the writings of Addison, Steele,
Defoe, Richardson, Goldsmith, Coleridge, De
Quincey, Carlyle, Thackeray, and a great many
others. Cardinal Newman wrote: it bar: possessed
me in a different way than ever before.
John Maynard Keynes, another master of clear
and beautiful prose, wrote: how different things
appear in Washington than in London.
In the examples just given than introduces a
condensed clause. It could not be replaced by
the single word from but would require from
that which or even more words. There is no
doubt that the best writers and speakers generally
prefer than to an elaborate construction such
as from that which. When what follow,s is a
simple noun or pronoun and not a clause, as in
different from mine, different than mine, most
people prefer from, but than is also acceptable.
In Great Britain the word to is often used here,
as in diflerent to mine. This is comparable to
the use of to with Latin comparative forms, such
as inferior, anterior, senior, and is accepta.ble in
Great Britain.
The notion that from was the correct word to
use after different, and that than and to were
incorrect, dates from the eighteenth century. The
idea may have been based on nothing mor’e than
the fact that the Latin word differre means sepurate.
In English than is the normal word to use
in comparing things that are dissimilar. It is true
that than can only be used with the comparative
form of an adjective. It cannot be used with a
positive form. We may say greener than but not
Preen than. And the word different looks like a
positive form. But the posit&e form of an adjective
cannot be qualified by degree words, such
as much, fur, a great deul, and the word di#erent
can. We may say much different and fur different,
just as we say much greener and fur greener.
Different therefore has the standing of a comparative
adjective, independently of its use with
than, and far different from may be as disturbing
to the speech instinct as far greener from.
Different from is established in current
English and anyone who likes these words may
use them in any construction. But no one has
any grounds for condemning others who would
rather say diferent than, since this construction
is used by some of the most sensitive writers of
English and is in keeping with the fundamental
structure of the language.
differentiate. See distinguish.
ditlident. See modest.
dig. The past tense is dug or digged. The participle
is also dug or digged.
Though digged is still acceptable as the past
tense and participle of dig (The man in the parable
who had received but one talent went and
digged in the earth, und hid his lord’s money),
dug has become so much more common that
digged would seem to many Americans a
childish error.
digress. See deviate.
dilemma. See predicament.
dilettante. The plural is dilettantes or dilettanti.
diminish; minimize. To diminish is to make less;
to minimize is to make least or reduce to the
smallest possible amount or degree. Minimize
is used, however, to mean belittle (She always
said “Have you a minute to rinse out a few
things?” to minimize the effort of doing the
laundry); whereas diminish is rarely, if ever, so
used. Diminish is more likely to be applied to
material things (The puck was diminished by
the amount of two pairs of shoes and a tarpaulin).
Minimize is more likely to be applied
to qualities and abstractions (It is unwise to
minimize the danger; it is great and must be
faced).
dint. See dent.
diocese. See see.
dip. The past tense is dipped or dipt. The participle
is also dipped or dipt. Dipped is generally
preferred to dipt.
diploma. The plural is diplomas or diplomata, not
diplomue.
dipper. Though dipper as a term for a longhandled
ladle or drinking cup had a brief career
in England (Mason in his Supplement to Johnson’s
Dictionary, 1801, mentions it as “a modern
invention”), it is now almost exclusively an
American word in this sense. It is also used in
America, and in America only, as a name for
the configuration of stars in Ursa Major called
in England “the Plough” or “Charles’s Wain”
and for a similar configuration in Ursa Minor.
These are popularly called the Big Dipper and
the Little Dipper respectively in the United
States.
dipt. See dip.
direct; directly. Direct may be used as an adjective
(He favors the direct approach) or an
adverb (He ~‘20~ direct to New York). Where
the meaning is in a direct line of authority or
responsibility, directly must be used (He was
directly invqlvrd). So also with exactly, absolutely,
and precisely (The farmhouse was directly
in the line of Sherman’s fire).
In the sense of without delay, immediately
(I’ll be there directly), directly is an Enalish
isage rather than an-American: It was so ised
formerly more in America than it is now, but
even then there was the difference that in
America it signified “soon” rather than “at
once” (When you say you will do a thing
“directly” you mean “immediately”; in the
American language-generally speaking-the
word signifies “after a little”-Mark Twain). As
a conjunction meaning “as soon as” (Directly on
arriving, he issued orders for the man’s arrest),
directly is, again, largely an English usage.
For the last hundred years the word directly
has also been used as a conjunction, that is, to
introduce a clause, as in directly he arrived, I
left. Here the word means “as soon as.” The only
possible objection to this construction is that it
is relatively new. Most conjunctions have developed
from adverbs in just this way, and this
particular one has been established in English
literature by Dickens, Thackeray, and Matthew
Arnold.