A Dictionary of Cont..

enviable
form. As a noun, meaning a cover for a letter
or the like, envelope is the standard form, though
envelop is not incorrect.
enviable; envious. That is enviable which excites
envy or is to be envied (His position, so secure
and honorable, is an enviable one). He is envious
who feels envy (Envious of his friends
success, he cast about for some means to humiliate
him). Enviable is a much milder word than
envious. It is often used as a term of praise. But
envious suggests one in an unpleasant, ugly, and
even dangerous condition.
environs no longer has a singular form. The plural
form is used with a plural verb, as in the environs
are attractive, but it is not a true plural
and cannot be used with a word implying number.
We cannot speak of several environs.
envisage; envision. To envisage is to confront, to
look in the face, to face (Let us envisage the
facts as they are), to contemplate or call up a
mental picture or image (The Mayor, speaking
before the Council, envisaged the new sewage
disposal plant), or to perceive by intuition (Nature,
to the Buddhist, is envisaged as a nexus of
laws).
To envision (of 20th century coinage, by the
way) is to see as in a vision (His blackest hypochondria
had never envisioned quite so miserable
a catastrophe) and is properly confined to
those ecstatic or alarming foreshadowings that
visions are made on. When the mayor envisaged
the sewage disposal plant, it is assumed that he
saw an actual plant in his mind’s eye and with
prosaic efficiency communicated to the Council
some concept of its mechanism, capacity, structure,
and the like. Had he envisioned it, he would
have been more poetic, seeing it from afar as a
glorious fulfillment, some day to be realized, of
the citizens’ aspirations.
envy; covet; begrudge. To envy is to feel spite
and resentment because someone else possesses
or has achieved something that one wishes he
had himself (The award has made him envv vou.
. .
and he is no longer your friend). The word is
used, with a milder connotation, indeed as a
sort of strong compliment, in expressions where
the context makes it plain that there is no malice
or resentment (How Z envy you the hours you
spent in his company!). Used with a negative, it
often expresses a mild commiseration (I do not
envy you the responsibilities you have undertaken).
To covet is to desire jealously to possess what
belongs to someone else (Thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor’s house). There is a definite connotation
of culpability in the desiring it denotes.
To begrudge is to be unwilling to allow another
to have the possessions or honors or esteem
that he is entitled to (He begrudged him
the least comfort in his misery), or to give,
when one must give, reluctantly and with grumbling.
ephemeris. The plural is ephemerises or ephemerides,
not ephemeres.
ephemeron. The plural is ephemerons or ephemera.
Ephemera is also used as a singular and has
the regular plural ephemeras. Either of these
forms is acceptable today. But a new learned
plural ephemerae is not. It is not English, and
it is not good Latin or Greek.
epic. As a noun epic means a narrative, usually in
verse, which celebrates the deeds of heroes of
history or legend. As an adjective it means
something suitable for such a narration, or
something of an imposing and heroic character.
James Truslow Adams’s The Epic of America
was not inappropriately named, for the history
of America is a saga of unparalleled achievement,
full of wild poetry, true grandeur, great
heroes and heroic deeds. It has the material for
twenty epics. But the word is sadly abused in
journalism, especially by sports writers whose
eternal striving for intensives leads one to suspect,
sometimes, that their actual material must
be dull and uninspiring. Thus when Life (October
18, 1954), refers to a long putt, successfully
sunk by Mr. Bobby Jones at Mamaroneck, New
York, in 1929, as an “epic” putt, the immense
word is ludicrously ill-supported by the achievement
to which it is applied. The reader is misled,
the language is impaired, and Mr. Jones, whose
putt was really a very good putt, is made to
seem absurdly pretentious. No one gains.
epical; epochal. Epical means of the nature of
epic poetry, something worthy to be told in the
old epic manner. Epochal means of or pertaining
to an epoch, a particular period of time
marked by some distinctive character. When one
speaks of an event as epochal, it is generally
meant that the event itself was of such tremendous
import and so far-reaching in its effects
that it serves to mark an epoch.
epicure; epicurean. See hedonist.
epidemic; endemic; pandemic. A disease is epidemic
when it affects a large number of persons
at the same time in a locality in which it is not
permanently prevalent (The Spanish Znjluenzu
was epidemic in the United States in 1918). A
disease is endemic when it is habitually prevalent
in a certain locality or habitually peculiar to a
certain people (Sleeping sickness is endemic
wherever the tsetse fly is unchecked. Snobbery
is endemic to country clubs). That is pandemic
which is universal and afflicts all people. (The
fear o j the hydrogen born b is pandemic).
episode. See event; happening.
epistle is a letter, but it is a formal and didactic
letter, and to use the word as a synonym for
letter (The unclaimed epistles were pinned on a
board in the Post Ofice) is pretentious if serious
and ponderous if intended to be humorous.
epitaph; epigraph. An epitaph is, one might say,
a specialized epigraph. An epigraph is an inscription,
especially on a building, a statue or the like.
It can be on a tomb. An epitaph is a commemorative
inscription on a tomb or any brief writing
resembling such an inscription.
epithets. An epithet may be a meaningful appellation
(witch-hunter, egghead) or a descriptive
term suggesting the quality of a person or thing
(Richard the lion-hearted, Harry the Horse,
rock-bound coast).