A Dictionary of Cont..

infinitive, as in 1 forbore to mention it. If the
-ing form of a verb is used it must be introduced
by from, as in I forbore from mentioning it.
The infinitive is generally preferred.
forbear; forebear. The verb meaning to restrain
from, to hold back, to be patient, is forbear.
The noun meaning ancestor may be either forebear
or forbear, though forebear is preferred
(I can’t forbear from laughing when he gets to
boasting of his forebears).
forbid. The past tense is forbade or forbid. The
participle is forbidden or forbid. The form for.
bade is always pronounced forbad, and may also
be spelled that way. Forbid may be followed by
an infinitive, as in he forbade her to speak, or
by the -ing form of a verb, as in he forbade her
speaking. The infinitive is generally preferred.
forbidden fruit. It would seem natural to connect
the phrase forbidden fruit with the story of
Eve’s temptation, and this unquestionably has
had to do with the phrase’s entrenchment lin the
language. But the Romans and the Greeks both
had sayings of much the same kind. This one
was proverbial in Chaucer’s time and is a cliche
in ours.
forbore; forborne. See forbear.
force. This verb may be followed by an infmitive,
3s in they forced him to go. If the -ing form of
a verb is used it must be introduced by the preposition
into, as in they forced him into going.
The infinitive construction is preferred.
forceful; forcible. Forcible means effected by force
or characterized by the use of force or violence
(Finding all doors and windows locked, the
police had no choice but to make a forcible
entrance). Forceful means full of force. It is
used chiefly in such phrases as a forceful’ personality
or a forceful argument. It may be used
as a synonym for forcible but such use is now
archaic and literary.
forceps is frequently treated as a plural in speaking
of one instrument, as in these forceps are
clean. Three instruments may be called three
forceps or three pairs of forceps. These constructions
are standard English today. But forceps
is actually a Latin singular and a singular
construction, such as a forceps or this forceps is
clean, is acceptable but learned. The word has
an English plural forcepses and a learned plural
forcipes, neither of which is in common use
today. A singular form forcep is sometimes
heard but is not standard. The form forceps is
always used as the first element of a compound,
as in a forceps delivery.
fore. The comparative form is former. The superlative
form is foremost or first. The positive
form fore is not often heard today (except on a
golf course). The superlative foremost is generally
used in its place. The comparative former
has the meaning in some constructions of standing
before something else, principally when used
with the latter. But it is now more often usled to
mean preceding in time. It can no longer be
used in a comparison with than. We say earlier
than and not former than.
18.5
The word first also retains something of the
meaning of foremost, but is more often used
simply as the ordinal form of the cardinal number
one. See first.
forecast. The past tense is forecast or forecasted.
The participle is also forecast or forecasted.
Forecast is the literary form for the past tense
and the participle, but forecasted is also acceptable
in the United States.
forego; forgo. To forego is to go before, to precede.
To forgo is to abstain from (I must forgo
the pleasure of foregoing him into the hall).
Forgo, to abstain from, may be spelled forego;
but forego, to precede, may not be spelled forgo.
foregone conclusion. Iago, inflaming Othello’s
mind with jealousy, tells him that he had heard
Cassio talking in his sleep and that he had
seemed to be making love to Desdemona and
warning her to be cautious. Othello cries out in
anguish and Iago hastens to insist “this was but
his dream.” It may have been only a dream,
Othello replies, but such a dream denoted a
foregone conclusion. Scholars have debated the
exact meaning of the phrase in this its original
context, but it seems fairly obvious: It may have
been only a dream, but the very nature of the
dream makes it plain that the act of love had
definitely been concluded between them some
time before. In modern usage the phrase means
an inevitable conclusion, an opinion or a decision
formed in advance. It is a cliche.
foreign. The use of the word foreign to designate
a corporation chartered by another state but
doing business in the state concerned is a proper
legal term and not, as is sometimes assumed, an
expression of belligerent provincialism.
foreign plurals. We have in English a great many
words that have Latin or Greek plural forms.
In most cases, these words also have a regular
English plural that has been in existence, side
by side with the learned form, sometimes for
centuries. There is nothing about the form of
these words that makes a classical plural more
“natural” than an English one. Other words, of
exactly the same types, are used only with English
plurals. We can set cameras against formzzlae,
circzcses against alztmni, mzueums against
memoranda, complexes against indices, trellises
against pelves, electrons and paragons against
phenomena and criteria.
It would not be worthwhile to list all the
words of this kind that may be used in scientific
writing since these include, potentially, more
words than exist in Greek or Latin. But several
hundred of the most familiar ones can be found
in this dictionary. These include all the words
in general use for which the foreign plural is the
only acceptable form, such as parentheses. They
also include the words which are most often
seen with a wrong plural form. If a learned form
is used at all, it must be the right one.
Where two plural forms exist, one should
choose the form that is most familiar. This
means that a botanist and a physician might
make different choices. Faced with choosing