A Dictionary of Cont..

forensic 186
latexes or latices and fistulas or fistulae, the
botanist might choose latices and fistulas, and
the physician, latexes and fistulae. If the two
plural forms are equally familiar, or equally
unfamiliar, the English form is safer.
A classical scholar might, perhaps, find it hard
to talk about criterions. But the number of
Americans who know anything about Greek or
Latin five years after they have left college is
very small. And anyone who uses unfamiliar
forms merely because he thinks they add a
scholarly tone is likely to prove what an ignoramus
he is. Not all words that end in a have a
plural in ae, and not all words that end in x
have a plural in ices. Some words that end in
us have a plural in i and some have a plural
in us. And some words are learned jokes that
have become respectable nouns in English but
that cannot possibly be given a plural in Latin.
An English plural is safe. It can always be defended.
A learned plural is sometimes out of
place. And if it is a wrong learned plural, it is
very, very wrong.
forensic means pertaining to, or connected with,
or used in, courts of law. Forensic medicine, for
example, is medicine in its relations to law. It
also means pertaining to public discussion or
debate, in such terms as forensic eloquence. But
this usage is largely restricted to colleges and
universities and has a touch not only of the
academic but of the stilted. Sometimes in colleges
the word is used as a noun for a debate or
forensic contest. In the last century written
speeches that could be used in debates were
called forensics at Harvard.
forest. See wood.
foreword; preface: introduction. There was a
vogue in the nineteenth century for replacing
words of Latin origin with Saxon equivalents.
Although preface had been in use for five centuries,
foreword was coined to take its place and
enjoyed great popularity among those who affected
to be unaffected. All sense of its Teutonic
strength and simplicity has departed and it is
now simply a synonym for the older word.
Fowler thought, in 1924, that it was already
falling into disuse and allowed himself a paragraph
of exultation. But his triumph was premature.
The word is still in use, is accepted as
standard by all dictionaries, and probably will
stay. An introduction is likely to be more formal
than a preface or a foreword, or to be more
closely connected with what follows.
forget. The past tense is forgot. The participle is
forgotten or forgot. In the United States, both
forms of the participle are used, as in 2 have
forgotten and I have forgot. Forgotten is generally
preferred. In Great Britain, forgotten is
the only form of the participle used and forgot
is considered archaic or poetic. This is the reverse
of British practice in the case of the verb
get, where got is the preferred form and gotten
is considered archaic.
Forget may be followed by an infinitive, as in
I forgot to mail the letter. If the -ing form of a
verb is used it must be introduced by the prep-
osition about, as in Z forgot about mailing the
letter. Forget may also be followed by a clause,
as in I forgot he had mailed it. See also misremember.
forgetful. See oblivious.
forgive. The past tense is forgave. The participle
is forgiven. Forgive may be followed by a thatclause,
as in forgive me that I didn’t come, or by
the -ing form of a verb, as in forgive my not
coming. But a phrase with the preposition for,
as in forgive me for not coming, is generally
preferred.
forgo. See forego.
forgot; forgotten. See forget.
forlorn hope. Forlorn when spoken of persons
means abandoned, forsaken, left all alone, desolate
(This is the maiden all forlorn/ Who
milked the cow with the crumpled horn). Hope
in the phrase a forlorn hope originally meant
a band of soldiers (The forlorn hope of each
attack consisted of a sergeant and twelve Europeans-Wellington).
The whole thing was actually
merely an English spelling of the Dutch
verloren hoop, “lost heap” or “lost troop,” a
term applied to soldiers assigned to extremely
perilous tasks, meaning, as it were, given up for
lost because of the very nature of what they had
to do. The French called them enfants perdus
arrd the English “forlorn boys.”
With the emergence of the meaning of desperate
or desolate for forlorn-the feeling that
would follow upon being abandoned-the Dutch
hoop was easily folk-etymologized into the English
hope and the present meaning of the phrase,
a vain expectation, an undertaking almost certain
to fail, was established. As early as 1641
the phrase was being used in its modern sense,
though the old meaning persisted alongside of
the new one for two centuries. It is now a clicht.
form. See blank.
former. See fore.
formula. The plural is formulas or formulae.
formulate. To formulate is to reduce to or express
in a formula, and a formula is a set form of
words used for stating or declaring something
authoritatively or for indicating procedure to be
followed. To use formulate for form, therefore
(to formulate an opinion, to formulate a plan),
is to misuse it, and even when used correctly,
except in chemistry or mathematics, it is a fairly
pompous word.
fornication is voluntary sexual intercourse on the
part of an unmarried person, though the term
is used in the Bible as a synonym for adultery
and sometimes as a synonym for idolatry.
forsake. The past tense is forsook. The participle
is forsaken.
forsooth once had almost the solemnity of an oath
(He confirmeth with a double oath, saying forsooth
and forsooth-1547) but it is now used
only ironically (And I, forsooth, am to stay
home and wash the dishes while you go to the
movies). Even this use, however, is now felt to
be slightly affected.
fort; fortress. In the military sense of an armed
place surrounded by defensive works and occu-