A Dictionary of Cont..

and imply only a furthering or seconding of
another’s efforts. Aid implies a more active helping
than assist which suggests not only less help
but also less need for help (aided and comforted
the enemy;. . .my wife, without whose assistance
this book would never have been published).
Succor derives from a word meaning to
run under, and there is still in it a sense of
bringing aid, of coming to the relief of. This is
especially so in military contexts where beleaguered
cities or isolated detachments of
troops are succored or succor is brought to
them. Succor is a more emotional word than
help or assisf. It suggests not only aid but comfort.
Except in the military sense, it is, however,
slightly bookish.
help; servant. In the sense of a domestic servant
or a farm laborer, help has been used in
America, at least in New England, since earliest
times (James Penn shall have 2Os, to be disposed
among such of his servants & helps . . . .
He has always had good help on his farm: he
treats them right. In Indiana and Illinois, where
white servants were employed, they would not
tolerate being called servants. They were known
us “the help”). It is now applied to hired laborers,
especially those whose work does not
require any special skills (Help wanted. He
laid 08 half his help). While servant, as applied
to employment in the service of a private individual
or organization, is generally regarded as
an undemocratic word, a person in the government
can be called a servant without offense
(a faithful civil servant).
helping hand. The helping hand, especially when
lent, is a clich6.
helpmate; helpmeet. In the second chapter of
Genesis, according to the King James version,
God said that it was not good that Adam should
be alone and that He would make him an help
meet for him-that is a helper suitable for him.
Wycliffe had translated the phrase an helper like
hym and Coverdale an helpe, to beare him
company. The Revised Standard Version has a
helper fit for him. In the seventeenth century
help and meet, for some reason, were taken to
be one word and since Adam’s fit helper turned
out to be Eve, his wife, the new compound was
applied to a wife or husband, usually to a wife
(A true helpmeet for him, young, beautiful,
rich, and withal virtuous). In the eighteenth
century meet and mate were often pronounced
alike (as they are in Ireland today) and the
absurd coinage was soon given a semblance of
sense by being spelled helpmate, though the
older spelling persisted alongside the new one
and is still in use even today, especially among
those who like to be quaintly learned. Both
words are a little affected and bookish.
hemlock. In England hemlock designates a poisonous
umbelliferous herb, Conicum maculatum
(Round about the caldron go;/ In the poison’d
entrails throw, . . ./ Root of hemlock digg’d i
the dark). It also designates a poisonous drink
made from this herb (Socrates drinking the
hemlock,/ And Jesus on the rood). In the
219 herself
United States hemlock chiefly designates an
evergreen tree of the genus Tsuga, the hemlock
spruce (This is the forest primeval. The murmuring
pines and the hemlocks,/ . . ./ Stand
like Druids of old). The early Americans made
a drink from this spruce which they called hemlock
tea. John Galt in his Lawrie Todd (1830)
refers to it as “a pleasant and salutary drink.”
her; hers. Her is one of the objective pronouns.
It is used after a verb or a preposition in place
of the word she, as in have you seen her? and
did you talk with her? (See objective pronouns.)
Her is also used as a possessive in place of the
word hers. In this sense, the form her is required
when the word qualifies a following noun, as
in her home, her money, and the form hers is
required in any other construction, as in have
you seen hers? and compare this with hers. Hers
is the form used in a double possessive where
the word is separated from its following noun
by and, as in hers and Sophia’s bedroom. Today,
this construction is generally avoided. We are
more likely to say her bedroom and Sophia’s or
her own and Sophia’s bedroom. Neither word
order shows clearly whether we are talking
about one thing or two, but the old-fashioned
form, hers and Sophia’s, suggests one thing
possessed in common more strongly than the
forms which use her. In current English the
word hers is never written with an apostrophe.
here. The adverb here cannot qualify a following
noun, as in this here pencil, because too many
teacher-hours have been devoted to saying that
it couldn’t. If anyone uses this construction we
know at once that either he never went to school
a day in his life, or he is dangerously selfassertive.
The trouble is not that here repeats the idea
of this, but that it is an adverb standing in the
adjective position. This player here is the purest
English. A few words that are primarily adverbs
have won the right to stand before a noun, as
in the after life, the above remarks, but here is
not likely to become one of them. See hither.
hereabout; hereabouts. These forms are equally
acceptable today, and have been for several
centuries. Some grammarians claim that hereabouts
ought to be the preferred form, because
the word is used to qualify a verb and s is a
formal adverbial ending. But there is no evidence
that it actually is preferred.
hem (pronoun) was once acceptable English, but
it has not been used in the literary language for
three hundred years. The only acceptable form
today is hers.
hernia. The plural is hernias or herniae.
hero. The plural is heroes.
heroics. This word is always treated as a plural
and is usually meant derisively, as in these
heroics are wasted on me. The adjectives heroic
and heroical do not carry this sense but belong
to the solemn word hero. Both forms of the
adjective are acceptable, but heroic is heard
more often.
herself. In Ireland this word is sometimes used in
place of the word her or she, as in YOII must ask