A Dictionary of Cont..

alluring beauty took/ From my poor cheek?)
and so did Milton (It is for homely features to
keep home) and Horace Walpole (She was extremely
deformed and homely).
homicide; murder; manslaughter. Homicide, the
killing of one human being by another, includes
murder and manslaughter. Murder is the unlawful
killing of another human being with
malice aforethought and manslaughter is the
killing of another human being unlawfully but
without malice aforethought.
homonyms. English is rich in homonyms, words
that are similar in sound and, often, in spelling
but different in meaning. Where the words are
common and the meanings widely different (as
in the bark of a dog and the bark of a tree)
there is little danger of confusion, but when
vanity and the desire to be thought learned lead
a writer or speaker to venture out of his depth,
homonyms can cause some preposterous blunders.
Thus when a leading newsmagazine which
prides itself on omniscience informs its readers
that “peasant-born ‘Pace’ Gova” had “scaled
the dizzy dome of St. Peter’s in Rome” and
carved his initials “on the lantern that had been
left there by Michaelangelo,” the verb had been
left suggests that the architectural meaning of
lantern was not known. And when in a later
issue much merriment is made of the fact that
President Tyler’s wife at her husband’s inaugural
ball wore “bugles” in her hair, the gaiety implies
that the writer of the article was unaware of the
fact that one of the meanings of bugle is an
elongated glass bead. Here, as elsewhere, modesty
is a safeguard against being absurd. Where
modesty is lacking, it is well to have a dictionary.
Homonyms, in most instances, derive from
different origins-frequently from different languages-and
the similarity in sound is accidental.
Sometimes they go back to the same source
but have altered in spelling and meaning in
their individual paths through usage; thus plain
and plane are both from Latin planus but plain
detoured thrcugh Old French.
Though homonyms are the cause of a great
deal of bad spelling, they are worth the cost
because they are also the basis of puns.
homosexual. The first element in homosexual is
the Greek homo- meaning the same, not the
Latin homo, man. That is, a homosexual is one
who has sexual feelings, with an impulse towards
genital expression, for a person of the
same sex. A homosexual may be either a man
or a woman.
honest; honorable; honesty; honor. An honest
man is candid, just, fair in his dealings, sincere
in his utterances (After my death Z wish no
other herald/ . . . To keep mine honor from
corruption,/ But such an honest chronicler as
Grifith). The honorable man is honest (though
his honor may keep him, like Lancelot, falsely
true), but honor is a more complex thing than
simple honesty. Honesty functions within a system
of absolute principles of right; honor functions
within a complex system of standards of
conduct of what is due to one’s self and to
223 honorarium
others. It is conceivable that a man might be
honest because he felt that honesty is the best
policy. The honorable man would probably find
such motivation unworthy of himself. To conform
to a high standard of honor is far more
difficult, in that it is far more complex, than to
conform to a high standard of honesty.
When honor means privilege, it may be followed
by an infinitive, as in Z have the honor to
inform you, provided it is being used with the
word have; otherwise, it may be followed by of
and the -ing form of a verb, as in Z had the
honor of informing him.
honorable; honorary. That is honorable which is
worthy of honor. That is honorary which is conferred
as a mark of honor. The English go in
much more than the Americans for honorary
secretaryships and the like. For the sake of the
dignity conferred by his name, so-and-so will be
chosen the Honorary Secretary of a society, the
actual secretarial duties being performed by a
paid secretary. So-and-so is then usually listed
on programs and announcements of the society
as the Hon. Sec. or Hon. Secretary. Americans
often mistake this for Honorable, a title bestowed
in America on any public official. In
England the title of Honorable (also abbreviated
to Hon.) is confined to certain of the
children of peers, maids of honor, judges of the
High Court, and members of various Indian and
Dominion Councils. Right Honorable is reserved
for privy councilors, peers below the rank of
marquis, certain judges and some lord mayors.
In the United States, the title honorable requires
the article the. It may precede a descriptive
phrase, such as the Honorable Gentleman
from Buncombe, or a full name, as in the Honorable
John Hancock. But it should not stand
immediately before a last name. If the given
name or initials are not used some other title,
such as Dr., or Mr., must take their place, as in
the Honorable Mr. Hancock. When the word is
abbreviated the article the is omitted, as in Hon.
John Hancock.
Honorable is not used without a proper name
as a form of address, or in speaking about a
person.
honorarium. The plural is honorariums or honoraria.
honorarium; fee; wages; pay; salary. In former
times it was felt or at least pretended that certain
persons were of so exalted a station or
possessed of such incomparable skill or knowledge
that no adequate compensation could possibly
be offered them in return for any services
they might perform. A monetary recognition
not of the service, but of the honor conferred by
their very presence, took the form of an honorarium
the amount of which-at least in theory
-was determined by the donor. Even late into
the last century, particularly in England, this
applied to unusually great physicians, men who
today would be called specialists or consultants.
The money (always in gold) was never handed
to them directly but discreetly placed on a corner
of the mantel and unobtrusively pocketed
by the Great One. Today honorarium is simply