A Dictionary of Cont..

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form, as in a hydraulics engineer, or they may
take either of the adjective forms, as in an economic
attache, a statistical report. Sometimes
all three forms may be used with the same
meaning. We sometimes hear of a hydraulic
engineer and sometimes of a hydraulical engineer.
It would be better if the noun form in
-its was always used when the science itself is
meant, as in a hydraulics engineer. This is especially
true when the word can be understood
in some other way, as energetic in (I photochemical
reaction may be driven “uphill” in an
energetic sense. The writer meant, “uphill, as
the word is understood in the science of energetics.”
This would have been clearer if the s
had not been dropped. If the noun form is used
for the science itself, the adjective forms could
then be applied to whatever comes within the
field of that science, such as a hydraulic press,
a ballistic pendulum. This distinction does not
have to be observed in order to write acceptable
scientific English today, but if it is observed the
words will be understood more easily.
ice. An illustration of idiomatic meanings is
furnished by the phrases to break the ice, to
initiate an action or to penetrate reserve, and
to cut no ice, a slang phrase widely used in
America but unknown in England, meaning to
fail to make a favorable impression, or to fail
to amount to anything important.
The British sometimes use an ice where an
American would always say ice cream. An ice
in America is sherbet.
iced tea. These words are usually pronounced as
though written ice tea, but some people feel that
it would be a mistake to write them that way.
The form ice fea is as justifiable as the form
ice cream, or skim milk, both of which are now
standard.
id. This is an abbreviation of the Latin word idem
and means the same.
idea; conception; concept; notion. Anything existing
in the mind may be called an idea (I have
an idea of what Z want to do. That was a great
idea. The very idea of such a performance!).
Where an intellectual effort is needed, however,
to abstract some quality (such as roundness or
redness) from its existence in material objects,
the idea that results is called a concept (The
concept of time as a dimension is dificult for
the lay mind to grasp. The concept of patriotism
has been a powerful force in shaping
history). A conception is the act of forming
abstract ideas, but it has also become in
standard usage a synonym for concept (He has
a strange conception of honor if he regards
such an action us honorable).
Though notion may be a synonym for idea
(The notion that the world was round had been
conceived centuries before. He had no notion
what she intended to do next), in its commonest
usage it suggests a vague or imperfectly conceived
idea (I had no notion such a thing was
brewing. I’ve half a notion to give you the
hiding you deserve).
ideal; example; model. All three of these words
refer to something worthy of imitation, a
standard to be striven toward. An ideal is a
standard of perfection either existing merely as
an image in the mind (Absolute honesty is all
very well as an ideal, but in practice it might
cause a great deal of unnecessary unhappiness)
or based upon a person or conduct (Abraham
Lincoln remains the American ideal in humane
statesmanship).
Example is not necessarily honorific. There
are bad as well as good examples (an example
of the best workmanship, an example to be
avoided).
A model is primarily a physical shape to be
closely copied (Art students cannot learn portraiture
without models. The models for next
year’s cars are already being constructed) but
it is also a pattern for exact imitation in character
or conduct (American assembly-line
techniques have become a model for other
nations. The village had always regarded him
as a model husband and father).
identified; connected. Identified is often misused,
especially in business jargon, as a synonym for
connected (in such a sentence as He has been
identified with Western Electric for twenty
years). The words, however, are not even
loosely synonymous. Zdentified means recognized
or established as a particular person or
thing (On the basis of dentures and finger prints
the victim of the lodging house fire was identified
as Richard Roe). In the rare instances
where a man’s fame is so great that it equals
or even overshadows that of a company with
which he is connected, he and the company
might conceivably be identified or thought of
as one and the same. Thomas A. Edison would
be an example. Connected means attached to
or associated with (He had been connected with
harness-racing scandals never He had been
identified with harness-racing scandals. Identified,
in this context, is properly used in the
statement: He had been identified as the leader
of the harness-racing racket).
ideology. Sir Alan Herbert is very hard on ideology.
“A wriggling snob-word,” he calls it and
says emphatically that “it does not mean a
given person’s principles and beliefs or attitude
to life and politics.”
But, while it is true that in its strictest sense
the word is a philosophic term meaning the
science of ideas, most linguists now feel that
usage has established it as a standard term for
the body of doctrine, myth, and symbols of a
social movement, institution, class, or large
group, or such a body of doctrine, etc., with reference
to some political and cultural plan, together
with the means of putting it into operation
(The fascist ideology included the ruthless
extermination of all whom the party regarded
as unfit). Creed and faith have too strong religious
connotations to serve as synonyms.
idle. See lazy.
idle rich. Originally a term of contempt in nineteenth-century
socialism’s comparatively polite
lexicon of abuse, the idle rich was taken over
by the populace as a humorous term. But it is
now worn out as either an invective or a joke.