A Dictionary of Cont..

upon us conveying his central doctrine). There
is about the word, however, even in this meaning,
a suggestion that the triviality is based
upon the absurdity or illogicality of the utterance.
When the matter is simply of no importance,
it is better to use the commoner,
unequivocal unimportant.
incontinently. The adverb incontinently has two
different meanings. In one sense it means lacking
in restraint, especially sexual restraint
(Queen Isabel . . . living incontinently with
Mortimer). In a second sense, now archaic, it
means immediately, at once, straightway (I will
incontinently drown myself). In neither sense
is the word particularly usable. For the first
sense some such word as unrestrainedly or unchastely
is to be preferred. For the second,
immediately or at once.
incontrollable; uncontrollable. Though incontrollable
is still acceptable, its use is increasingly
rare. In the United States, as in England, it is
being superseded by uncontrollable.
incorrect; uncorrected. Though incorrect and incorrectly
are in daily use, incorrected is now
obsolete. It has been superseded by uncorrected.
increase. See step up.
incredible; unbelievable. Although incredible and
unbelievable are synonymous in meaning not
credible, impossible to believe, incredible has
been used so much in the weakened sense of
something that is difficult to believe, or something
which one would never, reasoning from
common observation, have thought possible,
that this is now its common meaning. Thus
when we say of someone that he ran through
his inheritance with incredible folly, we do not
expect the alleged folly to be rejected as unbelievable.
We mean that although such folly
would seem impossible, yet it actually happened.
Unbelievable is sometimes used in this
sense, but more often it is qualified with almost,
showing that the word itself retains its absolute
meaning.
incredible; incredulous. That is incredible which
cannot be believed or seems too extraordinary
to be possible. Properly only narratives can be
incredible since things, to be things, must exist
and hence, if produced or authenticated, must
be believed in. However, incredible in its weakened
sense of so extraordinary as to be almost
unbelievable is often applied to things (He
caught the most incredible fish you ever saw.
There was an incredible house, built on stilts
and painted blue and green). And since people
are among the most extraordinary things on
the face of the earth it is often applied, hyperbolically,
to people (He was an incredible man.
The whole community was proud of having
such a freak in its midst), sometimes in such
paradoxical phrases as an incredible liar where
it is used to mean not that he was a liar who
would not be believed in but so successful a
liar that it was hard to believe the degree to
which he compelled credulity. Much of the
meaning depends on the intonation. To say
quietly that someone was an incredible witness
239 indefinite
would probably mean that his testimony failed
to carry any conviction, but to stress incredible
with excited emphasis might mean that the extent
to which his testimony compelled conviction
was almost unbelievable.
In such a situation there is, of course, infinite
possibility for misunderstanding, so that the
writer or speaker who wishes to have his meaning
clearly understood will avoid the ambiguities
which the weakened and hyperbolical uses
create by avoiding these uses.
Incredible means unbelievable. Incredulous
means unbelieving. And since believing or not
believing is, so far as we know, solely restricted
to human beings, the word must also be so
restricted. It is confined to people and to the
expressions or gestures by which they indicate
their unbelief (When he told me the same old
incredible story, I merely smiled an incredulous
smile).
incubus; succubus. The plurals are incubuses or
incubi, succubuses or succubi. In modern usage
an incubus is an imaginary demon or evil spirit
that is supposed to descend upon sleeping persons
or, by extension, something that weighs
upon or oppresses one like a nightmare. Sometimes
a nightmare itself is called an incubus.
A succubus is, in modern usage, any demon or
evil spirit.
In former times, when demonology was a
more exact science, an incubus was a male
demon which haunted the sleep of women and
was responsible for their bearing witches, demons,
and deformed children. The innocent
maiden, however, plagued by his advances,
could protect herself with St. Johnswort and
vervain and dill. The succubus was the female
counterpart. The offspring of the union of a
man and a succubus was demonic, but the proper
prayers, spells, or charms recited by the man
upon awakening would prevent its conception.
These distinctions no longer hold in standard;
common usage, but the learned preserve them
and delight in them.
inculcate. To inculcate is to impress by repeated
statement, to teach persistently and earnestly.
It is a transitive verb whose Latin elements
mean, literally, to stamp in with the heel. Therefore
that which is inculcated must be inculcated
in or upon the subject (As a teacher he inculcated
in his students a love of questioning and
a distrust of facile solutions) ; the subject is not
inculcated with that which is inculcated. It is
incorrect, for example, to say His parents inculcated
him with frugal habits. They inculcated
frugal habits in him.
But even when used correctly inculcate is a
little pretentious. It is probably better to say
repeatedly impressed on.
incumbent. See recumbeut.
indecency. See blasphemy.
indefinite article. See a, an.
iudehite pronouns and adjectives. Pronouns
which refer to certain individuals without specifying
which ones, such as anyone, someone,
everybody, each, either, neither, none, are called
indefinite pronouns. When a word of this kind