A Dictionary of Cont..

tensification of some evil, some sorrow, grievance,
or oBense (The failure of his business
aggravated Mr. Domhey’s grief for the death
of his son). Its common use to mean annoy
(Don’t aggravate me, child) and still more
common adjectival use (He’s such an aggrc;Nvatiflg
man) are colloquialisms (“feminine or
childish,” Fowler sternly calls them) not used
in formal speech or writing.
Annoy is simply the French word ennui
which now means boredom and that is all
annoy meant at first, though it now expresses
a somewhat stronger feeling of discomfort.
To irritate is to fret, to chafe, to gall, to
excite to impatience or to feelings of anger,
though not of any great depth or of any great
duration. We speak of a wound as being irritated
when through the chafing or rubbing of
a coarse bandage it has been superficially
inflamed.
Exasperate is a stronger word than irritate
(though it is sometimes weakened to a mere
synonym for annoy). The Latin root word
asper means rough and harsh. A man is exasperated
when he has been annoyed or irritated
to the point where his self-control is threatened
or lost. An exasperated man is a dangerous man.
To provoke is to stir up (literally, to call
forth) sudden and strong feelings of anger
or resentment, usually by some unwarrantable
act or wanton annoyance (The rage which
Oswald’s impertinence provoked in Lear,
already annoyed by the delay of his dinner,
was aggravated to fury by Goneril’s insole.nce
und the exasperated man rushed wildly from
the palace).
gnostic; atheist; heathen; infidel; pagan. The word
agnostic was coined in 1869 by Thomas Henry
Huxley to describe one who, like himself, :felt
that the ultimate nature of things, including
the existence of a God, is unknown and
probably unknowable.
An atheist is one who denies the existence
of God or of gods (Socrates was accused of
atheism because he did not believe in Zeus).
An infidel is an unbeliever. The word was
rather specialized among Christians in former
times to apply to Mohammedans and among
Mohammedans to Jews and Christians. In
recent years there has been a tendency in
America to give the word a wider significance
and have it apply to agnostics and atheists.
Indeed many Americans if they felt that a
Mohammedan was a devout believer in his own
religion would be reluctant to call him an
infidel.
The unconverted of other religions were
called heathens or pagans, both words meaning
originally country dwellers, i.e., rustic, backward
folk who clung to their own religion after
Christianity had been accepted in the cities.
Both words, in current usage, tend to be used
in slightly comic contexts. Heathen is often
used jestingly of one who shows gross ignorance
of some tenet of his professed faith.
Pagan is often used to suggest a gay abandon
and frank sensuality, such as is imagined at
2!I
agreement
least to have been enjoyed before the dominance
of Christian ethics.
agony; agonize. Agony is one of the strongest
words in English. It means extreme, and
generally prolonged, pain and suffering. And
to agonize means to writhe with such pain
(The agony of the injured man was dreadful
to see. He agonized for months over the
thought of his son’s execution). To use it-as
it is so often used-as a term for mere discomfort
(I was in agony in those new shoes)
doesn’t even convey, as it is probably meant
to, a feeling of one’s suffering because the
listener, hearing so violent a word and knowing
from the speaker’s appearance of health
that it can’t be justified, at once discounts it.
The speaker is usually aware of this and in
his turn seeks to bolster the word with extreme
emphasis, usually prolonging the sound of the
initial a into a wail. But it doesn’t do much
good. My feet hurt would most likely be more
effective.
agree may be followed by an infinitive, as in
he agreed to go, or by a clause, as in he agreed
that he would go. If the -ing form of a verb
is used we must say agree on, as in he agreed
on going.
agreement: pronouns. See pronouns.
agreement: verbs. A verb is said to “agree with
its subject in number and person.” Number
means the distinction between singular and
pltiral. Person means the distinction between
the speaker (called the first person), the person
spoken to (called the second person), and the
person or thing spoken about (called the third
person). English verbs do not show number
or person in the past tense. We say I spoke,
he spoke, they spoke. In the present tense the
first and second person in the singular and all
three persons in the plural have the same form.
We say I. we, you, and they speak. But the
third person singular has a distinctive final s,
as in he speaks. There are a few defective
verbs, such as may, can, might, which do not
show number or person in any tense. The verb
to be is the only other exception to what has
just been said. In the past tense it has two
forms, was and were. In the present tense it
has a distinctive first person singular (am) as
well as a third person singular (is) and a
general plural form (are). (For archaic forms
of the verb, see thee; thou.) In American
English, there is no difference in number or
person in the future tense. (In Great Britain
shall and will are used differently in different
persons. See shall; will.)
NUMBER
Since we can get along with only one form
in the past tense, it is obvious that we do not
need two forms in the present, but we have two
forms and, whether we want to or not, we must
decide whether a present tense verb is to be
singular or plural. We cannot avoid committing
ourselves one way or the other.
The number of an English verb is determined
by the actual meaning of the subject
or by the grammatical form of the subject