A Dictionary of Cont..

great part (Admiral Collingwood was largely responsible
for some of the fleets being wrecked
after the victory at Trafalgar). Chiefly means
principally, above all (Nelson was chie,fly responsible
for the plan of battle).
large-scale. No one has any quarrel with largescale
in its restricted and original sense of drawn
to a large scale (a large-scale map), but E.nglish
authors refuse to accept it in the common American
use of extensive or of large scope (The directors
decided on a large-scale reorganization
of the company). The term which is used widely
in business, especially in relation to reorganizations,
promotions, production schedules, ,advertising
campaigns, and other activities where
optimism and “vision” are required, seems to
mean not that plans and so on will be dralwn to
a large scale but that in the scale of accomplishment
they will be comparatively large.
lark. The word lark used alone means in England
the skylark (Alauda arvensis) and in America
the mkadow lark (Sturnella magna and Sturnella
neplecta of the familv Zcteridae). The two
birds are unlike in appearance, habits, and song
and the raptures of the English poets gain a
fuller meaning for the American when he first
hears the bird that has moved so many of them
to ecstasy.
The practice of the early colonists of bestowing
the names of English birds on the strange
species of the New World, while natural and
even touching, has led to considerable confusion.
The American robin, for example, is properly a
thrush, and the American buzzard is plainly a
vulture.
lassitude; languor. As a term for weariness of
body or mind, lassitude seems to suffer from the
very condition it denotes. It is a weak word,
slightly affected and bookish. Chapman s:3ys of
Odysseus, when he collapsed on the beach at
Phaeacia after shipwreck and days in the ocean,
the sea had soaked his heart through. Pope says
that the hero lav lost in lassitude. This was the
passage that moved Keats to his famous sonnet
and contemporary taste is definitely with :Keats.
Languor and lassitude are often interchangeable,
but generally languor is the milder word of
the two, ranging from fatigue (I nearly sank to
the ground through languor and extreme weakness)
through want of energy (She quickly forgot
her languor at the good news. That stick
over which his tall person swayed with fashionable
languor) to a tenderness or softness, often
amorous (The lilies and languors of virtue).
last; latest. These words are both superlative
forms of the same word, late, but last has a
much broader meaning than latest. In presentday
English, only the form latest can be used in
speaking about lateness. But in other senses the
two words may overlap. Both may be used in
speaking of the final member in a series of
events. But last is not restricted to time and may
be used in speaking of any things that are in a
sequence, as in the last house on the left. Last is
also used in contrast to next, to mean the immediately
preceding, as in last summer, last
Christmas. Where the two words can be used
interchangeably, last may carry a suggestion of
finality that is not in latest, as in I hope his latest
book will not be his last.
Both words may be used as adjectives, as in
the latest train and the last train. Both may be
used as adverbs in some constructions, as in he
studied latest and he read the paper last. But
latest cannot be used as an adverb immediately
before a verb. In this position only the form last
is used and here it does not carry any sense of
finality, as in when I last saw him.
In current English the adverbial form lastly is
used only to mark the last point in a discourse.
When last is used with a cardinal number. it
may either follow or precede the cardinal. U&l
the seventeenth century it usually followed the
cardinal, as in the two last. Coleridge wrote, the
fifty or sixty last years of her life. Jn current
English last usually precedes a cardinal, as in the
last two, except when it is being used in the sense
of “the last-mentioned.”
In expressions of time, last is used without the
article the, as in last night, last Tuesday.
last but not least-one more clichd to which we
are led by alliteration’s lilt and lure.
last gasp. Whether a man is breathing his lust
gasp or on his last legs or collapsing under the
weight of or revolting against the imposition of
the last straw-all the terms are clichCs.
late. The comparative forms are later and latter.
The superlative forms are latest, last, lattermost.
Late originally meant slow. The earliest meaning
of the word that survives today is “behind
time,” as in the child was late for school. In the
earliest records late also has the meaning of far
along in the day or after the usual hour for going
to bed, as in it was already late and we keep late
hours. In both of these senses one can see some
relation to the idea of slow. But eventually the
idea of far along in the day was extended to far
along in any period, as in the late summer, the
late Roman Empire. Here the idea of slow has
been lost. Late also acquired the almost unrelated
meaning of belonging to the recent past.
Today lute may be used as an adjective and
as an adverb in all four senses. In the first sense
of behind time, it is not often used as an adjective
qualifying a following noun, but it may be.
We may say the late child, but as a rule we
don’t. In the last sense of belonging to the recent
past, late may be used as an adverb, as in I sent
thee late a rosy wreath, but this is now considered
extremely bookish and the adverb lately is
preferred. In the other two senses late is used
freely as an adjective and as an adverb. We
speak of late suppers and say they stayed late.
We speak of the late empire and say found as
late as Constantine. The adverb lately can be
used only in the fourth sense, of recently.
Latter is the older of the two comparative
forms. But after late had taken on so many
senses a new comparative later appeared with
the limited meaning of after in time. It is both
an adjective and an adverb. We may say at a
later time or he later told me. Latter now means