A Dictionary of Cont..

“would like,” as in I had as lieve Hellen’s golden
tongue had commended Troylus. This construction
can still be heard but it now has an archaic
tone. In current English lief is more often used
with would, where it means gladly or willingly,
as in Z would us lieve stay here. The comparative
form is heard less often but is also acceptable,
as in she would liefer have died. (In Great Britain
this would becomes should in certain constructions,
as in lief should Z rouse at morning.)
life. The plural is lives. The form life is used as
the first element in a compound, as in a life-long
friend.
life and soul of the party. Even if applied ironically
to an objectionable person, the life and
soul of the party is a clichC that merely adds to
the tedium which the irrepressible one has been
engendering.
lifeguard; lifesaver. In American usage a lifeguard
is an expert swimmer employed on a bathing
beach to aid in case of accidents to bathers
(During the two summers he worked as a lifeguard
he saved three children from drowning).
In England a life-guard is one of a bodyguard of
soldiers (the Life-Guards) or the entire bodyguard
consisting (according to the Oxford English
Dictionary) of two regiments of cavalry,
forming, together with the Royal Horse Guards,
the household cavalry. A lifeguard in America
is also sometimes called a lifesaver, though a
lifesaver need not be a lifeguard: he can be anyone
who has saved someone from danger of
death, especially from drowning. The word is
not used much anymore in this sense, however,
as it has become better known as the trade name
of a candy mint made in the form of a lifebelt
and in the slang sense as a term for something
which opportunely saves one from trouble or
embarrassment.
lifelong; livelong. Lifelong means lasting or continuing
through life (His lifelong concern about
his health may well have made his life less long
than it otherwise would have been. They were
lifelong friends and endured each other with
mild contempt). Livelong (originally lief long,
dear long) is an intensive of long, meaning to
the full extent in terms of time (I’ve been
working on the railroad/ All the livelong day).
It is now seldom used except in bad poetry and
the stereotyped phrases livelong day and livelong
night, both of which carry a connotation of
tediousness.
light. The past tense is lighted or lit. The participle
is also lighted or lit. Light may mean kindle or
put fire to. A grammar published in 1765 claims
that lit used in this sense is “very familiar, or
rather low.” This is no longer true. The forms,
lighted and lit, are equally acceptable today. We
may say she lighted the lamp or she lit the lamp,
A participle litten is sometimes heard, as in she
has litten the lamp, but this is not standard.
Light may also mean descend or land. In this
sense too, lighted and lit are equally acceptable.
These words are used in speaking of things that
come down not under their own control, such
as stones, snow flakes, and curses. We may say
275 like
one lit on rhe roof. The similar verb alight is
used in speaking of things that come down deliberately,
as in our friends alighted at the door.
Birds are sometimes said to light and sometimes
to alight. The uncertainty is not in the words, but
in what it is the bird is doing.
light as a feather is a simile so worn that the
careful writer and speaker will avoid it.
light fantastic. Dr. Johnson once growled that
Milton did not write in English but in a language
of his own that he made up. And certainly his
use of fantastic in the famous couplet Come,
and trip it as ye go,/ On the light fantastic toe
to mean “in a manner varied according to your
imagination or fantasy” was arbitrary and idiosyncratic.
Like many other of his neologisms,
however, it was successful, startled the reader
into delight and surprised him with a fine excess.
But to use this flash of linguistic gaiety, with
heavy facetiousness and stale archness, as a
cliche for dancing, is lamentable.
light on the subject, to shed. As a term for
making something clear or bringing additional
information to bear on an obscure or disputed
matter, to shed light on the subject is weakened
by overwork.
lightening; lightning. Lightning is a noun meaning
a flashing of light, or a sudden illumination
of the heavens, caused by the discharge of atmospheric
electricity (Any man with a proper
respect for lightning will not touch a wire fence
during a rainstorm). Lightening is the gerund or
participle of the verb to lighten in all of its
meanings-to make less heavy, to become less
dark, to cheer or gladden, or to flash as or like
lightning.
lights. This word may mean the lungs of animals
that are used for food. The word lung comes
from the same source, which meant light in
weight. At one time the two words were equivalent,
as in as if his lungs and lites were nigh
assunder brast. Today lung is the broader term
and has both a singular and a plural form.
Lights is now used only of animals and only in
the plural. It takes a plural verb, but cannot be
used with a word implying number.
-like. See suffixes.
like. This word is actually used as a noun, a verb,
an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, and a
conjunction. (For the use of like as a conjunction,
see like; as.)
NOUN
There is one noun form of like that is used
only in the plural, as in his likes and dislikes.
There is another form that usually appears in
the singular, as in Z never saw his like or the
like of that. A plural is also heard here, as in
the likes of you, but this is not literary English.
VERB
To like. which now means to enjoy or to be
pleased with, originally meant to be like or to
be suitable for. From this it came to mean to
please. Milton says that the angels color, shape
or size assume, as likes them best. And Rossetti
says, I rode sullenly upon a certain path that
liked me not. The joke often made about some