A Dictionary of Cont..

meridian 298
the reward of evildoing or used to conceal evildoing.
meridian; meridiem. See a.m.
merriment. See glee.
Merry England is a clich6. When applied to a
place or country, merry originally meant pleasant
or delightful in aspect. A thirteenth century
translation of Genesis refers to the Garden of
Eden as that merry place. When applied to persons,
merry means animatedly joyous, hilarious,
and this meaning has been substituted in the
phrase Merry England for the older meaning.
mesdames. This is the plural of madame.
mess as a noun quite properly describes a dirty
or untidy condition, a state of disorder (The
whole barracks was in a mess), or a state of
embarrassing confusion (He left his financial
affairs in a mess). But the word is greatly overused.
There is often a more precise and vivid
equivalent. As a term for a person who is confused
or disorganized, it is definitely not standard.
As a term for a person who is so covered
with mud or so disarranged in appearance that
his identity is lost in the messiness of his appearance,
so that he is part of a mess, it is an
exaggeration, apparently acceptable in speaking
to children.
messieurs. This is the plural of monsieur.
met. See meet.
metal; mettle. From its primary sense of describing
any of a class of elementary substances, such
as gold, silver, copper, etc., all of which are
crystalline when solid and many of which are
characterized by opacity, ductility, conductivity,
and a peculiar luster when freshly fractured,
metal has come to mean any formative material,
including the characteristic disposition or temper
(Sir, I am made/ Of the selfsame metal that my
sister is, / And prize me at her worth). However,
for this last meaning, with its derivative
meanings of courage and spirit, the variant spelling
mettle has become the established form (The
gruelzing campaign tested his mettle). It is always
a word of praise, meaning an ardent or
fiery spirit, high courage and enthusiasm (The
winged courser, like a generous horse,/ Shows
most true mettle when you check his course). To
put a man on his mettle is to put his energy or
courage to the test.
metamorphosis. The plural is metamorphoses.
metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in
which a term or phrase is applied to something
to which it is not literally applicable in order
to suggest a resemblance (moonlight sleeping
on a bank. And tear our pleasures with rough
strife/ Through the iron gates of life. Man is the
shuttle, to whose winding quest/ And passage
through these looms/ God has ordered motion,
but ordained no rest). It may consist, as the examples
show, of a single word or an elaborated
idea. The virtue of metaphor is that it permits us
to say a great deal in few words. Furthermore it
sets up in the mind of the reader or listener a
creative process that makes him amplify the idea
and come to feel that it is his own and hence to
accept it.
Metaphors do not suggest merely resemblances.
They evoke concomitant images and
often call up emotions that strengthen or enlarge
upon the intended meaning: Thus when
Macbeth says that he has suuped full with horrors,
the very homeliness oi the metaphor (to
which many eighteenth century critics objected
as being undignified, “unworthy” of poetry)
heightens the effect; it is as if Macbeth had
come to accept horror as his everyday food.
And so when Hamlet, considering the effect of
his “mousetrap” on his uncle’s conscience, says:
If his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan’s stithy
he has employed two good metaphors. His uncle’s
guilt has been likened to a skulking dog
and his own mind to a stithy or an anvil. The
latter is particularly good because it suggests not
only the dirt, the foulness of his imaginations,
but the ceaseless, metallic hammering of them in
his brain.
A metaphor is effective if it conveys the desired
comparison. It is good insofar as the
details and associative comparisons of the primary
comparison enhance the desired effect
and bad insofar as they call up opposing or
incongruous suggestions. (See allegory, mixed
metaphor, simile and metaphor, and such individual
entries as lay it on with a trowel, literally,
ceiling, bottleneck, and so on.)
metathesis. The plural is metatheses.
metempsychosis. The plural is metempsychoses.
meteorologist is one proficient in the science of
the atmosphere and its phenomena, especially as
they relate to the weather. One who studied
meteors would be an astronomer.
method; methodology. Mefhod is the orderly regulation
of procedure in order to carry out a
definite purpose. Methodology is a branch of
logic that seeks to show how the abstract principles
of a science may be used to gain knowledge.
A method may thus be a specific application
of methodology, but method and methodology
are no more the same thing than a blow is
a club. The use of methodology for method is
common among social scientists, many of whom
seem to have a great love of redundant syllables.
meticulous; scrupulous; punctilious. Meticulous is
derived from a Latin word meaning fearful or
timid and kept this meaning in English up until
the end of the seventeenth century. In 1535 a
Scotch chronicler wrote Zf thou be meticulous
and dare not see blood drawn. . . . By the beginning
of the nineteenth century, however, it had
become fixed as the designation of a particular
manifestation of timidity: solicitude about minute
details, minute and finical carefulness (He
was meticulous about the appearance of his men,
insisting that the very bows of their shoelaces
should be of even length). It has now become
a vogue word (“What strange charm,” Fowler
demands, “makes this wicked word irresist-