A Dictionary of Cont..

molasses 304
powers. Nor are the shy necessarily modest. A
man may shrink from asserting himself or from
being conspicuous and yet entertain an exaggerated
conception of his own abilities and worth.
One is bashful who is modest to excess, who
is easily put to confusion (Come, you pernicious
ass, you bashful fool, must you be blushing?).
Shamefaced (a corruption of shamefast) is a
synonym for bashful. Coy, which until very recently
meant only modest, shy, or bashful, now
is used almost entirely to mean affectedly shy,
displaying a modest backwardness in order to be
enticed.
molasses has a plural form and is used with a
plural verb in parts of western United States. In
the eastern states and in England it is treated as
a singular. In either case it is a mass noun and
cannot be used with words implying number.
mold is now the standard American spelling for all
three words-a hollow matrix for giving a particular
shape to something in a molten or plastic
state, a growth of minute fungi forming on vegetable
or animal matter, and loose, friable earth.
Mould is recognized as a variant spelling for
each of the words and is the preferred spelling
in England. The three words, by the way, have
no etymological connections.
molten is an old participle corresponding to
melted. It is no longer used in verb forms but
survives as an adjective. We always say melted
when we are speaking about things that melt
easily, such as butter or snow, but we sometimes
say molten in speaking about things that are
more difficult to liquefy, such as gold or glass.
Even here we are likely to say melted when we
are being businesslike. Lavn is always molten,
never melted, perhaps because we never have
any occasion to talk about lava in a businesslike
way.
moment. See minute.
momentary; momentous. That is momentary
which lasts but a moment or occurs at any moment
(There wus a momentary thrill of exultation
at the news, but it faded when he thought of
his mother. He lived in momentary expectation
of death). That is momentous which is of great
importance or consequence, fraught with serious
and far-reaching consequences (Henry knew that
his resolve to break with the church was a momentous
decision).
momentary aberration, as a term for a temporary
fit of inattention or forgetfulness, a sudden violent
and irrational state wholly uncharacteristic,
is a clich6.
momentum. The plural is momentums or momenta.
monastic and monkish both mean of or pertaining
to or characteristic of monks, but monkish is
almost always depreciatory (monastic vows, the
monastic life, monkish and crabbed learning).
Monastic also means of or pertaining to monasteries
(monastic architecture).
money. This is a mass word and in its ordinary
sense does not have a plural. In literary English
the plural form moneys is considered unacceptable
and is used in place of money only when a
writer wants to suggest Shylock.
The plural form may properly be used in
speaking of different coinages or issues, as in the
moneys of several countries. It is sometimes used
in financial reports to mean different sums of
money. Here it has a pseudo-archaic flavor. The
romantic effect is sometimes heightened by the
obsolete spelling monies.
monkey plays a larger part in the American
vocabulary than in the British. Monkey with, to
meddle with, or play with idly, is in widespread
colloquial use in America but unknown in England.
Monkeyshine, a mischievous or clownish
trick, is American slang. In British slang monkey
means five hundred pounds.
monologue. See dialogue.
monopoly. In American usage it is standard to
speak of a monopoly on something (The Government
is granting General Motors virtually n monopoly
on certain classes of military vehicles). In
British usage, it is a monopoly of.
monsieur. The plural is messieurs.
Monsignor. The plural is Monsignors or Monsignori.
monstrous. Though monstrous is a synonym for
huge (What a monstrous liar he is, to tell us
these fantastic stories!), the word is not properly
restricted to size alone. There must be a suggestion
of the unnatural, frightful, hideous, or wondrous
in the great size or bigness it designates.
To say That was a monstrous sum of money to
spend in less than two years implies that the
speaker is not only impressed but also shocked
by the bigness of the amount spent.
mood. See mode.
moonlight and moonlit both mean illuminated by
the light of the moon. Moonlit is the more
poetic and less used of the two. One might refer
to a moonlit scene or a moonlit night but where
the adjective is at all established in a phrase, as
Moonlight Cruise, Moonlight Sonata, it is moonlight.
The noun is always moonlight.
moose. The plural is moose. See elk.
moot point. In Saxon times a moot was an assembly
of the people, especially an assembly that
served as a court. There were folk moots and
hall moots and burg moots and hundred moots
and many other kinds of moots. But, except for
historical references, this meaning faded away
in the thirteenth century. In the sixteenth century,
however, the word was adopted at the Inns
of Court, the great law colleges in London, as a
term for the discussion of a hypothetical case by
students, just for the fun or practice of it. Hence
moot came to have its modern meaning of subject
to argument or discussion. As a term for a
debatable point, and as a way of saying that
there is evidence or there are valid arguments
against some dogmatic statement that has just
been made, a moot point is now hackneyed.
moral; morale; morals. Moral is an adjective
meaning pertaining to or concerned with right
conduct or the distinction between right and
wrong (It is not merely a matter of expediency:
there is a moral issue here).
Morale, a noun, was borrowed from the
French during World War I. It means the mental
condition in respect to confidence and cheerful-