A Dictionary of Cont..

ness. To refer to anyone who assumes an office
with vigor and bustle and good intentions as a
new broom is to employ a ciichd.
new lease on life. As a term for renewed hope
and effort or an increment of vitality or interest,
a new lease on life is a hackneyed expression.
news. In current English this word is always
treated as a singlllar. We say this news is good
and where did you hear ii?.
Originally, the word was an adjective used as
a noun and meant that which is new. Until
about a hundred years ago it was often felt as
a plural and used with a plural verb, as in ‘There
are bad news from Palermo and ill news fly
fnsf. It could also be treated as a true singular,
as in a news so new, and could be given a regular
plural, as in two important newses. None of
these constructions are standard today.
The form news is used as the first eiemment in
a compound, as in newspaper and news t’road-
CUSf.
newsdealer; news agent; newsstand; news stall.
One who deals in newspapers and magazines is
in America called a newsdenler, in England a
llews agent. The place where newspapers and
magazines are sold, especially if it is at a street
corner or in a railroad or bus station or ajlrlines
terminal, is in America called a newsstand, in
England a news stall.
newsroom; news-room. In England a newsroom
is a room, usually connected with a public iibrary,
in which various newspapers are available
for reading. In America such a room is
usually called a periodical room. In America a
newsroom is that department of a newspaper
office which deals with the news section ‘of the
paper (Hemingway kept the newsroom of the
old Toronfo Star in stitches with his reportorial
antics).
newt; eft. In some parts of the United States the
common newt in its land stage is still called by
its ancient name of eft.
new wine in old bottles. The observation in Matthew
9:17 that men do not put new wine into
old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine
runneth out, und the bottles perish has reference,
of course, to wineskins which when dried
out with age would burst under the pressures of
fermentation of new wine. The age of a modem
glass bottle has nothing to do with the iage of
the wine it can contain. For most people the
meaning of the parable is lost and the Iphrase
should be used as infrequently as possible.
New Year; new year; New Year’s; New Year’s
Day. The phrase which unequivocally describes
January 1 is New Year’s Day. Though some
English writers object to it, New Year and
New Year’s are acceptable in America. For the
sake of absolute clarity, one may best use New
Year’s Day or New Year’s to describe the first
day of January and reserve new year, uncapitalized,
to describe the year approach.ing or
newly begun.
next. This word was once the superlative of nigh
and may still be used in the sense of nearest, as
317 nice
in the next of kin, the chair next the fire. But as
a rule in current English next is not a superlative.
It ordinarily refers to a series and indicates
the item immediately following. For example,
the next house usually means the first house in
the direction one is moving or facing and not
the nearest house in any direction.
Next to may be used to mean nearly, as in i?
was next to impossible. Next most usually means
just short of being most, as in the next most
desirable solution.
nexus. The plural is nexuses or nexus, not nexi.
nexus; focus; cynosure. Nexlts is sometimes used
as if it were a synonym for focus. A nexus is a
tie or link, a means of connection (Gas/l Payment
. . , the universal sole nexus of man to
man). Foczts, the Latin word for hearth, was
adopted by Kepler, in 1604, as a term in optics
to designate the point at which rays of light
that originally diverged from one point meet
again. The figurative use of the word (influenced,
perhaps, by its Latin meaning) is a gathering
point, a center of attraction or interest,
the point about which anything is concentrated
(More and more the school has replaced the
chllrch as the focus of community interest. As
Augusta entered the room on her brother’s arm
she was the focus of all attention).
A cynoslrre differs from a focus in that it is
something which by its brilliance attracts attention
(Where perhaps some beauty lies,/ The
Cynosure of neighboring eyes). Attention is
focused on something; it is attracted by a cynosure.
nice. Those who believe that a word has its “proper”
meaning and should be used in no other
sense should consider the wanderings of nice.
Beginning as the Latin nescius, ignorant (from
ne, not + scire, to know), it may have been
influenced by Middle English nesh, delicate, but
this is not absolutely certain. By the sixteenth
century it had come to mean (among other
meanings) fastidious, difficult to please (Your
nice critic will, of course, find no good in anything).
The reasons for this development are
not clear. Perhaps the ignorant are finicky
or, hesitating to choose because of ignorance,
seemed hard to please. At any rate among those
who are hard to please some are hard to please
because they have high standards and make fine
distinctions (He has a nice eye for these delicate
differences) and the word was extended to
designate the objects or situations which such
people can perceive. For a time it was not aitogether
favorable; it could designate things which
were poised in such delicate equilibrium that
the nicest or finest impetus could incline them
either way. The nice hazard of one doubtful
hour upon which Hotspur felt it were not good
to “set so rich a main” as ail his fortunes was
not a desirable or pleasant hour but one too
dangerously poised between success and ruin.
The Duke of Wellington’s famous observation
that Waterloo was for a while a damn nice rhing
did not mean that he had enjoyed it but that