A Dictionary of Cont..

vals (It happens frequently and I have warned
him of the consequences). Though frequently
is the longer word, it has the advantage of
having the adjective frequent. Often used to
appear as an adjective (as in By often use we
accustom ourselves to hardship), but this use
is now obsolete.
oftentime; oftentimes. Today the only acceptable
form is oftentimes. Formerly, oftentime was
also used, but it is now obsolete.
0. Henrv. William Svdnev Porter nublished his
famous stories unde; the pseudonyh of 0. Henry
-not, as it is sometimes erroneously written,
O’Henry (as in A breathless story with an
O’Henry ending was enacted in the streets today).
The 0. Henry ending, which came to be
widely imitated, was a surprise ending, a statement,
usually in the last sentence or two, that
gave a wholly unexpected interpretation to what
had gone before or a wholly unexpected twist
to the action. Wholly unexpected, that is, until
you had read several of 0. Henry’s stories.
O.K. There are several spellings: O.K., OK, okay.
The term is used as an adjective (Is it O.K.?),
an adverb (They’re doing O.K. up there, I hear),
a verb (The boss O.K.‘d it), and a noun (Sure,
I got his O.K. or I wouldn’t have started. Here,
you guys, put your O.K.‘s on this page).
Originating in the United States, O.K. has
spread to almost every country on earth. There
is something about the phrase as a term of
assent or agreement that gives it universal appeal.
It is probably today the most widely used
single term in human speech. Yet it remains a
colloquialism. Used a billion times a day in
informal speech and business notes and letters,
it has not yet been adopted into formal, written
usage and may not be. Approve, endorse, agree,
assent to, confirm, and a host of other words
express shades of meaning in relation to agreement
and giving consent so that the serious
writer is not willing to give them up for so loose
a blanket term.
Experts disagree on the origin of this remarkable
term. Some think it is the Choctaw Indian
okeh, “it is so.” Others would trace it to the
initial letters of a humorous or illiterate spelling
of “all correct,” 011 Korrect, or to a misreading
of O.R., meaning order recorded. It
has been variously ascribed to Andrew Jackson,
John Jacob Astor and one Obadiah Kelly, a
mythical railroad clerk who initialed all the
parcels he accepted for shipment. The explanation
that has the most authoritative backing is
that it derives from the O.K. Club, formed in
1840 by partisans of Martin Van Buren who
allegedly named their organization in allusion to
Old Kinderhook, Van Buren having been born
at Kinderhook, N. Y.
O.K. must be accepted in informal speech
and writing. Such slang extensions and derivatives
as oke and okeydoke have not yet achieved
this acceptance.
oid. The comparative form is older or elder. The
superlative form is oldest or eldest. The forms
older and oldest have come into the language
more recently than elder and eldest but are now
the only forms that can be used for most purposes.
Older and oldest may be used of persons or
things and usually refer to actual age. Elder and
eldest are now used only in speaking of persons
and indicate seniority, or relative date of birth,
rather than age. That is, we would say the eldest
son died in infancy and the oldest child now
living was her third.
The form elder cannot be used with than.
We cannot say he is elder than she. But when
used with the article the it may be followed by
an of phrase, as in he is the elder of the two.
Older may be used with than or in the construction
with of. Elder may be used as if it
were a noun, as in she is my elder and the
village elders. Older is never used in this way.
The eldest may be used with of, as in the
eldest of the children, but the oldest is preferred
in this construction. Both eldest and oldest
may be used as singular nouns, as in the
eldest, I think, is seven. (For the use of old with
measures of time, such as a child of one year
old, see measures.)
old; advanced; ancient; senile; senescent; veteran.
The everyday, serviceable word for one who or
that which is advanced in age is old. It is idiomatic
to say of one who died when he was old
that He died in his old age or He died at an
advanced age. To say that he died at an old age
is unidiomatic.
Ancient means of or in times long past, especially
before the end of the Western Roman
Empire (476 A.D.). Applied to persons, the
word is archaic; it is now restricted to things.
Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner was deliberately
archaic. (There is another word ancient, now
obsolete, in English which sometimes puzzles
the student. It is a corruption, actually, of ensign.
So the ancient Pistol in Shakespeare’s
Henry IV and Iago, Othello’s ancient.)
Senile means characteristic of old age, especially
of the feebleness of old age, its mental
and physical weakness and degeneration. It has
become one of the cruelest words in the language
and, with the increasing life expectancy
that is prolonging the lives of ever increasing
millions, will become increasingly so. Senescent
means growing old, aging. It does not have the
full offensiveness of senile, though of necessity
it has for the aging an unpleasant sound.
A veteran is one who is aged in experience.
A man may be a veteran of love, for example,
at twenty. In the United States it has the special
meaning of one who has fought in a war, regardless
of his age or the amount of his experience.
old Adam. As a term for the worse aspects of
human nature, especially its carnality, the old
Adam is a cliche.
old head on young shoulders. To say of some
youth who has shown a gravity or wisdom beyond
his years that he has an old head on young
shoulders is to employ a clich.5. It is falling
somewhat into disuse as the wisdom of age,
once assumed as axiomatic, is called into question
and might not seem as much a compliment