A Dictionary of Cont..

polish 378
or the like (Our foreign policy often bears little
intelligible relation to the national polity), action
or procedure conforming to, or considered with
reference to, prudence or expediency (It is a good
policy for a man with a knife at his throat to
stand still. Honesty is the best policy).
There are really two words policy in our language
that have coalesced. One, as above, derives
from the Latin word for government. But
the other derives from a Greek word meaning a
showing or a setting forth. In both England and
America a policy may be a document setting
forth the terms of a contract of insurance (I
took out my first policy when I was fifteen). In
the United States only, policy is also a method
of gambling in which bets are made on numbers
to be drawn by lottery.
polish and burnish both mean to make smooth
and glossy, especially by friction, but in general
use polish is to be preferred. One may polish
floors, shoes, furniture, and so on. Burnish is
used only with reference to metals (His face
shone like burnished copper).
polite; courteous; civil; urbane. A civil man is,
basically, one who fulfills his duties as a citizen,
especially in the observance of those forms and
ceremonies which serve to preserve the peace.
He may be cold and distant, but he abstains from
rough or abusive language, gives to every man
his due, and observes all common forms of general
respect for others. A polite man has a somewhat
greater measure of kindness in his good
manners. He is refined and sensitive and observes
the forms of civility out of a desire to
please. Courteous, derived originally from the
conduct one found and practiced in the courts
of princes, is a slightly stronger word than polite.
The courteous man is polite and kind, but is also
graceful, dignified, and complaisant. The word
formerly had a sense of coldness about it, the
practice of elaborate manners for their own sake
as a social ritual, but in contemporary usage it
connotes more of the warmth of sincere kindness.
Urbane means cityish and denotes manners
which are polished to an especial suavity and
agreeableness, especially in the not giving or taking
of offense, but are not necessarily moved by
any great inner kindness or affection.
politic and expedient are both adjectives meaning
prudent and sagacious, but expedient (from
Latin words meaning to free a man who is caught
by the foot) is more practical in its connotations
than politic. Expedient is concerned with means,
politic with ends. Politic means wise and prudent,
with far-reaching consequences held in a longterm
view (Pillage and devastation are seldom
politic, even when they are supposed to be just),
though it has also a baser meaning of crafty,
cunning, and artful (Cromwell’s fanaticism
seems to have been in a measure politic). Expedient,
emphasizing a tendency to promote some
proposed or desired object, is often used disparagingly,
in the sense that it represents a falling
away from an ideal course of action (It was
expedient to promise a quick end to the war in
the interest of a successful cam,vaign).
politician; statesman. In Elizabethan English a
politician might be one versed in the science of
government, but he was more likely to be a sinister
schemer, a crafty, self-seeking, dangerous
man (I am whipped and scourged with rods,/
Nettled and stung with pismires, when Z hear/
Of this vile politician Bolingbroke). In contemporary
American usage this disparagement lingers,
but it has been softened a little. A politician
is considered by many of us to be one who
resorts to various schemes and devices, who engages
in petty political maneuvers for purely
partisan or personal ends (The Governor is
merely a politician). Among those who accept
politics as a necessity or a profession, there is no
such contempt and the term, though freely granting
many of the implications that make it pejorative
to idealists and non-politicians, is even used
in admiration (Say what you want about Truman,
the man was a consummate politician).
Statesman in contemporary American usage is
wholly laudatory. It suggests eminent ability,
foresight, and unselfish devotion to the interests
of the country (Mr. Baruch is among the most
distinguished of our elder statesmen).
In England politician and statesman are both
wholly laudatory, but there is a distinction in
their meanings. Politician is still used in the
traditional sense of one versed in the science of
government. The London Daily Mirror, for example,
on December 15. 1954, named Sir Anthony
Eden the politician of the year for his
work at the Geneva Conference and the London
Conference on German Rearmament. Such a
term would never have been bestowed in commendation
in the United States for such distinguished
service. In England all members of
Parliament are, by courtesy, termed politicians,
A statesman in England is an M.P. or a Cabinet
Minister who has great influence and exercises
it wisely. The difference between the terms in
England, then, is not based on virtue but on
power.
politicly and politically are not variant spellings
but adverbs with separate meanings. Politicly
refers to action characterized by policy, sagacious,
prudent, expedient, or judicious. Politically
means pertaining to or dealing with politics or a
political party.
politics. Formerly this word was regularly used
with a plural verb, as in politics have been defined
as the art of governing mankind by deceiving
them. Today it is more often used with a
singular verb, as in politics makes strange bedfellows.
Either form is acceptable.
The adjectives politic and political come from
the same source and once meant pertaining to
the state. Today politic means prudent, except
in the expression body politic where it has its
old sense. Political, which now means having to
do with politics, has remained closer to the original
meaning.
polypus. The plural is polypuses or polypi.
pommel; pummel. In England pommel is the
usual spelling for the noun, pummel for the verb.
In America pommel is the preferred spelling for