A Dictionary of Cont..

sessive pronouns. Very often, the possessive
forms that can be used before a noun (my, our,
your, his, her, its, their, whose) are called possessive
adjectives, and only the forms that can
be used without a noun (mine, ours, yours, his,
hers, its, theirs, whose) are called possessive
pronouns. In this book the term “possessive pronoun”
refers to both groups indiscriminately.
One must be careful not to use an apostrophe
with the forms that seem to have an added s,
ours, yours, hers, its, theirs, whose. An apostrophe
in any of these words is considered
evidence of illiteracy. This was not always true.
The most influential grammar book of the eighteenth
century, published in 1762, required an
apostrophe in these possessive pronouns. Forms
such as your’s, her’s, occur in the writings of
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. There
they are not illiteracies. On the contrary, they
show that the writers knew and carefully observed
the correct forms. When the “Charge of
the Light Brigade” is published in anthologies
today, the famous line is sometimes printeed as
Their’s not to reason why. This was conservative
punctuation when the poem was written and
has not been standard for seventy-five years.
(For special problems, see the individual pronouns
and double genitive.)
possible. That is possible which may or can be,
exist, happen, or be done (0 that ‘twere possible/
After long grief and pain/ To find the arms
of my true love/ Round me once again!). As
such, it is an absolute term and may not be
qualified. An event may be highly probable but
not highly possible. One may say It is possible
that it may ruin but not it is very possible.
Not only is possible not to be qualified, it is
also not to be used as if it meant necessary or
unavoidable. It is correct to say We will finish as
quickly as possible. It is incorrect to get swamped
in negatives and say We won’t delay any longer
than possible.
possibly; perhaps. Possibly means not only “perhaps”
or “maybe” but also “in a possible manner”
and “by any possibility.” In writing, one
should indicate the “perhaps” sense, when there
is any likelihood of ambiguity, by setting off’ the
word with commas. Thus He can’t, possibly,
stand up lo his wife means “perhaps he can’t
stand up to his wife”; whereas He can’t possibly
stand up to his wife means that there is no possibility
of his standing up to his wife.
possum is still listed as colloquial by the dictionaries
but opossum, the standard form of the
word, would seem a little stilted in all but the
most formal writing.
To play possum is a colloquial American
idiom for feigning ignorance or disinterest or
pretending to be asleep or doing anything that
in any way suggests the opossum’s habit (shared
by many other animals) of falling into a cata.leptic
state when attacked (When the police began
to look for witnesses, he played possum).
post. See mail.
postal card; post card. In the United States a
posfal card is a card with a printed governmental
stamp, printed and sold by the government. A
post curd may describe such a postal card, but it
more properly describes an unofficial card, often
pictorial, mailable when bearing an adhesive
postage stamp. In England post curd is used to
describe a card used for correspondence whether
it bears a printed governmental stamp or must
have a stamp affixed.
posted in the sense of informed, supplied with upto-date
facts (When you are on your travels, be
sure to keep NS posted), is a colloquialism, originallv
American.
postpone. This word may be followed by the -ing
form of a verb, as in he postponed leavinp. It is
also heard with an infini&ve,‘as in he posiponed
to leave, but this is not standard English.
post-prandial is a heavy and strained elegancy for
after-dinner.
potato. The plural is potatoes.
potent; potential. Potent means full of power,
powerful, mighty. It may describe a person or a
thing. There are potent reasons, potent drugs,
potent influences, potent leaders, potent charms,
and so on. In reference to men it has a special
meaning of sexual competency. Potential means
possible as opposed to actual, capable of being
or becoming, latent (His record as prosecuting
attorney makes him a potential candidate for the
governorship). Potent means being powerful;
potential means capable of being powerful.
pother, as an equivalent for bother, is a literary
word. It used to rime with other and brother
but changed to its present pronunciation, apparently
to make it resemble bother, in the
nineteenth century. In the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries it was a stronger word and
was then pronounced, as it still is in some dialects,
puddrr (Let the great gods,/ That keep this
dreadful pudder o’er our heads,/ Find out their
enemies now).
potluck, take. To invite a guest home to dinner
on a sudden impulse, with the phrase take potluck
with us, is hackneyed. But, like many trite
expressions, it is useful. To say, “if you are
willing to eat whatever happens to be prepared
for supper, knowing that since you are not expected
it may be plain fare” would be tedious
and a little pompous. None the less, the triteness
of take potluck may belie the heartiness with
which the invitation is usually extended, and
since the recipient of such invitations usually
suspects the sincerity of this sudden desire for
his company (though he has little doubt of the
plainness of the fare), the clicht works slightly
against its own intention. This may seem the
veriest trifle, but nuances of meaning are not in
themselves trifling.
potter. See putter.
poultry. This word now means all the domestic
fowls in a given lot considered as a group. It
may be used with a singular verb, as in the poultry
is selling well, or with a plural verb, as in
the poulrry are selling well. It may be qualified
by the singular adjective much, as in much poultry,
but not by a numeral.
At one time poultry could be used as a true
plural with a numeral, as in I have seen them
bring twenty or thirty poultry to the market. This