A Dictionary of Cont..

psychology
The phrase was woolly in its inception, confused
in its translation, affected in its adoption,
and misunderstood in its application. It is pompous,
meaningless, and tedious.
psychology. In an age which James Joyce has
described as “jung and easily freudened,” psychology
is a word thrown about knowingly by
about everyone capable of articulating a foursyllabled
word, though not necessarily of spelling
it. Basically it means the science of mind, or
of mental states or processes, the science of
human nature (Burton’s observations, though
shrewd, remained fruitless for lack of a cob’rdinating
psychology; he saw human nature clearly,
but he had no system to which to relate the
disparate facts he so assiduously collected). More
generally, it means the science of human and
animal behavior.
In common parlance psychology means the
mental states and processes of a person or of a
number of persons, especially as determining action
(To understand Hemingwny’s The Sun Also
Rises, one must have some understanding of the
psychology of the postwar expatriate).
The word is used a great deal in everyday
American speech to mean shrewdness, cleverness,
or an understanding of human nature (She
certainly shows psychology in dealing with those
children, making them think they want to do
their lessons. That was real psychology, taking
out all the dimes and leaving only quarters in the
saucer). This is often merely an ellipsis for a
knowledge of psychology, but it is pretentious
and usually vague.
psychosis. The plural is psychoses or psychosises.
publicity. See propaganda.
publish. Although the commonest contemporary
meaning of publish is to issue, or to cause to
be issued, in copies made by printing or other
processes, for sale or distribution, as a book,
periodical, or the like, the word has a different,
or at least a severely restricted meaning in legal
terminology. In the law of defamation, to publish
a defamatory statement is to communicate
it, in some form, to a person or persons other
than the nerson defamed. A libel is published if
it is merely repeated or written in-a letter. In
England, where the laws of libel are very severe,
librarians are subject to prosecution for libel if
they even permit a book which has been the
subject of conviction for obscene libel to be
consulted. The law has held that the mere showing
of a book, by one individual to another,
constitutes publishing. See also allege.
puerile. See infantile.
pugnacious. See bellicose.
pull, in the figurative sense of influence, as with
persons able to grant favors (You got to have
pull to get those jobs), is not standard.
pull chestnuts out of the fire. To say of those who
take risks from which other men profit that they
are pulling the chestnuts out of the fire is to em-
~103 a worn-out metaphor.
The nhrase derives from an old story of a
monkey that persuaded a cat to pull a chestnut
out of the fire for him. The cat got a burned paw
and the monkey enjoyed the chestnut. From the
same story comes also the word catspaw as a
term for one who is used by another to serve his
purposes. In the older versions of the fable it was
a puppy that was persuaded to take the fruitless
risk and this is so much more suitable that it is
believed that cat is simply a misunderstanding or
mistranslation of the Latin catellus, puppy.
pull one’s weight, a term from rowing, is a clich6.
One hears it more often in the negative, as a
reproach, than in the positive. It is said of soand-so
that he is not pulling his weight, that is,
not doing a fair share of work in return for whatever
pay or reward he is receiving.
pull the strings. As a term from puppetry, meaning
to control affairs by moving others as if they
were marionettes, pull the strings is now hackneyed.
Sometimes it was pull the wires, but a wirepuller
in America today is not so much a master
behind the scenes, manipulating others, as one
who uses political influence or the like to win
an advantage. The original metaphor from puppetry
may have gotten confused with the idea of
mechanical bell wires or other wires that transmit
physical power and control machinery.
pummel. See pommel.
pun; paronomasia; assonance. A pun is a play on
words, the use of a word in two different applications,
or the use of two different words which
are pronounced alike, in such a way as to present
an incongruous idea and excite our sense of the
ludicrous. A good pun can be very witty. That is,
under the incongruity there can be a suggestion
of some deeper truth that usually goes unspoken;
or that which is absurd by itself may have great
wisdom, often bitter wisdom, when juxtaposed
to the original statement. Puns were formerly
used seriously, often to give a wry touch of bitterness
or irony. Thus when the mad Lear says
to the blinded Gloucester, you see how this
world goes, Gloucester answers I see it feelingly
and the word play heightens the horror. Mercutio’s
dying Ask for me tomorrow and you shall
find me a grave man is in keeping with his character
and its gaiety intensifies the tragedy of his
death. With us, however, puns are now used
solely for humor and hence they are excluded,
by contemporary taste, from serious expression.
This is a loss, but custom in such matters must
be heeded. The witty will always take their
chances, but they are dangerous chances, for
there is a widespread vulgar belief that a pun is
“the lowest form of humor” and the successful
punster (the very term is pejorative) runs the risk
of being thought not only inept but laboredly
dull.
Paronomasia is used so often as a synonym
for punning that it must be so accepted. In its
strictest sense, however, it means the use of
words that are not quite alike, though very near
it, in sound. The intention is not humor but emphasis
(To begirt the almighty throne/ Beseeching
or besieging) or antithesis.
Assonance is merely resemblance in sound.
The careful writer will avoid accidental asso-