A Dictionary of Cont..

aze 410
should be used with great circumspection. Its
use implies that the speaker understands the
motives of another better than the other himself.
This, when speaking of a third person,
may seem only vanity, but to tell someone to
his face that he is only rationalizing is to accuse
him of obtusity, of lack of awareness, of being
the blind instrument of his animal impulses,
with sundry other smug assumptions, all uncomplimentary.
Moreover, the speaker, while
making these insulting assumptions, has exalted
himself into the chair of omniscience and
blandly taken upon himself to read the secrets
of another’s heart. There is no field in which
angels more fear to tread than the judging of
motives or into which our friends rush with
more assurance. To question a man’s professed
motives is, in his eyes, to call him a liar and
to elicit a great deal of good, healthy hostility.
Rationalize should not be discarded, as some
would have it; but it should be used with great
care, after considerable meditation upon our
own motives in using it.
raze. See destroy.
re; in re. Re is the ablative of the Latin res,
thing, matter. It is used in legal documents to
mean in reference to or in the case of. The layman,
however, would do well to let the lawyer
have his ablatives to him reserved and use the
good English about or concerning or in regard
to. In re is a hybrid monster, possibly, piling
ignorance upon presumption, thought to be an
abbreviation of in regard to.
reaction; response. Though reaction is unequivocal
as a technical term in chemistry, biology,
and mechanics, it needs to be used with some
care in general contexts. One may define it as
action in response to some influence or event,
if one understands that the response is a more
or less automatic rather than an intellectual and
reflective one (My reaction to his proposal was
one of despair). Reaction should not be used,
however, as it so commonly is, as a technicalsounding
synonym for the general terms response,
reply or even opinion (When you have
had time to think it over, I would be grateful
for your reaction). It probably came to be so
abused because it absolves one from the fuller
responsibility entailed in using opinion. If a
man states an opinion, he may be called upon
to support or justify it. A reaction may be more
easily abandoned as a mere impulse.
reactionary. Except for its technical scientific
senses, to which it would be a mercy if it were
confined, reactionary is a word so emotionally
charged as to be little more than a term of
abuse. It refers to one who favors political
measures that seem to the speaker to react
against the general good, especially measures
that would rescind or nullify beneficial social
legislation. It seems as easy for a liberal to call
a conservative a reactionary as for a conservative
to call a liberal a radical, a pink, a fellowtraveler,
or a red. About the only American
who calls himself a reactionary is the poet and
critic Allen Tate (Reactionary Essays, 1936).
Mr. Tate is not sneering at himself, nor is his
position one to be sneered at.
read. The past tense is read. The participle is also
read. Although this looks like one of those very
simple verbs, such as cut, cut, cut, the appearance
is deceptive. The past tense and the participle
read are pronounced like red. See also
peruse.
read between the lines. As a term for perceiving
a hidden or implied meaning in something said
or written, reading between the lines is a hackneyed
expression.
read the riot act. The Riot Act of 1714 empowered
a justice, sheriff, mayor, or other
person in authority to read a proclamation calling
upon such persons as he deemed to be unlawfully,
riotously and tumultuously assembled
to disperse themselves and peaceably to depart
to their habitations or to their lawful businesses.
After the reading of the proclamation (or the
hindering of the reading of the proclamation),
continued assembly constituted a felony. The
reading of this proclamation (not the Act itself)
thus constituted a serious procedure and usually
served to quell most tumults and disperse most
unlawful assemblies, for felony was punishable
by death. The modem expression read the riot
act means no more than to state emphatically
that a certain course of action must cease. It
has become a cliche. It is particularly illogical
to use it-as it so often is used-when applied
to one person (He read me the riot act!).
real; really. Traditionally, the adjective real means
true and the adverb really means truly, as in
a real friend and were you really there? Really
may qualify a verb, an adjective, or an adverb.
Today the form real is often used as an
adverb meaning very, as in I will write real
soon. In this sense it may qualify an adjective
or an adverb but not a verb. This use of real
is accepted spoken English in most parts of the
United States but does not appear in formal,
or impersonal, writing. The adverb really does
not have this meaning. I will write really soon
is neither natural nor literary English. (The use
of real before a participle, as in I was real
amazed, is acceptable in some Southern states,
but not in other parts of the country.)
When used to qualify a noun, the form real
refers to facts rooted in nature, actual things
with objective existence, rather than imaginary.
Real trouble means actual trouble, not imaginary
trouble, it does not mean serious trouble.
Real has definite, useful meanings of its own
and it would be a loss if the word became a
mere intensive.
reality; realty. Reality means the state or fact of
being real, true to life or fact (The reality of
the situation is in no way affected by our
illusions or wishes). It is obsolete in the specialized
sense of real property or real estate; in this
sense the correct word is realty (He left a large
fortune in bonds and realty).
realize. Though realize describes primarily a
mental act, a grasping by the mind or an understanding
(I suddenly realized what he meant),