A Dictionary of Cont..

cence in the United States is taken to describe
a breaking out afresh or into renewed activity,
or the revival or reappearance in active existence
of anything, good or bad. Such a distinction
of meaning is one of the real pitfalls of
understanding between Americans and British,
for the surface meaning is the same although
the attitude towards the act described might be
diametrically opposite. Thus if an American
said During the Second World War there was
a recrudescence of interest in religion, he might
regard this renewal of interest as a laudable
thing but an Englishman, hearing him, would
assume that he disapproved of it, regarding it
as some sort of disease or pestilence.
rector; vicar; curate. In the Church of England
a rector is a parson or incumbent of a parish
whose tithes are not impropriate, that is, the
tithes are held by him rather than a layman.
A vicar is one who acts in the place of a rector,
a substitute (cf. the word vicarious). In Ihgland,
then, whether the incumbent of a parish
is a vicar or a rector depends chiefly on the
disposition of tithes. In America, in the Flrotestant
Episcopal Church, a rector is a clergyman
in charge of a parish and a vicar is a
clergyman whose sole or chief charge is a
chapel dependent on the church of a parish,
or a bishop’s assistant in charge of a church
or mission. Curate is chiefly a British term to
designate a clergyman employed as assistant or
deputy of a rector or a vicar. In both England
and America the Roman Catholic Church employs
rector to designate an ecclesiastic in charge
of a college, religious house or congregation,
and vicar to designate an ecclesiastic representing
a bishop or the Pope. The Roman Catholic
Church also employs vicar to designate the Pope
as representative on earth of God. See also
pastor.
recumbent, incumbent, superincumbent and decumbent
all suggest lying or reclining.
The most familiar, and the one with the most
varied uses, is incumbent. Though it conveys
the literal sense of lying, leaning, or pressing on
something, it more often conveys a figurative
sense of resting on one as a duty or an obligation,
obligatory (The welfare of his people is
incumbent on a good prince, Having sought
the ofice, it is incumbent upon him to assume
its responsibilities). Incumbent is also used as
a noun, in general terms meaning the holder of
an office (The first incumbent of the presidency
wus George Washington), and in British use
only, one who holds an ecclesiastical benefice
(The incumbent at Upper Tooting held sturtlingly
advunced theological notions).
Recumbent means lying down, reclining,
leaning (The beach wus dotted with recumbent
forms), inactive, idle. In botany and zoology
the word describes a part that leans or reposes
on anything.
Superincumbent means lying or resting on
something else (He struggled to extricate himself
from the superincumbent debris), situated
above, overhanging (The Aur Gorge is practi-
413 redundancy
tally bridged by superincumbent rock formations).
Figuratively it means exerted from
above, as pressure, burdensome (He felt acutely
the superincumbent responsibilities of the
mission).
Decumbent may mean recumbent, but its
chief use is a botanical one, to describe stems,
branches and so on, lying or trailing on the
ground with the extremity tending to ascend.
recurrence. See reoccurrence.
recurring and frequent are not synonymous. That
is recurring which occurs again. There is no
limitation, however, upon the interval between
occurrences. Frequent, on the other hand,
means happening or occurring at short intervals
(During the day he made frequent trips to the
drinking fountain).
red rag to a bull. To say of something that particularly
infuriates a certain person that it is
to him like u red rug to a bull is to employ a
hackneyed metaphor based on zoological error,
for bulls seem to be color-blind.
reduce. This word may be followed by the -ing
form of a verb with the preposition to, as in
he was reduced to selling his cur. It is also heard
with an infinitive, as in he was reduced to beg
or to starve, but the -ing construction is generally
preferred.
reduced. See depleted.
redundancy; tautology; pleonasm. Redundunt
means being in excess, exceeding what is usual
or natural. A redundant humor, in the old
theory of the four humors, was the one whose
excess determined the patient’s complexion. In
grammar redundancy means the use of too
many words to express an idea, such as combine
together, audible to the ear, or invisible to the
eye. A charming example is furnished by Miss
Julia Moore, “The Sweet Singer of Michigan,”
in her plea, at the end of her collected poems,
for leniency from her readers:
And now, kind friends, whut I have wrote,
I hope you will puss o’er,
And not criticise us some have done
Hitherto herebefore.
Tautology is a form of redundancy, consisting
of the needless repetition of an idea, especially
in other words in the immediate context,
without imparting additional force or
clearness. President Coolidge’s statement that
when more and more people are thrown out of
work unemployment results is a fine illustration,
though the prize must be reserved for the enterprising
Milwaukee optometrist who advertised
EYES EXAMINED WHILE YOU WAIT.
Except where the redundancy is hidden in
technical or obsolete terminology (such as the
landlubber’s so many knots per hour), tuutology
is one of the surest marks of militant
dullness. The editors of a California weekly
who gave thanks in their first number for being
blessed with the gratification of seeing the materialization
of our dreams come to the fulfillment
of our realization could not hope to enlist
many literate subscribers. And the New York