A Dictionary of Cont..

thing ridiculous in such sentences as: will you
be late?, I’m afraid I will, will we regret it?,
would you be able to recognize lzim?, I will not
be able to finish it today. (To understand how
these sentences sound to an Englishman, an
American should substitute the appropriate
form of “be willing to” for will or would.)
An American grammarian writing in 1868,
who must have spent more time reading his
Bible than he spent talking with his neighbors,
considered the American use of these auxiliaries
a sin and a menace to the public safety. “‘To
disregard obligation in the laying out of fut.ure
action,” he cried, “making arbitrary resolve the
sole guide, is a lesson which the community
ought not to learn from any section or class,
in language any more than in political iand
social conduct.” But this warning seems to have
made no impression on his countrymen. In
current American speech will occurs 217 times
for every shall; and would occurs nine times
for every slzould. Etymologically speaking, we
are a very willful people. (See also shall; should
and will; would and future tense.)
shambles were originally benches or stalls in the
market, especially those benches or stalls on
which butchers exposed their meat for sale
(Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat).
Where the market was large and the stalls fixed,
the shambles came to indicate the section of
the market reserved for the butchers (The
shambles remain one of the most picturesque
parts of the old town of York). This meaning
is still retained in some parts of England.
More broadly, shambles is used to describe
any place of carnage that in its bloody horror
would suggest the butchers’ stalls (The afterdeck
of the PC 565 was a shambles; thirteen
dead men lay under fight navy blankets). Today
shambles is used even more loosely, especially
by journalists in search of the more lurid word,
to describe a scene of material wreckage, though
there may have been no loss of life or blood
(The robber, in his haste to find the money
and get away before Delancey returned, had
turned the place into a shambles). This meaning
is not yet standard, however, and the careful
writer will avoid it-as he will all excessi.ve
terms.
share. See part; portion.
shares. See stock.
shark, as a word for a person who preys greedily
on others (Since his expenses exceeded kis
income, he soon fell into the hands of the loan
sharks), is a standard word in English and
American usage. It would seem, at first thought,
to be a figurative use of shark, the ferocious,
elasmobranch fish; but there is more likelihood
that the fish was named after the man than that
the man was named after the fish. In America
shark has the additional slang meaning of one
who has unusual ability in a particular field
(He was a shark at mathematics). The English
slang equivalent is whale, in the sense of being
a big fish among little ones.
shave. The past tense is shaved. The participle is
shaved or shaven. Shaved is the preferred form
449 shibboleth
for the participle. One may still say he has
already shaverz, but this is now rare. Shaven is
preferred to shaved when used as an adjective,
as in a well shaven face.
she. See subjective pronouns.
sheaf. The plural is sheaves.
shear. The past tense is sheared. The participle is
sheared or shorn. Only the old form of the participle,
shorn, can be used when speaking of a
tonsure. Otherwise, in the United States the
participle slzeared is preferred when the word
is meant literally, as in the sheep have been
sheared of their fieece, and the participle shorn
when the word is meant figuratively, as in the
men have been shorn of their power. In Great
Britain shorn is still used in a literal sense and
one may say the sheep have been shorn.
shears. The plural form refers to one instrument
but is usually treated as a plural, as in these
shears are sharp. It may also be treated as a
singular, especially after a qualifying word, as
in here is a pruning shears. But the form here
is a pair of shears is more usual. The construction
with pair must be used after a numeral, as
three pairs of shears. The singular form shear
is preferred as the first element in a compound,
such as shear handles and shear manufacturers.
sheaves. This is the plural of sheaf.
shed. The past tense is shed. The participle is also
shed.
sheep. The plural is sheep.
sheer. One of the meanings of sheer is “unqualified”
(A conviction of inward defilement so
sheer took possession of me that death seemed
better than life). In this sense the word is
greatly overworked, especially in such semicliches
as sheer folly, sheer ignorance, sheer
physical exhaustion, and sheer nonsense. The
word need not be avoided, but it should be used
sparingly. There are many good substitutes,
some of them more effective in some contexts.
Among these may be listed: utter, absolute,
downright, unmixed, simple, mere, bare, and
unqualified.
shelf. The plural is shelves.
shell game; thimblerig. Shell game is the American
term for a swindling game in which a small
object, such as a pea or a pebble, is concealed
under one of a number of walnut shells in such
a way as to make it seem to have been placed
under another and the unwary persuaded to bet
on what they believe to be the evidence of their
senses. The English term is thimblerig, their
swindlers employing small thimblelike cups
instead of shells. In both America and England
the verb to rig means to manipulate fraudulently
(Small investors certainly believe the
market is rigged).
shelves. This is the plural of shelf.
shibboleth is sometimes used as if it meant slogan.
It does not. It means a peculiarity of pronunciation,
or a habit, or a mode of dress, or something
of that sort, which distinguishes a particular
class or set of persons. It is a Hebrew
word meaning (it is generally believed) a
stream in flood. Jephthah’s men used it (Judges,
12:4-6) as a test word to distinguish the flee-