A Dictionary of Cont..

stratum 480
of his strategy is a matter of dispute). More
loosely, strategy describes skillful management
in getting the better of an adversary or attaining
a large end. It describes the method of
conducting operations, especially by the aid
of maneuvering or stratagem. Tactics, more
loosely, is pretty close to the loose sense of
strategy, though tactics is perhaps better for
maneuvers themselves and strategy for the planning
of those maneuvers.
The United States Air Force maintains a
Strategic Air Command and a Tactical Air
Command. The strategic forces are in time of
war applied directly against the enemy nation
itself as distinct from its deployed military
forces. Tactical forces are concentrated against
those elements of the enemy’s military forces
which constitute the greatest menace to the successful
accomplishment of the theater mission.
stratum. The plural is stratums or strata. Strata
is also used as a singular, with a regular plural
stratus. These forms are objected to by many
people but are used by competent writers.
stress; emphasize. In England stress means chiefly
severe pressure, force or anguished concern.
This meaning is known in America (Men Under
Stress. The stress of the past few weeks has
been almost unendurable), but the more common
meaning of the word in the United States
today is to lay emphasis on, to emphasize (I
want to stress three things). British authorities
discourage the use of stress in this sense, insisting
that emphasize is more correct; but the
usage is standard in America.
strew. The past tense is strewed. The participle is
strewed or strewn. Strewed is preferred tostrewn
in purely verbal uses, and strewn is preferred
as an adjective. But both forms may be used in
either way.
stria. The plural is striae.
stricken. See strike.
stride. The past tense is strode. The participle is
stridden, strid, strided, or strode. Stridden is the
usual form of the participle in literary English.
But Robert Louis Stevenson uses strode, as in
the captain who had so often strode along the
beach, and this form is acceptable in many
parts of the United States. Strid is not heard in
the United States but is a recognized form in
Great Britain, where strided is also used and
accepted.
strike. The past tense is struck. The participle is
struck or stricken. Stricken is not used in Great
Britain except as an adjective, but may still be
heard in verb forms in the United States, as in
the clause was stricken out.
When used as an adjective, stricken is more
old-fashioned and bookish than struck. It occurs
most often in set phrases such as stricken with
a disease, stricken in years, the stricken deer.
Only the form struck can be used when the
word is meant in its literal sense, as in struck
with a cane, and even when used in a figurative
sense, struck is generally preferred to
stricken, as in struck with terror, moon-struck,
and so on.
strike while the iron is hot, as an adjuration to
seize the propitious moment, to act while circumstances
are favorable, is now a clich6.
string. The past tense is strung. The participle is
also strung. A form stringed is used as a pure
adjective with no verbal force. That is, we
speak of a well strung bow but of a stringed instrument.
stripe is used figuratively in America to designate
a distinctive style, variety, sort, or kind (No
Democrat of the Bryan-Hearst stripe could
make headway in such an enterprise). The
equivalent English term is kidney. (See also ilk.)
strive. The past tense is strove or strived. The
participle is striven or strived. Strived is no
longer heard in Great Britain but is still acceptable
in the United States for the past tense and
the participle.
Strive may be followed by an infinitive, as in
with steps that strove to be, and were not, fast.
It cannot be followed by the -ing form of a
verb. See endeavor.
strode. See stride.
strong as a horse. This simile is worn out and
outworn. Even its appositeness may be questioned.
Oxen, mules, donkeys, goats, and many
other mammals are, pound for pound. stronger
than horses, and the insects have strength, for
their weight, which no vertebrate can remotely
match. As strong as an ant-there’s a real
simile!
strong, silent man. The strong, silent man was a
highly popular character, especially in novels
by and for women, around the beginning of the
twentieth century. By the 1920’s he had been
taken over as a figure of fun by the wits. But
by now the term is utterly worn out, no longer
appealing or amusing.
strong verbs. In Old English there were about
four hundred verbs that changed the vowel in
forming the past tense, as in speak and spoke.
These are called strong verbs, in contrast to the
weak verbs that formed the past tense by simply
adding ed, as in talk and talked. Most of the old
strong verbs have dropped out of the language
or have developed regular (weak) forms. On
the other hand, some verbs that were originally
weak have developed irregular forms.
In present-day English, all verbs that form
the past tense. and participle by adding ed to
the present tense form are called regular verbs
and all that do not, are called irregular, regardless
of the history of the word. See irregular
verbs.
strove. See strive.
struck. See strike.
strong. See string.
stuck. See stick.
student. See pupil.
studio; study. Among its many meanings as a
noun, study means a room, in a house or other
building, set apart for private study, reading,
writing, or the like (A scholar should have a
study and a writer must have one). Studio has
as its basic meaning the workroom or atelier of
an artist, as a painter or sculptor. More loosely