A Dictionary of Cont..

witness 560
fossfls, in fheir own way, also witness to the
glory of the Lord. The prisoner brought several
persons of good credit to witness to her reputation).
As a synonym for see (I witnessed un
amusing incident yesterday) it is now acceptable
in American usage, but it is stilted and see
ls to be preferred where it is applicable. Witness
is to be preferred where one’s presence is formal
or where one’s seeing is likely to be the basis
of subsequent testimony. One sees a new model
automobile; one witnesses an accident.
witness stand; witness box. The place occupied by
one giving testimony in court is called the
witness stand in the United States, the witness
box in England. These are usually shortened to
stand and box respectively. The witness takes
the stand and enters the box.
wives. See wife.
woke; woken. See wake.
wolf. The plural is wolves.
wolf in sheep’s clothing. As a term for one whose
inner evil nature or intention is concealed under
an innocent-seeming exterior, a wolf in sheep’s
clothing is a clich6.
wolves. This is the plural of wolf.
woman. The plural is women. Compounds that
have woman as a qualifying element have the
form women in the plural, as in women friends,
women writers. This is contrary to the usual
practice in English, according to which the first
element of a compound remains singular even
when the whole is made plural, as in lady
friends, lady writers.
When the first element of a compound is the
object of the second element, and not a qualifier,
only the singular form woman can be used,
as in woman haters.
woman; female; lady; gentlewoman. Woman is
the general term for the adult female of the
human species (Woman’s place is in the home.
Her voice was ever soft,/ Gentle and low-an
excellent thing in woman). It is a word of
dignity (though the plural women, for some
reason, does not have quite the same dignity)
and is always to be preferred when in doubt.
One of the finest touches in Shakespeare’s delineation
of Mistress Quickly’s garrulous vulgarity
is her indignation when, in the course
of an argument, Falstaff calls her a woman
(FALSTAFF: Go to, you are a woman, go!
HOSTESS: Who, I? No; I defy thee! God’s light,
I was never call’d so in mine own house
before!).
Female refers especially to sex. A woman is
a female human being, and she is a female as
a man is a male, but since the word is applicable
to all females in all species in which there is
a sexual differentiation, from philosophers to
cockroaches (The female of the species is more
deadly than the male), its application to a
woman usually has a contemptuous implication
(She’s a scheming female, my boy). Female
used to be used as an elegant euphemism for
woman or yolmg woman or woman’s or
women’s (A charming female, egadl Bolton’s
Female Academy for Accomplished Young
Ladies. Recommended for All Female Complaints),
but this usage is obsolescent and no
longer even funny when used in mockery of its
pretentiousness.
In England lady has a social connotation.
Fowler calls it an “undress substitute” for
marchioness, countess, viscountess, and baroness.
It is also a courtesy title for the wife of a
knight or baronet or the younger daughters of
an earl. Such uses are unknown in America
where lady carries implications of gentility (She
behaved like a lady) but, in the proper democratic
way, is used for almost any woman of
whom one wishes to speak with some formality
(Is the lady of the house in?). Well-meaning
souls have carried it further until, in its excesses,
it is almost a joke word (“Who was that
lady I seen you with?” “That wasn’t no lady;
that was my wife.” The scrub lady called.
Tables for ladies and gents). It is sometimes
used as a formal term in direct address (Lady,
you dropped your glove. I gave you the right
change, lady! What are you arguin’ about?) but
the proper form (and the more effective term
if one wants to be disagreeable) is madam.
A gentlewoman is a woman of good family
or breeding (It has gotten so that you can’t keep
half a dozen young gentlewomen at their needlework
but you are accused of running a bawdy
house!), but the word is now archaic and is
used chiefly in hackneyed (a decayed gentlewoman)
or facetious phrases. In America,
except as a literary affectation, it is not used
at all. See also female.
womanly. See female.
women. See woman.
won. See win.
wondrous is a bookish word, whether used as an
adjective or an adverb. As an adjective it means
wonderful, marvelous (Some of serpent kind/
Wondrous in length and corpulence. When I
survey the wondrous cross/ On which the
Prince of glory died,/ My richest gain I count
but loss,/ And pour contempt on all my pride),
though this use is archaic, surviving chiefly in
humorous passages (A saloon near a newspaper
ofice is always a lovely institution, filling the
nights with wondrous sights and sounds). As an
adverb it is archaic for wondrously, which is
also a bookish term. As such, it means in a
wonderful or surprising degree, remarkably
(There was a man in our town/ And he was
wondrous wise./ He jumped into a bramble
bush/ And scratched out both his eyes).
wont. This is a present tense form. The verb does
not have an infinitive or an imperative. The past
tense is wonted. The participle is wonted or
wont.
There was once a verb won, meaning “stay”
or “be used to.” It gradually disappeared from
the language leaving only its two participles,
wonted and wont, which came to be used as
adjectives meaning “usual.” This old construction
survives today in such expressions as his