A Dictionary of Cont..

aggage check, baggage car. He would be a
bold man who, west of the Hudson, dared refer
to it as the luggage van.
bagpipe. In traditional English, one of these instruments
is called a bagpipe no matter how
many pipes it may have, as in he played on a
bagpipe. In Scotland, the plural form bagpipes
is commonly used in referring to one instrument,
as in he played on the bagpipes, and the
plural form may even be treated as a singular,
as in give the lad a bagpipes instead of a rattle.
Either form is acceptable in the United States.
bail; bale. You bail out a boat with a bail (from
Old French baille “bucket”). You bale hay into
a bale (from Old High German ball4 “ball”).
baker’s dozen. There are several explanations of
why thirteen should be called a baker’s dozen.
Bakers are said to have been notoriously dishonest
(there are a number of proverbs that
connect the baker with the pillory) and the extra
loaf added to every dozen (called the vantage
loaf or inbread) insured full weight. Or the
added loaf in twelve is said to have been the
legal profit allowed those who bought at wholesale
from the bakery and sold at retail.
Whatever the derivation, the phrase is now a
clich6 and is generally to be avoided.
balance. When this word refers to a weighing instrument
it means the entire instrument and the
plural balances means more than one of these.
At one time this word was confused with the
word scales. The instrument itself was thought
of as a plural, as in thou art weighed in the
balances, and the singular balance was used to
mean one of the pans, as in a pair of balances
in his hand. This usage is based on a misunderstanding
of the word balance. It can still be
heard today, but is no longer acceptable English.
balance; remainder; rest; residue. Though described
bv the Oxford English Dictionary as
%.ommerEial slang” and conhemned by Fowler
as “a slipshod extension,” balance is used so
widely in America for remainder that it must
be accepted as standard (Lee, with the balance
of the army, was to hold off McClellan).
Those who wish to make fine distinctions
(though they may not be followed or even
understood by the balance of their countrymen)
will use balance only when they have in mind
the difference between two amounts that have to
be compared. That is, you may say I’ll pay you
the balance when I get my pay check because,
apparently, something has been paid and the
amount to be received in the pay check will at
least equal what is yet to be paid. Certainly a
bank balance, though properly a remainder, is
now standard.
Remainder or rest is what is left and either
is to be preferred to balance in ordinary use. It
is better to say I had the rest of the time to
myself than to say I had the balance of the
time to myself.
Residue is what remains after some process
has taken place (The residue was a light gray
ash). The balance of an army might be that
proportion whose preponderant weight decided
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an up-to-that-time evenly matched engagement.
The remainder of an army might be any part
left after the main sections had been dispersed.
The residue of an army would be that remaining
after an engagement or a disastrous retreat.
baleful and baneful both mean destructive, pernicious.
Baleful can also mean malignant and
baneful can also mean poisonous but in these
two particular meanings the words are not interchangeable.
Baneful is generally applied to
things that cause death, baleful to menacing
influences.
bambino. The plural is bambinos or bambini.
ban. The necessity of using short words in headlines
and the fact that headlines are coming to
be more and more the sole reading matter of
millions have made headlines a serious force
in the shaping of popular speech. Among the
most popular of words in headlines is ban. In
standard English it means prohibit or interdict.
A book is banned if it is prohibited by the
authorities. It is so used in the headlines but
it is also used to signify almost any kind of
disapproval or refusal.
banal. See commonplace.
bandit. See thief; robber; burglar.
banister; baluster. The word banister is simply a
corruption of baluster. A baluster is the upright
support, with a curved or molded outline.
The balusters together form the balustrade
which supports the railing and it is this that
children slide down when they slide down the
banisters. It is hard to conceive of any purist
so pure, however, that he would say The
children slid down the railing supported by the
balustrade, and banisters serves for balusters,
railing and all, in domestic and colloquial use.
Of course anyone writing about architecture or
ordering specific parts for a staircase would do
well to use the terms exactly.
bank on (to rely on) derives not from putting
money in a bank and so having it to rely on, but
from making bank at a gaming table. You can
bunk on that means “You can be so sure of
that that you can wager any sum on it against
all comers.”
banns. This word, meaning a notice of an intended
marriage, is used only in the plural form, as
in the banns were published yesterday. In order
to speak of more than one such notice it is
necessary to say the banns of several couples.
banquet. See repast.
baptismal name. See first name.
barbarian; barbaric; barbarous; barbarism; barbarity.
A barbarian was originally simply a non-
Greek. The Greeks couldn’t understand the
language of the northern nations and didn’t
think it much worth while to try. To them it
sounded as if they were simply saying bar-bar
over and over again and they called them
barbarians.
A number of nouns and adjectives stem
from this root, each embodying some aspect or
quality, or supposed aspect or quality, of uncivilized
and unlettered people with rough
manners.