A Dictionary of Cont..

eginner 58
usually a more elaborate entry into some action.
One commences an action at law or commences
a long course of study. Commence should not be
applied to trivial things (Commence to eat your
breakfast). When there is any doubt, it is safer
to use begin.
Start has the sense of a sudden beginning, the
actual making of a move and setting the process
into motion. One starts a watch after it has
stopped and, in a like manner, there is a suggestion
of immediate action from a state of rest in
the word. One who started to eat his breakfast
would be conceived of as going about it with
more briskness than one who merely began to
eat his breakfast.
beginner. See neophyte.
beginning of the end. There is not enough cleverness
in the paradox to justify any reprieve for
this clichC.
begot; begotten. See beget.
begrudge; grudge. Grudge as a verb is now almost
a rarity. Begrudge is stronger-he begrudged
him even the little that he had seems more
forceful than he grudged him the little that he
had-and since the concept grudging doesn’t
want a weaker word the simpler form has been
crowded almost out of use.
beguiling. See insidious.
begun. See begin.
behold. The past tense is beheld. The participle is
also beheld.
An old participle beholden (curiously enough,
the same word) survives today, but only as an
adjective meaning under obligation, as in 2 was
beholden to him.
behoove; behove. Behoove, to be needful or proper
for or incumbent on (chiefly in impersonal
use), is the American form. Behove is widely
used in England, and is usually given the preference
in British dictionaries.
belated. See late.
believe. This word may be followed b; a clause,
as in I believe they are ripe, or by ;I; infinitive,
as in I believe them to be ripe. The clause construction
is preferred when the verb believe is
active, as in the examples just given. When
believe is passive, only the infinitive construction
can be used, as in they are believed to be ripe.
believe it or not. As an introductory formula this
expression is intended to warrant credence even
though that which is about to be related will
seem incredible. It is, really, not a fair offer.
Anyone who said, Well, since you say I may
believe it or not, I think I will not, would probably
incur the enmity of the speaker. Meanwhile
he, by simply using the phrase, has aroused the
annoyance of all discriminating listeners.
believe (or can’t believe) one’s own eyes. Those
who protest that they can’t believe their own
eyes are likely at another time to affirm that
seeing is believing. Both expressions are clichts
and those who use either are not those whose
powers of questioning would justify much respect
anyway.
belittle; disparage. Belittle is a milder word than
disparage. Belittle simply means to make something
seem less (He belittles everything I do). It
is generally used figuratively. Disparage has the
added suggestion of bringing reproach upon the
person whose accomplishments or possessions
are belittled, or lowering his reputation or dignity
(These disparaging remarks have made
him much despised).
Belittle appears to have originated in the
United States, thereby incurring Fowler’s disapproval.
He proposes a number of words which
he thinks better, among them minimize and
poohpooh, but few lexicographers would be inclined
to agree with him on this.
bellicose; belligerent; pugnacious; quarrelsome.
Bellicose means inclined to war, warlike, and
should, therefore, properly be restricted to a
description of nations or peoples. It has been
applied in humorous exaggeration to individuals
so often, however, that it is often used seriously
as a synonym for pugnacious which is the proper
adjective for an individual who wants to start a
fight. The difference between quarrelsome and
pugnacious is that a quarrelsome person confines
his aggression to words-unless, of course,
he happens to start a quarrel with a pugnacious
person!
Belligerent strictly means engaged in warfare
(The belligerent nations refused the offer of
arbitration). Since war, like jealousy, grows by
what it feeds on, people at war are usually warlike
or bellicose, so that it is not astonishing that
belligerent has come to have the meaning of
bellicose. There may also be an ellipsis in the
use (Nis attitude was [that of a] belligerent).
bellows. When this word means an instrument for
blowing air it is usually followed by a plural
verb, as in the bellows are ready. But it may also
be used with a singular verb, as in the bellows is
ready, and as a true plural, as in sixty bellows
are ready. These forms are acceptable. But in
literary English a pair of bellows is ready and
sixty pairs of bellows are ready would generally
be preferred. The double plural bellowses is
not standard.
belly; abdomen; stomach; tummy; guts. Belly is a
good, sensible, established, time-honored word
for that part of the human body which extends
from the breastbone to the pelvis and contains
the abdominal viscera. Its dignity could not be
better illustrated than in Sir Winston Churchill’s
proposal that the Allies invade Europe through
the Balkans, striking the Nazis in their soft
underbelly.
Many feel the word to be improper or coarse.
This feeling is stronger in England than in America
where, in the vernacular and in slang, the
word is a part of many effective phrases (bellyache
for “complain,” bellylaugh, belly dancer,
to do a belly smacker in diving, and so on).
Abdomen is the medical term. Its use in anything
but clinical conversations or reports is
pompous and mealy-mouthed.
Stomach describes a particular organ, a saclike
enlargement of the alimentary canal. It is
sometimes used of a larger area (as in stomach
ache) and has figurative applications (I cannot
stomach his insulting behavior), but the word
is not applicable to the entire belly and every