A Dictionary of Cont..

ed 72
all price,/ When once yozz’ve broken their confounded
ice). In all of its figurative meanings.
however, the term is now a cliche and to be us&l
with care.
bred. See breed.
breeches. The plural form refers to one garment
but is always treated as a plural, as in these
breeches are torn. In order to use the word with
a singular verb or to speak of more than one of
these garments, it is necessary to say rhis pair of
breeches is torn or several pairs of breeches.
The form breeches is also used as the first element
in a compound, as in his breeches pocket.
The singular breech is now used only for the
rear end of a gun.
breed. The past tense is bred. The participle is also
bred.
breezy; fresh; lively. Breezy, when applied figuratively
to persons, means airy, flippant, and gay.
Lively is more complimentary. A lively mind is
one of quick apprehensions, full of vivid and
rapidly changing images, rapid in its comprehension
(Mercutio had a breezy way, but Hotspur’s
mind was lively). Fresh in American
usage, when used of a person, means forward or
presumptuous, impertinent, often with a hint of
sexual aggressiveness.
brethren. See brothers.
bridesmaid. Traditionally, the form bride was
used in this compound, as it still is in the re-
Iated word bridegroom. But the irregular form
bridesmaid has been standard English since the
latter part of the nineteenth century.
brief; short. Brief applies to time only and sometimes
implies a condensation. We had only rime
for a brief talk implies not only that the talk
was of short duration but that it was intense
and concentrated. A short talk would have
lacked this latter implication. Short refers to
either time or space, but when it refers to the
former it suggests a curtailment, often rude or
painful (He cut him off short). It sometimes
extends this meaning so far as to mean “lacking”
(as in short rations, he was short in his accounts).
In its legal sense, there is a difference between
the American and Enrtlish usage of brief. In
England a brief is soleli a summary of the facts
of the case prepared by a solicitor for the counsel
who is conducting the case. It is a private
document. In America it can be this (He briefed
him in his arguments). This is also the brief of
briefcase. But it is more often a summary of
arguments filed by counsel in an appellate court,
minted. nublic, and often voluminous (I had
ihe hono; to be one of the attorneys in the case,
and filed a brief against the bonds). See also
outline.
bright and early is a cliche and to people of normal
habits of rising, an irritating one. Even its
factual accuracy may be challenged. The airlines
report more delays because of fog in their
early morning flights than at any other time of
the day.
bring. The past tense is brought. The participle is
also brought.
Brung is heard for the past tense and for the
participle, as in he had brung it, bur this is not
standard English.
Bring may be followed by an infinitive, as in
you will never bring me to admit it, or by the
-ing form of a verb with the preposition IO, as
in you will never bring me to admitting it. The
infinitive construction is preferred.
bring; take; fetch. To brizzg is to cause to come
with oneself. To take is to get into one’s hands
and to convey away. To fetch is to go and bring
something to the speaker (Take that box and
bring it with you, or if it’s too heavy for you
I’ll send Joe to fetch it).
Fetch has a special meaning of to allure
(What a fetching bonnet!). When the rascally
duke, in Huckleberry Finn, added the line
“Ladies and Children not Admitted” to his advertisement
of The Royal Nonesuch, he paused
to admire his handiwork: There, says he, if that
line don’t fetch them, I don’t know Arkansaw!
Here fetch means to allure and to bring in. This
meaning is now a little old-fashioned and rustic,
but still current.
Briton; Britisher. A Briton can be either one of
the ancient Celtic inhabitants of England or a
modern inhabitant. Britisher was an American
term that had a currency in the United States in
the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but
is practically never heard today. The ordinary
American would never use the term Briton. He
accords the Irish separate recognition, but all
other male inhabitants of the British Isles are
Englishmen to him. If a Scoi insisted on being
identified as a member of a special nation, his
insistence would be humored, but most Americans
wouldn’t make the distinction if someone
else did not make it first. An English woman
would be used to designate a single English
female, and English women would be its plural.
But an Englishwoman, as the female of Englishman,
would not be much used, though it would
be understood. The collective plural the English
is used most commonly when generalizing, and
Americans love to generalize about the English
almost as much as the English love to generalize
about Americans.
brittle. See fragile.
broad; wide. Everyone is aware that broad and
wide are synonymous, but a moment’s reflection
calls to mind what seems a bewildering confusion
in their idiomatic uses. We speak of
broad shoulders, but of a wide mouth. One
who has traveled far and wide will probably
have a broad outlook. We give a man a broad
hint and a wide berth. The Pilgrims crossed the
broad Atlantic and their descendants the wide
Missouri.
Fowler, in a brilliant analysis of the usage of
these two words, concludes that “wide refers to
the distance that separates the limits, and broad
to the amplitude of what connects them.”
Some things seem to have had broad, as a
description of their amplitude, affixed to them
arbitrarily (broad daylight) ; others have a secondary
suggestion of generosity or disregard of
the trivial (a broad outline, a Broad Churchman)
or of unrestraint (a broad fake).