The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style : A ...

108 eager
grammarians. Some say to use each
other for two, one another for three
or more: “Agnes and John love each
other.” / “The three friends visit one another’s
homes.” H. W. Fowler saw neither
utility nor history on the side of
such differentiation. Anyhow the use of
each other for more than two is not common.
Using one another for two is more
common. One another’s is the possessive
form.
EAGER. See ANXIOUS.
EATEN and ATE. See Tense, 5A.
ECLECTIC. Variety is the essence of
this adjective. A descendant of the Greek
eklegein, to select, eclectic means choosing
or chosen from a variety of sources,
subjects, methods, points of view, or the
like. “He was an eclectic student, with
broad interests.” / “The museum’s collection
is eclectic.” Eclectic says nothing
about merit or quality and does not
mean discriminating, as some people
seem to think.
In a newsletter, the director of an institute
wrote about a series of educational
programs that “have featured a
variety of eclectic programs. . . .” Either
“a variety of” or “eclectic” should have
been discarded.
EFFECT. See AFFECT and EFFECT.
EFFETE. Effete (adjective, pronounced
like a FEAT) is one of those
useful words that have been devalued by
misuse and rendered often ambiguous.
Primarily it means no longer able to produce
offspring or fruit. It can also mean
depleted of vitality, exhausted of vigor.
An article about Thomas Jefferson
says, “Theodore Roosevelt thought he
was effete.” The adjoining sentences
(telling of others’ views of Jefferson)
shed no light on the writer’s meaning.
Other sources suggest that incapable and
visionary (Roosevelt’s own words)
would have been more informative than
“effete”; so would ineffective or timid.
A review of a joint Russian and American
art exhibit says, “The American
painting, on the contrary, looks effete.
It’s so well-made that its life is gone.”
This time the passage offers a clue. By
“effete,” the writer appears to mean lifeless
in creation, not depleted of life but
stillborn.
At times decadent, effeminate, foppish,
soft, weak, or even elite has been
loosely replaced by effete. Spiro Agnew
used it to describe the press corps. It is
seldom clear exactly what the user has in
mind.
Effete came from the Latin effetus,
that has produced young (from ex-, out,
and fetus, giving birth—the source of the
English fetus).
EFFICACY and EFFICIENCY. See
Confusing pairs.
E.G. (for example). See Punctuation,
2A.
EITHER. 1. As a conjunction. 2.
Other functions. 3. Pronunciation.
1. As a conjunction
Either fits four categories. In the sentences
below, from two restaurant reviews,
it is meant as a conjunction, or
connecting word, but it is misused.
Dessert is either vanilla ice cream,
spumoni or a respectable caramel custard
for $1.50 more.
. . . Other meals [include] . . . meatsauced
rice and country salads and either
five-spice chicken, imperial rolls,
or shish kebobs. . . .
As a conjunction, either means one or
the other of two possibilities. Each sample
sentence, however, tells of a choice