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

After the legislation had staggered
under its own weight and the withering
attacks of Republicans and insurinevitable
183
percent surcharge but effectively as
much as 50 percent because payoffs
are rounded to the nearest 20-cent increment.
According to a billing statement inadvertently
submitted by Root to the
FCC in a Sonrise case, the money provided
for Root would be kept by Sonrise
and parcelled out to him in
$1,500 increments as he billed the
firm.
The first sentence seems to use “increment”
to mean point; the second, to
mean installment. Increment (noun)
does not mean either. It is an increasing,
or something that is added, or the
amount of gain, or the amount by which
something is growing. The idea of increase
goes with increment.
Increment as a verb (transitive and intransitive)
is not used often. A technical
manual says:
The line feed counter will be incremented
one count for each line advance.
The word is used there correctly, although
“be incremented” is a roundabout
way to say add.
INDEPENDENCE. See DEMOC-
RACY, FREEDOM, and INDEPEN-
DENCE.
INDESCRIBABLE, UNDESCRIB-
ABLE. In the wake of a hurricane on
the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a television
reporter was on the scene. “It really
is undescribable,” he said. Somehow he
managed to describe it anyway, having
been sent there to do so.
On another program, a historical documentary,
the narrator said “the storm
swept down with a grandeur and power
that are indescribable.” She was thereby
describing it.
Undescribable is not wrong, although
it is much less common than indescribable.
They are paradoxical. It is hard to
think of anything that is impossible to
describe—perhaps some of the ultimate
secrets of the universe?—yet that is what
those adjectives mean. Nevertheless,
when either is used, it is liable to accompany
some kind of description. Even “indescribable
joy” is a description.
A synonym is inexpressible, less often
unexpressible (adjectives), not subject to
expression. An inexpressible (noun) is
something that cannot be expressed. At
one time inexpressibles applied to
trousers. So did unmentionables (noun),
which denoted underwear also and occasionally
is still so used, in a jocular way.
An unmentionable is that which should
not be mentioned. Unmentionable (adjective)
means unfit to be mentioned.
Another synonym is unspeakable (adjective),
meaning beyond speech, unfit to
be spoken, or extremely bad or objectionable.
See also Verbal unmentionables.
INDIAN (AMERICAN). See MIS-
NOMER; RACE and NATIONALITY.
Indicative. See Mood; Subjunctive;
Tense, 1.
INDIFFERENT, INDIFFER-
ENCE. See DISINTERESTED and
UNINTERESTED.
INELUCTABLY. See
and false, 2.
Range, true
INEVITABLE. It is easy to say about
something that has already happened
that it was “inevitable.” Who can prove
that it was not? Part of a main story in
an eminent newspaper said: