The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, Revised Edition

213 differentia | differently
priorities different to those of the 'new voca-wtionalism'—Essays & Studies, 1987; Geoffrey Tasmania).
went to different [i.e. various] places in
Palmer is a vastly different prime minister to
his predecessor— B. Jesson in Metro (NZ), differentia. PI. differentiae /-Jn:/.
1990; (than) It was no different than wolves differentiation. 1 See-ciATioN.-TiA-noN.
cross-cutting on a deer—T. Findley, 1984
(Canad.); he wondered if people now made 2 The term was applied by Fowler
love ... in a different way than their grandparents-T.
Keneally, 1985 (Aust.); This at one time or another shared a common
(1926) principally to pairs of words that
discrepancy is intriguing because most scal­meaninlops have a very different mode of life than have now become distinct. For in the standard language but
example,
other species—Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sri., among the OED's 18c. quotations for
1987. The construction with than is widespread
in AmE, but does not form part may not here be improper to take notice of a
spiritual and spirituous are these two: It
of the regular language in Britain. wise and spiritual saying of this young
A contrary view is sometimes expressed.
I quote from The Oxford Guide to
prince—Isaac DTsraeli, 1791-1823; The
Greeks, who are a spirituous and wise
English Usage (1993): 'Both different to and
different than are especially valuable as a
means of avoiding the repetition and
the relative construction required after
different from in sentences like J was a very
different man in 1935 from what I was in
1916 {Joyce Cary). This could be recast as
I was a very different man in 1935 than I
was in 19160T than in 1916. Compare The
American theatre, which is suffering from a
different malaise than ours, which is greatly
preferable to suffering from a different malaise
from that which ours is suffering from.'
A wiser course, perhaps, is simply to
avoid different than if you happen to be
writing (or speaking) in Britain. There
are other ways of recasting sentences
than by simply substituting equivalent
American constructions.
(b) Logic. The principle upon which
different to is questioned is based on the
premiss that we do not say differ to. By
this argument, all words in the same
morphological family should be construed
with the same prepositions; e.g.
we ought to say according with (instead
of according to) because we say accords
with. Contrast also full of "with filled with;
proud 0/with pride in.
2 Different has been informally used
throughout the 20c. to mean 'out of the
ordinary, special': What a perfectly lovely
couch ... Why, it is so beautifully different/—D.
F. Canfield, 1912; They are always
striving to write a piece of copy that will be
'different'—Publishers' Weekly, 1930.
3 In a weaker sense, different is sometimes
used inadvisedly as a synonym
of various, separate, distinct, etc. (Different
people told me I had done the right thing;
People—]. Savage, 1703. The linking of
each with wise indicates that they are
interchangeable. In present-day usage
they have drawn apart. Differentiation
has occurred. Similarly, airship when first
used meant any type of aircraft, whether
lighter or heavier than air; later, by differentiation
from aeroplane (and airplane),
airship became confined to the former
kind. Differentiations become complete
not by authoritative pronouncements or
dictionary fiats (as Fowler correctly observed),
but by being gradually adopted
in speaking and writing. It is the business
of a writer of a usage guide to give a
clear indication of the stage reached by
such differentiations in so far as the
boundaries and limits can be determined
from the available evidence.
Scores of pairs of words that have
become partially or fully differentiated
are dealt with at their alphabetical
places in this book. Judgements are also
offered about the rights and wrongs of
the attitudes of writers and of members
of the general public where controversial
areas exist. For example: (fully differentiated
in standard English but sometimes
confounded) affect\effect, defusel
diffuse, deprecateldepreciate, fortuitousj
fortunate, implyjinfer, masterful\masterly,
prevaricate\procrasUnate, refutejdeny; (partially
differentiated, with a residual band
of overlapping meaning) administerl
administrate, admissionjadmittance, continual!
continuous, mutuallcommon.
differently. 1 Normally construed with
from {John Dunston had been brought up very
differently from his father—Bodleian Libr. Rec,
1986), but historically, like different,
sometimes construed with to or than.