The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, Revised Edition

excusable | exoteric and exotic 274
steeples And the cash that goes therewith!
(G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936)- They represent
a wide range of commands, statements,
assertions, and wishes.
excusable. So spelt. See MUTE E.
executive. Apart from its general use
for one of the three branches of government,
of which the others are the legislative
and the judicial, executive is, in Britain,
the name given to one of the three
general classes of civil servants of which
the others are the administrative and the
clerical. In America it means a high officer
with important duties in a business organization,
and this meaning, outside
the civil service, has now become common
in Britain also. The word has also
spread to other areas. Lucinda Lambton
(Listener, 31 Aug. 1989) comments on its
use in hotels: You can quaff from 'executive
bars' ...in 'executive suites' and top up from
'executive ice machines' on 'executive floors'
...We have ... luxuriated over 'executive
menus' (smoked salmon is an extra with the
'executive breakfast'), and I once gratefully
executor. In its ordinary sense (testator's
posthumous agent) pronounced
/ig'zekjuta/, stressed on the second syllable.
It is to be distinguished, of course,
from executioner, an official who carries
out a sentence of death. For the feminine
of executor, see -TRIX.
exercise. Always so spelt, not with -ize.
See -iSE 1.
exhaustible. So spelt. See -ABLE, -IBLE 7.
exigence, -cy. Exigency is now the more
usual and the more natural form of the
two. Both forms entered the language in
the late 16c. and seem to have been
equally frequent in their main senses
until about the end of the 19c by which
stage they no longer showed any clear
functional differences. See -CE, -CY.
exit (verb). In stage directions the correct
style is Exit Macbeth (when only one
person leaves the stage) and Exeunt Kings
and Banquo (more than one person). The
two forms are respectively the 3rd person
sing. près, indicative and the 3rd person
pi. près, indicative of the L verb exire 'to
go out'.
-ex, -ix. 1 Naturalized Latin nouns in
-ex and -ix, gen. -ids, vary in the form of
the plural. The L plural is -ices /-isiiz/, but
there is considerable variation in the
English forms. See LATIN PLURALS.
2 The simplest way to present the
material is to set it out in tabular form
(but see the separate entries for most of
the words concerned).
Singular
apex
appendix
axis
(calyx
codex
cortex
duplex
helix
ilex
index
matrix
murex
radix
silex
simplex
vertex
vortex
Plural
apexes*
appendices*
axes
calices or calyxes)
codices
cortices
duplexes
helices
ilexes
indexes*
matrices
murices
radices
no pi.
simplexes
vertexes*
vortices or vortexes
* But usually apices, appendixes (medicine),
indices (economics), vertices in scien­
pocketed my 'complimentary executive gifts'.
tific or technical work.
3 See -TRIX.
exocentric compounds. See BAHUVRIHI.
ex officio. A Latin phrase meaning *by
virtue of one's office or status' (the Bursar
was a member of the Governing Body ex
officio). Hyphened when used attrib. (the
ex-officio members of the committee).
exorcize, exorcise. As the OED remarked
in 1894, the spelling with final
-ize had by then been almost driven out
by that with -ise, perhaps under the influence
of exercise. My impression is that
exotrise is still the more usual of the two
forms. Nevertheless it belongs etymologically
with the classic -ize words (baptize,
etc.), being from Gk êÇopiaÇeiv (i.e.
with zeta), and should be so spelt in
works that retain the -ize ending in other
words of the same kind.
exordium. The pi. is either exordiums
(this form is recommended) or exordia.
See -UM 3.
exoteric and exotic, of the same ultimate
derivation, have entirely diverse
applications. That is exoteric which is