guide to precise phrases, grammar, and pronunciation can be key; it can even be admired. But beloved? Yet from its first appearance in 1926, Fowler's was just that. Henry Watson Fowler initially aimed his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, as he wrote to his publishers in 1911, at "the half-educated Englishman of literary proclivities who wants to know Can I say so-&-so?" He was of course obsessed with, in Swift's phrase, "proper words in their proper places." But having been a schoolmaster, Fowler knew that liberal doses ...
Read More
guide to precise phrases, grammar, and pronunciation can be key; it can even be admired. But beloved? Yet from its first appearance in 1926, Fowler's was just that. Henry Watson Fowler initially aimed his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, as he wrote to his publishers in 1911, at "the half-educated Englishman of literary proclivities who wants to know Can I say so-&-so?" He was of course obsessed with, in Swift's phrase, "proper words in their proper places." But having been a schoolmaster, Fowler knew that liberal doses of style, wit, and caprice would keep his manual off the shelf and in writers' hands. He also felt that description must accompany prescription, and that advocating pedantic "superstitions" and "fetishes" would be to no one's advantage. Adepts will have their favorite inconsequential entries--from burgle to brood, truffle to turgid. Would that we could quote them all, but we can't resist a couple.
Read Less
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Wordsworth to cart. $29.02, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Oxford Language to cart. $31.04, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: the Classic First to cart. $31.68, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage to cart. $31.81, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage to cart. $36.62, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1965 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of Dictionary of Modern English Usage to cart. $41.87, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by Random House Value Publishing.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Oxford Language to cart. $46.44, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of Dictionary of Modern English Usage to cart. $48.63, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1984 by Omega Bks.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: the Classic First to cart. $57.63, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Oxford University Press.
Add this copy of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Wordsworth to cart. $72.84, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
