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People have been using anxious as a synonym for eager for over 250 years, and for over 100 years language critics have been objecting to it. Objectors feel that anxious should be used only when the person it refers to is worried or uneasy about the upcoming event. By this thinking, it is OK to [...]
The word unanticipated, however, is not established as a synonym for unexpected. Seventy-seven percent of the Usage Panel rejected the sentence They always set aside a little extra food for unanticipated guests, inasmuch as guests for whom advance provision has been made cannot be said to be unanticipated, though they may very well be unexpected.
Some people hold that you should never use anticipate as a synonym for expect, as in We didn’t anticipate that it would take so long to drive across Ohio. They would restrict its use to situations in which advance action is taken either to forestall an occurrence (as in She anticipated her opponent’s next move) [...]
If you and your local scout troop go all together on a hike, you may be altogether tired when you get back. As this example shows, altogether and all together do not mean the same thing. We use all together to indicate that the members of a group perform or undergo an action collectively: The [...]
As conjunctions, although and though are generally interchangeable: Although (or though) she smiled, she was angry. Although usually occurs at the beginning of its clause (as in the preceding example), whereas though may occur elsewhere and is the more common term when used to link words or phrases, as in wiser though poorer. In certain [...]
As an adjective, alternative can mean “allowing or requiring a choice between two or more things,” as in We wrote an alternative statement in case the first was rejected by the board. It may also refer to a variant or substitute in cases where no choice is involved, as in We will do our best [...]
You may find yourself in a situation with no alternative, with only one alternative, or with more than one alternative, but can you ever have more than two alternatives? Some traditionalists hold that alternative should be used only in situations where the number of choices involved is exactly two because of the word’s historical relation [...]
Both of these forms are acceptable as prepositions. Thus you can say The barge lay alongside (or alongside of) the pier
all allusions are references, but are all references allusions? Many people, following the advice of language critics, like to make a distinction between alluding to something and referring to it. By this thinking, allude and allusion should apply to indirect references in which the source is not specifically identified: “Well, we’ll always have Paris,” he [...]
Is it all right to use alright? Despite the appearance of alright in the works of such well-known writers as Flannery O’Connor, Langston Hughes, and James Joyce, the merger of all and right has never been accepted as standard. This is peculiar, since similar fusions like already and altogether have never raised any objections. The [...]