CHAPTER 2

The Right W ords and the

W rong W ords
Choosing the w rong w ord sometimes results from getting confused
between two w ords w hich are very similar in sound or spelling. The
mistake is even m ore likely to occur if the two w ords are also close in
meaning. The extreme form o f confusion between two words similar in
sound is the m alapropism , so called after the character Mrs Malaprop
in Sheridans play The Rivals. Mrs Malaprop declares that she w ould have
no wish for a daughter of hers to be a progeny of learning, w hen she
clearly means prodigy. She considers her niece Lydia to be by no means
illegible for a certain match, but she finds her as headstrong as an
allegory on the banks of the N ile. There is perhaps little need now to
w arn readers against confusing an allegory w ith an alligator or using
illegible instead o f ineligible, but I have quite recently seen prodigy
misused where the w ord should have been protegee. O f the many pairs
o f words w hich lend themselves to this confusion, observation suggests
that the following deserve attention.
abjure / adjure
To abjure is to renounce, often used of formal recantations. This rough
magic / I here abjure says Shakespeares Prospero, w hen he renounces
the practice of magic at the end of The Tempest. To adjure is formally to
com mand, earnestly to bind or appeal to ( His friends earnestly adjured
him to take care o f his health).
abrogate I arrogate
To abrogate is to cancel, to repeal, officially to revoke. W hen Holofernes
in Loves Labours Lost seems to be about to tell a risque tale. Sir Nathaniel
warns him to abrogate scurrility. The verb to arrogate, derived from
a Latin verb meaning to adopt as a child, came to mean to assume to
oneself rights to w hich one is not entitled. In Paradise Regained Milton attacks
false philosophers w ho arrogate all glory to themselves and none to