| 词组 | Frankenstein |
| 释义 | Frankenstein For sheer triviality, few subjects can top the question of whether it is all right to use Frankenstein to refer to the creation, the monster, and not just to its creator. The palm for unearthing this issue seems to go to F. H. Collins, who put it in his Author and Printer—a book for the guidance of printers and proofreaders—published in 1905. Fowler 1926 took up the cudgels against the usage, although he seemed rather to feel that it was too well established to beat down. On this side of the Atlantic the editors of Webster 1909 followed Collins's advice, but in 1934 those of Webster's Second threw out the admonition and entered the sense as a second definition. The editors of the Second had seen these examples: • But this machine is a Frankenstein that will turn on its own creators and work their destruction together with its own —Atlantic, October 1917 • Before that measure, a bureau was a kind of Frankenstein created by Act of Congress —Yale Rev., October 1918 • The gigantic post-War industrial Frankenstein erected by Herr Stinnes is conceivable among no other people —Time, 30 Aug. 1926 But even recognition in Webster's Second would not satisfy all the sticklers; still fighting the good fight we find Bernstein 1958, 1965, Harper 1975, 1985, Bremner 1980 and Shaw 1975, 1987, who are still disposed to view the use as an error. On the other hand, we have Evans 1957, Copperud 1964, 1970, 1980, Watt 1967, Follett 1966, and Barzun 1985 accepting the extended sense. Here is Barzun: • Pedantry is a misplaced attention to trifles which then prides itself on its poor judgment. The editors who would have everyone write a Frankenstein's monster instead of a Frankenstein are pedants. |
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