| 词组 | underhanded, underhand |
| 释义 | underhanded, underhand Underhanded was strongly criticized in the 19th century as a vulgarism for underhand. Its most severe critic seems to have been Gould 1870: • This "word" is formed by adding to the adjective underhand a participial termination; but the addition still leaves the word an adjective, without in the least modifying the sense of the true word. There is no verb to underhand, and no noun an underhand, from which such a compound could be made. The addition of ed, therefore, renders the word a mere vulgarism.... Gould noted with some surprise that dictionaries entered underhanded as a reputable word. "But," he wrote, "the indorsement is not strong enough to make the word good. It is no better than leniency, jeopardize, etc." Almost everyone would now agree that underhanded is no better—and no worse—than leniency and jeopardize, which is to say that it is a perfectly good word. The 19th-century criticism has enjoyed little popularity in the 20th century, and no commentator since Partridge 1942 has repeated it. Underhanded continues to be used commonly as both an adjective and an adverb. As an adjective meaning "marked by secrecy and deception," it has almost entirely replaced underhand in American English: • ... his old propensity for underhanded tactics against political opponents —Norman Cousins, Saturday Rev., 20 Aug. 1977 The British, however, continue to use underhand in this sense: • ... as unquieting and ambivalent and underhand in intention as he found them —Margaret Drabble, The Needle's Eye, 1972 When a method of throwing or striking a ball is being described, the adjective is almost always underhand ("an underhand toss"), but the adverb can be either underhand or underhanded: • ... wants Chamberlain to shoot his free throws underhanded —Phil Elderkin, Sporting News, 26 Mar. 1966 • ... a lawn-tennis player served either underhand or shoulder high —Louis Kronenberger, N.Y. Times Mag., 6 May 1973 |
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