| 词组 | worsen |
| 释义 | worsen This is an old verb, recorded as far back as the 13th century, but its written use was relatively uncommon until the 1800s. The OED has an interesting note: "The word is common in dialect ... and was reintroduced to literature c 1800-1830 (by writers like Southey and De Quincey) as a racy vernacular substitute for deteriorate and the like." It is hard now to think of worsen as ever having been "racy." Its written use in the 20th century has been common and entirely reputable, but a few people have had lingering qualms about it: • ... yesterday's editorial on "Salonica" states: "At this point the Austrian situation began to worsen." • Now, the writer ain't got no Webster's unabridged handy, and that little word "worsen" rather grated on his unaccustomed ear —letter to the editor, N. Y. Tribune, 19 Dec. 1915 Its only critic among usage commentators, however, appears to have been Krapp 1927, who considered it "much too rare to be counted customary good English." Fowler 1926, on the other hand, recognized it as a standard verb, and none of the few recent commentators who have addressed the subject has disagreed. Copperud 1970, 1980 indicates that it still has some critics, but he himself is not one of them. Neither should you be. Worsen is, in fact, an ordinary, unexciting word, having long ago cast off the last vestiges of its former raciness: • Such a "solution" ... can only worsen the situation — Times Literary Supp., 2 Oct. 1969 • ... these odds could worsen quickly —Vance Bour-jaily, Harper's, March 1972 |
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