| 词组 | worthwhile |
| 释义 | worthwhile This adjective originated as a two-word phrase, worth while, which was essentially a short way of saying "worth one's while" and which functioned strictly as a predicate adjective (as in "the experience was worth while"). In the early 20th century, it first began to appear as an attributive adjective, in which use it was hyphenated (as in "a worth-while experience"). For a number of years the customary practice seems to have been to hyphenate the compound when using it attributively and to treat it as two words when using it predicatively. Eventually the hyphenated form was largely superseded by the solid form, worthwhile, which became so well-established in time that it grew to be the favored form even in the predicate ("The experience was worthwhile"). In current English, the hyphenated and two-word forms are still sometimes used and are not at all incorrect: • ... identifying himself as a worth-while citizen — Virgil M. Rogers, in Automation, Education and Human Values, ed. W. W. Brickman & S. Lehrer, 1966 • ... it is still worth while to say ... —Nehemiah Jordan, Themes in Speculative Psychology, 1968 But the solid form is now the usual choice in all contexts: • ... speaks only when he has something worthwhile to contribute —Current Biography, July 1964 • It's a worthwhile addition to the small but growing documentation —Ross Russell, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 24 Oct. 1976 Worthwhile has become such a common word that it has attracted some unfavorable attention. Fowler 1926 devoted a great deal of space to a discussion of what he considered to be errors in its use (or actually in the use of worth while as a phrase), but more recent commentary has tended to be less specific; the usual complaint is that worthwhile is an overused and imprecise word (E. B. White describes it as "emaciated" in Strunk & White 1972). The complaint is not without justice, it seems to us, but you should not banish worthwhile from your vocabulary on that account. Its vagueness is often useful when a general term of approbation is needed. Just keep in mind that a more specific adjective can sometimes be a more appropriate choice. |
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