| 词组 | overly |
| 释义 | overly Bache 1869 and Ayres 1881 succinctly insulted contemporaries who used this word, calling them vulgar and unschooled. Times have changed: modern critics merely insult the word itself. Follett 1966, for example, claims that overly is useless, superfluous, and unhar-monious and should be replaced by the prefix over-. Bryson 1984 adds that "when this becomes overinelegant ... , the alternative is to find another adverb: 'excessively' or 'unnecessarily' or even the admirably concise 'too'." You may not want to go to such lengths to avoid overly, and some modern commentators (Evans 1957, for example) would agree that there is no need to. We concur. In fact, in some cases none of the alternatives sounds as good as overly. • ... a not overly clean tunic —Thomas B. Costain, The Black Rose, 1945 • ... the author of various not overly inspired books —Robert A. Hall, Jr., A Short History of Italian Literature, 1951 • ... make his otherwise overly comfortable life more interesting —Pauline Kael, Harper's, February 1969 Even when over-, too, excessively, or unnecessarily would be a successful substitute, the fact that a synonym is available does not mean that you have to use it. These writers used overly: • ... has been too long an observer of human folly to be overly optimistic —Leland Stone, N.Y. Herald Tribune Book Rev., 13 May 1945 • In trying to get too much in he sometimes gets overly vehement —Sidney Monas, Hudson Rev., Autumn 1950 • ... so much playing is overly concerned with notes —Howard Klein, N.Y. Times, 7 Apr. 1966 • ... Russian leaders seemed overly suspicious — Norman Cousins, Saturday Rev., 30 Oct. 1971 • ... an overly educated European newspaperman — Norman Mailer, N.Y. Times Mag., 26 Sept. 1976 • ... an overly eager land developer —William Sty-ron, N.Y. Times Mag, 15 June 1980 Overly is not as commonly used in England as in the U.S., but according to the OED Supplement it is gaining ground there. |
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