| 词组 | credible, creditable, credulous |
| 释义 | credible, creditable, credulous Commentators from at least as far back as Hodgson 1889 have been commenting upon or warning against confusion of these words. Hodgson gets off on the wrong foot, holding up the novelist Tobias Smollett for criticism for his use of creditable in this passage: • Two creditable witnesses ... affirmed the appearance of the same man —The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1771 Hodgson thought Smollett should have used credible, but Smollett was right: the first sense of creditable was "believable," and it was certainly current at the time Smollett was writing. This sense has mostly dropped out of use now; credible has taken over the field, and if this sense of creditable is not archaic, it is certainly rare. We have but one example of its use since the 19th century, and the meaning of the word here is not absolutely certain: • Few of his fellow Americans listened—just as they had not listened when similar messages had come from more creditable sources —Fred M. Hechinger, Saturday Rev., 21 Sept. 1974 The use here may have been intended to mean "estimable" or "praiseworthy," but "credible" would also fit. The sense meaning "credible" is entered in some law dictionaries, too. Most writers use credible for this meaning, however; creditable is most frequently used as a rather tepid word of praise: • The restaurant's salads and vegetables are generally creditable, if not altogether imaginative —Jay Jacobs, Gourmet, September 1980 Credulous, which when applied to people, contrasts with skeptical, does not appear to be misused very often. We have but a single instance in which it is used to mean "credible": • If it strikes you as credulous that the eminently successful producer of popular television games shows ... doubled as a hit man for the CIA ... , then you can credit this book —Publishers Weekly, 9 Mar. 1984 This leaves us with the substitution of credible for creditable or credulous. This has certainly happened, but our evidence for it indicates it is not common. We have one oldish example— • He has done credible work —Anthology of Magazine Verse 1926 — in which creditable seems to have been intended. And we have a more recent one — • So long as our popular science writers depict science as an esoteric and inexact pursuit, the credible public will never dare judge the policy consequences or moral implications —Trans-Action, January/February 1967—in which credulous is apparently intended. Apart from the question of whether the "credible" sense of creditable is still a live use, there appears to be very little to worry about here. Most writers know the differences of meaning that separate the three words, or they trust their dictionaries. See also incredulous, incredible. |
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