| 词组 | definite |
| 释义 | definite 1. Phythian 1979 and Copperud 1980 warn against the misspelling definate. It, definately, and defination are all attested in our files. Watch out for that second i. 2. Definite, definitely. Copperud 1970, 1980 lists three objections to the use or overuse of these words as intensives. To his list can be added Phythian 1979, Bell & Cohn 1981, Janis 1984, Watt 1967, Prentice Hall 1978, and Perrin & Ebbitt 1972. Beyond the supposed overuse, the objectors call any use of the words in this way "meaningless," "imprecise," "vague." Since they are so consistently called "overworked" by the commentators, one might suspect that they were the objects of a passing vogue, but in fact that seems not to be the case. The OED Supplement ignores this use but covers the similar use of definitely as an emphatic yes, which it dates to 1931. The evidence of our citations for the use under consideration here goes back to about the same time—1932 for the adjective and 1938 for the adverb. In 1938 the adverb was already being condemned as a fad use that would debase the word. But a fifty-year-long fad is a paradoxical beast, and the use has continued to the present. (Nor has it driven out older uses of the words.) The following examples evidence its establishment in general prose; it seems to have little use in literature and virtually none in any sort of elevated discourse, however: • He had gone into newspaper work because he had definite writing abilities. But he soon hated his work —William J. Reilly, Life Planning for College Students, 1954 • ... began to look out through the room with the small, sour eyes of a definite maniac —Johanna Kaplan, Harper's, March 1971 • Now "Ragtime" has brought an undisclosed amount of money and a definite, if indeterminate, quantity of hope to the block —Richard F. Shepard, N. Y. Times, 28 July 1980 • He is a pupil of the late Edgar Wallace and has definitely made good in literature —N.Y. Herald Tribune, 24 July 1938 • What was definitely overlooked was the fact that the troposphere is not continuous —Lord Ritchie-Calder, Center Mag., May 1969 • We had always hoped there would come a time when there would be dancing in the aisles of the U.N. But this was definitely not it —Goodman Ace, Saturday Rev., 20 Nov. 1971 3. Definite, definitive. Warnings against the confusion of these words can be found in quite a large number of usage books and handbooks: Harper 1975, 1985, Sellers 1975, Copperud 1970, Bernstein 1965, Evans 1957, Fowler 1926, 1965, Phythian 1979, Chambers 1985, Shaw 1975, 1987, Prentice Hall 1978. Almost all of them tell you what the words mean—information readily available in dictionaries. Harper and Fowler assert that the error consists in using definitive in place of definite. We have collected no evidence of such substitution during the last quarter century, and the usage books give no quoted examples. The operative word here is "clear-cut," however, as it is not always easy to tell in a given case whether definitive has been used in place of definite or has been used innocently in one of its own well-established senses but in a context where error may be perceived by one so inclined: • They all want definitive answers, not carefully hedged responses stated in terms of probabilities full of "ifs" and "buts" and other uncertainties —Seymour Martin Lipset, TV. Y. Times Mag., 30 Aug. 1964 Definite would fit smoothly into this sentence, but that is not to say that the author did not mean definitive in its sense "serving to supply a final answer," as Webster's Third puts it. Nearly all our examples of the possible misuse of definitive are of this variety, as are several of Fowler's examples. Examples like the following are not numerous and not recent: • No one denies that the cease-fire brings a definitive strengthening of the Communist position in Asia — Denis Healey, New Republic, 9 Aug. 1954 Most of the time, writers seem to have little trouble keeping these words distinct; if, however, you are confronted by a situation in which your correctly used definitive might be taken for a confused use in place of definite, the better part of valor might be to avoid both words and use one like conclusive, categorical, or final instead. Misuses of definite for definitive are easy to spot but rarely find their way into print. They do not constitute a serious problem. Our most recent example is this: • The publication as Christmas gifts of a definite edition of the poems of Rudyard Kipling —Times Literary Supp., 1 Dec. 1940 |
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