| 词组 | precipitate, precipitous |
| 释义 | precipitate, precipitous Many people, including most usage commentators, are insistent about keeping these adjectives distinct. Precipitate, they say, means "headlong," "abrupt," or "rash"; precipitous means only "steep." Such a clear distinction does not exist absolutely in actual usage, although precipitate, which formerly was sometimes used to mean "steep," does now appear to be used only in the senses approved by the critics: • ... the precipitate withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Force —Saturday Rev., 8 July 1967 • ... causing him to appear precipitate, out of control —Aaron Latham, New York, 17 Nov. 1975 • ... her precipitate flight from the scene of the accident —Peter Taylor, The Old Forest and Other Stories, 1985 And precipitous does usually mean "steep": • ... one of the less precipitous trails —Morten Lund, Ski, November 1971 • Precipitous mountain watersheds laced with energetic, fast-falling streams —Matt Herron, Smithsonian, December 1982 The problem is that precipitous and precipitously are also commonly used in contexts which, according to the critics, require precipitate and precipitately: • I had intended to see you before leaving but at the last moment we go rather precipitously —Robert Frost, letter, 1915 • ... struck up a precipitous flirtation —George Bernard Shaw, letter, 4 Sept. 1916 • Precipitous action, needless to say, has no place in wise security policy —Clinton P. Anderson, New York Times Mag., 4 Sept. 1955 • Cardinal Cushing's precipitous withdrawal of support —Commonweal, 23 Feb. 1968 • ... has not made precipitous changes in social welfare policy —Frances Fox Piven, Columbia Forum, Summer 1970 • ... protection against precipitous action by the military and other agencies —Harvey Wheeler, Center Mag., January/February 1971 • The black comedy ... is too precipitously introduced —John Simon, New York, 22 Nov. 1971 • ... in view of its precipitous demobilization — George F. Kennan, Atlantic, November 1982 • A mother can learn, perhaps, not to act precipitously —Carrie Carmichael, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 25 Jan. 1987 The picture is further complicated by the common use of precipitous and precipitously in describing a sudden, sharp decline: • ... a precipitous decline in the number of Jews in the Soviet Government—Newsweek, 1 Sept. 1958 • ... the performance ... fell precipitously as their dosage of marijuana increased —Solomon H. Snyder, Psychology Today, May 1971 • His fall from power was even more precipitous — Geoffrey C. Ward, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 1 Aug. 1982 • ... the number of reported cases ... fell precipitously —Nan Robertson, N. Y. Times Mag., 19 Sept. 1982 These are really just straightforward figurative applications of the word's literal sense, "steep," but their connotations of suddenness and abruptness bear an obvious resemblance to those of precipitate. Most commentators will allow this figurative usage. A few, however (such as Bryson 1984), insist that precipitous should only be used to describe physical characteristics ("a precipitous cliff*"). Such reasoning may play a part in persuading some writers to use the adverb precipitately in place of precipitously when describing a steep decline: • ... registration in Russian language courses dropped precipitately —William O. Douglas, Freedom of the Mind, 1962 • ... childbearing has dropped precipitately in the United States since the end of the baby boom —Didi Moore, N.Y. Times Mag., 18 Jan. 1981 Many commentators would regard this use of precipitately as an error. Actual usage, then, is far more complicated than the commentators would like it to be. The objective truth is that precipitate and precipitous are similar words whose uses have had a tendency to overlap for centuries. Dictionaries have always shown them to have synonymous senses; in 1755, for example, Samuel Johnson defined precipitate as "steeply falling," "headlong," and "hasty" and precipitous as "headlong; steep," "hasty," and "rash." Noah Webster's Dictionary of 1828 included much the same definitions as Johnson's, and our own dictionaries, from 1847 onward, have continued to show the two words to be standard as synonyms. That is not to say, however, that the distinction favored by the critics has no basis. Evidence in the OED shows that in the 19th century "steep" became the predominant sense of precipitous, with its other senses falling largely into disuse. Their revival in the early 20th century caught the attention of Fowler 1926, and the voices of criticism have been heard ever since. At this point, the criticized usage and the criticism itself are both alive and flourishing. So although almost all dictionaries show that precipitous has as one of its senses "precipitate" and are quite right to do so, you had better be prepared to defend yourself if you use it in that sense. |
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