| Re: Progress!
Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:20:35 +0100,
<esdgf0p8q1p9nbi087j4c2q3v546p1bf5h@4ax.com>, "Just zis Guy, you
know?" <outlook.bugs@microsoft.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:43:34 -0500, "Sam spade" <sam@spade.org> wrote
>in message <afWJc.43245$RD4.2047705@news20.bellglobal.com>:
>
>>(enthused)? That is not a word. You can be enthusiastic, but you cannot be
>>enthused.
>
>Up to a point, Lord Copper. It is a word according to Chambers, but
>as the past tense of the verb "to enthuse", as in "the group enthused
>over Sam Spade's decision to stop top-posting".
>
>Current usage allows for Zoot's sentence as well, but current usage
>also apparently allows sentences with "like" as every third word :-)
>
[Back-formation from enthusiasm.]
Usage Note: The verb enthuse is not well accepted. Its use in the
sentence The majority leader enthused over his party's gains was
rejected by 76 percent of the Usage Panel in the late 1960s, and its
status remains unfavorable: the same sentence was rejected by 65
percent of the Usage Panel in 1997. This lack of enthusiasm for
enthuse is often attributed to its status as a back-formation; such
words often meet with disapproval on their first appearance and only
gradually become accepted over time. But other back- formations such
as diagnose (a back-formation from diagnosis that was first recorded
in 1861) and donate (first cited in 1785 as a back-formation from
donation) are considered unimpeachable English words. Since enthuse
dates from 1827, something more significant may be overriding the
erosion of popular resistance. Unlike enthusiasm, which denotes an
internal emotional state, enthuse denotes either the external
expression of emotion, as in She enthused over attending the awards
ceremony, or the inducement of enthusiasm by an external source, as in
He was so enthused about the diet pills that he agreed to provide a
testimonial. Possibly, some people's distaste for this emphasis on
external emotional display and manipulation is the source of unease
that is manifested by a distaste for the word itself.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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zk
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