From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!brunix!gh
Newsgroups: net.flame
Title: Re: "Usage" use.
Article-I.D.: brunix.1199
Posted: Mon Jan 10 10:51:30 1983
Received: Tue Jan 11 03:21:32 1983
References: sultan.115

To those like Daniel Glasser who complain about the use of "usage" when
discussing word usage:

   "`Usage' implies a manner of using (e.g. `harsh usage'), especially of
habitual or customary practice creating a right or standard (`modern English
usage')."
	-- Fowler's "Modern English Usage" [sic]

   "`Use' can be interchangeable with `usage'; a word fitly spoken is in either
good use or good usage.  But `usage' has no use outside the subject of
language.  To substitute `usage' for `use' when the meaning is usefulness or
employment or wear is a solecism."
	-- Follett's "Modern American Usage" [sic]

   The real crime is committed by people who pretentiously say "utilize" for
"use";  Fowler points out that the distinction between the two, "utilize" =
"make good use of", is archaic, and certainly modern users of the word do not
have that distinction in mind.

      Graeme Hirst, Computer Science, Brown University
      ...!{decvax, vax135}!brunix!gh