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