mausoleum The tourists meandered through the market stalls or The tourists maundered through the market stalls. There are still slightly different implications. While the first sentence connotes leisurely movement, the second has overtones of confusion. mausoleum For the plural of this word, see -um. maxi- This new prefix of the 1960s is derived from Latin maximus “greatest or largest”. In English it usually means “large-sized”, as in: maxibudget maxisingle maxiskirt maxi-taxi maxiyacht Although they are hybrid Latin/English formations, new words with maxi- quickly lose their hyphens. In some examples the maxi- word is obviously coined to match a similar word with mini So maxi-taxi, first recorded in 1961, seems to parallel minicab (1960), and maxiskirt (1966) appeared just a year after miniskirt. Mini-is also a relatively new prefix (see under mini-). maxim See under aphorism. maxima cum laude See under cum laude. maximum The plural of this word is discussed under -um. may or might The first of these is now far commoner than the second, according to grammar research (Biber et al., 1999). This helps to explain why may is increasingly used instead of might, even to express a remote possibility, as in: He may have died if the ambulance had been delayed. Older usage preferred might in such cases because, as the historical past form of may, it made the sense of possibility more remote. However tense distinctions among modal verbs have fallen away (see modality). Curiously, might is now found more often than may in speech, and less often in writing. For other uses of may and might, see under can or may, and could or might. May Day or mayday With its capital letters and a space between the words, May Day (1st May) is celebrated in the northern hemisphere as the first day of spring. But the traditional games and dancing and celebration of nature gave way in the twentieth century to parades celebrating the international labor movement. Without capitals or space, mayday is the international distress call used by ships and aircraft to radio for help. The rhyming syllables represent the French cri de coeur m’ aider (or m’aidez) “help me”. The English spelling is a neat example of folk etymology (see under that heading)—but it ensures that we get the pronunciation right when in dire straits. maybe or may be The space makes all the difference. May be with space between the words is a compound verb, as in It may be vital, where may is the auxiliary verb (see further under auxiliary verbs). 498 me Maybe is an adverb meaning “perhaps”. It has a slightly informal character for some people, perhaps because of its frequent appearances in conversation and “thinking aloud”: Maybe they’ll arrive tomorrow. Still it appears often enough in written English, and thereare 106 instances of maybe to 335 of perhaps in the Australian ACE corpus—a ratio of approximately 1:3. The affinity between maybe and less formal writing may be seen in the fact that more than half the instances (60) are found in the fiction samples which make up only a quarter of the corpus. Yet there are instances in all nonfiction categories of writing as well, including government and academic prose. me The pronoun me comes very close to us all, though grammarians and other language commentators of the past have made us rather self-conscious about it. People sometimes replace it with myself, as if to avoid putting the spotlight directly on themselves: This was a gift to myself from my wife. There is no need to do this. In fact we draw less attention to ourselves by using the ordinary me: This was a gift to me from my wife. Anxieties about me probably stem from two constructions which are censured by the grammarian, though they are quite common in informal dialogue. One is the use of me instead of my as a possessive adjective (especially by young people), as in: I rode round there on me bike. Written down, this me seems ungrammatical—a first person pronoun where a determiner should be used. In fact it looks worse than it usually sounds. As pronounced it’s often more like my with a shortened vowel or a schwa (see further under that heading). When scripting informal dialogue there may be good reason to write me or m’ instead of my, though it would seem out of place or substandard in most other kinds of writing. Another vexed use of me is after and when two subjects are coordinated: Jim and me left before the rest. Here me substitutes for I: in standard written grammar it would be Jim and I left before the rest. But in casual conversation some speakers maintain the object pronoun whether its role is actually subject or object. It would of course be perfectly acceptable in: They farewelled Jim and me before the rest. There it’s part of the object of theverb (see cases). But when the grammatical reasons for using I and me are not understood, the choice seems arbitrary. Hence also the 499 mea culpa substitution of I for me in for you and I or like you and I, which is now common enough to be regarded as a standard variant, according to the Cambridge Grammar (2002) Whatever the vagaries of me in casual speech, its use in writing is still complementary to I as object and subject pronoun respectively, and it’s not about to be eclipsed. In noncoordinated constructions the use of me is stable, and the I/me distinction is matched by we/us, he/him, she/her and they/them (though absent from you and it). For the moment then, there are more English pronouns with the subject/object distinction than without it. mea culpa This Latin phrase meaning “by my fault” comes from the confession at the beginning of the mass. But it has long been used in secular English to mean simply “I am to blame” whenever we feel the need to admit responsibility for a problem—whether it’s the mismatched cutlery on the table or the mistaken information which has made everyone late for dinner. Its Latin dress still makes it a rather earnest admission, however, and neither it nor peccavi “I have sinned” can be used very lightheartedly. meagre or meager See -re/-er. meander or maunder See maunder. meaningful Overworked words lose their cutting edge, and the meaning of meaningful is threatened in this way. Even worse, meaningful tends to devalue the words it’s combined with. In clich ´ es such as meaningful dialogue, meaningful discussion, and meaningful negotiation, we begin to wonder what meaningless dialogue/discussion/negotiation might be. (Can anything be discussed or negotiated without some meaning being exchanged?) And does meaningful mean much in meaningful experience or meaningful relationship? In many cases it’s redundant, or simply a substitute for “important”, “worthwhile”, or other words which embody a value judgement. They are better words to use, if meaningful is intended that way. If meaningful is a synonym for “significant”, then the actual significance of the meaningful experience should be explained. If we take the load off meaningful by these various means, it has a better chance of retaining its essential denotation “full of meaning” in expressions such as meaningful look, meaningful smile and meaningful pause—and of being a meaningful component of English. means This word looks plural, yet it can combine with either a singular or plural verb, depending on the meaning. When it means “resources or income”, it’s always plural: Their means were never large enough for her dreams. When it means “method of doing something”, it can be either singular or plural, according to whether the writer means one or several methods: 500 mediocre His ultimate means of gaining public attention was to fake disappearance. We’ve tried all the means that are available to ordinary citizens. As the last example shows, the use of words such as all, many, several (or any plural number) confirms the need for a plural verb; and the use of a, any, each and every would show where a singular verb is needed. measles Should it be Measlesis rampant at the school or Measles are rampant . . .? See agreement section 4b. media In English this has long been used as the plural of the Latin medium “a vehicle or channel of communication”, especially in reference to the various forms of visual art, such as fresco, mosaic, relief, oil-painting, charcoal, gouache. During the twentieth century media acquired a collective sense in referring to the various channels of mass communication, such as radio, TV and newspapers. The media, first recorded in the 1950s, is now a byword for the mass media at large. Because of this collective usage, media is sometimes coupled with a singular verb and/or pronoun: A politician is no sooner elected than the media begins to get its teeth into him. The same sentence could equally well be: A politician is no sooner elected than the media begin to get their teeth into him. For some people the second version is the only “correct” one, because they insist that media is plural. No-one could deny that it’s a plural word in Latin, but its collective use in modern English makes it more like team and committee, which can take singular or plural verbs and pronouns, depending on the meaning intended. (See further under collective nouns.) An Oxford Dictionary citation from 1966 notes the use of media as a singular noun “spreading into upper cultural strata”; and the fact that the dictionary still calls it “erroneous” is a remarkable example of a linguistic shibboleth. Many Latin loanwords undergo new grammatical and sense developments in the context of English. (Compare stamina, discussed under stamen.) Webster’s English Usage (1989) notes two further developments of the word: media as a count noun (for example in a new recording media), and the use of medias as its plural—the further reaches of its assimilation. For the different uses of plural media and mediums, see under -um. medieval or mediaeval. See under ae/e. mediocre This word is spelled the same way everywhere in the English- speaking world. Even in North America the -re is standard spelling, never replaced with -er (see -re/-er)—no doubt to avoid having -cer for the last syllable, which might suggest a soft c sound. In similar words such as ochre/ocher and sepulchre/sepulcher, the h keeps the c hard. 501 medium Some people take the word mediocre “middling” very literally, to mean “at the middle point of a scale”, and argue that it cannot be qualified by words such as “rather” or “very”: it either is or is not “in the middle”. But for most people mediocre is more general in its meaning, appraising things as “ordinary and unremarkable”. Taken that way there’s no problem at all in qualifying the word with adverbs of degree. Compare unique. medium The plural of this word is discussed under -um. meet (up)(with) For centuries the verb meet has worked simply and effectively, with no extra particles: We met the director in her office. They meet at the bar after work. In grammatical terms the first sentence is transitive, the second intransitive (see further under transitive); but each is self-sufficient. The very simplicity of this seems to make English-speakers want to add to it, and many are inclined to use meet with as the transitive form, and meet up as the intransitive: We met with the director They meet up at the bar There are some subtle differences in meaning perhaps, a certain formality about meet with and a sense of the importance of the encounter; while meet up seems to connote a more ordinary get-together. These differences in connotation may justify their use on occasions, though meet itself would often be sufficient. Some usage commentators, especially British ones, present a different argument for avoiding meet with in the sense of “come into the presence of”. They find it unfortunate that it coincides with meet with in the sense “incur or experience”, as in: I hope it meets with your approval. She met with huge resistance. Yet dictionaries allow both kinds of meaning for meet with, and the distinction is clear from whether the object of meet with is animate (as with “director”) or abstract (as with “approval” and “resistance”). The second is more common than the first (by a ratio of 11:5) in the Australian ACE corpus. As if this were not enough, meet is quite often accompanied by up as well as with when it means no more than meet in its simple, transitive sense of “encounter or come together with”. See for example: At the conference they met up with their former colleagues. This usage seems to have originated in the US in the nineteenth century, and is current in Australia. Although the use of two particles after a simple verb may seem excessive, we take it for granted in quite a few other verb phrases, such as 502 melted or molten come up with and walk out on (see further under phrasal verbs). Their flavor is slightly informal, but they are established idioms. mega- Derived from Greek,thisprefixmeans“huge”.Inphysical measurements, such as those calibrated in megahertz, megatons and megawatts, mega- means exactly “one million or 10 6 ”. It takes its place among the standard metric prefixes, represented by the symbol M (see Appendix IV ). In the computer term megabyte mega- equals 2 20 . But in other scientific and scholarly words, mega- means just “impressively large”, as in: megalith megaphone megaspore megastructure Note that megapod meaning “having large feet” can be applied generally in zoological description; whereas macropod, literally again “having large feet”, is strictly the term for the kangaroo family of animals. (For other uses of macro- see under that heading.) Megalo- is an older form of mega-, which combines only with Greek words, as in megalomania, megalopolis and megalosaur. The older megalocephalic is being replaced by megacephalic. In the past, the words coined with mega- were scholarly ones. A few of them have however taken root in everyday English, and provided the stimulus for more informal uses of mega- since World War II. Recent formations such as megabucks, megadeath, megastar and megastore are familiar journalistic terms, in which its meaning varies from “vast in numbers” to “awesomely large or great”. Australia has been dubbed Meganesia; and in casual conversation you’ll hear mega used instead of “very” as an intensifier: It’s megatrendy. It even occurs on its own as an exclamation: “Mega!” as a substitute for “Great!” meiosis See under figures of speech. Melanesia See under Polynesia. melodious or melodic For musicologists and others, melodic is the one to use when you’re talking technically about the structure of music, and distinguishing its melodic component from the rhythm and harmony. But for other general purposes, melodic and melodious are synonyms. Both can be applied to a tune or pattern of sound which appeals to the ear. Effectively melodic has more applications than melodious, and this may explain why it’s the commoner of the two, according to the evidence of English databases. Apart from its use as banter in “I heard your melodious voice . . .”, melodious has a somewhat literary flavor these days, which also helps to account for its decreasing use. melted or molten In modern English we conventionally speak of melted butter and melted ice, but molten lead and molten lava. The twin adjectives are reminders of the fact that there were once (in Old English) two verbs relating to 503 memento the process of becoming liquid. Their parts were merged in Middle English, and molten was used as an alternative past participle for the verb melt,asinmolten tallow. Melted first appeared in the sixteenth century, as the regular past participle (see irregular verbs). As it became established molten lost its connection with the verb and was confined to the adjective role, especially to phrases in which it combined with metals or other substances that are liquefied only by great heat. Nineteenth century authors could write figuratively of “molten passions”, but such hyperbole is probably too much for twenty-first century taste. We do however make figurative use of melted, as in “At those words he melted . . .”, to express a much gentler human emotion. memento This word has been used in English for a token of remembrance since the eighteenth century. Occasionally it appears as momento, a variant which is now registered in international dictionaries such as the Oxford Dictionary (1989) and Webster’s Third (1986). The first evidence of momento comes from a mid-nineteenth century American source, according to Webster’s English Usage (1989); and it’s very frequent in Australian internet documents (Google 2006). The Macquarie Dictionary (2003) presents it as a variant of memento. Butthe Australian Oxford (2004) is reluctant to do so, no doubt because it obscures the etymology of the word (the Latin root mem- “remember” in the first syllable). The respelling suggests folk etymology at work on the word, reinterpreting it to emphasise the special moment, rather than as a means of remembering or commemorating something. For the plural of memento, see -o. memento mori See under danse macabre. memorandum and memo Both these refer to a genre of inter-office communication in government and industry, one which is more public and less personal than letters. Both forms of the word are current, and the longer one has more formal overtones, especially in any quasi-legal document which is a Memorandum of Agreement or Memorandum of Association. Its plural may be memoranda or memorandums. (See further under -um.) In government offices memorandum is the standard form, yet memo is well established in its own right, and the two appear in equal numbers in the Australian ACE corpus. The Oxford Dictionary (1989) has recorded the use of memo as a noun for over a century, and Webster’s English Usage (1989) even has evidence of it being used as a verb. Its plural is memos, as is usual for abbreviated words ending in -o (see under -o.) m´enage or man`ege These French loanwords refer respectively to the management of one’s house and the management of one’s horse, so they are not to be confused. Without their accents, they are easily mistaken for each other. One way to remember the difference is that m ´ enage is like menial, and involves the 504 meronymy humdrum business of running a household; whereas man ` ege which embodies the Latin root manus “hand” has to do with handling a horse. M ´ enage also refers to the structure of a household, and the people who comprise it. So the m ´ enage ` a trois (literally “household with three”) is a discreet way of referring to a nonstandard household of three persons—a husband, wife and a third who is the lover of one of them. mendacity or mendicity These two are dangerously alike. Mendacity refers to the falseness of something, or a particular falsehood. A mendacious report embodies false and deceptive statements. But those accused of mendicity have the consolation of knowing that they are poor but honest about their condition. Mendicity is a formal word for begging, and a way of life for a mendicant (“beggar”). -ment This suffix, borrowed from French and Latin, forms many an English word. It makes nouns out of verbs, especially those which are French in origin. Here is a sample of them from the letter A: accomplishment advertisement agreement alignment amusement announcement arrangement assessment Only a handful of -mentwordsareformedwith English verbs, including catchment, puzzlement and settlement, and a special subgroup prefixed with em-oren-: embitterment, embodiment, encampment, enlightenment and enlistment. Most words ending in -ment can express the action of the verb they embody, as well as the product which results from the action: the development of the program a new housing development an investment in their future devaluing our investments The spelling of words with -ment usually means leaving the verb intact, as in all the examples so far. Verbs ending in -e retain it, in keeping with the general rule before suffixes beginning withaconsonant (see under -e). Notehoweverthatwhen the verb ends in -dge, two spellings are possible, as with abridg(e)ment, acknowledg(e)ment, judg(e)ment and lodg(e)ment. (See further under judgement or judgment.) For the spelling of argument see under that heading. Note also that -ment words based on certain verbs ending in l may have one or two ls before the suffix, as with enrollment and fulfillment. In Australia and Britain such words often have only one l, because that is the spelling of the simple verb (enrol, fulfil), whereas in North America the two ls of the simple verb are taken into the -ment word. However the spellings forestalment and instalment reflect outdated spellings of the verb. See further under forestallment and installment. merino For the plural of this, see -o. meronymy See under metonymy. 505 meta- meta- Derived from Greek, this prefix essentially meant “with, beyond or after” (in space or time), and often involved a change of place or condition. The idea of change is the one in metamorphosis (as well as metaphor and metathesis); and the meaning “after” is the original one in metaphysics, though in modern English it has been reinterpreted there as “beyond, transcending”. All those kinds of meaning are to be found in modern formations with meta In anatomical words such as metacarpus, metatarsus and metathorax, meta- means “beyond” in a simple physical sense. Metabolism and metachromatism build on the idea of change. Andthe most widely used sense of all, “transcending”, is exemplified in new words such as metalanguage, metapsychology and metempirics. metal or mettle These two spellings have evolved from one and the same word, to distinguish its concrete meaning from the more abstract one. The spelling metal remains close to the form and meaning of the original Latin and Greek word metallum/metallon. The word’s more abstract and figurative meaning “spirit, strength of character” began to appear in the late sixteenth century, and by the beginning of the eighteenth had acquired its distinctive spelling (mettle), conforming with an English spelling pattern. metaphor Metaphors are a life-force of language. They lend vitality to routine commentary on anything, as when a golfing shot is said to be “rocketing its way to the ninth green”. The metaphorical word “rocketing” brings lively imagery to bear on a familiar subject, stimulating the reader’s imagination. Metaphors help to extend the frontiers of language all the time. Figurative uses of words often begin as metaphorical extensions, and end up as permanent additions to the word’s range of meaning. The notion of seeking one’s “roots” and discovering unknown “branches” of one’s family are thoroughly established, and to understand them we do not need to invoke the “tree” metaphor on which they’re based. When metaphors like those become ordinary elements of the language, they are sometimes referred to as dead metaphors. Yet even dead metaphors have a phoenix- like capacity to revive, as when President Gerald Ford declared that solar energy is something that cannot come in overnight! The imagery in familiar metaphors is latent rather than dead. A mixed metaphor is achieved by using two (or more) divergent metaphors in quick succession. Between them they create a dramatically inconsistent picture, as when someone is said to ‘‘have his head so deep in the sand he doesn’t know which side of the fence he’s on”—to quote a former premier of Queensland, who knew how to use the mixed metaphor (or “mixaphor”) to divert and disarm those interviewing him. Metaphors, like most stimuli, need to be indulged in moderation—not too many at once, andnoneexploitedtoo hard. An extended metaphor can workwellprovided it’s not used relentlessly. The effectiveness of the metaphor in this passage begins to flag after the third or fourth attempt to extend it: 506 metonymy The boss entered them for all kinds of new competitive activities. They were spurred into presenting themselves at the starting gate for every government grant (whether it was the right race or not), and feeling thoroughly flogged, they yearned for greener pastures Like the hard-worked public servants of that example, a metaphor can be overextended. It then becomes too obvious, and runs the risk of parodying itself. Metaphors and similes. Metaphors work best allusively, likening one thing to another by passing implication. Their contribution is much less direct and explicit than that of similes. Compare: The ball rockets its way to the ninth green. The ball flies like a rocket to the ninth green. In a simile, the comparison is spelled out in a phrase beginning with like or as, and the image it raises is set alongside the statement, not integrated with it as in a metaphor. But similes do allow for more complex comparisons which cannot be set up in a single word. See for example: Talking with him is like wrestling with an octopus—he weighs in with one heavyweight topic after another. Similes, like metaphors, sometimes become regular idioms of the language: mad as a gumtree full of galahs as happy as a bastard on Father’s Day Examples like those lend color and (in the second case) irony to everyday talk. Note finally the difference between a metaphor and a metonym.Inametaphor, both the object referred to (e.g. “ball”) and the metaphorical word (“rocket”) are expressed; whereas a metonym actually replaces the object of reference. See further under metonymy. meteor, meteoroid or meteorite These words are sometimes interchanged, yet they refer to different phases in the life of a celestial object. It begins as a meteoroid, an inert mass of mineral traveling in space far from the earth’s orbit. When drawn into the earth’s orbit and through earth’s atmosphere, it becomes white-hot and is seen as a fiery streak through the heavens. In this form it’s called a meteor or “shooting star”. Small meteors burn up to nothingness in the skies, but larger ones shoot through to the earth’s surface, sometimes creating a great cavity in it. The cold and once again inert mass which remains is the meteorite. meter or metre See metre. metonymy This is a figure of speech in which you name something by something with which it is regularly associated. So the bar comes to stand for the legal profession, because of the railing in a courtroom which divides the public 507 [...]... hypothetical statements: If only they were there Were they there we would all feel easier.) A few grammarians also include the infinitive among the moods of English (the infinitive verb is more or less distinct in form from the others, as in to be or not to be) And some would include the interrogative (where the verb phrase is inverted and therefore different: Are they there?) 523 mora Nowadays the. .. close to the eyes, they look rather like the archetypal coalminer, and this may have helped to give them the name miner 2 the immigrant Indian starling Acridotheras tristis, a bird with brown body, yellow bill and yellow legs Its Hindi name is maina “starling”, usually spelled myna by Australian ornithologists (Field Guide to Australian Birds 1 974 , Reader’s Digest Australian Birds 1 976 7) , though the Australian. .. From the latter the prefix has come to mean “associated with the microscope”, as in microbiology, microphotography and microsurgery The microdot, microfiche and microfilm all depend on magnifying processes to yield the information stored on them; and through this micro- has come to refer generally to the vehicles on or in which vast amounts of data are stored, such as the microchip and the microcomputer The. .. are coming tomorrow The books should come tomorrow In both sentences there are auxiliary verbs (are/should) But while the auxiliary in the first expresses purely grammatical things such as the verb’s tense and aspect, the one in the second expresses something of the speaker’s attitude to the fact being stated, her involvement in it and the degree of confidence she expects others to have in it These extra... modelling The choice between these is discussed at -l/-ll- modifiers This term is used in two ways in English grammar: 1 to refer to whatever qualifies the head of a noun phrase, either as premodifier or postmodifier (see under noun phrases) 2 to refer to words or phrases that soften the impact of others, such as rather, somewhat or a bit Some grammarians call them downtoners, though in this book we refer to them... and the standards themselves are checked regularly by laboratories in many parts of the world English- speaking countries have generally been rather slow to implement the metric system In the US the metric system was legalised by act of Congress in 1866, but attempts to make it the official system in the 1890s were resisted, especially by the manufacturing industries Only now, with the adoption of the. .. spelling is the standard one in Australia and Britain, and in the US, according to Webster’s Dictionary (1986) Random House (19 87) however gives preference to the second Both spellings reflect the French form of the word, whereas the third is a curious blend of the Italian 5 27 mouthful mustaccio and the Spanish mostacho It appears occasionally as an alternative to the other two, but is best known in the verbal... metaphor moccasin or mocassin The first spelling is the only one recognised in most dictionaries The second is however recorded in Webster’s (1986) and the Oxford Dictionary (1989) as an alternative, and quite a few of the Oxford citations show it, whether they refer to the shoe, or to the plant or animal which also embody the name The spelling with one c seems to come closer to the original Indian word... history behind them, their final letter makes no change from f to v as with leaf etc See further under -f/-v- motto For the plural of this word, see under -o mould or mold The first spelling mould is the standard one in Australia and Britain for all uses of this word, to mean “shape”, “fungus” etc It dates only from the sixteenth century, whereas mold, the standard spelling in the US, goes back to Old English. .. transitive mood In the grammars of Latin and Greek, mood referred to the different forms of the verb used according to whether a fact or hypothesis was being expressed In traditional English grammar, the notion of mood was used to distinguish the indicative, subjunctive and imperative forms of verbs: indicative imperative subjunctive (making factual statements: They are there) (issuing commands: Be there) (expressing . about them for readers in other parts of the English- speaking world would do well to use immigrant rather than migrant, to ensure being properly understood. mileage or milage The rstofthese spellings. processes to yield the information stored on them; and through this micro- has come to refer generally to the vehicles on or in which vast amounts of data are stored, such as the microchip and the. than the media begins to get its teeth into him. The same sentence could equally well be: A politician is no sooner elected than the media begin to get their teeth into him. For some people the