Tag Archives: term of art

Term of Art: Brains Trust

Posted on November 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Brains Trust: Nickname given to a group of economists and businessmen in the USA who acted as advisers to Pres. Roosevelt (1882-1945) in formulating the New Deal policy. The term has since been widely used to denote bodies of experts believed to have influence on government policy. In the UK the term ‘brains trust’ was extended to include groups of experts assembled to answer questions put to them by the public, especially the BBC’s wartime panel of experts who broadcast on the wireless.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

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Term of Art: Verb

Posted on October 30, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Verb: A word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the subject. Verbs activate sentences.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Homonymy

Posted on October 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

“homonymy: The relation between words whose forms are the same but whose meanings are different and cannot be connected: e.g. between pen ‘writing instrument’ and pen ‘enclosure.’ Homonyms are words related in this way.

Distinguished from polysemy in that the meaning of one homonym is not seen as deriving from that of the other: in that light, the words are different lexical units. Homonymy can also be distinguished from cases of conversion: e.g. that of either of the nouns ‘pen’ into a corresponding verb. Also from syncretism, which is between inflections of the same lexical unit. The term may be restricted further to homonymy, as in this example, both in the sounds of words and in their spelling: hence the more specific homograph, homophone.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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Term of Art: Transitive Verb

Posted on October 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Transitive Verb: A verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning: They washed their new car. An intransitive verb does not require an object to complete its meaning: The audience laughed. Many verbs can be both: The wind blew furiously. My car blew a gasket.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Bond

Posted on October 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

“bond: Binding agreement, used as a means of compulsion as well as security; for example, to enforce a commercial contract or to ensure good behavior. Bonds generally have two sections: the bond proper and the condition which, if ignored, cause a sum of money, specified in the bond proper, to be paid as forfeit.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

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Term of Art: Transition

Posted on October 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Transition: A word or group of words that aids coherence by showing the connections between ideas. William Carlos Williams was influenced by the poetry or Walt Whitman. Moreover, Williams’s emphasis on the present and the and the immediacy of the ordinary represented a rejection of the poetic stance of his contemporary T.S. Eliot. In addition, Williams’s poetry….”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Tense

Posted on October 23, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Tense: The time of a verb’s action or state of being, such as past, present, or future. Saw, see, will see.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Boycott

Posted on October 23, 2020 | Leave a comment

“boycott: Refusal by a body of people to have any dealings with a person or persons. The term is derived from Capt. C.C. Boycott (1832-97) who, having incurred hostility for a series of evictions, was made the victim of a conspiracy by the Irish Land League, preventing him from making any purchases or holding any social intercourse in his district.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

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Term of Art: Syntax

Posted on October 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Syntax: The order or arrangement of words in a sentence. Syntax may exhibit parallelism (I came, I saw, I conquered), inversion (Whose woods these are I think I know), or other formal characteristics.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

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Term of Art: Indirect Speech

Posted on October 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

“indirect speech: The reporting of something said, thought, etc. with deictic and other units adapted to the viewpoint of the reporter. E.g. He said he would bring them might report a promise, originally expressed by the utterance ‘I will bring them in.’ But the person who made the promise is someone other than the reporter; hence, in the reporting, original I is changed to he. Also the promise was earlier than the report; hence, in addition, will is changed to would. With these adaptations, he would bring them is an example of, and is said to be ‘in,’ indirect speech.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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