Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop Glossary: A

A

,a·be,ce`dar·i·an /,eIbi,si'dRin-/ noun or adjective

[from phonetic spelling of the first letters of the alphabet: A B C D ]

1 : (genre) A poem in which verses or stanzas begin with the letters of the alphabet in order; any work arranged in an alphabetic scheme.
2 : a person learning the alphabet, hence a person whose knowledge of a subject is rudimentary at best.
3 : A teacher of the alphabet, hence a work treating a subject at its simplest or most basic level.
3 : a person who puts things in alphabetic order, hence one who is concerned or perhaps obsessed with categorization and order.
5 : (usually capitalized) A Christian sect that rejected all human knowledge, including the ABCs.

`ab·laut /'AblAUt/ noun

(language) System of vowel changes according to the grammatical function of words found in Indo-European language. In English ablaut is found in the conjugation of some verbs (ring, rang, rung) and in the formation of some plurals (tooth, teeth).

ac`cis·mus /&k'sizm@s/ noun

(figures) pretended indifference to that which is desired, coyness.

ac`knowl·edg·ments also acknowledgements /&k'nAlIdZm@nts/ noun

1 : (MS) The page or pages of the manuscript crediting the original publication of any parts of a book that have been published previously. In a work of fiction, the author usually will have retained the book rights to his or her work, and acknowledgments take a form like:
Parts of Chapter One originally appeared in slightly different form as "Melissa at Home" in Harper's Magazine, October, 1995.
However, if the work of others is included or someone else owns the book rights to the author's work, the acknowledgment requires a full recitation of the owner's copyright notice. If the work requires acknowledgments of both kinds, there should be a separate page in the manuscript for each kind. In the finished book, acknowledgments if brief are often placed on the copyright page (the back -- or verso -- of the title page). If extensive, acknowledgments may appear on a page or pages styled "Acknowledgments," incorporated in the copyright page by reference.
2 : (book) In nonfiction and especially scholarly books, front matter styled "Acknowledgments" may contain prefatory remarks in which the author thanks those who have assisted in the research and the preparation of the manuscript or who have provided material support for his project.

ad`vance /&d'v&ns/ noun

Payment or payments to the author against expected royalty payments. The advance must be returned if the author does not deliver an acceptable manuscript. However when the author delivers an acceptable manuscript, the advance is his or hers to keep even if royalties never amount to so much. Most new authors only receive an advance once the manuscript has been accepted for publication, so there is no question of returning it. Although "advance" seems to suggest amounts received in advance of publication, many contracts now call for divided payments, some of which may be after publication. Announcements of very large advances to first-time authors who are unheard of are made for publicity purposes and often are exaggerated or misleading. See: Is it better to only take royalties, or to take an advance?)

affect / effect noun or verb [mistaken]

Both the verb and noun senses of affect and effect are often confused, although in some cases errors may be merely carelessness. When the words are confused, the difficulty may be that the confused senses have something to do with outcome. A wrong rule is often taught. That wrong rule is: affect is the verb and effect is the noun. This rule works for most writers most of the time, but is not entirely accurate.

affect noun: self-awareness of one's own emotional state or the outward signs of a person being aware of his own emotional state. This word is used in medical, psychological, and psychiatric contexts and is seldom used otherwise. The other nouns also sometimes have senses related to appearance. Flat affect : absense of apparent emotional awareness (often taken as a sign of schizophrenia); inappropriate affect : outwards signs of emotion that are not in accord with one's true feelings, such as giggling at news of a death that one is really sad about.
effect noun: outcome or result; this is almost always the noun wanted in general writing. It applies to appearances and impressions, other than those of the special sense of affect (n.) and is also the word for possessions. Notice that when something affects a process, the result is an effect.
affectation noun: artificial impression or appearance, the result of one's efforts to adopt manners, language, accent, fashion, or mannerisms that are not natural or native. This word is generally reserved for silly or failed attempts to create a false impression.
affect verb: to act upon, to influence or to adopt an artificial or pretentious manner, accent, fashion, and so forth. This is the word that some wrong rules say is "always" the verb. It is the verb wanted most of the time. It has several other, less common senses.
effect verb: to enact, to accomplish, to bring about. This verb is less commonly wanted than "affect."

Many general writers will never need any of these nouns except effect, so the problem is with the verbs. In some cases, both verbs are grammatically possible, but only one is factually correct. For example, anyone can affect legislation (by lobbying), but only the law-making body can effect legislation.

`a,gent·ed adjective

(publishing) of a manuscript or query, received from a recognized literary agent.

`a·gon /'&g@n/ or /'&,goUn/ noun

The conflict of a literary or dramatic work. Traditionally there are two parties to the conflict: the protagonist (hero) and the antagonist (villain). The struggle between the parties is the agony. In modern works (and quite a number of old ones) the antagonist is not an actual person, but is a god or gods, nature, or another abstraction.

allude / elude verb [mistaken]

The senses of these words are seldom confused. That one is used for the other is probably merely a spelling error.

allude verb: to make an indirect reference. Allude is sometimes confused with refer or cite. See: allude / refer / cite.
elude verb: to escape detection or capture.

allude / refer / cite [disputed]

Allude and its related noun allusion involve an indirect reference, perhaps only a hint, to a person or thing. When the reference is specific, even if it uses a short form or nickname, another word is preferred.

allude verb: to make an indirect reference.
allusion noun: an indirect reference. Sometimes confused, perhaps only in spelling with illusion.
refer verb: to mention or indicate specifically, perhaps as resource.
reference noun: a mention or specific indication.
cite verb: to mention or indicate specifically, as an authoritative source of information or as an example. Like quote, cite is sometimes used informally as a noun. In formal writing, quotation and citation are preferred for most or all noun senses.
citation noun: a specific reference to an authority or text.

To mention a "big, white fish" might be to allude to Moby Dick, but to mention "Melville's novel" or Moby Dick by name is to refer to it. In "I think someone might object if we went out together," "someone" might allude to the lady's husband, but in "Steve might object if we went out together," "Steve" may refer to the lady's husband.

allusion / illusion [mistaken]

The senses of these words are seldom confused. That one is used for the other is probably merely a spelling error.

allusion noun: an indirect reference.
illusion noun: an incorrect impression or belief, a mistaken perception.

alternate / alternative [mistaken]

Alternate is sometimes used when alternative is the correct word, but alternative is seldom misused. The noun alternate should be considered in light of the verb alternate. An alternate is one of two things that alternate (or sometimes a thing that is or can be substituted for another). The essential aspect of alternate is that it must be one thing or the other. An alternative is a possible choice.

`am·a,teur de`tec·tive /'&m@,tSUr dI'tEktIv/ noun or adjective

(genre) A subgenre of mystery in which a person with no particular experience or expertise must solve a crime, usually with no particular cooperation from law enforcement officers. The protagonist usually has some strong personal reason for becoming involved, such as an attachment to the victim or the victim's loved ones or perhaps a similar commitment to a falsely accused person. As the key to the charm of an amateur story is the outsider status of the protagonist it is almost impossible to make more than one novel of an amateur detective and maintain any degree of realism. After all, being close to one murder is a rare occurance that few people experience, and being near to two, three, or more strains credulity. Because mystery novelists usually find what economic advantage they achieve in series of novels, few amateur novels are written, and mysteries with apparent amateurs in them are usually really about consulting detectives such as Jessica Fletcher (Murder She Wrote) or Miss Marple (novels of Agatha Christie) whether the authorities want a consultant or not. Fletcher has some knowledge of police procedure because she is herself a mystery novelist and Marple may obtain some information, however grudgingly given, from the police because of her reputation for being helpful in past cases, and both are likely to be consulted by people other than the police for the same reason, and thus do not often have any particularly close relationship with the victim. A true amateur is motivate by a deep personal interest and not by the intellectual challenge of the puzzle of the crime and begins without any idea of how to investigate crimes (and may in fact make matters worse in initial blundering efforts).

anymore / any more [disputed]

In America, anymore is standard in negative senses when the meaning is "any longer" or "now." This spelling is also used in positive senses regionally. This provides for useful distinctions illustrated in the examples below. So, although there a few living Americans, and more than a few British, who find anymore peculiar, there is no good reason to avoid it, if it is used in accord with these definitions:

anymore adverb: any longer, still, yet, now.
any more adjective + noun or adverb + adjective: some greater amount or number or some further extent or degree

For example:

I could not regret my failure anymore. (means the time for regret was over).
I could not regret my failure any more. (means I regret it as much as I can).
Is he drinking anymore? (asks whether he still drinks at all).
Is he drinking any more? (asks whether his drinking has increased; possible answer: "No, but he isn't drinking any less").
I cannot charge you anymore. (means all services in future will be free; I cannot continue to charge you).
I cannot charge you any more. (means the charges will not be higher).

`ar·got /'Arg@t/ or /'ArgoU/ noun

a nonstandard dialect spoken by subcultural group, supposedly for the purpose of concealing meaning from others. See: jargon.

the cocky mutilated pavement argot and assurance of the city urchin: Of Time and The River —Thomas Wolfe · flinging half-words in local argot over shoulders at their friends, Letters of Travel —Rudyard Kipling · A secret language or conventional slang peculiar to thieves, tramps, and vagabonds; flash. 1913 Webster · 'It's no use, Agnes,' she declared, though without entire sincerity; 'I can't quite keep up with your thieves' argot—your slang, you know. Just what did this brother of yours do?' Within the Law —Marvin Dana