formal words

formal words

Fowler (1926) aptly identified words ‘that are not the plain English for what is meant’ and characterized choice between different words for the same thing in terms of the clothes we choose: ‘we tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out.’ The examples he gave now sound dated (‘We think of our soldiers as plucky fellows, but call them in the bulletins valiant troops’), but the message is as vivid as ever. Peruse is more formal than read, purchase than buy, alight than get off, luncheon than lunch, endeavour than try, evince than show; and purloin is more formal (or, often, more jocular) than steal. Other words are formal because they are restricted to special domains of technical usage, for example aperture (for opening), edifice (for building, when it is large and imposing), and neonate (for newborn baby). As is the case with most of these, formal words can be turned on their heads and made to look silly in trivial or jocular use. Different modes of writing and speaking call for different levels of vocabulary. At one extreme there is the language of legal documents, business, and academic monographs; at the other there is the language of everyday conversation, with a broad range of styles in between. The language of broadcasting and journalism, in particular, has become a great deal less formal in recent years, to such an extent as to cause unease among those who mistakenly identify formality, or the lack of it, with standards of English.