Word: suffixes
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Grammarwise, it is permissible to tailfin any word with the suffix meaning "in the manner of." Estheticswise, it is deplorable-businesswise, dollarwise, saleswise and weathering are all barbarisms that deserve to be barred. And now with a word to the wise comes an equally formidable enemy: ness, denoting "state, quality or condition." It is not the friendly suffix of greatness, goodness, loveliness (properly forming abstract nouns from adjectives) or even Loch Ness, but a whole new invasion of language spotted by Professor Dorothy N. Foote of California's San Jose State College...
...this suffix down, any number can play-and do. A recent novel speaks of drinkingness (more pleasurable than drunkenness). One Texas preacher is currently using everything from thereness and scatteredness to gatheredness-which suggests that he owes a debt to togetherness, used in the 1920s by Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead long before Madison Avenue took it over. Another early ness-builder was Mr. Justice Holmes, who defended his decisions by saying: "I do accept a rough equation between isness and oughtness." Teacher Foote has spotted the malpractice as far back as a rare 16th century book that describes Fingal...
...just completed one of the most successful polltax drives in recent memory. And it will probably add great vigor to the liberal effort in the 1962 elections. Despite its definite liberal orientation, however, it continues to insist that it is "trying to build a Democratic Party without prefix or suffix...
...high quality of the export product. Hillel and Aviva play the drum and flute (recorder) in a concert on Elektra records which is a very fine introduction to the genre of composed folk songs. (The Dudaim (whose name comes from doo- dah which is added a Hebrew suffix indicating more-than-one) are a duo, and they sing of Israel" on a Columbia recording. There are a great many other recordings of Israeli folk music; I mention two which do not include songs well-known to certain of us (such as "Hava Negila," which is now making...
Robert Saudek Associates is a Madison Avenue firm so non-M that its partners think flagpoles are for flags and not (in admen's lingo) for running up ideas to see who will salute. Moreover, the Saudek people consider the word wise an adjective rather than a suffix (as in "Impact-wise, it's terrific"). And they never write memos, preferring to speak to one another in fogless civilized conversation. Their offices, quiet as the board room at Morgan Guaranty Trust, belie the nature of their business. Saudek Associates is just about the best and most versatile packager...