Miscellaneous Entries.
rewind / rewound / rewound. So inflected. *"Rewinded" is an infrequent error — e.g.: “Scenes can be freeze-framed and advanced, rewinded [read ‘rewound’] and fast-forwarded with the push-button precision of CD audio or laser disc players.” Steve Persall, “To DVD or Not to DVD?” St. Petersburg Times, 19 Feb. 1999, at 20. Language-Change Index — *"rewinded" for past-tense “rewound”: Stage 1.
rhythmic; *rhythmical. H.W. Fowler said, “Both forms are too common to justify any expectation of either’s disappearance” (Modern English Usage, 1st ed. at 506). But he did think that *”rhythmical” is the more ordinary term. In fact, though, “rhythmic” (the less rhythmic word) outnumbers *"rhythmical" in modern print sources by a ratio of nearly 30 to 1.
riboflavin(e). The standard spelling is “riboflavin.”
ricochet, vb., makes “ricocheted” /RIK-uh-shayd/ and “ricocheting” /RIK-uh-shay-ing/ in American English. Those are the preferred forms as well in British English, which also has the variants “ricochetted” /RIK-uh-shet-uhd/ and “ricochetting” /RIK-uh-shet-ing/.
ridiculous has moved a long way from its etymological suggestion of “causing laughter,” so that writers nowadays often call “ridiculous” what causes them anger, frustration, distress, or even sadness. In other words, by slipshod extension it is frequently used when people are far from laughing. Today it is unrealistic to insist on etymological rigor with this word. For the sense “causing laughter,” “risible” is now the better term.
*Invariably inferior forms.
For information about the Language-Change Index, click here.
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Quotation of the Day: That a writer of the nineteenth century should express himself in the manner which was admirable in the seventeenth is an absurdity which needs only to be stated. It is not worth refuting. G.H. Lewes, Sincerity, in Foundations of English Style 64, 66 (Paul M. Fulcher ed., 1927).
