The Right Words and the Wrong Words

advises Claudio, w ho faces a death-sentence, not to comfort him self

w ith hopes that are fallible.
fatal I fateful
A fatal event or decision is one w hich leads to disastrous consequences.
A fatal accident or a fatal disease is one w hich causes death. (Lady
Macbeth tells how the hoarse raven croaks the fatal entrance of D uncan
into the castle w here he will be m urdered.) The w ord fateful is used of
events or decisions w hich have m om entous consequences, but w hich are
not necessarily unfortunate. A persons decision to drive to a certain
meeting m ight be described as fateful if an accident en route proved
fatal. But similarly a w om ans decision to seek w ork in a given firm
m ight be described as fateful if she there m et her future husband.
febrile / frenetic
It is helpful to rem em ber how these two w ords are related to others.
Febrile is basically a medical term, the adjective form ed from fever.
Thus it means feverish and appropriately describes a person in a state
of restlessness and discomposure. The w ord frenetic is related to the
words frantic and frenzy. So its associations are w ith madness rather
than w ith physical illness. It will be seen that while febrile implies a
rather enfeebled restlessness, frenetic implies frantic activity.
ferment I foment
To ferm ent is to cause fermentation and therefore to stir something up
into an agitated condition. The w ord is often used of stirring up trouble.
An agitator may be said to ferm ent rebellion. To fom ent is originally to
bathe in w arm healing water, hence to cherish, to encourage or to promote.
Since it is sometimes used o f prom oting or encouraging the growth or
development o f what may be undesirable ( The failure o f his application
fomented his frustration) it may come near to ferm ent in meaning.
fewer I less
Fewer refers to num ber, whereas less refers to bulk or amount. One
rarely finds few er used w here the w ord should be less. But the converse
error is still very com m on.
If public transport were better, there would be far less people going about
in cars.

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