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'''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage''', often referred to as '''Fowler's Modern English Usage''' or simply as '''Fowler's''', is a style guide to British English usage, written by Henry W. Fowler, and first published in 1926. ''Modern English Usage'' covers in detail many issues of usage, pronunciation, and style, from plurals and literary techniques to distinctions between similar words and the usage of foreign terms. The guide set the standard for all usage books to follow, and as such its first edition remains in print even though more recent editions exist.
The second edition, published in 1965, was a light revision by Sir Ernest Gowers, updating and contributing to the existing text, while removing articles "no longer relevant to [current] literary fashions."
Robert Burchfield edited the third edition. Its preface explains that while "Fowler's name remains on the title-page, ... his book has been largely rewritten." This third edition can best be understood as a shift from prescriptive to descriptive linguistics; the criticism it has received is perhaps in part due to the popularity of earlier editions with proponents of prescriptive linguistics.

★ First edition, 1926 (reprinted in 2003, see References).

★ Second edition, 1965, edited by Sir Ernest Gowers, paperback edition with corrections 1983.

★ Third edition, 1996 (''The New Fowler's Modern English Usage'').

Contents

See also

Similar works

References

See also

★ Disputes in English grammar

★ Elegant variation

Similar works

★ ''The Elements of Style'', by Strunk and White

★ ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', the authoritative guide to American English publishing style and markup

★ ''Plain Words'' by Sir Ernest Gowers

★ ''A Dictionary of American-English Usage Based on Fowler's Modern English Usage'', by Margaret Nicholson. 1950s Signet paperback, by arrangement with Oxford University Press.

References

★ Fowler, Henry; Winchester, Simon (introduction) (2003 reprint). ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Oxford Language Classics Series)''. Oxford Press. ISBN 0-19-860506-4.

★ Burchfield, R. W. (Editor); Fowler, H. W. (1996). ''The New Fowler's Modern English Usage''. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-869126-2.

★ Nicholson, Margaret (1957). ''A Dictionary of American-English Usage Based on Fowler's Modern English Usage''. Signet, by arrangement with Oxford University Press.