I know you’re on the edge of your seat wondering if I’ve finished Bryan Garner’s Modern English Usage guide yet. And the answer is *Definitely Not* but I am thrilled to announce that I’ve made it to the Bs!!
I also subscribe to Garner’s newsletter, and so I occasionally get glimpses into the rest of the alphabet. Last week I learned about two fascinating entries in the Ns:
1.) Nimrod. Would you have guessed that this word has anything to do with Bugs Bunny?
Nimrod means “a skillful hunter” and comes from the name of a mighty man in Genesis 10. But over time, it has come to pick up an opposite meaning, as well — a bumbling, inept, blockheaded person. How did this happen? Garner explains:
Believe it or not, we can blame this change on Bugs Bunny, the cartoon character created in the 1940s. He is so popular that TV Guide in 2002 named him “the greatest cartoon character of all time.” Bugs is best known for his catchphrase “What’s Up, Doc?” But for one of his chief antagonists, the inept hunter Elmer Fudd, Bugs would chide, “What a moron! [pronounced like maroon] What a nimrod! [pronounced with a pause like two words, nim rod].” So for an entire generation raised on these cartoons, the word took on the sense of ineptitude — and therefore what was originally a good joke got ruined.”
“The Ongoing Tumult in English Usage”, pg. xlix
2.) No less. The main thing is that “less” is used with uncountable masses of things, as in “less time”, and “fewer” is used with countable numbers of things, like “fewer than six people”.
But the really interesting thing is the subtle difference between using “no less” and “not less”. According to Garner — and I think this is true — “no less” communicates surprise (as in his example, “he weighs no less than 300 pounds”). If you want to promote a more unemotional feeling in your sentence, use “not less”: “he weighs not less than 300 pounds”. The effect of “not less” is more clinical and matter of fact than “no less”.
Lit-ology 