Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop Glossary: F

F

famous / infamous adjective [mistaken]

Infamous means having a very bad reputation. Famous means the opposite: having a good reputation, being known for excellence or good achievements. In recent times, famous has lost some of its good implications, so if it is used to mean "very well known," whether for good or bad, few readers will notice. But infamous has lost none of its negative connotations and will be taken to imply strong censure.

`FAQ /f&k/ noun

an acronym for "frequently asked questions," used in the title of documents which provide information in a question-and-answer format. For continuity, some FAQs include questions that no one other than the author of the FAQ has posed. When there are many such items in a FAQ, the acronym is sometimes said to stand for "frequently answered questions."

farther / further adjective or adverb [disputed]

Many people prefer that farther be used only in the comparison of actual, physical distances and further be used in abstract or metaphoric senses.

`fem-`jep /'fEm'dZEp/ noun or adjective

[from female in jeopardy] A subgenre of suspense in which a (usually young and attractive) woman in an isolated situation must avoid some great danger, usually a criminal or insane man, until her rescuer arrives. Sometimes she manages to defeat the threat by her own devices so the rescuer need do nothing but provide a strong shoulder upon which she can collapse, but the convention of this form seems to require the arrival of the rescuer for the story to be complete. : woman in peril, damsel in distress.

flaunt / flout verb [usage]

Sometimes these words are mistaken in spelling, but there is genuine confusion about their meanings. Flout is to display contempt or scorn, and thus is the word for openly and publically violating customs, rules, or laws. Flaunt means to make an ostentatious display of something. Both words have in common the sense of something done openly, often with the intent of producing an unpleasant reaction. As flaunting anything will often violate the rules of good taste, a single act may be both flaunting and flouting. The distinction can be determined by answering the question: What is flaunted or flouted? If the answer is oneself, one's possessions, or one's privileges, then the verb wanted is flaunt. If the answer is good taste, propriety, some rule, convention, law, or custom, then the verb wanted is flout.

flounder / founder [mistaken]

Hardly anyone confuses the noun senses of these words: a flounder is a flatfish, and a founder is a person who first establishes a business or organization. The verb senses are frequently confused. They have in common the sense of being impaired in some way related to motility. To flounder is to thrash about ineffectually as person who has lost his or her footing or a cockroach on its back, but is perhaps best remembered as being comparable to the actions of a flounder out of water. To founder is to sink, to collapse, to go lame, to fail, or to be immobilized (perhaps by being overfed). A ship whose deck is awash is foundering, and this may be remembered with the thought that being covered by water would pose no problem to a flounder.

`fo·li,o /'foUlI,oU/ noun

1 : (MS & book) Page number. See: blind folio See: drop folio
2 : (printing) A book printed four pages to each printer's sheet, two leaves being formed by folding the printer's sheet in half. Also a page half the size of a printer's sheet.
3 : (literature) Editions of Shakespeare's plays produced on folio pages.

`font /'fAnt/ noun

(printing) Correctly a font is a set of characters all of the same style and size. Loosely (that is, incorrectly), "font" is often used to refer to a style or family of type including various sizes and the related boldface, small capitals, and italic styles. In other words, strictly speaking, 12-point Times Roman is one font, 12-point Times Roman bold is another, and 10-point Times Roman is yet another. In the computer world the use of font in the broad sense may be somewhat more reasonable because variations in size and style are often computed from a single pattern for each character.

`front ,mat*ter /'fr@nt,m&tR/ or /'fr@nt'm&tR/ noun

(MS & book) Parts of a book or manuscript before the main body of the work including the title page, the contents page, and various other parts such as an introduction or preface according to the nature of the work. Compare: back matter.

`ful·some /'fUls@m/ adjective [disputed]

The confusion concerning this word probably arose from people looking up this word in dictionaries organized on historical principles. The positive sense of this word had all but disappeared until its partial revival in the 20th century. The oldest sense of the word is that of abundant, plentiful, copious, and so forth. All the more recent senses center on the idea of nauseating excessiveness. This word must be avoided when an unambiguous compliment is intended.