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Page 20
'The wrong use of _feasible_ is that in which, by a slipshod
extension, it is allowed to have also the other sense of _possible_,
and that of _probable_. This is described by the highest authority
as "hardly a justifiable sense etymologically, and ... recognized
by no dictionary". It is however becoming very common; in all the
following quotations, it will be seen that the natural word would
be either _possible_ or _probable_, one of which should have been
chosen:--Continuing, Mr. Wood said: "I think it is very feasible that
the strike may be brought to an end this week, and it is a significant
coincidence that ...". / Witness said it was quite feasible that if he
had had night binoculars he would have seen the iceberg earlier. / We
ourselves believe that this is the most feasible explanation of the
tradition. / This would appear to offer a feasible explanation of the
scaffold puzzle.'
PROTAGONIST
Mr. Sargeaunt (on p. 26) suggests that we might do well to keep the
full Greek form of this word, and speak and write _protagonistes_.
Familiarity with _Agonistes_ in the title of Milton's drama, where
it is correctly used as equivalent to 'mighty champion', would be
misleading, and the rejection of the English form 'protagonist' seems
otherwise undesirable. The following remarks by Mr. Fowler show that
popular diction is destroying the word; and if ignorance be allowed
its way we shall have a good word destroyed.
'The word that has so suddenly become a prime favourite with
journalists, who more often than not make it mean champion or advocate
or defender, has no right whatever to any of those meanings, and
almost certainly owes them to the mistaking of the first syllable
(representing Greek [Greek: pr�tos] "first") for [Greek: pro] "on
behalf of"--a mistake made easy by the accidental resemblance to
_antagonist_. "Accidental", since the Greek [Greek: ag�nist�s] has
different meanings in the two words, in one "combatant", but in
the other "play-actor". The Greek [Greek: pr�tag�nist�s] means the
actor who takes the chief part in a play--a sense readily admitting of
figurative application to the most conspicuous personage in any affair.
The deuteragonist and tritagonist take parts of second and third
importance, and to talk of several protagonists, or of a chief
protagonist or the like, is an absurdity. In the newspapers it is a
rarity to meet _protagonist_ in a legitimate sense; but two examples
of it are put first in the following collection. All the others are
outrages on this learned-sounding word, because some of them
distinguish between chief protagonists and others who are not chief,
some state or imply that there are more protagonists than one in an
affair, and the rest use _protagonist_ as a mere synonym for advocate.
'Legitimate uses: _The "cher Hal�vy" who is the protagonist of the
amazing dialogue. / Marco Landi, the protagonist and narrator of a
story which is skilfully contrived and excellently told, is a fairly
familiar type of soldier of fortune._
'Absurd uses with _chief_, &c.: _The chief protagonist is a young
Nonconformist minister. / Unlike a number of the leading protagonists
in the Home Rule fight, Sir Edward Carson was not in Parliament
when.... / It presents a spiritual conflict, centred about its two
chief protagonists, but shared in by all its characters._
'Absurd plural uses: _One of the protagonists of that glorious fight
for Parliamentary Reform in 1866 is still actively among us. / One
of these immense protagonists must fall, and, as we have already
foreshadowed, it is the Duke. / By a tragic but rapid process of
elimination most of the protagonists have now been removed. / As on a
stage where all the protagonists of a drama assemble at the end of the
last act. / That letter is essential to a true understanding of
the relations of the three great protagonists at this period. / The
protagonists in the drama, which has the motion and structure of a
Greek tragedy_ (Fy! fy!--a Greek tragedy and protagonists?).
'Confusions with _advocate_, &c.: _The new Warden is a strenuous
protagonist of that party in Convocation. / Mr ----, an enthusiastic
protagonist of militant Protestantism. / The chief protagonist on the
company's side in the latest railway strike, Mr ----. / It was a
happy thought that placed in the hands of the son of one of the great
protagonists of Evolution the materials for the biography of another.
/ But most of the protagonists of this demand have shifted their
ground. / As for what the medium himself or his protagonists may think
of them--for etymological purposes that is neither here nor there._
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