Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/131

 implicate. Compare.

inaugurate: Phelps declares that this word in the sense of "introduce" is improper and restricts its meaning to " investiture in office " But lexicographers disregard this distinction and declare that inaugurate may be correctly used to mean also " to set in operation; to initiate; to originate; as to inaugurate reforms."

'''"Indeed!" "Is that so?"''' Discriminate carefully between these terms. "Indeed" expresses surprise. "Is that so?" like "you don't say?" implies disbelief and calls for the reiteration of the statement made. As these interrogations are used chiefly to discredit or disconcert the speaker they may be characterized as specimens of "refined" rudeness.

indentation, indention: An indentation is a notch in an edge or border; it is also a dent; and indention is a setting of type in such manner as to leave a blank space on the left side of a margin of typematter as at the beginning of a paragraph.

The printers' indention is not (as it is often said to be) a shortened form of indentation, but an original word from dent (dint), " a denting in, a depression," and hence is the proper word, rather than indentation, to express the idea.

indices: A plural form of index, generally and more properly reserved for use in science and mathematics. In other cases the plural indexes should be used.