List of English Words With Disputed Usage - H

H

• hoi polloi – The question surrounding hoi polloi is whether it is appropriate to use the article the preceding the phrase; it arises because οἱ (hoi) is the Greek word for "the" in the phrase and classical purists complain that adding the makes the phrase redundant: "the the common people". Foreign phrases borrowed into English are often reanalyzed as single grammatical units, requiring an English article in appropriate contexts. AHD4 says "The Arabic element al- means 'the', and appears in English nouns such as alcohol and alchemy. Thus, since no one would consider a phrase such as the alcohol to be redundant, criticizing the hoi polloi on similar grounds seems pedantic."

• hopefully – Some prescriptivists argue this word should not be used as an expression of confidence in an outcome; however, M-W classes hopefully with other words such as interestingly, frankly, and unfortunately (which are unremarkably used in a similar way) as disjuncts, and describes this usage as "entirely standard". AHD4, however, notes that opposition to this usage by their usage panels has grown from 56% to 73%, despite support for similar disjuncts (such as 60% support for the use of mercifully in "Mercifully, the game ended before the opponents could add another touchdown to the lopsided score"). AHD4 opines that this opposition is not to the use of these adverbs in general, but that this use of hopefully has become a "shibboleth". OED lists this usage without any "colloquial" or other label, other than to say "Avoided by many writers". See also the discussion of hopefully as a dangling modifier. One investigation in modern corpora on Language Log revealed that outside fiction, where it still represents 40% of all uses (the other qualifying primarily speech and gazes), disjunct uses account for the vast majority (over 90%) of all uses of the word.
  • Disputed usage: Hopefully I'll get that scholarship!
  • Undisputed usage: Hopefully, the prisoner approached the guillotine. His hope was misplaced. So was his head.

• humanitarian – The Compact Oxford Dictionary from 1996 has a usage note criticizing use of humanitarian as in humanitarian disaster, saying "the adjective humanitarian is often used inaccurately by reporters, e.g This is the worst humanitarian disaster within living memory, as if humanitarian meant 'of or relating to humanity'"., though the current entry given by OxfordDictionaries.com has a more tempered commentary: "The primary sense of humanitarian is ‘concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare.’ Since the 1930s, a new sense, exemplified by phrases such as the worst humanitarian disaster this country has seen, has been gaining currency, and is now broadly established, especially in journalism, although it is not considered good style by all". Most dictionaries implicitly agree, giving no sense covering this usage but neither any usage comment criticizing it. However, besides the current OxfordDictionaries.com entry, Random House Dictionary, The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, and the Macmillan Dictionary all give senses for the use in humanitarian disaster.