rubber-neck: Slang for one who cranes his neck so as to see things that are none of his concern.
rubbers: As a rule an article of clothing should not be referred to in terms of the material of which it consists. Overshoes, for instance, should be so styled, and not called either rubbers or gums.
rugged, hardy: Rugged in the sense of robust, as in health, is an undesirable Americanism for it means primarily “superficially rough, broken irregularly; as rugged cliffs.” Hardy means inured as to toil, exposure, or want.
S
’s: “The sign or suffix of the possessive or genitive case singular and of the same case plural when the noun ends in n; as, men’s lives; children’s books; shortened since the 17th century from Middle English -es. The apostrophe now replaces the e. Some words ending in a sibilant omit the s of the possessive to avoid the disagreeable repetition of a hissing sound. The rules formulated for this work are as follow: (1) Singular monosyllabic nouns ending in a sibilant sound (s, x, ce, se, or dental ge) add the apostrophe and s, except when the following word begins with a sibilant sound; as, James’s reign; Jones’s hat; a fox’ skin. (2) Singular dissyllabic nouns ending in a sibilant sound add the apostrophe and s, unless the sibilant is followed by another sibilant or the last syllable is unaccented; as, Porus’ defeat; Moses’ face; Jesus’ disciples; Laplace’s theory; Hortense’s fate. (3) Singular polysyllabic nouns ending in a sibilant sound add the apostrophe and s only when a principal or secondary accent falls on the last syllable; as, Boniface’s mistake; Quackenbos’s Rhetoric; Orosius’s History.”—Standard Dictionary.
same: This word should not be used, as it is in commercial correspondence—in substitution for it. If “the same” is correctly used, a noun is implied; as “it is the same (referring to an illness) as he suffered from.” However, do not say, “Tell me what you wish, and the same (meaning it) will be attended to.” Same is also often used where similar is the proper word. A gale blowing to-day with a velocity of 60 miles an hour is similar to, but is not the same as, one that blew with a velocity of 60 miles one year ago, although it has the same amount of velocity.
sameness, similarity: Discriminate carefully between these words. Sameness is the state of being identically the same; absolute resemblance; similarity is likeness or partial resemblance. See [SAME].
sappy: An undesirable colloquialism for “weakly sentimental; silly.”
sass: Vulgar term for “impertinence”; “sauciness.”
satire, satyr: Note the difference in the spelling of these words. A satire is a dramatic farce or medley; a satyr is a woodland deity.