Thursday, September 1, 2011

111. "Be suspicious of -ize; let your ear and your eye guide you...

... Never tack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. Usually you will discover that a useful verb already exits. Why say "moisturize" when there is the simple, unpretentious word moisten?"

From "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, published by Allyn and Bacon.