Now You Know (Just for Fun)

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bookslover

Puritan Board Doctor
Catholic. It is open to Roman Catholics to use Catholic by itself in a sense that excludes all but themselves, but it is not open to a Protestant to use it instead of Roman-Catholic without implying that his own church has no right to the name of Catholic. Neither the desire of brevity (as in the Catholic countries) nor the instinct of courtesy (as in I am not forgetting that you are a Catholic) should induce anyone who is not Roman-Catholic to omit the Roman-.

From: A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H. W. Fowler (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926), pp. 70-71.

(This is a classic work on English usage, by the way. Eccentric at times, and very much fun to read, it is universally known as Fowler by lovers of English. Even today, many writers would not want to be caught without their Fowler [while avoiding the second and third editions, which were put together after HWF's death in 1933]. I believe Oxford World's Classics keeps the first edition in print in paperback, but hardbacks can be found on Amazon, etc.)
 
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