Fowler

This is a bibliography page, concerning a work to which reference is made elsewhere in this guide.

The surname Fowler has become an eponym for certain kinds of advice on the usage of the English Language. This is because of the influence of the two brothers, H.W. and F.G. ('Henry Watson' and 'Francis George'), who began their careers as schoolteachers and went on to become lexicographers (the first editors of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, for example). They also devised reference books to encourage good writing habits, which represent the finest output of their kind in the first half of the twentieth century, and led the way to subsequent publications such as Gowers.

When used by itself - "Look it up in Fowler" - the word usually refers to:

• A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, (1926) by H.W. Fowler. (F.G. had died, of tuberculosis contracted during service in France during the First World War, in 1918.

Sometimes it refers to an earlier book by both brothers,

• The King's English (1906).

Do not confuse the spelling Fowler (the occupational surnames derived from 'one who catches [wild]fowl, or birds') with fouler, the comparative of the adjective foul. For more, see Fouler - Fowler.