A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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But in recent years, people have begun to use methodology as a pretentious substitute for method in scientific and technical contexts, as in The oil company has not yet decided on a methodology for restoring the beaches. People may have taken to this practice by influence of the adjective methodological, which has come to mean “pertaining to methods.” Methodological may have acquired this meaning because people had already been using the more ordinary adjective methodical to mean “orderly, systematic,” and they needed another word for the “scientific method” sense. But however these words got entangled, you may want to keep them apart in your own writing, since you can thereby maintain an important conceptual distinction between the tools of scientific investigation (your methods) and the principles that determine how such tools are deployed and interpreted (your methodology).
1
migrate / emigrate / immigrate
When used of people, migrate sometimes refers to a permanent change of settlement: In the fifth century A.D. the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes began migrating to England. In other contexts, migrate usually indicates a lack of permanent settlement, especially as a result of seasonal or periodic movement, as when birds or other animals migrate to a different region. Emigrate and immigrate are used only of people and imply a permanent move, generally across a political boundary. Emigrate describes the move relative to the point of departure: After the Nazis came to power in Germany, many scientists emigrated (that is, left Germany). By contrast, immigrate describes the move relative to the destination: The promise of prosperity in the United States encouraged many people to immigrate (that is, move to the United States).
2
minimal / minimize
Minimal and minimize come from the Latin adjective minimus, “least, smallest,” and people therefore use minimal to refer to the smallest possible amount, as in The amplifier reduces distortion to the minimal level that can be obtained with present technologies. In recent years, however, people have begun to use minimal more loosely to refer to a small amount, as in If you would just put in a minimal amount of time on your homework, I am sure your grades would improve. Language critics have objected to this usage, but it is fairly common. In one of our more recent surveys, we asked the Usage Panel what minimal meant in the sentence Alcohol has a particularly unpleasant effect on me when I have a minimal amount of food in my stomach. Under the strict interpretation of minimal, the sentence should mean “Alcohol has an unpleasant effect when I have eaten nothing.” If the looser interpretation is allowed, however, the sentence can also mean “… when I have eaten a bit.” Twenty-nine percent of the panel held to the strict interpretation (that is, “eaten nothing"); 34 percent said that it could have only the looser meaning (that is, “eaten a bit"); and 37 percent said that it could have either meaning. Thus 71 percent allowed the looser sense of minimal, so you should consider this sense acceptable, at least in nontechnical use.
3
The verb minimize has undergone a similar extension of meaning. In its strict sense it means “to reduce to the smallest possible level,” but quite often the context requires us to interpret what the smallest possible level might be. Thus when a manager announces that The company wants to minimize the risk
