How to Tell Fate from Destiny by Charles Harrington Elster

Author:Charles Harrington Elster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

human, humane, inhuman, inhumane

Bergen and Cornelia Evans, in their Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, remind us that the adjectives human and humane were once interchangeable, and that the English poet Alexander Pope (1688–1744) did not pen his famous line as we typically quote it, “To err is human, to forgive divine,” but rather “To Err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.” In modern usage, however, we recognize a distinction between these two words.

Human is the more general word pertaining to humankind and its characteristics as a species. It may refer to a good trait (human kindness), a bad trait or a fault (human weakness, human cruelty), a susceptibility to certain good or bad behavior (I’m only human), or to neutral actions, qualities, or states (human behavior, human interest, the human condition).

Humane, on the other hand, always has positive connotations, and suggests admirable aspects of human nature such as benevolence, compassion, and kindness. A humane gesture is a helpful, selfless, or merciful gesture. Humane treatment, as of animals or medical patients, is “motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering” (American Heritage Dictionary).

When you attach the privative (or negative) prefix in- to these words, the distinction narrows or disappears. Both inhuman and inhumane mean “lacking humanity’s best qualities, such as kindness and compassion, and therefore cruel, savage, or brutal,” and the words are often used interchangeably in this way, as the inhuman treatment of prisoners or the inhumane treatment of prisoners. But in current usage inhuman usually refers to that which is unsuitable or unkind to human beings, while inhumane usually refers to that which is unsuitable or unkind to animals.

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