Hello! I cannot say that I now have more spare time to spend on this free newsletter but to see how my newsletter is dying is really painful. I will try to reanimate it with a series of issues intended to improve your and, first of all, my own vocabulary. Today’s word is “sheer” - it is mostly used as an adjective meaning mere, complete, utter, absolute etc.

It can be used as a verb in two slightly different meanings:
A. to sheer (often followed by off, away) = to turn away.
A1. I was mistaken. She tried to sheer off, but the supernatural animal approached with a velocity double her own. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne
A2. The master went to the tiller; his four companions leaned on their oars, the painter was cast off, and we sheered off. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

and B. to sheer = to change course or to swerve.
B1. By this time, now and then sheering to one side or the other to avoid a reef, but still hugging the wind and the land, we had got round Iona and begun to come alongside Mull. Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson

It can also be used, and this is by fat the most occurring usage, as an adjective:
C. sheer = mere, complete.
C1. "Why are you always knocking him about, Dominic?" I asked. Indeed, I felt convinced it was no earthly good - a sheer waste of muscular force. "I must try to make a man of him," Dominic answered hopelessly. The Mirror of the Sea, by Conrad
C2. He lives not in things but in expressed ideas, and what was troubling Benham inordinately that night, a night that should have been devoted to purely blissful and exalted expectations, was the sheer impossibility of stating what had happened in any terms that would be tolerable either to Mrs. Skelmersdale or Lady Marayne. The Research Magnificent, by H. G. Wells
C3. No; he would have done so from the sheer love of quiet, and from a horror of being made the subject of public talk. The Warden, by Anthony Trollope
C4. Of course it was sheer benevolence for poor Shah Allum that prompted our governors to take these kindly measures in his favour. The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan, by William Makepeace Thackeray
C5. "My god!" he said. "This is dreadful. There is not time to be lost. She will die for sheer want of blood to keep the heart's action as it should be. There must be a transfusion of blood at once. Is it you or me?" Dracula, by Bram Stoker
C6. But he felt less and less hopeful with each failure, and presently began to turn off into diverging avenues at sheer random, in desperate hope of finding the one that was wanted. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
C7. She had a moment of sheer panic at the thing she had done. "Mr. Manning," she said, "for a time--Will you tell no one? Will you keep this--our secret? I'm doubtful-- Will you please not even tell my aunt?" Ann Veronica, by H. G. Wells

Another meaning of the adjective under analysis is D. sheer = perpendicular; very steep.

D1. Right in the face of it, where the cliff is highest and most sheer, a hump of earth, like a parapet, makes a place of shelter from the common winds, where a man may sit in quiet and see the tide and the mad billows contending at his feet. Merry Men, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The word can be used as an adverb with the corresponding meaning, i.e. perpendicularly, steeply, completely, absolutely etc.

E. The word “sheerly”, though obsolete, is also possible.
E1. But so sheerly non-alcoholic was I that it never entered my mind that a drink might be good for me. John Barleycorn, by Jack London
E2. "I do not understand," Bishop Morehouse said. "It seems to me that all things of the mind are metaphysical. That most exact and convincing of all sciences, mathematics, is sheerly metaphysical. Each and every thought-process of the scientific reasoner is metaphysical. Surely you will agree with me?" The Iron Heel, by Jack London

It is really helpless to translate the expressions with sheer as the number of possible Russian adjectives for “sheer” is really huge. Consider the following examples:

1. sheer luck (чистая)
2. sheer misery (истинное)
3. sheer luxury (явная)
4. sheer despair (глубокое)
5. sheer delight (сильное)
6. sheer cussedness (простое)
7. sheer stupidity, boredom, determination, ecstasy (полная)
8. sheer bliss (высшее, абсолютное)
9. sheer audacity, insanity, drudgery (совершенная)
10. the sheer enormity of the crime (невероятная)
11. he won by sheer force; in terms of sheer numbers (только, исключительно)

The list is far from exhaustive, so you may continue it for yourselves. That brings us to the end of the issue. Please stay with us or unsubscribe if this level of English is so high for you. If it’s otherwise, then ask your teachers if “sheerly’ is possible in English. There is room only for advanced English here! I am always happy to learn about my mistakes and inaccuracies, so please let me know at thankssomuch@mail15.com. I welcome helpful and relevant contributions to this newsletter. I am looking for people who love English. Please write in English.

Regards,
Andrey Kostenko

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