5 SEPTEMBER 1947, Page 18

TOO MANY " FEWS "

Sitt,—May I enter a protest against the growing habit of misusing the word "few "? In one of your reviews recently I observed that the writer says of a book, "It contains quite a few items of new information." Obviously he means that the items are numerous rather than the reverse. This form of cockney meiosis, facetious in origin, becomes tiresome when used habitually and seriously.—Yours faithfully,