| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
| |
| facility, faculty (nn.) |
| |
| |
| When these are applied to a person, the distinction is close but important: She has a facility for making friends means “She makes friends easily”; She has a faculty for making friends simply means “She is able to make friends.” The ease of facility is the distinction. Facility is also a noun meaning “a building, an installation, a place”: They’re building new facilities for the emergency room. And facilities, usually in the plural, is a euphemism for toilet(s). Faculty too has other meaning clusters, notably “any power or ability, especially the senses and the thought processes” (Her faculties seem unimpaired following the stroke), and “the teaching staff of a college or other educational institution, distinct from the nonteaching support personnel” (Each faculty walked behind its own banner). It is Nonstandard when used to mean “a faculty member,” as in She’s a faculty in the History Department, but Standard in She’s faculty, not administration. In the plural, as in There were several biology faculty present, it is at least Conversational in academic contexts; perhaps it should be labeled jargon in that use. | 1 |
| |
| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
