A reader asks about “use” and “usage,” having noticed both “tobacco use” and “tobacco usage” in writing. She wonders why “usage” doesn’t sound right to her.
The New York Times Stylebook gives good guidance on this. “Usage,” the stylebook says, “refers to habitual or preferred practice in fields such as grammar, law or etiquette. Use is the less stilted term for employment or consumption.” So the reader was correct: The phrase should be “tobacco use.”
This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Co.; is posted here to provide continuity; and is copyright © 2011 The News & Observer Publishing Company, which reserves the right to remove this post.