Bryson - Brysons Dictionary for Writers and Editors

CONTENTS

PREFACE

This book is intended as a quick, concise guide to the problems of English spelling and usage most commonly encountered by writers and editors. How do you spell supersede and broccoli and accessible? Do I write archaeology or archeology? Whats the difference between a cardinal number and an ordinal number? Is it Capital Reef National Park or Capitol Reef National Park? What did Belize used to be called? Doesnt Calcutta have a new name now? (It doesKolkata.) What do we now call the Chinese river that I knew in my school days as the Hwang Ho? In short, what are the answers to all those points of written usage that you kind of know or ought to know but cant quite remember?

It is a personal collection, built up over thirty years as a writer and editor in two countries, and so inevitablyinescapablyit reflects my own interests, experiences, and blind spots. You may not need, as I do, to be reminded that it is Anjelica Huston but Whitney Houston, or have occasion at any point in your life to write the name of the district of Sydney known gloriously and unimprovably as Woolloomooloo. But I very much hope that what follows is broad enough and general enough to be frequently useful to nearly everyone.

To keep it simple, I have freely resorted to certain short cuts. Pronunciations have been simplified. I have scorned the International Phonetic Alphabet, with its dogged reliance on symbols such as ?, e, and , on the grounds that hardly anyone readily comprehends them, and instead I have attempted to convert tricky pronunciations into straightforward phonetic equivalents. Often these are intended as no more than rough guidesanyone who has ever heard the throat-clearing noise that is a Dutchman pronouncing s Gravenhage (the formal name of The Hague) will realize what a feebly approximate thing my suggested version isand I unhesitatingly apologize for any shortcomings in this respect.

I have also been forced on occasion to be arbitrary over spelling. Dictionaries are sometimes remarkably out of step with the rest of the world on certain matters of usage and orthographyin this respect I can cite no better example than the Oxford English Dictionarys interesting but lonely insistence that Shakespeare should be spelled Shaksperebut there is usually a rough consensus, which I have sought to follow, though I try always to note alternatives when they are freely accepted.

I have tried also to keep cross-references to a minimum. In my view one of the more grating irritants of research is to hunt through several pages looking for Khayym, Omar, only to be told See Omar Khayym. So I have frequently put such information not only where it should be but also where a hurried reader might mistakenly look for it. The price for this is a certain repetition, for which I additionally apologize.

Some issues of stylewhether you should write shopkeeper or shop-keeper, for instancehave been deliberately excluded. Such matters often are so overwhelmingly a question of preference, house style, or fashion that my choices would be simply that: my choices. I would suggest that in such instances you should choose what seems most sensible, and strive to be consistent.

In the updating and typing of this new edition, I am hugely indebted to Meghan Bryson and Felicity Bryson Gould, respectively my daughter-in-law and daughter, for their unstinting and good-natured help, and as always I am especially indebted to my dear wife, Cynthia, for her patience and support throughout.

Aa

Aachen. City in Germany; in French, Aix-la-Chapelle.

a/an. Errors involving the indefinite articles a and an are almost certainly more often a consequence of haste and carelessness than of ignorance. They are especially common when numbers are involved, as here: Cox will contribute 10 percent of the equity needed to build a $80 million cable system or He was assisted initially by two officers from the sheriffs department and a FBI agent. When the first letter of an abbreviation is pronounced as a vowel, as in FBI, the preceding article should be an, not a.

Aarhus. City in Denmark; in Danish, rhus.

abacus, pl. abacuses.

abaft. Toward the stern, or rear, of a ship.

abattoir.

Abbas, Mahmoud. (1935) President of Palestinian National Authority (2005).

ABC. American Broadcasting Companies (note plural), though the full title is no longer spelled out. It is now part of the Walt Disney Company. The television network is ABC-TV.

abdomen, but abdominal.

Abdulaziz International Airport, King, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. (1947) American basketball player; born Lew Alcindor.

aberrant, aberratiocn.

abhorrent.

Abidjan. Former capital of Cte dIvoire.

ab incunabulis. (Lat.) From the cradle.

abiogenesis. The concept that living matter can arise from nonliving matter; spontaneous generation.

able. In adding this suffix to a verb, the general rule is to drop a silent e (livable, lovable) except after a soft g (manageable) or sibilant c (peaceable). When a verb ends with a consonant and a y (justify, indemnify) change the y to i before adding -able (justifiable, indemnifiable). Verbs ending in -ate drop that syllable before adding -able (appreciable, demonstrable).

-able, -ible. There are no reliable rules for knowing when a word ends in -able and when in -ible; see Appendix for a list of some of the more frequently confused spellings.

ab origine. (Lat.) From the beginning.

abracadabra.

abridgment.

abrogate. To abolish.

Absalom. In the Old Testament, third son of David.

Absalom, Absalom! Novel by William Faulkner (1936).

Absaroka Range, Rocky Mountains.

abscess.

absinth.

abstemious.

Abu Dhabi. Capital city of and state in the United Arab Emirates.

Abuja. Capital of Nigeria.

Abu Simbel, Egypt; site of temples built by Ramses II.

abyss, abyssal, but abysmal.

Abyssinia. Former name of Ethiopia.

acacia.

Acadmie franaise. French literary society of forty members who act as guardians of the French language; in English contexts, Franaise is usually capitalized.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Institution responsible for the Oscars.

a capella. Singing without musical accompaniment.

Acapulco, Mexico. Officially, Acapulco de Jurez.

Accademia della Crusca. Italian literary academy.

accelerator.

accessible.

accessory.

acciaccatura. Grace note in music.

accidentally. Not -tly.

accolade.

accommodate. Very often misspelled: note-cc-, -mm-.

accompanist. Not -iest.

accouterment.

Accra. Capital of Ghana.

Acheson, Dean. (18931971) American diplomat and politician; secretary of state, 19491953.