Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (11 page)

Clwyd.
County of northern Wales; pronounced
kloo'-wid
.

Clytemnestra.
In Greek mythology, the wife of Agamemnon.

cnidarians.
Members of the phylum of marine invertebrates that includes jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones. Also called
coelenterates.

Cnossos/Cnossus.
Alternative spellings for ancient capital of Crete; usually spelled
Knossos
in American usage.

Coahuila.
State in northeastern Mexico.

Cobb, Irvin S(hrewsbury).
(1876–1944) American journalist and humorist.

Cobh,
County Cork, Ireland; pronounced
cove.

COBOL.
Common Business Oriented Language, an early computer programming language.

Coca-Cola.
(Hyphen.) The diminutive term
Coke
should always be capitalized.

coccyx.
Tailbone; pl.
coccyxes.

cock-a-leekie soup.

cockney.
(No cap.) A native of London's East End; pl.
cockneys.

coconut.
But the Marx Brothers Broadway show and movie is
The Cocoanuts
.

cocoon.

coelacanth
for the ocean fish famed in scientific circles for its archaic qualities. Pronounced
see-luh-kanth.

coequal
is a pointless word;
co-
adds nothing to
equal
that
equal
doesn't already say alone.

Coetzee, J. M.
(for John Maxwell) (1940–) South African–born Australian author, awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.

Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho.

Coeur de Lion, Richard.
(1157–1199) Richard the Lionheart, Richard I of England.

cogito, ergo sum.
(Lat.) “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes's aphorism.

cognoscente.
A person who is well informed or of elevated taste; pl.
cognoscenti.

Cohan, George M.
(for Michael) (1878–1942) American songwriter and performer, playwright, and producer.

Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude.
(1933–) French physicist, born in Algeria; awarded Nobel Prize for Physics (1997).

Cointreau.
Liqueur.

Coleman, Ornette.
(1930–) American jazz saxophonist.

coleus.

Colgate-Palmolive.
(Hyphen.) Personal products company.

colic,
but
colicky.

coliseum, Colosseum.
The first applies to any large amphitheater; the second is a particular amphitheater in Rome.

collapsible.
Not
-able.

collectible
is the normal U.S. spelling, but
collectable
is an accepted alternative.

collectives.
Deciding whether to treat nouns of multitude—words like
majority, flock, variety, group, crowd
, and so on—as singulars or plurals is entirely a matter of the sense you intend to convey. Although some authorities have tried to fix rules, such undertakings are almost always futile. On the whole, Americans lean to the singular and Britons to the plural, often in ways that would strike the other as absurd (compare the American “The couple was married in March” with the British “England are to play Hungary in their next match”). A common fault is to flounder about between singular and plural. Even Samuel Johnson stumbled when he wrote that he knew of no nation “that
has
preserved
their
words and phrases from mutability.” Clearly the italicized words should be either singular both times or plural both times. See also
NUMBER
and
TOTAL
.

collisions
can occur only when two or more moving objects come together. If a car runs into a stationary object, it is not a collision.

Colman, Ronald.
(1891–1958) English actor.

Colombey-les-Deux-Églises.
Town east of Paris where Charles de Gaulle is buried.

Colombia.
South American country; capital Bogotá.

Colombo.
Capital of Sri Lanka.

Colón, Cristóbal.
Spanish spelling of Christopher Columbus. In his native Italy, his name was Cristoforo Colombo.

colonnade.

colossal.

Colosseum,
Rome.

Colossus of Rhodes.

colostomy.

Colquhoun.
Scottish name; pronounced
ko-hoon'
.

Columba, St.
(521–597) Irish saint associated with the Scottish island of Iona.

Columbus Day.
Second Monday in October.

combatant, combated, combating.

combustible.
Capable of being burned.

Comédie-Française.
National theater of France; formally, the Théâtre Français.

Comedy of Errors, The,
not
A
, for the play by William Shakespeare.

Comerica Park.
Detroit baseball stadium, home of the Tigers.

comestible.
Foodstuff.

comic, comical.
Something that is
comic
is intended to be funny (“a comic performance”). Something that is
comical
is funny whether or not that was the intention (“a comical misunderstanding”).

Comiskey Park.
Former Chicago baseball stadium, home of the White Sox; the team's stadium is now called U.S. Cellular Field.

commedia dell'arte.
Type of farcical Italian comedy.

commence.
An unnecessary genteelism. What's wrong with “begin”?

commingle.
To mix together. Note
-mm-.

commiserate.

committal.

Commodus, Lucius Aelius Aurelius.
(
AD 161
–192) Roman emperor (
AD
180–192).

Comoros.
Island state off Madagascar; capital Moroni.

compact disc.
Not
disk
.

comparatively.
“Comparatively little progress was made in the talks yesterday” (
Guardian
). Compared with what?
Comparatively
should be reserved for occasions when a comparison is being expressed or at least clearly implied. If all you mean is
fairly
or
only a little
, choose another word. See also
RELATIVELY
.

compare to, compare with.
These two can be usefully distinguished.
Compare to
should be used to liken things,
compare with
to consider their similarities or differences. “He compared London to New York” means that he felt London to be similar to New York. “He compared London with New York” means that he assessed the two cities' relative merits.
Compare to
most often appears in figurative senses, as in “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?”

compatible.

compatriot
for a fellow countryman. Not to be confused, in meaning or spelling, with
expatriate.

compel, impel.
Both words imply the application of a force leading to some form of action, but they are not quite synonymous.
Compel
is the stronger of the two and, like its cousin
compulsion
, suggests action undertaken as a result of coercion or irresistible pressure: “The man's bullying tactics compelled us to flee.”
Impel
is closer in meaning to
encourage
and means to urge forward: “The audience's ovation impelled me to speak at greater length than I had intended.” If you are compelled to do something, you have no choice. If you are impelled, an element of willingness is possible.

compendium.
No doubt because of the similarity in sound to
comprehensive
, the word is often taken to mean vast and all-embracing. In fact, a
compendium
is a succinct summary or abridgment. Size has nothing to do with it. It may be as large as
The Oxford English Dictionary
or as small as a memorandum. What is important is that it should provide a complete summary in a brief way. The plural can be either
compendia
or
compendiums
. The
OED
prefers the former, most other dictionaries the latter.

complacent, complaisant.
The first means self-satisfied, contented to the point of smugness. The second means affable and cheerfully obliging. If you are
complacent,
you are pleased with yourself. If you are
complaisant,
you wish to please others. Both words come from the Latin
complacere
(“to please”), but
complaisant
reached us by way of France, which accounts for the difference in spelling.

Compleat Angler, The.
Book by Izaak Walton (1653).

complement, compliment/complementary, complimentary.
The words come from the same Latin root,
complere
, meaning to fill up, but have long had separate meanings.
Compliment
means to praise.
Complement
has stayed closer to the original meaning: it means to fill out or make whole. So a gracious guest compliments a host; an espresso after dinner complements a meal. In the adjectival forms
complementary
and
complimentary
the words retain these senses, but
complimentary
has the additional meaning of something given without charge: a complimentary ticket, for instance.

complete.
Partridge includes
complete
in his list of false comparatives—that is, words that do not admit of a comparison, such as
ultimate
and
eternal
(one thing cannot be “more ultimate” or “more eternal” than another). Technically, he is right, and you should take care not to modify
complete
needlessly. But there are occasions when it would be pedantic to carry the stricture too far. As the Morrises note, there can be no real objection to “This is the most complete study to date of that period.” Use it, but use it judiciously.

complete and unabridged.
Though blazoned across the packaging of countless audio books, the phrase is palpably redundant. If a work is unabridged, it must be complete, and vice versa. Choose one or the other.

compos mentis.
(Lat.) “Of sound mind.”

comprehensible.

compressor.

comprise.
“Beneath Sequoia is the Bechtel Group, a holding company comprised of three main operating arms…”(
New York Times
). Not quite. It is composed of three main operating arms, not comprised of them.
Comprised of
is a common expression, but it is always wrong.
Comprise
means to contain. The whole comprises the parts and not vice versa. A house may comprise seven rooms, but seven rooms do not comprise a house—and still less is a house comprised of seven rooms. The example above should be either “a holding company comprising three main operating arms” or “composed of three main operating arms.”

conceived.
“Last week, 25 years after it was first conceived…” (
Time
). Delete “first.” Something can be conceived only once. Similarly with “initially conceived” and “originally conceived.”

Concertgebouw Orchestra,
Amsterdam.

condone.
The word does not mean to approve or endorse, senses that are often attached to it. It means to pardon, forgive, overlook. You can condone an action without supporting it.

Coney Island,
New York.

confectionery.
Not
-ary.

confidant
(masc.)/
confidante
(fem.) for a person entrusted with private information.

Congo,
confusingly, now applies to two neighboring nations in Africa. The larger of the two, which was called Zaire until 1997, now styles itself the Democratic Republic of the Congo; its capital is Kinshasa. Bordering it to the west is the much smaller Republic of the Congo; capital Brazzaville.

Congonhas–São Paulo International Airport,
São Paulo, Brazil.

Congressional Medal of Honor,
for the highest U.S. military honor, is not strictly correct. It is awarded by Congress, but its correct title is simply the Medal of Honor.

Congreve, William.
(1670–1729) English playwright.

Connacht.
Province of Ireland comprising five counties: Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo.

Connelly, Marc.
(1890–1980) American playwright. Full name: Marcus Cook Connelly.

Connemara.
Galway, Ireland.

connoisseur.

ConocoPhillips.
Oil company.

Conseco Fieldhouse,
Indianapolis; home of the Indiana Pacers basketball team.

consensus.
“General consensus” is a tautology. Any consensus must be general. Equally to be avoided is “consensus of opinion.” Above all, note that
consensus
is spelled with a middle
s,
like
consent
. It has nothing to do with
census
.