Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (17 page)

extraneous.
Not
exter-.

extrovert.
Not
extra-.

ExxonMobil Corporation.
U.S. oil company.

eyeing.

Ezeiza Airport,
Buenos Aires.

E-ZPass.
Trademarked toll collection system.

Ff

FAA.
Federal Aviation Administration.

fable, parable, allegory, myth.
Fables
and
parables
are both stories intended to have instructional value. They differ in that parables are always concerned with religious or ethical themes, while fables are usually concerned with more practical considerations (and frequently have animals as the characters). An
allegory
is an extended metaphor—that is, a narrative in which the principal characters represent things that are not explicitly stated. Orwell's
Animal Farm
is an allegory.
Myths
originally were stories designed to explain some belief or phenomenon, usually the exploits of superhuman beings. Today the word can signify any popular misconception or invented story.

facile
is usually defined as easy, smooth, without much effort. But the word should contain at least a suggestion of derision. Facile writing isn't just easily read or written; it is also lacking in substance or import.

facsimile.
An exact copy.

factious, factitious.
Factious
applies to factions; it is something that promotes internal bickering or disharmony.
Factitious
applies to that which is artificial or a sham; applause for a despotic ruler may be factitious. Neither should be confused with
fractious,
a term for something that is unruly or disorderly, as in “a fractious crowd.”

Faerie Queene, The.
Epic poem by Edmund Spenser (1589–1596).

Faeroe Islands/The Faroes.
Danish islands in the North Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland; in Danish, Faeröerne.

Fahd bin Abdul Aziz.
(1923–2005) King of Saudi Arabia (1982–2005).

Fahrenheit.
(Cap.) Temperature scale that sets freezing at 32 degrees and boiling at 212; named after the German physicist
Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit
(1686–1736). To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply the Celsius temperature by 1.8 and add 32, or use the table in the Appendix.

faience.
A kind of glazed pottery.

Fairleigh Dickinson University.

fairway,
not
fare-,
in golf.

fait accompli.
(Fr.) An accomplished fact; pl.
faits accomplis
.

Falange, Phalange.
The first is a political party in Spain; the second a political party in Lebanon.

fallible.

Fallujah.
Sunni Muslim stronghold in central Iraq besieged by American troops in 2004.

fandango.
Lively Spanish dance; pl.
fandangoes/fandangos.

Faneuil Hall,
Boston; pronounced
fan-yull.

Fannie Mae/Fannie May.
The first is the nickname for the Federal National Mortgage Association and the bonds it issues; the second is a long-established candy company. See also
FREDDIE MAC
.

FAO.
Food and Agriculture (not Agricultural) Organization, a UN body.

Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front.
Salvadoran revolutionary movement.

Faraday, Michael.
(1791–1867) British chemist and physicist.

FARC.
Short for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), guerrilla group.

Far from the Madding Crowd.
Not
Maddening
. Novel by Thomas Hardy (1874).

Farne Islands,
Northumberland, England.

farrago.
A confused mixture; pl.
farragoes.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Not
Strauss
. U.S. publisher.

Farrell, James T(homas).
(1904–1979) American novelist.

farther, further.
Insofar as the two are distinguished,
farther
usually appears in contexts involving literal distance (“New York is farther from Sydney than from London”) and
further
in contexts involving figurative distance (“I can take this plan no further”).

fascia.

fascism, fascist.

Fassbinder, Rainer Werner.
(1946–1982) German filmmaker.

Fates, the.
In Greek mythology, the three daughters of Nyx: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; they are known as the Moerae in Greek and Parcae in Latin.

Father's Day.
(Sing.)

fatwa.
Islamic decree.

Faubourg St.-Honoré, Rue du,
Paris. Note
du
.

fauna, flora.
The first means animals; the second, plants.

faute de mieux
. (Fr.) “For lack of anything better.”

fauvism.
(No cap.) Short-lived school of expressionist art in France. Proponents, known as Les Fauves, included Matisse, Dufy, Braque, and Rouault.

faux bonhomme.
(Fr.) A person whose superficial good nature disguises a darker side.

faux pas.
(Fr.) An error or blunder; pl. same.

favela.
(Port.) A Brazilian shantytown.

Fawkes, Guy.
(1570–1606) Catholic rebel caught up in England's unsuccessful Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes' (note apos.) Day is November 5 and marks the date of his capture, not execution.

faze.
To disturb or worry; not to be confused with
phase
.

FCC.
Federal Communications Commission, authority responsible for regulating television and radio.

FDIC.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, authority that steps in when banks fail.

feasible.
Not
-able.
The word does not mean probable or plausible, as is sometimes thought, but simply capable of being done. An action can be feasible without being either desirable or likely.

FedEx Corporation.

feet, foot.
An occasional error is seen here: “Accompanied by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the president also stopped at the 275-feet-high General Sherman Tree, a sequoia thought to be one of the largest living things on Earth.” When one noun qualifies another, the first is normally singular. That is why we talk about toothbrushes rather than teethbrushes and horse races rather than horses races. Exceptions can be found—
systems analyst, singles bar
—but usually these appear only when the normal form would produce ambiguity. When a noun is not being made to function as an adjective, the plural is the usual form. Thus a wall that is six feet high is a six-foot-high wall. (For a discussion of the punctuation distinction, see
HYPHEN
in the Appendix.)

Fehn, Sverre.
(1924–) Norwegian architect.

feijoada.
Brazilian national dish.

Feininger, Lyonel.
(1871–1956) American artist; note unusual spelling of first name.

Feinstein, Dianne.
(1933–) Democratic senator from California.

feisty.

feldspar.

Fellini, Federico.
(1920–1993) Italian film director.

FEMA.
Federal Emergency Management Agency.

femto-.
Prefix meaning one-quadrillionth.

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence.
(1920–) American poet and writer.

Fermanagh,
Northern Ireland county.

Ferrara.
City in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Ferrari.
Italian car.

Ferraro, Geraldine (Anne).
(1935–) American Democratic politician, ran as vice presidential candidate with Walter Mondale in 1984.

ferrule, ferule.
A
ferrule
is a metal cap or band used to strengthen a tool, as with the metal piece that attaches the brush to the handle of a paintbrush. A
ferule
is a ruler or stick used for punishment.

fervid
means intense; not to be confused with
fetid,
meaning foul-smelling.

fettuccine.

Feuchtwanger, Lion.
(1884–1958) German writer.

feu de joie.
(Fr.) Ceremonial salute with gunfire; pl.
feux de joie.

Feuerbach, Ludwig.
(1804–1872) German philosopher.

feuilleton.
Section of French newspaper containing literary reviews, fiction serializations, or other pieces of light journalism.

fever, temperature.
You often hear sentences like “John had a temperature yesterday” when in fact John has a temperature every day. Strictly speaking, what he had yesterday was a fever.

fewer, less.
Use
less
with singular nouns (less money, less sugar) and
fewer
with plural nouns (fewer houses, fewer cars).

Feydeau, Georges.
(1862–1921) French playwright known for farces.

Feynman, Richard.
(1918–1988) American physicist.

fiancé
(masc.),
fiancée
(fem.).

Fianna Fáil.
Irish political party; pronounced
fee-yan'
-
a foil
.

Fiat.
Abbreviation of Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino, Italian car manufacturer.

fiddle-de-dee.

FIDE.
Fédération Internationale des Échecs, world governing body of chess.

Fidei Defensor.
(Lat.) “Defender of the Faith.”

FIFA.
Fédération Internationale de Football Associations, world governing body of soccer.

fifth column.
Enemy sympathizers working within their own country; the term comes from the Spanish Civil War when General Emilio Mola boasted that he had four columns of soldiers marching on Madrid and a
fifth column
of sympathizers waiting in the city.

Fifth Third Bancorp.
U.S. banking group.

filament.

filet, fillet.
Use the first when the phrase or context is distinctly French (
filet mignon
), but otherwise use
fillet
.

filial.

filibuster.

filigree.

Filipino
(masc.)
/Filipina
(fem.). A native of the Philippines.

fille de joie.
(Fr.) A prostitute.

Fillmore, Millard.
(1800–1874) Thirteenth U.S. president (1850–1853).

finagle.
To secure by cajoling; to use trickery.

finalize
is still objected to by many as an ungainly and unnecessary word, and there is no arguing that several other verbs—
finish, complete, conclude
—do the job as well without raising hackles.

fin de siècle.
(Fr.) “End of the century” normally applied to the end of the nineteenth century.

Fine Gael.
Irish political party; pronounced
feen gayle.

finial.
Ornament on the pinnacle of a roof or similar.

finical, finicky.
Both mean fussy, overprecise.

Finisterre, Cape.
Westernmost point of Spanish mainland.

Finnegans Wake.
(No apos.) Novel by James Joyce (1939).

fiord, fjord.
Either is correct.

Firenze.
The Italian for Florence.

first and foremost.
Choose one.

first come first served.
(No comma.)

first floor.
Depending on context, it may be pertinent to remember that in Britain and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the first floor is not the ground floor but the floor above it.

First Man in the Moon, The.
H. G. Wells novel (1901); note
in
, not
on.

Fischer, Bobby.
(1943–2008) American chess player; world champion (1972–1975).

Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich.
(1925–) German baritone.

fish, fishes.
Either is correct as a plural.

Fishburne, Laurence.
(1961–) American actor.

Fisherman's Wharf,
San Francisco. Not
-men's.

fission, fusion.
In physics, ways of producing nuclear energy:
fission
by splitting the nucleus of an atom,
fusion
by fusing two light nuclei into a single, heavier nucleus.

fisticuffs.

Fittipaldi, Emerson.
(1946–) Brazilian racing car driver.

FitzGerald, Edward.
(1809–1883) English scholar and poet, translator of Omar Khayyám's
Rubáiyát
.

Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, England.

Fiumicino Airport,
Rome. Formally it is Aeroporto Intercontinentale Leonardo da Vinci, but it is more commonly known by the name of its locality.