Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (20 page)

giga-.
Prefix meaning one billion.

gigolo,
pl.
gigolos.

Gilbert and Ellice Islands.
Equatorial islands in Pacific Ocean; part of the Republic of Kiribati.

gild the lily.
The passage from Shakespeare's
King John
is: “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily…Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” Thus it is both wrong and hackneyed to speak of “gilding the lily” in the sense of overdoing something.

Gilgamesh Epic.
Babylonian epic poem.

Gillette.
Brand of razors.

Gillray, James.
(1757–1815) British caricaturist.

Gimbel Brothers.
Former New York department store; commonly referred to as
Gimbels
(no apos.).

gingivitis.
Not
-us.
Inflammation of the gums.

ginkgo.
Not
gingko
. Asian tree; pl.
ginkgoes
.

Ginsberg, Allen.
(1926–1997) American Beat poet.

Gioconda, La.
Alternative name for the
Mona Lisa.

Giorgione, Il.
(1478–1510) Italian painter; full name Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco.

Giotto.
(c. 1266–1337) Italian painter and architect; full name
Giotto di Bondone.

girlfriend, boyfriend.
(Each one word.)

Giuliani, Rudolph (“Rudy”) W.
(1944–) Republican mayor of New York City (1994–2001).

giveable.

gizmo,
pl.
gizmos.

gladiolus
, pl.
gladioli.

glamour,
but
glamorous, glamorize.

glasnost.
(Rus.) Literally “publicity” the effort to make Soviet government and life more open.

glassful,
pl.
glassfuls.

Glaswegian.
A person from Glasgow.

GlaxoSmithKline.
(All one word.) Anglo-U.S. pharmaceuticals company.

Glenlivet.
Whiskey.

Glens Falls,
New York.

Gloria in excelsis Deo.
(Lat.) “Glory be to God on high.”

Gloucestershire.
English county.

GmbH,
for
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung.
(Ger.) Limited liability company.

GMT.
Greenwich Mean Time.

gneiss.
A kind of rock, similar to granite; pronounced
nice.

gnocchi,
for a type of Italian dumplings, is plural; a single dumpling is a
gnocco
(no
h
).

GNP, GDP.
GNP,
gross national product, is the total worth of everything produced by a nation during a given period, including earnings from abroad.
GDP,
gross domestic product, is everything produced by a nation during a given period, except earnings from abroad.

gobbledygook.

Gobelin tapestry.
Named for a textile works in Paris.

Gobi Desert.

Godard, Jean-Luc.
(1930–) French film director.

Goddard, Robert Hutchings.
(1882–1945) American rocket scientist.

godsend, godforsaken, godhead
(no caps.), but
God-awful, God-fearing
, and
Godspeed
(caps.).

Godthaab.
Former name of the capital of Greenland; now called
Nuuk.

Godwin Austen.
Not
Austin
; no hyphen. More commonly called K2, the highest mountain in the Karakoram Range of the Himalayas.

Goebbels, Joseph.
(1897–1945) German Nazi propaganda chief.

Goering/Göring, Hermann.
(1893–1946) Leading Nazi, second in command to Hitler.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von.
(1749–1832) German poet and dramatist.

Gogol, Nikolai.
(1809–1852) Russian novelist and playwright.

Golgi body.
Structure found within cells.

Gomorrah.
Ancient city in Palestine.

Goneril.
One of Lear's daughters in Shakespeare's
King Lear
.

gonof
(or
ganef
). (Yid.) A thief or disreputable person.

gonorrhea.

Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge University, England; normally referred to as just Caius; pronounced
keys.

goodbye.
(One word.)

Good-natur'd Man, The.
Comedy by Oliver Goldsmith (1768).

good will
is the usual spelling, though
goodwill
is acceptable, particularly when referring to the reputation and trading value of a business.

Good Woman of Setzuan, The.
Play by Bertolt Brecht (1941).

Google
for the search engine, but
googol
for the very large number: a 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

GOP.
Abbreviation of Grand Old Party, nickname of Republican Party.

Gorbachev, Mikhail (Sergeyevich).
(1931–) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985–1991), president of the Supreme Soviet (1988–1991), president of the USSR (1990–1991).

Gordian knot.
A complex problem. According to legend, King Gordius of Phrygia tied the knot and it was said that anyone who could undo it would rule Asia; Alexander the Great cut it with his sword. “To cut the Gordian knot” is to solve a difficult problem by a decisive action.

gorgheggio.
Musical term for a trill.

Gorgons.
In Greek mythology, three creatures (Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale) so ugly that anyone gazing at them turned to stone.

Gorgonzola
(cap.) for the cheese and the village in Italy in which it originated.

gorilla.

Göring, Hermann.
Use
Goering.

Gorky, Maxim.
Pseudonym of
Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov
(1868–1936), Russian writer. The Russian city named for him has reverted to its original name of
Nizhny Novgorod.

Gothenburg,
Sweden; in Swedish, Göteborg.

Götterdämmerung.
(Ger.) “Twilight of the gods.” Last part of Wagner's
Ring
cycle; figuratively, a complete downfall.

gouache.
A kind of opaque watercolor paint mixed with a gluelike preparation; a picture painted in this way or with such a pigment.

Gould, Elliott.
(1938–) American film actor; note unusual spelling of first name; born Elliot Goldstein.

gourmand
is a word to be used carefully. Some dictionaries now define it only as a person who likes to eat well, but others equate it with gluttony. Unless you mean to convey a pejorative sense, it would be better to use
gourmet, gastronome, epicure
, or some other more flattering term.

goy.
(Yid.) A gentile; pl.
goyim.

gracias.
(Sp.) Thank you.

Gradgrind.
(Cap.) A cold, emotionless person, after a character in Charles Dickens's
Hard Times
.

Graeae.
In Greek mythology, three sisters who guard the Gorgons.

Graf, Steffi.
(1969–) German tennis player.

graffiti
is, strictly speaking, a plural. If all you mean is a single embellishment, the proper term is
graffito
. However, it must also be noted that fewer and fewer authorities insist on the distinction.

graham cracker.
(Not cap.)

Grahame, Kenneth.
(1859–1932) British writer, author of
The Wind in the Willows.

Graian Alps.
Stretch of alps along French-Italian border.

Gramm-Rudman Act.
Law intended to reduce and eliminate U.S. federal deficit; formally, it is the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act.

Grammy,
pl.
Grammys.
Musical awards formally known as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Awards.

gramophone.
Not
grama-.

Granada, Grenada.
The first is the historic city in Spain, the second the Caribbean island state; capital St. George's. They are pronounced respectively
gr
-nah-d
and
gr
-nay-d
.

Grand Coulee Dam,
Columbia River, Washington.

granddad, granddaughter.
Note
-dd-.

Grand Guignol.
High drama, constructed around a sensational theme. The term comes from the Théâtre du Grand Guignol in Paris, where such plays were in vogue in the last years of the nineteenth century.

grandiloquence,
not
-eloquence
, for inflated speech.

grand jury.
In U.S. law, a jury of up to twenty-three people empowered to decide whether enough evidence exists for a case to proceed against an accused person.