Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (36 page)

posthaste.
(One word.) With speed.

posthumous.
After death.

postilion.

postmeridian, post meridiem.
The first means related to or happening in the afternoon. The second, also pertaining to the period after noon, is the Latin term better known to most of us as the abbreviation p.m. Note the different terminal spellings.

postpartum.
After birth.

postprandial.
After dinner.

potage.
Soup.

potpourri,
pl.
potpourris.

Poughkeepsie,
New York.

Poulenc, Francis.
(1899–1963) French composer.

Poulters' Company.
London livery company; not
Poulterers'
.

pour, pore.
The first means to flow or rain heavily; the second means to examine carefully.

pourboire.
(Fr.) A gratuity.

pour encourager les autres.
(Fr.) “To encourage the others.”

Poussin, Nicolas.
(1594–1665) French painter.

Powell, Anthony.
(1905–2000) British novelist; pronounced
pole
.

powwow.
A conference.

Powys, John Cowper.
(1872–1963) English poet and novelist; the names are pronounced
cooper
and
po-iss.

PPI.
Abbreviation of
producer price index;
in economics, a measure of changes in commodity prices.

practical, practicable.
Anything that can be done and is worth doing is practical. Anything that can be done, whether or not it is worth doing, is practicable.

practice, practiced, practicing.

praemonitus praemunitis.
(Lat.) “Forewarned is forearmed.”

praeseodymium.
Chemical element.

Praetorian Guard.
Elite Roman army unit.

Praha.
Czech spelling of Prague.

Praia.
Capital of Cape Verde.

precautionary measure
is a common phrase, but it can nearly always be shortened simply to
precaution
.

precipitant, precipitate, precipitous.
All three come from the same root, the Latin
praecipitare
(“to throw headlong”).
Precipitous
means very steep: cliff faces are precipitous.
Precipitant
and
precipitate
both indicate a headlong rush and are almost indistinguishable in meaning, but
precipitant
tends to emphasize the abruptness of the rush and
precipitate
the rashness of it. The most common error is to use
precipitous
to describe actions (“his precipitous departure from the cabinet”).
Precipitous
can describe only physical characteristics.

precondition, preplanning, prerecorded,
etc. Almost always redundant: “A lot of headaches can be avoided with a little careful preplanning” (
Chicago Tribune
). All planning must be done in advance.
Pre-
adds nothing to its meaning and should be deleted, as it should have been in these examples: “There are, however, three preconditions to be met before negotiations can begin” (
Guardian
); “The company's music performance reflected both the volatility and opportunities for growth in the worldwide market for prerecorded music” (advertisement in the
Economist
).

precursor.
Not
-er.

predilection.

prehensile.
Able to grasp.

premier, premiere.
The first means first in position or importance. The second is a debut.

Preminger, Otto.
(1906–1986) Austrian-born American film director.

premises
is always plural when referring to property. There is no such thing as a business premise.

prepositions.
The lingering belief that sentences should not end with prepositions is entirely without foundation.

prerogative.
An exclusive right.

Prescelly Mountains,
Wales.

prescribe, proscribe.
Prescribe
means to set down as a rule or guide.
Proscribe
means to denounce or prohibit. If you get bronchitis, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics and proscribe smoking.

present, presently.
Like
current
and
currently,
these two often appear needlessly in sentences, as here: “A new factory, which is presently under construction in Manchester, will add to capacity.” The sentence says as much without
presently
as with it.

Presidents' Day.
Note apos. Third Monday of February.

presumptive, presumptuous.
The first is sometimes used when the second is intended.
Presumptuous
means impudent and inclined to take liberties, or to act in a manner that is excessively bold and forthright.
Presumptive
means giving grounds to presume and is primarily a technical term. The wrong use is seen here: “She considered the question with the equanimity of someone who has long been immune to presumptive prying” (
Sunday Telegraph
).

pretension,
but
pretentious.

prevalent, prevalence.

prevaricate, procrastinate.
Occasionally confused.
Prevaricate
means to speak or act evasively, to stray from the truth.
Procrastinate
means to put off doing.

prevent
often appears incorrectly in sentences such as this: “They tried to prevent him leaving.” It should be either “They tried to prevent his leaving” or “They tried to prevent him from leaving.” See
GERUNDS
(2).

preventive, preventative.
“One way to ease their difficulties, they decided, was to practice preventative medicine” (
Economist
).
Preventative
is not incorrect, but
preventive
is shorter.

Pribilof Islands,
Alaska.

PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Accountancy company.

“Pride goes before a fall”
is wrong. The quotation, from Proverbs, is “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

prima facie.
“At first sight,” on the face of it.

primeval.
Not
-evil.

primogeniture.
The practice by which an entire inheritance passes to the firstborn male child.

primus inter pares.
(Lat.) “First among equals.”

Princes Street,
Edinburgh, Scotland.

Princes Town,
Trinidad.

principal, principle.
Principle
means fundamental and is usually applied to fundamental beliefs or truths (“It's not the money, it's the principle”) or to fundamental understandings (“They have signed an agreement in principle”). It is always a noun.
Principal
can be a noun meaning chief or of first importance (“He is the school's principal”) or an adjective with the same meaning (“The principal reason for my going…”).

pristine
does not mean spotless. It means original or primeval or in a state virtually unchanged from the original.

privilege.

prix fixe.
(Fr.) Fixed price; pl.
prix fixes.

Prix Goncourt.
Preeminent French literary award.

p.r.n.
Short for
pro re nata
(Lat.), “as necessary.” Used by doctors on prescriptions to indicate that a drug should be administered as necessary and not on a fixed schedule.

proboscis.
An animal's trunk, long snout, or feeding tube; pl.
proboscises.

proceed,
but
procedure.

procrastinate, prevaricate.
The first means to postpone doing; the second means to be untruthful.

Procrustean.
Producing or striving to produce absolute conformity, usually through severe or absolute means; from Procrustes, a mythological Greek robber who made his victims fit a bed by stretching them or cutting off their limbs.

Procter & Gamble
for the household products company. Often misspelled
Proctor
.

prodigal
does not mean wandering or given to running away, a sense sometimes wrongly inferred from the biblical story of the Prodigal Son. It means recklessly wasteful or extravagant.

progenitor.
Ancestor.

prognosis,
pl.
prognoses.

Prohibition
(cap.) lasted from 1920 to 1933; it was brought in by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Volstead Act, and repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment.

Prokofiev, Sergei.
(1891–1953) Russian composer.

Promised Land, the.
(Caps.)

promissory note.

prone, prostrate, recumbent, supine.
Supine
means lying faceup (it may help to remember that a supine person is on his spine).
Prone
and
prostrate
are regarded by most dictionaries and usage authorities—but by no means all—as meaning lying facedown. (A few say that they can also apply to a person or thing lying faceup.)
Prostrate
should, in any case, suggest throwing oneself down, either in submission or for protection; someone who is merely asleep should not be called prostrate.
Recumbent
means lying flat in any position, but, like
repose
, it should indicate a position of ease and comfort. For the other sense of
prone
, see
LIABLE
,
LIKELY
,
APT
,
PRONE
.

pronunciation.
Not
pronoun-.

propaganda.

propagate.

propellant
is the usual spelling, but
propellent
is also accepted.

proper nouns.
Many writers stumble when confronted with finding a plural form for a proper noun, as in the two following examples, both from
The Times
of London and both wrong: “The Cox's were said by neighbors to be…happily married” “This is the first of a new series about the Rush's.” The rule for making plurals of proper nouns is precisely the same as for any other nouns. If you have no trouble turning “one fox” into “two foxes” or “one church” into “two churches,” you should have no trouble making “the Rush family” into “the Rushes” and “the Cox couple” into “the Coxes.” In short, for names ending in
s, sh, ch,
or
x
, add
es: Lewises, Lennoxes, Clemenses
. For all others, simply add
s
:
Smiths, Browns, Greens, the two Koreas
. The rule is invariable for Anglo-Saxon names. For others, there are a few exceptions, among them
Rockies, Ptolemies, Alleghenies, Mercuries
, and (in some publications)
Germanies
. At all events, the addition of an apostrophe to make any noun plural is always wrong.

prophecy, prophesy.
The first is the noun; the second the verb. Thus: “I prophesy war; that is my prophecy.”

propinquity.
Nearness or similarity.

proprietor,
but
proprietary.

pro re nata.
See
P.R.N
.

prosciutto.
Italian ham; pl.
prosciutti
(or
prosciuttos
).

prosthesis,
pl.
prostheses.

prostrate
should be used only with the sense of throwing oneself down in submission or for protection.

protagonist.
Literally the word means “first actor” (from the Greek
protos
and
agonistes
) and by extension may be applied to the person who most drives the action in any affair. The word is not the opposite of
antagonist;
it does not necessarily have anything to do with heroic or admirable behavior or bear any relationship to the Latin
pro-,
meaning for or on behalf of. A protagonist may champion a cause, and in practice often does, but that isn't implicit in the word.

protégé
(masc.),
protégée
(fem.). One under the protection or tutelage of an experienced person.

pro tem
is the abbreviation of
pro tempore
(Lat.), “for the time being.”

protester.

protocol.

prototype
is the word for an original that serves as a model for later products of its type. Thus
first prototype, experimental prototype, model prototype
, and most other qualifying descriptions are generally redundant.

proved, proven.
In general
proved
is the preferred past tense form (“the accused was proved innocent”) and
proven
the preferred form for adjectival uses (“a proven formula”).