Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (46 page)

Völsunga Saga.
Scandinavian epic.

Voltaire.
(1694–1778) Pen name of François-Marie Arouet, French writer;
Voltairean
is the somewhat awkward adjectival form of the name.

volte-face.
(Hyphen.) A complete change or reversal, especially an unexpected one.

voluptuous.

von Braun, Wernher.
(1912–1977) German-born American rocket scientist.

von Karajan, Herbert.
(1908–1989) Austrian conductor.

Vonnegut, Kurt.
(1922–2007) American novelist.

von Sternberg, Josef.
(1894–1969) Austrian-born American film director.

von Stroheim, Erich.
(1885–1957) German-born Hollywood actor and director.

Von Willebrand's disease.
Genetic disorder that affects blood clotting.

voodoo.

voortrekker.
Afrikaans for “pioneer.”

Vorderasiatisches Museum,
Berlin, Germany.

vortexes/vortices.
For the plural of
vortex
, either is correct.

vox populi.
(Lat.) “Voice of the people.”

Voyageurs National Park,
Minnesota.

voyeur.
One who enjoys watching others engage in sexual acts.

Vuillard, Édouard.
(1868–1940) French artist.

vulpine.
Having the nature of a fox.

vying.

Ww

wacky.

Waikiki.
Beach and district in Honolulu, Hawaii.

wainscot, wainscoting.
Type of paneling.

Waitemata Harbor,
Auckland, New Zealand.

waiver, waver.
The first is a relinquishment of a claim; the second means to hesitate.

Wajda, Andrzej.
(1926–) Polish film director; pronounced
vie'-da
.

Walden Pond.
Small lake in Massachusetts associated with Henry David Thoreau.

Waldenses.
Puritanical Christian sect originating in the twelfth century.

Waldheim, Kurt.
(1918–2007) Austrian politician, secretary-general of the United Nations (1972–1982), and president of Austria (1986–1992).

Wa⌢ęsa, Lech.
(1943–) President of Poland (1990–1995); awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1983).

walkie-talkie.

wallaby.
Species of small kangaroo.

Wallace, Alfred Russel.
(Not
-ll.
) (1823–1913) British naturalist.

Wallenberg, Raoul.
(1912–1947?) Swedish diplomat who helped to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from being sent to concentration camps in World War II.

Wallis and Futuna Islands.
South Pacific island cluster, formerly a French overseas territory, now formally a French overseas collectivity; capital Mata-Utu.

Walloon.
A French-speaking Belgian, but
Wallonia
for the region.

Wal-Mart.
Discount stores group. The company's full name is Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Walpurgis Night
(or
Walpurgisnacht
). The night of April 30, when witches were once thought to gather.

Walton, Izaak.
(Not
Isaac
.) (1593–1683) English biographer and naturalist.

Wampanoag.
Native American group, part of the Algonquin people.

Warszawa.
The Polish spelling of Warsaw.

Wassermann test.
Blood test for syphilis, named after German bacteriologist August von Wassermann (1866–1925).

wasteland
is one word, but the poem by T. S. Eliot is
“The Waste Land..

wastrel.
Good-for-nothing person.

“Water, water, everywhere,/“Nor any drop to drink”
are the lines from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

Waterston, Sam.
(Not
-son.
) (1940–) American actor.

Watteau, Jean-Antoine.
(1684–1721) French painter.

Watusi.
African people.

Waukegan,
Illinois.

Waugh, Evelyn.
(1903–1966) English novelist.

waver, waiver.
The first means to hesitate; the second is the relinquishment of a claim.

Waverley Station,
Edinburgh, Scotland.

wavy.
Not
-ey.

way, shape, or form.
Choose one.

WCTU.
Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Wealth of Nations, The,
by Adam Smith; formally it is entitled
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
(1776).

weasel.

weather conditions
is redundant, as in “Freezing weather conditions will continue for the rest of the week.” Delete
conditions
. Similarly tiresome is the weather forecasters' fondness for “activity,” as in “thunderstorm activity over the plains states.”

Weddell Sea,
Antarctica.

Wedgwood china.
Not
Wedge-.

weevil.
Type of beetle.

Wehrmacht.
German armed forces (1935–1945).

Weidenfeld and Nicolson
for the British publisher. Not
-field
, not
Nich-.

Weil, Simone.
(1909–1943) French philosopher; pronounced
vay
.

Weill, Kurt.
(1900–1950) German-born American composer.

Weimar Republic.
German republic (1919–1933).

Weimaraner.
(Cap.) Breed of dog.

Weinmeister, Arnie.
(1923–2000) American football player.

Weir, Peter.
(1944–) Australian film director.

weird.

Weisz, Rachel.
(1971–) British actress.

Weizmann, Chaim.
(1874–1952) Russian-born Israeli scientist and statesman, president of Israel (1948–1952).

Welch Regiment, Royal Welch Fusiliers,
but the
Welsh Guards
for British military units.

Welles, Orson.
(1915–1985) American film actor and director.

Wellesley College,
Wellesley, Massachusetts.

wellington boots.
(No cap.)

weltschmerz.
German for sadness over the state of the world.

werewolf,
pl.
werewolves.

West, Mae.
(1892–1980) American actress.

West, Nathanael.
Pen name of Nathan Wallenstein Weinstein (1903–1940), American novelist.

Westchester,
New York, but
West Chester,
Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Western Australia
for the Australian state, but the
West Australian
for its largest newspaper.

Westmeath.
Irish county.

Westmoreland, William C.
(1914–2000) American general.

Westmorland,
not
-more-,
for the former English county, now part of Cumbria.

Westpac Banking Corporation.
Australian bank.

West Point-Pepperell.
U.S. textiles company, now
WestPoint Home.

wether.
A castrated sheep.

Weyerhaeuser Company.
Forestry products company.

whacky
(alt.)/
wacky
(pref.).

whammy.
A curse.

wharf,
pl.
wharves/wharfs.

wheedle.
Coax.

wheeze.

whelk.
Edible mollusc.

whence.
Although there is ample precedent for writing “from whence”—the King James Bible has the sentence “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help”—it is nonetheless tautological.
Whence
means “from where.” It is enough to say “the hills whence cometh my help.”

whereabouts
is plural.

whether or not.
The second two words should be dropped when
whether
is equivalent to
if
, as in “It is not yet known whether or not persons who become reinfected can spread the virus to others.”
Or not
is necessary, however, when what is being stressed is an alternative: “I intend to go whether or not you like it.”

whet one's appetite.
Not
wet
. The word has nothing to do with heightened salivary flow or anything of the like. It comes from an old English word,
hwettan
, meaning “sharpen.” Hence also
whetstone
for a stone used to sharpen knives.

which.
The belief that
which
may refer only to the preceding word and not to the whole of a preceding statement is without foundation except where there is a chance of ambiguity. The impossibility of enforcing the rule consistently is illustrated by an anecdote cited by Gowers. A class in Philadelphia had written to a local paper's resident usage expert, asking him what was wrong with the sentence “He wrecked the car, which was due to his carelessness.” Notice how the authority hoists himself with the last three words of his reply: “The fault lies in using
which
to refer to the statement ‘He wrecked the car.' When
which
follows a noun, it refers to that noun as its antecedent. Therefore in the foregoing sentence it is stated that the car was due to his carelessness, which is nonsense.” See also
THAT
,
WHICH
.

whim, whimsy.

whinny.
The sound a horse makes.

whippet.
Breed of dog.

whippoorwill.
North American bird, so named because of its call.

whirligig
for the fairground ride and beetle, but
whirlybird
is the slang term for a helicopter.

whiskey.

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill.
(1834–1903) American painter.

White Friars.
Carmelites.

whitish.
Not
white-.

Whit Sunday.
The seventh Sunday after Easter.

Whittier, John Greenleaf.
(1807–1892) American poet.

whittle.
To pare wood; to reduce gradually.

whiz, whizzed, whizzing.

whiz kid,
not
whizz-,
is generally the preferred spelling, though most dictionaries recognize both. The same applies for
whiz-bang
, but with the addition of a hyphen.

who, whom.
Whom
is used when it is the object of a preposition (“To whom it may concern”) or verb (“The man whom we saw last night”) or the subject of a complementary infinitive (“The person whom we took to be your father”).
Who
is used on all other occasions.

whodunit
is the usual spelling for a mystery story. Note the single
n
.

whortleberry.

Who's Who.
Biographical reference work.

Whyte & Mackay.
Scotch whiskey.

widget.
A gadget or other small undefined item.

wield.

Wien.
German for Vienna.

Wiener, Norbert.
(1894–1964) American mathematician, developed the science of cybernetics.

Wiener schnitzel.
Fried breaded veal cutlet.

Wiesbaden,
Germany. Not
Weis-.

Wiesenthal, Simon.
(1919–2005) Celebrated hunter of Nazi war criminals.

Wiest, Dianne.
(1948–) American actress.

Wi-Fi.
(Generally cap.) Short for
wireless fidelity.

Wilde, Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills).
(1854–1900) Irish poet and playwright.

wildebeest,
pl.
wildebeeste/wildebeests.

wildflower
(adj.),
wild flower
(noun). A wildflower garden is filled with wild flowers.

Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania.

Wilkes Land,
Antarctica. (Two words, no apos.)

willful.

Willkie, Wendell L(ewis).
(1892–1944) American businessman chosen by Republican Party as its presidential candidate in 1940.

will-o'-the-wisp.

Wills, Garry.
(1934–) U.S. historian.

willy-nilly.

Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles. Not
Wilt-.

Wimbledon.
Tennis club; officially, the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Windhoek.
Capital of Namibia.

Winger, Debra.
(1952–) American film actress.

Winnemucca,
Nevada.

Winnibigoshish, Lake,
Minnesota.

Winnipeg.
Capital of Manitoba, Canada.

Winnipesaukee, Lake,
New Hampshire.

wisteria,
not
-staria,
for the flowering shrub, though the American scientist for whom it was named was
Caspar Wistar.

withal.
Not
-all.
In addition, moreover.

withhold, withheld.
Note
-hh-.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig.
(1889–1951) Austrian-born British philospher.

Witwatersrand.
South African region in which Johannesburg is located. The university commonly known as
Wits University
is formally
University of the Witwatersrand
(note
the
).

wizened.
Shriveled.

Wobegon, Lake.
Fictional town in stories by Garrison Keillor. The word itself is spelled
woebegone.

Wodehouse, P. G.
(1881–1975) Prolific comic novelist; formally Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.

Wojciechowicz, Alex.
(1915–1992) American professional football player.