Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors - Bill Bryson [10]
Avon. Former county of England, abolished 1996; also the name of several rivers in England and the title of the former prime minister Anthony Eden (Earl of Avon).
à votre santé. (Fr.) “To your health.”
a while, awhile. To write “for awhile” is wrong because the idea of for is implicit in awhile. Write either “I will stay here for a while” (two words) or “I will stay here awhile” (one word).
awoke, awaked, awakened. Two common problems are worth noting:
1. Awoken, though much used, is generally considered not standard. Thus this sentence from an Agatha Christie novel (cited by Partridge) is wrong: “I was awoken by that rather flashy young woman.” Make it awakened.
2. As a past participle, awaked is preferable to awoke. Thus, “He had awaked at midnight” and not “He had awoke at midnight.” But if ever in doubt about the past tense, you will never be wrong if you use awakened.
axel, axle. An axel is a jump in ice skating; an axle is a rod connecting two wheels.
Axelrod, George. (1922-2003) American screenwriter and film director.
ayatollah. Shiite Muslim religious leader.
Ayckbourn, Sir Alan. (1939–) Prolific British playwright.
Ayers Rock (no apos.) for the Australian eminence. However, the formal and now usual name is Uluru.
Aykroyd, Dan. (1952–) Canadian-born actor and screenwriter.
Azerbaijan. Former republic of the Soviet Union; capital Baku. Azerbaijani/Azeri.
Azikiwe, Nnamdi. (1904-1996) Nigerian nationalist leader, president (1963-66).
Bb
Baader-Meinhof Gang. German underground group named after Andreas Baader (1943-1977) and Ulrike Meinhof (1934–1976); also called the Red Army Faction.
Baath Party. Formally Baath Arab Socialist Party.
Babbitt. Novel by Sinclair Lewis (1922).
Babington conspiracy. A plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England, named for its principal conspirator, Antony Babington (1561–1586).
Babi Yar. Site near Kiev where Nazis massacred Russian Jews in 1941; also the title of a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and a novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov.
babushka. A Russian grandmother; also a kind of scarf.
Bacardi. A brand of rum.
baccalaureate.
baccarat. A casino game. In French, baccara.
Bacchae, The. Play by Euripides.
Bacchus. Roman god of wine; the Greek equivalent was Dionysus. Words derived from Bacchus are usually not capitalized but do retain -cc- spelling: bacchanalian, bacchic, bacchantic.
Bach, Johann Sebastian. (1685-1750) German composer and father of four others: Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784), Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788), Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795), and Johann Christian (1735-1782).
bacillus, pl. bacilli.
bacteria is plural. The singular is bacterium. Bacteria should not be confused with viruses, which are much smaller and cause different diseases.
Baden-Württemberg. German state; capital Stuttgart.
Baedeker. Famous series of travel guidebooks first published in Germany by Karl Baedeker (1801-1859).
Baekeland, Leo Hendrik. (1863-1944) Belgian-born American chemist who invented Bakelite.
bagatelle. A trifle.
bahadur. A title of respect in India.
Bahai. A religion; the cognate forms are Bahaist and Bahaism.
Bahamian. Of or from the Bahamas.
Bahnhof. (Ger.) Railroad station.
Bahrain. Island state in the Persian Gulf; capital Manama.
bail, bale. Bail is a prisoner’s bond, the pieces that rest atop the stumps in cricket, and the act of scooping water. A bale is a bundle, as of cotton or hay. You bail out a boat, but bale out of an aircraft. A malicious person wears a baleful expression.
Baile Atha Cliath. Gaelic for Dublin.
baited breath is wrong; breath is bated.
Bakelite. (Cap.) Type of plastic.
Bakunin, Mikhail (Aleksandrovich). (1814-1876) Russian revolutionary.
balalaika. Stringed instrument.
Balanchine, George. (1904-1983) Russian-born American choreographer.
baldechin/baldaquin. A canopy over a throne or altar; pronounced bald-a-kin. In Italian, baldacchino.
Baldrige, Malcolm. (1922-1987) Not