Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors - Bill Bryson [111]
Septuagesima. Third Sunday before Lent, seventieth day before Easter.
sepulcher. Not -re.
seraglio. A harem.
Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Not -getti.
sergeant.
seriatim. Not -tum. In a series, one after another.
serving, servicing. Servicing is better reserved for the idea of installation and maintenance. Serve is the better word for describing things that are of general and continuing benefit.
sesquipedalian. A long word.
Session, Court of. Supreme court of Scotland. Not Sessions.
Seurat, Georges Pierre. (1859–1891) French painter.
Seuss, Dr. (1904–1991) Children’s writer and illustrator, real name Theodore Seuss Geisel.
seven deadly sins. They are avarice, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.
7-Eleven is the trademark name for the convenience stores chain.
7 UP is the trademark name for the soft drink.
Seven Wonders of the World. They were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the Pharos at Alexandria.
Sèvres porcelain.
Sexagesima. Second Sunday before Lent, sixtieth day before Easter.
Seychelles. Island republic in the Indian Ocean; capital Victoria. Adj. Seychellois.
sforzando. In music, an abrupt stress on a note or chord.
’s Gravenhage. Formal name for The Hague, Netherlands; pronounced skrah-ven-hah'-guh.
Shake ’N Bake. American grocery product.
Shakespearean, Shakespearian. The first is the usual spelling in America and the second is the usual spelling in Britain, but, interestingly, don’t look to The Oxford English Dictionary for guidance on any spellings concerning England’s greatest poet. Perversely and charmingly, but entirely unhelpfully, the OED insists on spelling the name Shakspere, a decision it based on one of the six spellings Shakespeare himself used. It does, however, acknowledge that Shakespeare is “perhaps” the commonest spelling now used.
shaky (not -ey), shakiness.
shallot. A plant related to the onion.
“Shalott, The Lady of.” Not Shallot. 1832 poem by Tennyson.
Shamir, Yitzhak. (1915–) Prime minister of Israel (1983–1984, 1988–1992); born Yitzhak Jazernicki.
Shandong. Chinese province; capital Jinan. Formerly spelled Shantung.
Shangri-La, not -la, for the Himalayan paradise created by James Hilton in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon.
Shankill Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Not -hill.
shank’s mare or pony. To travel on foot.
Shanxi. Chinese province; capital Taiyuan.
SHAPE. Abbreviation of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers, Europe.
Sharapova, Maria. (1987–) Russian tennis player.
Shariah (or Shari’ah). Koranic law.
shar-pei. Breed of dog.
Sharpeville Massacre. Fatal shooting of sixty-seven black South African demonstrators by police at black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, on March 21, 1960.
Shatt al-Arab. River that forms section of border between Iran and Iraq.
Shays’ Rebellion. Not Shay’s. Uprising by American farmers in 1786–1787 led by Daniel Shays of Massachusetts.
Shea Stadium, New York, home of the New York Mets baseball team.
Shedd Aquarium, Chicago.
Sheetrock, for a type of plasterboard, is a trademark.
shekel. Israeli unit of currency.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. (1797–1851) English writer, and second wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), English poet.
shenanigans.
Shepard, Sam. (1943–) American actor and playwright; born Samuel Shepard Rogers.
Shepherd, Cybill. (1949–) American actress.
Shepherd Market, but Shepherd’s Bush, London.
Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow.
sheriff.
Sherpa (cap.), a Himalayan people living in Tibet and Nepal.
’s-Hertogenbosch. City in the Netherlands, commonly called Den Bosch.
Shetland or the Shetland Islands are the accepted designations for the Scottish islands. The Shetlands is frowned on by some and thus better avoided. See also ORKNEY ISLANDS.
Shevardnadze, Eduard. (1928–) President of Georgia (the country, not the U.S. state), 1995–2003.
shibboleth. A word, phrase, or linguistic quirk