Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors - Bill Bryson [76]
Lord’s Cricket Ground, London.
Lorenz, Konrad. (1903–1989) Austrian zoologist.
losable.
Los Alamitos Race Course, Los Angeles.
Louis Roederer champagne.
Louis Vuitton. French luxury goods company.
Lourenço Marques. Former name of Maputo, capital of Mozambique.
Louvain. French and English spelling of Belgian university town known as Leuven in Flemish.
louver. A type of slatted cover.
Love’s Labour’s Lost. Comedy by Shakespeare. There may also have been a companion play, now lost, called Love’s Labour’s Won.
LPG. Liquefied petroleum gas.
luau. Hawaiian feast.
lubricous is generally the preferred spelling for the word meaning slippery or lewd, but most dictionaries also accept lubricious.
Luddite. A worker opposed to technological change.
Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Lufthansa. German national airline.
Luftwaffe. German air force.
luge. Type of sled.
luminesce, luminescence. lumpenproletariat. Bottom of the working class.
Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of. In French, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg; the capital is also Luxembourg (or Luxembourg City, for clarity).
Luxemburg, Rosa. (1871–1919) Political activist.
lux mundi. (Lat.) “Light of the world.”
luxuriant, luxurious. The words are not interchangeable, though the meanings sometimes overlap. Luxuriant indicates profusion (“luxuriant hair”). Luxurious means sumptuous and expensive (“a luxurious house”). A luxuriant carpet is a shaggy one; a luxurious carpet is an expensive one.
Lyly, John. (c. 1555–1606) English playwright.
Lyonnaise, lyonnaise. The first is a region of France; the second is a style of cooking.
Lysistrata. Comedy by Aristophanes.
Mm
Maas. Dutch name for the European river known in English as the Meuse.
Ma’at. Egyptian goddess of truth.
Mac, Mc, M’. In British usage all such words are treated as if they were spelled Mac when determining alphabetical order. Thus McGuire would precede Mason. In the United States, the alphabetical order of the letters is followed literally, and Mason would precede McGuire.
macadam. A type of road surface, named after John McAdam (1756–1836), a Scottish engineer.
macaque. Monkey of the genus Macaca.
macaronic verse. A type of poetry in which two or more languages are mingled.
MacArthur, Charles. (1895–1956) American playwright and screenwriter, and father of James MacArthur (1937–), actor.
MacArthur, Douglas. (1880–1964) American general.
MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. U.S. charity famous for generous awards.
Macaulay, Baron Thomas Babington. (1800–1859) British historian.
Maccabees. Jewish dynasty of second and first centuries BC.
Macdonald, Dwight. (1906–1982) American writer and critic.
Macdonald, Sir John Alexander. (1815–1891) Canadian prime minister (1867–1873, 1878–1891).
MacDonald, Ramsay. (1866–1938) British prime minister (1924, 1929–1935).
Macdonald, Ross. Pen name of Kenneth Millar (1915–1983), Canadian-American author of detective fiction.
Macdonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia.
Macgillicuddy’s Reeks. Mountain range in County Kerry, Ireland.
MacGraw, Ali. (1938–) American actress.
MacGregor. Scottish clan.
Machiavelli, Niccolò di Bernardo dei. (1469–1527) Florentine statesman and political theorist, best known for Il Principe (The Prince), 1513.
machicolation. Gallery at the top of a castle tower.
Mach number. (Cap. M.) The ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound in the medium (usually air) through which the object is traveling: e.g., an aircraft traveling at twice the speed of sound is said to be going at Mach 2. Named after Ernst Mach (1836–1916), an Austrian physicist.
Macintosh for the computer made by Apple, but McIntosh for the apple.
Mackenzie, river and mountains in western Canada, but McKenzie for the lake and bay in Ontario and the pass in Oregon.
Mackinac Island and Straits of Mackinac, in Lake Huron, but Mackinaw City, Michigan. The type of woolen coat is called a mackinaw, but Mackinaw blanket and Mackinaw boat are both capitalized. For all spellings, the pronunciation is mack-in-aw.