• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1494 0

two or more things and not loosely applied to those things held in common. Thus, if you and I like each other, we have a mutual friendship. But if you and I both like Shakespeare, we have a common admiration. The use of mutual in the sense of common has been with us since the sixteenth century and was given a notable boost in the nineteenth with the appearance of the Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend. Most authorities accept it when common might be interpreted as a denigration, but even so in its looser sense the word is generally better avoided. It is, at all events, more often than not superfluous, as here: “They hope to arrange a mutual exchange of prisoners” (Daily Telegraph). An exchange of anything can hardly be other than mutual.

muumuu. Loose-fitting Hawaiian dress.

Muzak. (Cap.)

MW. Megawatt.

mW. Milliwatt.

myalgic encephalomyelitis. (Abbr. ME.) A type of chronic malaise.

Myanmar, Burma. Burma is the former official name of the Southeast Asian nation and the one preferred by most publications and other informed users outside Burma. Myanmar was for a time used by many publications, but now its use is mostly confined to the country’s government and institutions under its influence. Some authorities write “Burma/Myanmar.” The United Nations uses just Myanmar.

Mycenae. Ancient Greek city and civilization; things from or of there are Mycenaean.

My Lai, Vietnam; site of notorious massacre of villagers by U.S. troops (1968).

myrrh.

myself. Except when it is used for emphasis (“I’ll do it myself”) or reflexively (“I cut myself while shaving”) myself is almost always timorous and better avoided. In the following two examples, the better word is inserted in brackets: “Give it to John or myself [me]” “My wife and myself [I] would just like to say…”

myxomatosis. Viral disease in rabbits.

Nn

NAACP. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Nacogdoches, Texas.

NAFTA. North American Free Trade Agreement, a 1994 trade pact signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian-dominated enclave in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

Nags Head, North Carolina.

Nagurski, Bronko. (1908–1990) Canadian-born American football player; real name Bronislau Nagurski.

Naipaul, V.S. (for Vidiadhar Surajprasad) (1932–) Trinidad-born British writer; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.

naïve, naïvety.

namable. That which can be named.

namby-pamby.

Namen (Flemish)/Namur (French). Belgian city.

nano-. Prefix meaning one-billionth.

naphtha. Note naph-tha, not nap-tha-.

Napoleon I. (1769–1821) born Napoleon Bonaparte; emperor of the French (1804–1815).

narcissism.

narcissus. Bulbous flowering plant of the lily family; pl. narcisssuses/narcissi.

Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

NASA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

nasal.

Nascar. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

NASDAQ. National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations; stock market specializing in technology stocks.

Nash (or Nashe), Thomas. (1567–1601) English dramatist.

National Governors’ Association. (Apos.)

National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Note Institutes plural. It is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

NATO. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As of 2007, the member countries were Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

Natty Bumppo. Main character in James Fenimore Cooper’s Leather-stocking Tales.

Naugahyde is a trademark.

naught, nought. Although dictionaries increasingly treat the words as interchangeable, traditionally the first means nothing (as in “His efforts came to naught”), while the second is used to signify the figure zero. The game is noughts and crosses (known in the United States as tic-tac-toe).

nauseous is an adjective describing something that causes nausea (“a nauseous substance”).