Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [15]
So use the word freely if you wish, but bear in mind that there are occasions when claim is ill advised, as in this headline from a newspaper in Hawaii (cited by Fowler): “Oahu barmaid claims rape.” The imputation seems to be that the unfortunate woman has either committed a rape or has taken one as an entitlement. Whichever, the choice of word is regrettable, to say the very least.
clichés. “A week may be a long time in politics. But it’s a light year in the global economy” (Observer); “Lawyers were last night considering seeking an injunction for the book, which was selling like hot cakes in London bookshops over the weekend” (Independent). Clichés are sometimes the most economical way of expressing a complicated notion (“to hang by a thread,” “the tip of the iceberg,” “to point the finger”), but more often they are simply a sign of inert and unthinking writing and editing. It is not too much to say that in serious newspapers, no story should begin by noting that a week is a long time in politics and nothing should ever sell like hot cakes, even hot cakes. (For a separate problem with the first example above, see LIGHT YEAR.)
climactic, climatic, climacteric. Climactic means appearing at a climax (“the climactic scene in a movie”); climatic means having to do with climate and weather (“the climatic conditions of the Brazilian rain forest”); climacteric is a noun signifying a time of important change and is most commonly applied to the menopause.
climb up, climb down. Climb down, as purists sometimes point out, is a patent contradiction. But there you are. Idiom has embraced it, as it has many other patent absurdities, and there is no gainsaying it now. Climb up, in contrast, is always redundant when climb is used transitively, which is to say most of the time. An exceptional intransitive use of climb would be “After each descent, we rested for a while before climbing up again.” But in a sentence such as “He climbed up the ladder,” the up does nothing but take up space. See also PHRASAL VERBS and UP.
close proximity is inescapably tautological. Make it “near” or “close to.” See also SCRUTINY, SCRUTINIZE.
coelacanth for the ocean fish famed in scientific circles for its archaic qualities. Pronounced “SEE-luh-kanth.”
coequal. “In almost every other regard the two are coequal” (Guardian). A generally fatuous term. Co- adds nothing to equal that equal doesn’t already say alone.
cognomen applies only to a person’s surname, not to his or her full name or given names. Except jocularly, it is almost always better avoided.
cognoscenti, meaning people who are especially well informed or of elevated taste, is plural. For a single well-informed person, the word is cognoscente.
coliseum, Colosseum. The first applies to any large amphitheater; the second describes a particular amphitheater in Rome.
collapsible. Not -able.
collectives. Deciding whether to treat nouns of multitude—words like majority, flock, variety, group, and crowd—as singulars or plurals is entirely a matter of the sense you intend to convey. Although some authorities have tried to fix rules, such undertakings are almost always futile. On the whole, Americans lean to the singular and Britons to the plural, often in ways that would strike the others as absurd (compare the American “The couple was married in March” with the British “England are to play Hungary in their next match”). A common fault is to flounder about between singular and plural. Even Samuel Johnson stumbled when he wrote that he knew of no nation “that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability.” Clearly the italicized words should be either singular both times or plural both times. See also NUMBER and TOTAL.
collide, collision. “A motorcyclist died after colliding with a tree, whereupon a demonstration by grieving motards turned into a revenge mission” (New Yorker). Collisions can occur only when two or more moving objects come together. If a vehicle runs into a stationary object, it is not a collision.
collusion. “They have been working in collusion on