Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [17]
complement, compliment. The words come from the same Latin root, complere, meaning “to fill up,” but have long had separate meanings. Compliment means to praise. Complement has stayed closer to the original meaning: it means to fill out or make whole. As such, it should have been used here: “To compliment the shopping there will also be a ten-screen cinema, nightclub, disco, and entertainment complex” (advertisement in the Financial Times).
complete. Partridge includes complete in his list of false comparatives—that is, words that do not admit of comparison, such as ultimate and eternal (one thing cannot be “more ultimate” or “more eternal” than another). Technically, he is right, and you should take care not to modify complete needlessly. But there are occasions when it would be pedantic to carry the stricture too far. As William and Mary Morris note, there can be no real objection to “This is the most complete study to date of that period.” Use it, but use it judiciously.
complete and unabridged. Though blazoned across the packaging of countless audio books, the phrase is palpably redundant. If a work is unabridged, it must be complete, and vice versa. Choose one or the other.
compound. “News of a crop failure in the northern part of the country will only compound the government’s economic and political problems” (Times). Several authorities have deplored the use of compound in the sense of worsen, as it is employed above and increasingly elsewhere. They are right to point out that the usage springs from a misinterpretation of the word’s original and more narrow meanings, though that in itself is insufficient cause to avoid it. Many other words have arrived at their present meanings through misinterpretation (see, for instance, INTERNECINE).
A more pertinent consideration is whether we need compound in its looser sense. The answer must be no. In the example above, the writer might have used instead multiply, aggravate, heighten, worsen, exacerbate, add to, intensify, or any of a dozen other words. We should also remember that compound is already a busy word. Dictionaries list up to nine distinct meanings for it as a verb, seven as a noun, and nine as an adjective. In some of these, the word’s meanings are narrow. In legal parlance, for instance, compound has the very specific meaning “to forgo prosecution in return for payment or some other consideration” (it is from this that we get the widely misunderstood phrase “to compound a felony,” which has nothing to do with aggravation). To use compound to mean worsen in such a context is bound to be misleading.
All that said, most dictionaries recognize the newer meaning, so it cannot be called incorrect, but you should be aware that some more conservative users of English may object to it, and with some grounds.
comprise. “Beneath Sequoia is the Bechtel Group, a holding company comprised of three main operating arms” (New York Times). Not quite. It is composed of three main operating arms, not comprised of them. Comprised of is a common expression, but it is always wrong. Comprise means to contain. The whole comprises the parts and not vice versa. A house may comprise seven rooms, but seven rooms do not comprise a house—and still less is a house comprised of seven rooms. The example above should be either “a holding company comprising three main operating arms” or “composed of three main operating arms.”
conceived. “Last week, twenty-five years after it was first conceived . . .” (Time). Delete first. Something can be conceived only once. Similarly with “initially conceived” and “originally conceived.”
condone. The word does not mean to approve or endorse, senses that are often attached to it. It means to pardon, forgive, overlook. You can condone an action without supporting it.
confectionery. Not -ary.
confidant (masc.)/ confidante (fem.) for a person entrusted with private information.
Congo, confusingly, now applies to two neighboring nations in Africa.