Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [19]
country, nation. It is perhaps a little fussy to insist too strenuously on the distinction, but strictly country refers to the geographical characteristics of a place and nation to the political and social ones. Thus the United States is one of the richest nations but largest countries.
Court of St. James’s is the standard designation of the place to which ambassadors are posted in Great Britain. The absence of an apostrophe and a second s is common even in Britain but wrong, as here: “He was ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1939, when Britain offered him its sword to defend Poland” (Observer). St. James’s also applies as the spelling for the London park and square.
crass means stupid and grossly ignorant, to the point of insensitivity, and not merely coarse or tasteless. A thing must be pretty bad to be crass.
creole, pidgin. A pidgin—the word is thought to come from a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business—is a simplified and rudimentary language that springs up when two or more cultures come in contact. If that contact is prolonged and the pidgin is the first tongue for generations, the language will usually evolve into a more formalized creole (from the French for indigenous). Most languages that are commonly referred to as pidgins are in fact creoles. The word pidgin, incidentally, has nothing to do with its near homophone from the feathered world, as was evidently thought here: “But to each other, and in pigeon half-Spanish to the Peruvian official . . .” (Sunday Times).
crescendo. “David English, whose career seemed to be reaching a crescendo this month when he took over editorship of the stumbling Mail on Sunday . . .” (Sunday Times). Crescendo does not mean reaching a pinnacle, as was apparently intended in the quotation, or signify a loud or explosive conclusion, as it is more commonly misused. Properly, it should be used only to describe a gradual increase in volume or intensity.
criteria, criterion. “‘The sole criteria now is personal merit,’ an immigration official said” (Independent). She should have said criterion. Remember: one criterion, two criteria.
croissant. However you choose to pronounce it at home, it is perhaps worth noting that outside the United States, the closer you can come to saying “kwass-ohn,” the sooner you can expect to be presented with one.
Crome Yellow for the 1921 novel by Aldous Huxley. Not Chrome.
culminate. “The company’s financial troubles culminated in the resignation of the chairman last June” (Times). Culminate signifies not simply any result or outcome, but rather one marking a high point. A series of battles may culminate in a final victory, but financial troubles do not culminate in a resignation.
current, currently. When you need to contrast the present with the past, current has its place, but all too often it is merely an idle occupier of space, as in these two examples from a single article in Time magazine: “The government currently owns 740 million acres, or 32.7 percent of the land in the U.S. . . . Property in the area is currently fetching $125 to $225 per acre.” The notion of currency is implicit in both statements, as it is in most other sentences in which current and currently appear. Currently should be deleted from both. (The second sentence could be further improved by changing is fetching to fetches.) See also PRESENT, PRESENTLY.
curricula vitae is the plural of curriculum vitae.
curtsy. Not -ey.
curvaceous. Not -ious.
cut back. “Losses in the metal stamping division have forced the group to cut back production” (Daily Telegraph). It is more succinct to say, “have forced the group to cut production.” See PHRASAL VERBS.
D
dangling modifiers are one of the more complicated and disagreeable aspects of English usage, but at least they provide some compensation by being frequently amusing. Every authority has a stock of illustrative howlers. Fowler, for instance, gives us “Handing me my whisky, his face broke into an awkward smile” (that rare thing, a face that can pass whisky), while Bernstein offers “Although sixty-one