Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [35]
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea. They are separate countries, all in west Africa. Guinea was formerly French Guinea. Guinea-Bissau was formerly Portuguese Guinea. Equatorial Guinea was formerly Spanish Guinea.
guttural. Not -er-.
H
Häagen-Dazs for the ice cream.
Haarlem, Netherlands, but Harlem, New York.
habits. “When in the city, it was his usual habit to dine at Delmonico’s” (American Heritage); “The customary habits of the people of the South Pacific . . .” (Daily Telegraph). Habits are always customary and always usual. That is, of course, what makes them habitual.
had better. “When the London summit meets, foreign ministers better stiffen their sinews” (Guardian). In conditional sentences, the required expression is had better. The error, more common in America than in Britain, is seen again in this advertisement in the New York Times: “It will go 799 miles between gas stations. It better be the world’s most comfortable car.” Make it “It had better be” or at least “It’d better be.”
hail, hale. Hale means robust and vigorous, or to drag or forcibly draw (as in haled into court), in which sense it is related to haul. Hail describes a greeting, a salute, or a downpour (as in “hailstorm” or “hail of bullets”). The expressions are hale and hearty and hail-fellow-well-met.
haka for the Maori war dance widely associated with New Zealand rugby appearances.
hamlet. “Police searched his house in the tiny hamlet of Oechtringen” (Observer). It is in the nature of hamlets to be tiny.
handiwork. Not handy-.
hangar, not -er, for the place where aircraft are stored.
hanged. “It was disclosed that a young white official had been found hanged to death in his cell” (New York Times). “Hanged to death” is a tautology. So too, for that matter, are “starved to death” and “strangled to death.” The writer was correct, however, in saying that the official had been found hanged and not hung. People are hanged; pictures and the like are hung.
Hansard, not Hansard’s, is the unofficial name of the record of proceedings in Britain’s parliament, equivalent to America’s Congressional Record. Formally, it is The Official Report of Parliamentary Debates, but that title is almost never used, even on first reference.
hara-kiri is the correct spelling for the ritual form of suicide involving disembowelment. In Japan, it is normally known as seppuku.
harangue, tirade. Each is sometimes used when the other is intended. A tirade is always abusive and can be directed at one person or at several. A harangue need not be vituperative but may merely be prolonged and tedious. It does, however, require at least two listeners. One person cannot, properly speaking, harangue another.
harass. Note one r, two s’s.
harebrained, harelipped. Not hair-.
hark, but hearken.
hartebeest for the African antelope. Not -beast.
Harz Mountains, Germany. Not Hartz.
Hasselblad for the Swedish cameras.
Hawker Siddeley (no hyphen) for the British aviation company.
head over heels is not just a cliché, it is also, when you think about it, a faintly absurd one. Our heads are usually over our heels.
healthy, healthful, salutary. Some authorities maintain that healthy should apply only to those things that possess health and healthful to those that promote it. Thus we would have “healthy children” but “healthful food” and “healthful exercise.” There is no harm in observing the distinction, but also little to be gained from insisting on it. If we are to become resolute, it would be better to focus on healthy in the sense of big or vigorous, as in “a healthy wage increase,” which is both inexact and overworked.
Salutary has a wider meaning than either of the other words. It too means conducive to health, but it can also apply to anything that is demonstrably