Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [36]
“Hear, hear!” is the exclamation of parliamentarians, not “Here, here!”
Hebrew, Yiddish. The two languages have almost nothing in common except that they are spoken primarily by Jewish people. Yiddish (from the German jüdisch, “Jewish”) is a modified German dialect and thus a part of the Indo-European family of languages. Hebrew is a Semitic tongue and therefore more closely related to Arabic. Yiddish writers sometimes use the Hebrew alphabet, but the two languages are no more closely related than, say, English and Swahili.
Heidsieck for the champagne.
heir apparent, heir presumptive. The first inherits no matter what; the second inherits only if a nearer relation is not born first.
Helens, Mount St. (no apostrophe) for the volcanic mountain in Washington State.
hemorrhage. Note -rr-.
hemorrhoids. Note -rr-.
Hennessy for the cognac.
hiccup, hiccough. The first is now generally the preferred spelling.
highfalutin (no apostrophe) is the correct—or at least the standard—spelling, though many dictionaries also accept highfaluting, highfaluten, and hifalutin. The word has been around for about 130 years but is still considered informal by most sources. Its origin is uncertain.
high jinks (two words) is the usual spelling, though some dictionaries also accept hijinks. The derivation is unknown, but the term is not related to (or to be confused with) jinx, as in bad luck. It can be used as either a singular or a plural.
Hindi, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindustani. Hindi is the main language of India and Hindustani is its main dialect. Hinduism is the main religious and social system of India. Hindu describes a follower of Hinduism.
hindrance. Not -erance.
hippie, hippy. The first refers to a person of nonconformist lifestyle, the second to someone with large hips.
hippopotamuses is the plural of hippopotamus.
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C. Note -hh-.
historic, historical. “The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted yesterday to create a historical district on a gilded stretch of Manhattan’s East Side” (New York Times). Generally speaking, something that makes history or is part of history, as in the example above, is historic. Something that is based on history or describes history is historical (“a historical novel”). A historic judicial ruling is one that makes history; a historical ruling is based on precedent. There are, however, some exceptions to the rule—notably in accountancy (“historic costs”) and, curiously, in grammar (“historic tenses”). (See also A, AN.)
hitchhike, hitchhiker. Note -hh-.
hitherto. “In 1962, the regime took the hitherto unthinkable step of appropriating land” (Daily Telegraph). Hitherto means “until now,” so in the example cited it is out of step with the sentence’s tense. The writer meant thitherto (“until then”), but theretofore would have been better, and previously better still.
hoard, horde. Often confused, as here: “Chrysler Corp. has a cash horde of $1.5 billion” (Time). An accumulation of valuables, often hidden, is a hoard. Horde originally described nomadic tribes but now applies to any crowd, particularly to a thronging and disorganized one (“hordes of Christmas shoppers”).
hoary, not -ey, for something that is gray or aged.
Hobson’s choice is sometimes taken to signify a dilemma or difficult decision but in fact means having no choice at all. It is said to derive from a sixteenth-century stablekeeper in Cambridge, England, named Thomas Hobson, who hired out horses in strict rotation. The customer was allowed to take the one nearest the stable door or none at all.
Hodgkin’s disease. Occasionally mispunctuated, as here: “Two years later, he was found to be suffering from Hodgkins’ disease” (Newsweek). The disease was first described by a British physician named Thomas Hodgkin.
Hoffmann, The Tales of, is the title of the 1881 opera by Jacques Offenbach. Note -ff-, -nn-.
hoi polloi. Two problems here. The first is that hoi polloi means “the masses, the common populace,” and not “the elite,” as is often thought. The second problem