Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [44]
koala bears is always wrong. Koalas are marsupials and have no relation to bears. Just call them koalas.
krona, krone, etc. The currencies of the Scandinavian nations cause occasional confusion, as in this headline in The Times of London: “Sweden devalues kroner by 10 percent.” The Swedes call it a krona (plural kronor). In Denmark and Norway it is a krone (plural kroner). In Iceland, it is also a krona, but the plural is kronur.
Krugerrand for the South African gold coin (used as an investment vehicle and not as a currency). Note -rr-.
kudos. “He did not feel he had received the kudos that were his due” (Washington Post). Kudos, a Greek word meaning fame or glory, is singular. Thus it should be “the kudos that was his due.” There is no such thing, incidentally, as one kudo.
L
lackadaisical for something done without enthusiasm. Not lacks-.
La Guardia Airport, New York. It is worth noting that some users make the name one word, as in Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College in Queens, but the two-word form is more general for both the man and any entities named for him, particularly the airport. For the record, Fiorello Henry La Guardia (1882–1947) was a U.S. congressman from 1917 to 1921 and 1923 to 1933 and mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945.
languid, limpid. Not to be confused. Limpid means clear, calm, untroubled (“a limpid stream”). It has nothing to do with being limp or listless—meanings that are covered by languid.
last, latest. Various authorities have issued various strictures against using last when you mean latest. Clearly, last should not be used when it might be misinterpreted, as in “the last episode of the television series” when you mean the most recent but not the final one. However, last in the sense of latest has a certain force of idiom behind it, and when ambiguity is unlikely (as in “He spoke about it often during the last presidential election campaign”), a reasonable measure of latitude should be granted.
laudable, laudatory. Occasionally confused. Laudable means deserving praise. Laudatory means expressing praise.
lawful, legal. In many contexts the words can be used interchangeably, but not always. Lawful means permissible under the law (“lawful behavior,” “lawful protest”). Legal has that meaning plus the additional sense of “relating to the law,” as in “legal system” and “legal profession.”
lay, lie. “Laying on his back, Dalton used a long exposure of two seconds so as to achieve maximum depth of field” (Photography magazine). Unless Dalton was producing eggs, he was lying on his back. Lay and lie, in all their manifestations, are a constant source of errors. There are no simple rules for dealing with them. You must either commit their various forms to memory or avoid them altogether. The forms are
The most common error is to say, “If you’re not feeling well, go upstairs and lay down.” It should be “lie down.”
lead, led. Confusion between the two is astonishingly—and really inexcusably—common, as here: “The programme in Tissue Engineering will be lead by Professor Tim Hardingham, Manchester and Professor David Williams, Liverpool” (New Scientist advertisement). The past-tense spelling of the verb lead is led. It is also worth mentioning in passing that “Manchester” in the example should have a comma after it as well as before.
lectern, podium, dais, rostrum. The first two are frequently confused. A lectern is the stand on which a speaker places his or her notes. A podium is the raised platform on which the speaker and lectern stand. A podium can hold only one person. A platform for several people is a dais. A rostrum is any platform; it may be designed for one speaker or for several.
legend, legendary. The British biographer Lytton Strachey once described Florence Nightingale as “a living legend in her own lifetime” (as opposed, apparently, to a dead legend in her own lifetime) and thereby created a cliché that we could well do without. Properly, a legend is a story that may have