Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [50]
It should also be noted that you don’t need two metaphors to botch a sentence. One will do if it is sufficiently inappropriate, as it was here: “Indiana, ranked the No. 1 swimming power in the nation, walked away with the Big Ten championship tonight” (Associated Press).
mete, meet. The first means to allot; the second means suitable. One metes out punishment, but a fitting punishment is meet.
meteor, meteorite, meteoroid. Meteoroids are pieces of galactic debris floating through space. If they enter Earth’s atmosphere as shooting stars, they are meteors. If they survive the fall to Earth, they are meteorites.
meticulous. “The story has been published in meticulously researched weekly parts” (Observer). Several usage books, though fewer and fewer dictionaries, insist that the word does not mean merely very careful, but rather excessively so. Correctly used, it has a pejorative tone. Meticulous today is so often misused by respected writers (the example above comes from Germaine Greer) that to object is itself perhaps a somewhat meticulous act. Still, unless you mean to convey a negative quality, it is usually better to use scrupulous, careful, painstaking, or some other synonym.
militate, mitigate. Often confused. To militate is to operate against or, much more rarely, for something: “The news of the scandal militated against his election prospects.” To mitigate means to assuage, soften, make more endurable: “His apology mitigated the insult.” Mitigate against often appears and is always wrong.
milquetoast, not milk-, for a timid person. The name comes from an old newspaper cartoon called The Timid Soul featuring a character named Caspar (not -er) Milquetoast.
minimize, strictly speaking, does not mean merely to play down or soften. It means to reduce to an absolute minimum.
minuscule. Frequently misspelled, as here: “It is a market which was miniscule only five years ago” (Guardian). Think of minus, not mini.
minute detail. The two words are not only tautological, but also have a kind of deadening effect on any passage in which they appear, as here: “Samples of the shards were brought back to the college, where they were studied in minute detail” (USA Today). Why not just say: “Samples of the shards were brought back to the college for study”? One can assume that any objects being subjected to study will be examined closely.
mischievous. All too commonly misspelled: “‘All lawyers are really failed actors,’ says Ackland mischieviously” (Independent); “He accused Harman of making misleading statements bordering on the mischievious after she claimed that drugs for patients would be cash-limited” (Independent). The words are mischievous and mischievously.
mishap. Generally, the word should suggest no more than a not very serious accident, which would rule out this headline: “30 die in mishap” (Times). It isn’t possible to say at what point exactly the word becomes inadequate to describe a misfortune, but it is unlikely to be any event involving multiple fatalities.
misogamist, misogynist. The first hates marriage, the second hates women.
misspell. If there is one word that you don’t wish to misspell in print, it is this one. Note -ss-.
modus vivendi. Although modus vivendi is frequently used to mean “way of life” (its literal Latin meaning), a few of the more conservative authorities maintain that it should describe only a truce between parties pending settlement of a disagreement. The best way to avoid offending the learned or perplexing the ignorant is to find a more straightforward English equivalent.
Monégasque is the preferred term in Europe for a person or thing from Monaco. American dictionaries generally suggest Monacan.
mongooses is the plural of mongoose. (The word is of Indian origin and has no relation to the English goose.)
mononucleosis is the American term for the illness known in Britain and elsewhere as glandular fever, a consideration that should be borne in mind if writing for an international audience.
more than and similar expressions, such as greater than and