Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [57]
Omar Khayyám is the correct spelling of the Persian poet and mathematician. Note -yy-.
on, upon. Although some journalists think there is, or ought to be, a distinction between these two, there isn’t. The choice is sometimes dictated by idiom (“on no account,” “upon my soul”), but in all other instances it is a matter of preference.
one. “The makers claim that one in 14 people in the world are following the exploits of this new hero” (Sunday Times). In such constructions one should be singular. In effect the sentence is saying: “Out of every 14 people in the world, one is following the exploits of this new hero.” A slightly trickier case appears here: “An estimated one in three householders who are entitled to rebates are not claiming.” (Times). The first are is correct, but the second is wrong. Again, it may help to invert the sentence: “Of those householders who are entitled to rate rebates, one in every three is not claiming.”
one of the, one of those. The problem here is similar to that discussed in the previous entry, but with the difference that here one does not govern the verb. Consider: “Nott is actually one of those rare politicians who really doesn’t mind what he says” (Observer). The operative word here is not one but those, as can be seen by inverting the sentence: “Of those politicians who do not mind what they say, Nott is one.”
The mistake is a common one. Even Fowler made it in his Dictionary of Modern English Usage (second edition) when he wrote, “Prestige is one of the words that has had an experience opposite to that described in ‘Worsened Words.’ ” It should be have had. Sixty pages earlier he called the error “a frequent blunder.”
one or more is plural. “Inside each folder is one or more sheets of information” (cited by Bernstein) should be “are one or more.”
only. In general, only ought to be attached to the word or phrase it is modifying and not set adrift, as here: “The A Class bus only ran on Sundays” (Observer). Taken literally, the sentence suggests that on other days of the week the bus did something else—perhaps flew? The writer would better have said that the bus “ran only on Sundays” or “on Sundays only.”
Often, to be sure, clarity and idiom are better served by bringing only to a more forward position (“This will only take a minute”; “The victory can only be called a miracle”). And increasingly, it must be said, authorities are inclined toward leniency with regard to where only is permitted. Certainly it is always better to avoid an air of fussiness. But when, as in the example above, a simple repositioning puts the word in the right place without creating a distraction, there is no reason not to do it.
on to, onto. Until the twentieth century, onto as one word was almost unknown in both Britain and America, and its standing remains somewhat dubious in Britain. Today in the United States (and increasingly in Britain), onto is used where the two elements function as a compound preposition (“He jumped onto the horse”) and on to is used where on is an adverb (“We moved on to the next subject”).
openness. Note -nn-.
ophthalmologist, oculist, optometrist, optician. Ophthalmologist is often misspelled and even more frequently mispronounced. Note that it begins oph- and not opth- and that the first syllable is pronounced “off,” not “op.” Thus it is similar in pronunciation and spelling to diphtheria, diphthong, and naphtha, all of which are also frequently misspelled and misspoken.
Ophthalmologist and oculist both describe doctors who specialize in conditions of the eye. An optometrist is one who is trained to test eyes but is not a doctor. An optician is one who makes or sells corrective lenses.
opt, choose. Safire suggests that opt would be a more expressive word if we used it only to describe impulsive choices, and he is right. But it must be said that none of the leading dictionaries note or encourage such a distinction.
optimistic, pessimistic. Strictly speaking, both words should