Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [69]
Shangri-La, not -la, for the Himalayan paradise created by James Hilton in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon.
Shepherd Market, but Shepherd’s Bush, both in London.
Shetland or the Shetland Islands is the accepted designation for the Scottish islands. The Shetlands is frowned on by some and thus better avoided. See also ORKNEY.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. Not Sydney.
“Sign of Four, The,” not the Four, for the Sherlock Holmes story.
since. “She gave strong support to the visions of the late Bernard Kilgore and the other executives and editors who operated the Journal and Dow Jones since World War II” (Wall Street Journal); “Since April the Inland Revenue stopped giving immediate tax refunds to those who were unlucky enough to become unemployed” (Times). Since indicates action starting at a specified time in the past and continuing up to the present. The verbs in sentences in which it appears must also indicate action that is still continuing—that is, they should be have operated in the first instance and has stopped in the second.
Sisyphus, not -ss-. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king of Corinth who was condemned for eternity to push a heavy stone up a hill, only to have it roll down again. Hence Sisyphean describes some endless task.
situation is almost always needlessly deployed in constructions such as this: “The exchange . . . had failed to be alert to the potential of a crisis situation as it developed” (New York Times). More often than not the word can be deleted without loss.
skulduggery. Some dictionaries, such as the American Heritage, prefer to spell the word skullduggery, but there appears to be no etymological basis for adding a second l. So far as is known, the word has nothing to do with the bony part of the head. It is a modified form of sculdudderie (or sculduddery), a word of uncertain provenance, which originally signified sexual misbehavior.
sleight of hand, not slight. Sleight, meaning dexterity or deceptiveness, comes from the Old Norse sloedgh, and slight, meaning slender or frail, comes from the Old Norse slettr, but they have nothing else in common except their pronunciations.
sneaked, snuck. “Hurley said at least three of the protesters snuck in through a service entrance” (Minneapolis Star). The day may well come when snuck supersedes sneaked—it probably already has done so in speech—but for the moment it is worth bearing in mind that most authorities continue to regard it as nonstandard. Use sneaked instead.
so as to. The first two words can generally be deleted without loss, as they might have been here: “The rest of the crowd stuffed hot dogs into their faces so as to avoid being drawn into the discussion” (New York Times).
some. Many journalists of a certain age appear to have had it drilled into them that some in the sense of an unknown or unquantifiable number is a casualism to be avoided at all costs, as in “There were some forty passengers on the ship.” The belief is without any real basis. The sense of approximately or about has long been well established. However, there is at least one good reason for regarding the word with suspicion. Consider this passage from a New York Times article: “Since 1981, according to Hewitt’s survey of some 530 companies, some 24,000 employees quit jobs under such plans. Last year alone, some 74 plans were in effect.” Particularly when used repeatedly, the word lends writing a timid and equivocal ring, leaving the impression that the reporter lacked the resolve or initiative to find out just how many companies, plans, and employees actually were involved. “Some forty passengers” and the like are defensible when the reference is incidental or in passing,