Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [7]
appraise, apprise. “No decision is likely, he said, until they had been appraised of the damage” (Sunday Times). The word wanted here was apprise, which means to inform. Appraise means to assess or evaluate. An insurance assessor appraises damage and apprises owners.
appreciate has a slightly more specific meaning than writers sometimes give it. If you appreciate something, you value it (“I appreciate your concern”) or you understand it sympathetically (“I appreciate your predicament”). But when there is no sense of sympathy or value (as in “I appreciate what you are saying, but I don’t agree with it”), understand or recognize or the like would be better.
approximate means “near to,” so very approximate ought to mean “very near to.” Yet when most people speak of a very approximate estimate, they mean a very tentative one, not a very close one. Gowers, in The Complete Plain Words, roundly criticized the usage as loose and misleading, but Fowler classed it among his “sturdy indefensibles”—words and phrases that are clearly illogical, and perhaps even lamentable, but now so firmly entrenched that objections become pointless. In this, I believe, Fowler was right.
Where the authorities do find common ground is in the belief that approximate and approximate to are cumbersome and nearly always better replaced by something shorter. No need to write “We were approximately twelve miles from home” when you could make it “about” or “almost” or “nearly.”
a priori, prima facie. Both generally refer to evidence and thus are sometimes confused. Prima facie means “at first sight” or “on the surface of it” and refers to matters in which not all of the evidence has been collected but such evidence as there is points to certain conclusions. A priori refers to conclusions drawn from assumptions rather than experience.
Aran Island and Aran Islands (Ireland) but Isle of Arran (Scotland). The sweater is spelled Aran.
arbitrate, mediate. The functions of these two words differ more than is sometimes recognized. Arbitrators are like judges in that they are appointed to hear evidence and then to make a decision. Mediators are more like negotiators in that they shuttle between opposing sides trying to work out a compromise or settlement. They do not make judgments.
Difficulties sometimes also arise in distinguishing between an arbitrator and an arbiter. Whereas an arbitrator is appointed, an arbiter is someone whose opinions are valued but who holds no vested authority. Fowler summed up the distinction neatly: “An arbiter acts arbitrarily; an arbitrator must not.”
aroma does not apply to any smell, only to pleasant ones. Thus “the pungent aroma of a cattleyard” (Washington Post) is wrong.
artifact, artefact. The first spelling is generally preferred, but either is correct. In either case, an artifact is something shaped by human hands and not merely any very old object, as was apparently thought here: “The team found bones and other artifacts at the site” (Guardian). Bones are not artifacts. The word is related to artifice, artificial, and artisan, all of which imply a human contribution.
as . . . as. “A government study concludes that for trips of five hundred miles or less . . . automotive travel is as fast or faster than air travel, door to door” (George Will, syndicated columnist). The problem here is what is termed an incomplete alternative comparison. If we remove “or faster” from the sentence, the problem becomes immediately evident: “A government study concludes that for trips of five hundred miles or less . . . automotive travel is as fast than air travel, door to door.” The writer has left the “as fast” phrase dangling uncompleted. The sentence should say “as fast as or faster than air travel.”
as far as. “As far as next season, it is too early to make forecasts” (Baltimore Sun). The error here has been exercising authorities since at least Fowler’s heyday and shows no sign of abating, either as a problem or as something that exercises authorities. The trouble is that “as far as” serves as a conjunction and as such requires a