Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [76]
to the tune of. A hackneyed circumlocution. “The company is being subsidized to the tune of $500 million a year” would be more succinct as “The company is receiving a subsidy of $500 million a year.”
toward, towards. The first is the preferred form in America, the second in Britain, but either is correct. Untoward, however, is the only accepted form in both.
trademark, trade name. A trademark is a name, symbol, or other depiction that formally identifies a product. A trade name is the name of the maker, not of the product. Cadillac is a trademark, General Motors a trade name.
transatlantic. “The agreement came just in time to stop the authorities from taking away his permits to operate trans-Atlantic flights” (Sunday Times). Most dictionaries and stylebooks (but by no means all) prefer transatlantic. Similarly, transalpine, transarctic, transpacific.
translucent is sometimes wrongly treated as a synonym for transparent. A translucent material is one through which light passes but images cannot be clearly seen, as with frosted glass. Note also the spelling; it is not -scent.
triple, treble. Either word can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adjective. Except in certain musical senses (treble clef), triple is used almost exclusively for all three in America and is becoming increasingly preponderant in Britain.
trivia is, strictly speaking, a plural, and a few dictionaries recognize it only as such. “All this daily trivia is getting on my nerves” should be “All these daily trivia are getting on my nerves.” There is no singular form (the Latin trivium now has only historical applications), but there are the singular words trifle and triviality. The other option, if the plural form seems ungainly, is to convert trivia into an adjective: “All these trivial daily matters are getting on my nerves.”
Trooping the Colour. The annual event celebrating the British Queen’s official birthday, in June (as opposed to her actual birthday, in April), is not the Trooping of the Colour, as it is often written, even in Britain, but just Trooping the Colour.
true facts. “No one in the White House seems able to explain why it took such a potentially fatal time to inform the Vice President of the true facts” (Sunday Times). True facts is always redundant and wrong. All facts are true. Things that are not true are not facts.
try and. Although no longer resisted as strenuously as it once was, try and is still widely regarded as colloquial by many authorities and thus is better avoided in serious writing. “The Monopolies Commission will look closely at retailing mergers to try and prevent any lessening of competition” (Sunday Times). Make it “try to prevent.”
tumult, turmoil. Both describe confusion and agitation. The difference is that tumult applies only to people but turmoil applies to both people and things. Tumultuous, however, can describe things as well as people (“tumultuous applause,” “tumultuous seas”).
turbid, turgid. It is seldom possible to tell with certainty whether a writer is using turgid in its proper sense or is confusing it with turbid, but confusion would appear to be the case here: “She insisted on reading the entire turgid work aloud, a dusk-to-dawn affair that would have tried anyone’s patience” (Sunday Times). Turgid means inflated, grandiloquent, bombastic. It does not mean muddy or impenetrable, which meanings are covered by turbid.
turpitude does not signify rectitude or integrity, as is sometimes thought, but rather baseness or depravity. “He is a man of great moral turpitude” is not a compliment.
Tussaud’s, Madame, for the London waxworks museum. The apostrophe is not optional.
U
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
ukulele for the stringed instrument. Not uke-.
Ullswater for the lake in the English Lake District. Not Uls-.
Uluru is now the formal and generally preferred name for Ayers Rock, in Australia. Pronounced Oo-luh-roo. It is part of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.