Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson [77]
unexceptionable, unexceptional. Sometimes confused. Something that is unexceptional is ordinary, not outstanding (“an unexceptional wine”). Something that is unexceptionable is not open to objections (“In Britain, grey is the preferred spelling, but gray is unexceptionable”).
unilateral, bilateral, multilateral. All are often unneeded, as here: “Bilateral trade talks are to take place next week between Britain and Japan” (Times). Trade talks between Britain and Japan could hardly be other than two-sided. Delete bilateral.
unique means the only one of its kind, something incomparable. One thing cannot be more unique than another, as was thought here: “Lafayette’s most unique restaurant is now even more unique” (cited by Wood).
unknown is often used imprecisely, as here: “A hitherto unknown company called Ashdown Oil has emerged as a bidder for the Wytch Farm oil interests” (Times). A company must be known to someone, if only its directors. It would be better to call it a little-known company.
unless and until. One or the other, please.
unlike. When unlike is used as a preposition, it should govern a noun or pronoun or a noun equivalent (e.g., a gerund). “But unlike at previous sessions of the conference . . .” (New York Times) needs to be “But unlike previous sessions” or “As was not the case at previous sessions.”
Unlike must also contrast things that are comparable, which was not done here: “Unlike the proposal by Rep. Albert Gore, outlined in this space yesterday, the President is not putting forth a blueprint for a final treaty” (Chicago Tribune). As written, the sentence is telling us that a proposal is unlike the President. It should be “Unlike the proposal by Rep. Albert Gore, the President’s plan does not put forth a blueprint” or words to that effect.
until, till, ’til, ’till. The first two are legitimate and interchangeable. The second two are wrong and, indeed, illiterate.
untimely death is a common but really quite inane expression. When was a death ever timely?
up. When used as a phrasal verb (which see), up is often just a hitchhiker, joining sentences only for the ride. Occasionally idiom dictates that we include it: we look up a word in a book, we dig up facts, we move up in our careers. But often its appearance is entirely needless, as in these examples: “Another time, another tiger ate up twenty-seven of Henning’s thirty prop animals” (Washington Post); “Plans to tighten up the rules . . . of the National Health Service were announced yesterday” (Times); “This could force the banks to lift up their interest rates” (Financial Times). In these and countless other cases, up should be unceremoniously expunged. Sometimes in its eagerness up moves to the front of words: “With the continued upsurge in sales of domestic appliances . . .” (Times). Although upsurge is a recognized word, it seldom means more than surge.
use, usage. Usage normally appears only in the context of formal practices, particularly in regard to linguistics (“modern English usage”), and use does duty for all other senses, but most dictionaries recognize the words as interchangeable in nearly all contexts.
usual. A common oversight in newspapers, no doubt attributable to haste, is telling readers twice in a sentence that a thing is customary. Both of the following are from The New York Times: “The usual procedure normally involved getting eyewitness reports of one or more acts of heroism”; “Customarily, such freezes are usually imposed at the end of a fiscal year.” Delete something. See also HABITS.
utilize. In its strictest sense, utilize means to make the best use of something that wasn’t intended for the job (“He utilized a coat hanger to repair his automobile”). It can be legitimately extended to mean making the most practical use of something (“Although the hills were steep, the rice farmers utilized every square inch of the land”), but in all other senses use is better.
V
Van Dyck, Vandyke. The seventeenth-century painter, whose name can be found variously spelled, was born Anton