Reading The Times (of London)'s style guide, I learned a few things. Some points are merely differences between British and U.S. English (The Times says "English" and "American," as if this side of the pond speaks a different language altogether), some are basic definitions and solecisms (aggravate, affect and effect, "animals and birds"), and some are things I would screw up--unless those are ones I don't immediately recognize as British usages and so am just Usan about? Also apparently I have changed the spelling of "British" to "Britsh," not quite "kitsch." Hmm.
ad nauseam
I have probably spelled it "ad nauseum." So much for naming that whale Ablative.
allege
Avoid the suggestion that the writer is making the allegation, so specify its source. Do not use alleged as a synonym of ostensible, apparent or reputed.
anticipate
Not to be used for expect. It means to deal with, or use, in advance of, or before, the due time. To anticipate marriage is different from expecting to marry.
Apennines, Italy
(not Appenines)
bail out
(As in to bail someone out of trouble; also bail water from a boat); but bale out of an aircraft by parachute, to escape. NB, bailout (one word, as noun).
Usan Merriam-Webster says you bail out of a plane and bale only hay and such.
bated/baited
Note the important difference - bated breath; baited hook.
I looked up how else "bate" can be used other than with "breath." A falcon can bate its wings, i.e., beat them impatiently. Also cockatiels, since I love applying falconry jargon to parrots.
Beduin is plural. The singular is Bedu
Oh.
beg the question
Do not confuse with "ask the question". To beg a question is to evade it.
Aha! I was recently talking with Haitch about examples of "begging the question." This is a different meaning of the phrase than I am used to.
bight
A curve in a coastline or river; bite involves teeth.
I wouldn't've confused them because I didn't know the word "bight." Now I do and will look for occasion to use it.
birthday
People and animals have birthdays; everything else has anniversaries.
Now now. The Times rails against solecisms like "birds and animals" but says that "animals have birthdays"? Including those animals, like insects, most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, birds, and three mammals, that hatch from eggs rather than are born?
blame
Take care with this word; blame is attached to causes, not effects. So say "Bad weather is blamed for my bronchitis," not "My bronchitis is blamed on bad weather."
Is this British? I might say "I blamed the weather for my bronchitis." I'm probably wrong.
bluffers
Be very cautious. The Bluffer's Guide/Guides are trademarks, rigorously protected by their publishers. So generic phrases such as "a bluffer's guide to ..." must be avoided
The British equivalent of Dummies books? Does "bluffer" mean the Usan "bluffer" in British English, to bluff your way through whatever situation with help of this guide? Or does it mean "duffer" or "stupid person"?
Bush, George W.
Do not use Jr. President Bush at first mention, then Mr Bush or the President. Refer to his father as the first President Bush or George Bush Sr.
I understand why not to use "Jr.," since they have different middle names. I don't understand why "Sr." is okay.
cagoule
But kaftan
I looked up cagoule: a knee-length waterproof garment, like a parka but long. I have no idea what they're getting at here.
Ceylon
Now Sri Lanka. The people are Sri Lankan, the majority group are the Sinhalese.
I wouldn't call Sri Lanka Ceylon, but I would have no idea what to call the people.
clothing
Say menswear, women's wear, children's wear, sportswear.
Why?
comparatively, relatively
Avoid using as synonyms of fairly or middling.
consensus
The word is a cliché that should be avoided wherever possible.
is it ever okay? Doesn't it have one right meaning?
coruscating (not corruscating)
Sparkling or scintillating, not abrasive or corrosive.
I didn't know it meant anything at all.
crisis
Always try to find an alternative for this greatly overworked word. Its use should be confined to a process reaching a turning point. A crisis does not deepen, grow, mount or worsen, and is never a continuous state such as a "housing crisis". Economics are never "in crisis"; "crisis situations" are never to appear in The Times.
deny
Does not mean the same as rebut (which means argue to the contrary, producing evidence), or refute (which means to win such an argument).
diagnose
Take great care: illnesses are diagnosed, patients are not.
England, English
Beware of these when the meaning is Britain, British.
Right. Such as "British English."
fuchsia
I bet I get this wrong all the time
jubilee
This is from a Hebrew word, who knew? "A year of emancipation and restoration provided by ancient Hebrew law to be kept every 50 years by the emancipation of Hebrew slaves, restoration of alienated lands to their former owners, and omission of all cultivation of the land."
Last Post
Like Reveille, is sounded, not played.
last, past
Last should not be used as a synonym of latest; "the last few days" means the final few days; "the past few days" means the most recent few days.
Logical, but I had never thought of it. A Britishism?
major
Do not use as a lazy alternative for big, chief, important or main.
majority of
Do not use as alternative for most of.
massive
Avoid as a synonym of big.
may / might
Do not confuse; use might in sentences referring to past possibilities that did not happen, e.g., "If that had happened ten days ago, my whole life might have been different". A clear distinction is evident in the following example: "He might have been captured by the Iraqis--but he wasn't," compared with "He may have been captured by the Iraqis--it is possible but we don't know."
minimal
Do not use as a synonym of small; it means smallest, or the least possible in size, duration, etc.
motocross
There is no r in the middle syllable, even in Usan. News to me.
nerve-racking, not -wracking.
Ooops
recrudescence
Do not confuse with resurgence or revival. It means worsening, in the sense of reopening wounds or recurring diseases.
reportedly
Avoid this slack word, which suggests that the writer is unsure of the source of the material.
responsible
People bear responsibility, things do not. Storms are not responsible for damage; they cause it. Avoid the phrase "the IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing"; say instead "the IRA admitted causing the bombing."
Because the IRA are not people, but storms?
rigmarole
Not rigamarole.
Oh.
shambles
Take care not to overwork this strong word, which means a slaughterhouse and, by extension, a scene of carnage.
Cool.
slay
A Biblical word, not to be used in headlines for kill or murder.
I can't say, "Oh, I slay me" anymore? Very sad now.
vagaries
Aimless wanderings or eccentric ideas, not vicissitudes or changes (as in weather).
wrack
Means seaweed or wreckage and must not be used as a synonym of torture; thus, racked by doubts etc.
Here endeth the lesson.
Tex just bought some sort of toilet-locking device because his youngest child, unlike the older two at her age, has shown interest in this watery danger. You have to close the lid in addition to the seat for the lock to activate.
I told him that was excellent practice, for his son to learn to lower the seat (and lid) and for his middle daughter to learn to lower the lid. I think closing the lid is a fine compromise for both genders when the male has not been well-trained. I have to remember to thank my mother-in-law again for raising RDC in a house with herself, his sister, his grandmother, and female roommates and their daughters. My previous men were either one of two brothers or only children, and, I expect, would not be reflexive seat-lowerers.
Occasionally RDC has taken ski vacations with his best friend, who has got mock-angry with him for lowering the seat even when no females are around. It is automatic for him to put down the seat, and I am grateful. Only a few times in all our years together have I sat on a cold commode in the dark. Unfortunately, two of those times have been in the past week. Is he slipping? I sure am. The first time, he said, he had in his half-asleep-itude forgot that step because he was moving the bathmat off the heat register. Okay. This morning, he is still asleep so I haven't asked yet. I'm just glad the toilet got scrubbed yesterday. Am I actually going to have to practice my own suggestion of compromise, and remember myself to lower the lid? Hmph.
I just had an argument with my little tiny youngster of a coworker (he's 26). He was asserting that Cat Stevens wrote "Cat's in the Cradle." It was a perfectly amicable knock-down-drag-out fight, of course, but I was right and he wasn't so you can bet I didn't let it go. He said this song was on the same album as "Where Do the Children Play?" Possibly I am more intimately familiar with Caution Horses than Tea for the Tillerman, but it's a near thing. (The Junkies devotion exists despite their lack of any song with my name in it; "Sad Lisa" is on Tea). I don't know So or Sensual World as well as I know Tea, for pity's sake. Shyeah. Plus I live with a man who grew up on Harry Chapin. Intern and I quick-draw googled on our two machines, vying for supremacy. I found lots of cites that an early MP3 had been mislabeled, hence the proliferation of this lie. I also found, on Cat Stevens's own site, mention of an album I had never heard of called Cats Cradle, which I think might be the cause of--not responsible for-- this heinous lie.
This all came up because he didn't know about "Harold and Maude" either. I have told him that by the time I see "Red Dawn" (which he references more than you would think), he has to see "Harold and Maude."
Among my other pop-cultural touchstones of which he knows nothing: Bloom County, "Northern Exposure" (well, he'd heard of it), "M*A*S*H" and "Say Anything." Egg and I tried to explain--well, re-enact--"Philadelphia Story" for him. McTeague, the Great Brain, etc. Also he asked if David Sedaris wrote Confederacy of Dunces, which twisted my brain, but then he explained why (favorites of a sibling's). Meanwhile he has kindly informed me that P. Diddy and Puff Daddy are in fact the same person. I am so glad we hired him. The office with neither Egg nor Intern would be extremely lonely.
I thought I took most of the impact on my left hip and I also noticed I struck my helmet but today it's my left upper arm that's sore. Tex has a nasty habit of smacking me friendlily on the arm--the left arm, since that's the side he usually has access to--and a couple of times today I had to ward him off.
There is nothing like having a cockatiel tucked and dozing on my shoulder, watching his eyes close from the bottom up, resisting the urge to nose into his breast and snort in an extremely nap-disruptive kind of way.
I'm just watching the end of "Dead Irish Writers," a particularly good episode of "The West Wing," and marking time for the next six minutes.