Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (6 page)

BOOK: Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0)
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Bechuanaland.
Former name of Botswana.

Becket, St. Thomas (à).
(1118-1170) Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by followers of Henry II.

Beckett, Samuel.
(1906-1989) Irish poet, playwright, and novelist.

becquerel.
Unit of radioactivity, named after
Antoine Henri Becquerel
(1852-1908), French physicist.

Bedloe's Island.
Former name of Liberty Island, New York; site of the Statue of Liberty.

bedouin
is plural; the singular is
bedi. Bedu
is an alternative plural.

Beecher, Henry Ward.
(1813-1887) American preacher.

Beelzebub.
Satan.

Beene, Geoffrey.
(1927-2004) American fashion designer.

Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian).
(1872-1956) British writer and critic.

Beethoven, Ludwig van.
(1770-1827) German composer.

before, prior to.
There is no difference between these two except length and a certain inescapable affectedness on the part of
prior to
. To paraphrase Theodore Bernstein, if you would use “posterior to” instead of “after,” then by all means use “prior to” instead of “before.”

Beggar's Opera, The.
Not
Beggars'
; by John Gay (1728).

Begin, Menachem.
(1913-1992) Polish-born Israeli prime minister (1977-83); Nobel Peace Prize shared with Anwar el-Sadat (1978).

behalf.
A useful distinction exists between
on behalf of
and
in behalf of
. The first means acting as a representative, as when a lawyer enters a plea on behalf of a client, and often denotes a formal relationship.
In behalf of
indicates a closer or more sympathetic role and means acting as a friend or defender. “I spoke on your behalf” means that I represented you when you were absent. “I spoke in your behalf” means that I supported you or defended you.

Behn, Aphra.
(1640-1689) English writer.

behoove
(British
behove
). An archaic word, but still sometimes a useful one. Two points need to be made:

1. The word means necessary or contingent, but is sometimes wrongly used for “becomes,” particularly with the adverb
ill
, as in “It ill behooves any man responsible for policy to think how best to make political propaganda” (cited by Gowers).

2. It should be used only impassively and with the subject
it
. “The circumstances behoove us to take action” is wrong. Make it instead “It behooves us in the circumstances to take action.”

Beiderbecke, Bix.
(1903-1931) Jazz musician; born Leon Bismarck Beiderbecke.

Beijing
(Pinyin)/
Peking.

Bekaa Valley,
Lebanon.

Belarussian
(or
Belarusian
) for someone or something from Belarus. The language is also Belarussian.

beleaguered.
Not
-ured.

Belém.
Brazilian city, formerly Pará.

Belize.
Central American republic, formerly British Honduras.

Belknap Press, The.
Part of Harvard University Press.

belladonna.
A highly toxic perennial herbaceous plant.

belle époque.
(No caps.) The period just before World War I.

Belleisle,
County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and New Brunswick, Canada;
Belle-Île,
Brittany, France;
Belle Isle,
Florida;
Strait of Belle Isle,
Newfoundland, Canada.

Bellerophon.
In Greek mythology, a warrior who killed the Chimera and was crippled trying to fly Pegasus over Mount Olympus.

belles-lettres.
Writing that has a literary or aesthetic, as opposed to purely informational, value. The word is usually treated as a plural, but may be used as a singular. For reasons unconnected to logic, the hyphen is lost and the word itself contracted in the related terms
belletrist, belletrism,
and
belletristic
.

bellicose.
Warlike.

bellwether.
Not
-weather. Wether
is an Old English word for a castrated sheep. A bellwether is a sheep that has a bell hung from its neck, by which means it leads the herd from one pasture to another. In general use, it signifies something that leads or shows the way. A bellwether stock is one that is customarily at the head of the pack. It does not mean a harbinger or foreteller of events.

Belsen.
Concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Germany, during World War II, full name
Bergen-Belsen.

beluga
is a type of sturgeon, and not a manufacturer or producer of caviar, as is sometimes thought, so the word should not be capitalized (except of course at the start of a sentence).

Ben Ali, Zine El Abidine.
(1936–) President of Tunisia (1987–).

Bendl, Karel.
(1838-1897) Czech composer.

Benedick.
Character in
Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare.

beneficence.

Benelux.
Short for Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

Beneš, Eduard.
(1884-1948) Czechoslovakian prime minister (1921–1922) and president (1935-1938, 1939-1945 [in exile], and 1945-1948).

Benét, Stephen Vincent.
(1898-1943) American writer, brother of
William Rose Benét
(1886-1950), also a writer.

Benghazi.
Libyan city.

Ben-Gurion, David.
(1886-1973) Israeli prime minister (1948-1953, 1955-1963); born David Grün.

benignancy/benignity.

Bening, Annette.
(1958–) American actress.

benison.
A blessing.

Bentsen, Lloyd.
(1921-2006) American Democratic politician, secretary of the treasury (1993-1994); ran as vice presidential candidate in 1988.

ben venuto.
(It.) “Welcome.”

benzene, benzine.
Both are liquid hydrocarbons commonly used as solvents. Benzene is primarily associated with the production of plastics, while benzine most often is encountered as a solvent used in dry-cleaning establishments. At all events, they are quite different substances and not merely alternative spellings of a single compound.

Beograd.
Serbian for Belgrade.

Beowulf.
Not
-wolf.
Anglo-Saxon epic.

Berchtesgaden.
Not
-garden.
Bavarian tourist center where Hitler had a country retreat.

bereft.
To be bereft of something is not to lack it but to be dispossessed of it, to lose it. A spinster is not bereft of a husband, but a widow is. (The word is the past participle of
bereave
.)

Bérégovoy, Pierre.
(1925-1993) Prime minister of France (1992-1993).

Berenson, Bernard
(or
Bernhard).
(1865-1959) Lithuanian-born American art critic.

Beretta.
Italian manufacturer of handguns.

Bergdorf Goodman.
New York department store.

Berkeleian.
Of or from the philosophy of George Berkeley (1685–1753).

Berkeley,
California, and
Berkeley Square,
London. The latter is pronounced
bark-lee.

Berkeley, Busby.
(1895-1976) Hollywood choreographer.

berkelium.
Chemical element.

Berklee Performance Center,
Boston, Massachusetts.

Bermudan.
Not
-ian.

Bern
is the normal English spelling for the capital of Switzerland, though
Berne
is also accepted.

Bernabéu Stadium.
In Madrid (formally
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
), home of Real Madrid.

Bernanke, Ben.
(1953–) American economist, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (2006–).

Bernhardt, Sarah.
(1844-1923) French actress, called “the Divine Sarah” born Henriette-Rosine Bernard.

Bernini, (Giovanni) Lorenzo.
(1598-1680) Italian sculptor and architect.

Bertelsmann.
German media group.

Bertolucci, Bernardo.
(1940–) Italian film director.

beryllium.
Chemical element.

beseech.

besides
means “also” or “in addition to,” not “alternatively.” Partridge cites this incorrect use: “The wound must have been made by something besides the handle of the gear-level.” Make it “other than.”

besiege.
Not
-ei-.

Bessarabia.
Former name of Moldova.

Bessemer process.
Steelmaking method named after Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898), British metallurgist.

bestseller, bestsellerdom
(one word), but
best-selling
(hyphen).

Betelgeuse.
Star in Orion constellation.

bête noire.
(Fr.) Something much disliked; pl.
bêtes noires
.

Bettelheim, Bruno.
(1903-1990) Austrian-born American child psychologist.

bettor
for one who bets.

between, among.
A few authorities continue to insist that
between
applies to two things only and
among
to more than two, so that we should speak of dividing some money between the two of us but among the four of us. That is useful advice as far as it goes, but it doesn't always go very far. It would be absurd, for instance, to say that Chicago is among New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. More logically,
between
should be applied to reciprocal arrangements (a treaty between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada) and
among
to collective arrangements (trade talks among the members of the European Union).

between you and I
is always wrong. Make it “between you and me.” The object of a preposition should always be in the accusative. More simply, we don't say “between you and I” for the same reason that we don't say “give that book to I.”

Bevan, Aneurin
(1897-1960), but
Ernest Bevin
(1881-1951) for the British politicians.

Bhagavadgita.
Sacred Hindu text, part of the Sanskrit epic
Mahabharata
.

Bhumibol (Adulyadej).
(1927–) King of Thailand (1946–).

Bhutan.
Asian kingdom; capital Thimphu. Natives are
Bhutanese
(sing. and pl.).

biannual, biennial.
Biannual
means twice a year;
biennial
means every two years.

biased.

biathlon
for the sport in which competitors ski across country and shoot set targets.

Bible
(cap.), but
biblical
(no cap.).

Big Ben,
strictly speaking, is not the famous clock on the Houses of Parliament in London, but just the great hour bell, so a passing visitor will hear Big Ben but never see it. The formal name of the clock, for what it is worth, is the clock on St. Stephen's Tower on the Palace of Westminster.

bildungsroman.
(Ger.) Novel dealing with a character's early life and psychological development.

Biletnikoff, Fred.
(1943–) Football player. The
Biletnikoff Award
is named for him.

billabong.
Australian backwater; literally “dead stream.”

billet-doux.
(Fr.) Love letter; pl.
billets-doux.

Billingsgate.
For the historic London fish market; when lowercased it denotes foul or abusive speech of the type once heard there.

bimonthly, biweekly,
and similar designations are almost always ambiguous. It is far better to say “every two months,” “twice a month,” etc., as appropriate.

biriani
(or
biryani
). Indian meat and rice dish.

Bishkek.
Capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Bishopsgate,
London.

Bismarck, Prince Otto (Eduard Leopold) von.
(1815-1898) German chancellor (1871-90).

bivouac, bivouacked, bivouacking.

BlackBerry.
Communications device.

Blackfeet.
Native American tribe or a member thereof; never
Blackfoot
.

Blagojevich, Rod.
(1956–) Governor of Illinois (2003–).

blatant, flagrant.
The words are not quite synonymous. Something that is
blatant
is glaringly obvious and contrived (“a blatant lie”) or willfully obnoxious (“blatant commercialization”) or both. Something that is
flagrant
is shocking and reprehensible (“a flagrant miscarriage of justice”). If I tell you that I regularly travel to the moon, that is a blatant lie, not a flagrant one. If you set fire to my house, that is a flagrant act, not a blatant one.

BOOK: Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0)
9.73Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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