Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (7 page)

blazon
means to display or proclaim in an ostentatious manner. Trails are blazed, not blazoned.

Bleecker Street,
New York City.

Blériot, Louis.
(1872-1936) French aviator.

blitzkrieg.
(Ger.) “Lightning war” an overwhelming attack.

Blixen, Karen, Baroness.
(1885-1962) Danish writer, who used the pseudonym Isak Dinesen.

Bloemfontein,
South Africa, capital of Orange Free State.

Bloomberg, Michael.
(1942–) American businessman and politician, mayor of New York City (2002–).

blueprint
as a metaphor for a design or plan is much overworked. At least remember that a blueprint is a completed plan, not a preliminary one.

Blumberg, Baruch S(amuel).
(1926–) American scientist, joint winner of 1976 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

BMW.
Short for Bayerische Motoren Werke.

B'nai B'rith.
Jewish organization.

Boadicea.
(d.
AD
62) Traditional spelling for queen of the Iceni, a British Celtic tribe, but now more often spelled
Boudicca.

Boboli Gardens,
Florence, Italy.

Boccaccio, Giovanni.
(1313-1375) Italian writer.

bocce, boccie.
Bowling game.

Bodensee.
The German name for Lake Constance.

Bodhisattva.
In Buddhism, an enlightened one.

Bodleian Library,
Oxford University; pronounced
bodd-lee-un.

Boeotia.
Region of ancient Greece, centered on Thebes.

Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus.
(c. 480–c. 524) Roman statesman and philosopher.

Boettcher Concert Hall,
Denver.

boffo.
A huge success.

Bofors gun.
(Cap.) Named for a town in Sweden.

Bogdanovich, Peter.
(1939–) American film director.

bogey, bogie, bogy.
Bogey
is the invariable spelling for contexts involving golf strokes,
bogy
generally is reserved for malevolent spirits, and
bogie
is a technical term used to describe parts of wheels or tracks on mechanical conveyances.

Bogotá.
Capital of Colombia.

Bohème, La.
Opera by Giacomo Puccini (1896).

Bohr, Niels.
(1885-1962) Danish physicist, won Nobel Prize for Physics (1922).

Bois de Boulogne.
Paris park.

bok choy.
Chinese vegetable.

Boleyn, Anne.
(c. 1507-1536) Second wife of Henry VIII.

bolívar.
Monetary unit of Venezuela, named for
Simón Bolívar
(1783-1830), Venezuelan-born revolutionary.

Bolivia.
South American republic; the seat of government is La Paz, but the official capital is Sucre.

Böll, Heinrich.
(1917-1985) German writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.

bollito misto,
pl.
bolliti misti.
An Italian stew.

bollix.
To botch or bungle.

Bombay.
Now known as Mumbai.

bon appétit.
(Fr.) Eat well, enjoy your food.

Bonhams.
(No apos.) London auction house.

bonhomie.
(Fr.) Good nature.

Bonnard, Pierre.
(1867-1947) French painter.

bonne nuit.
(Fr.) Good night, but
bonsoir
for good evening.

bonsai, banzai.
Bonsai
is the Japanese art of growing dwarf shrubs;
banzai
is a Japanese salute, literally “May you live 10,000 years.”

bonsoir.
(Fr.) Good evening, but
bonne nuit
for good night.

bon vivant, bon viveur.
The first is a person who enjoys good food; the second a person who lives well.

Book-of-the-Month Club.

Boonyaratglin, Gen. Sonthi.
(1946–) Leader of military coup in Thailand in 2006; on second reference he is Gen. Sonthi.

Boorstin, Daniel.
(1914-2004) American historian.

Bophuthatswana.
Former South African black homeland; capital Mmabatho. Reintegrated into South Africa in 1994.

bordellos.

Borders Books and Music.
(No apos.)

Borghese.
Noble Italian family.

Borgia, Rodrigo.
(1431-1503) Pope Alexander VI, father of
Cesare Borgia
(1476-1507) and
Lucrezia Borgia
(1480-1519).

Borglum, Gutzon.
(1871-1941) American sculptor, designer of the presidential memorial at Mount Rushmore; full name John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum.

Bormann, Martin.
(1900-1945) Nazi politician.

born, borne.
Both are past participles of the verb
bear,
but by convention they are used in slightly different ways.
Born
is limited to the idea of birth (“He was born in December”).
Borne
is used for the sense of supporting or tolerating (“She has borne the burden with dignity”), but is also used to refer to giving birth in active constructions (“She has borne three children”) and in passive constructions followed by “by” (“The three children borne by her…”).

Borodin, Alexander (Porfiryevich).
(1833-1887) Russian composer.

borscht.

Börse, Borsa, Bourse.
Respectively German, Italian, and French for stock exchange.

Bosch, Hieronymus.
(c. 1450-1516) Dutch painter, born Hieronymus van Aken.

bo's'n, bosun, bo'sun
are all abbreviations of
boatswain,
a naval officer; not to be confused with
boson,
a type of subatomic particle.

Bosnia and Herzegovina/Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Serbian republic, formerly part of Yugoslavia; capital Sarajevo.

Bosporous,
not
Bosph-
, for the strait separating Europe and Asia.

BOSS.
Bureau for (not
of
) State Security, former South African intelligence department.

both.
Three small problems to note:

1.
Both
should not be used to describe more than two things. Partridge cites a passage in which a woman is said to have “a shrewd common sense…both in speech, deed and dress.” Delete
both
.

2. Sometimes it appears superfluously: “…and they both went to the same school, Charterhouse” (
Observer
). Either delete
both
or make it “…they both went to Charterhouse.”

3. Sometimes it is misused for
each
. To say that there is a supermarket on both sides of the street suggests that it is somehow straddling the roadway. Say either that there is a supermarket on each side of the street or that there are supermarkets on both sides. (See also
EACH
.)

both…and.
“He was both deaf to argument and entreaty” (cited by Gowers). The rule involved here is that of correlative conjunctions, which states that in a sentence of this type
both
and
and
should link grammatically similar entities. If
both
is followed immediately by a verb,
and
should also be followed immediately by a verb. If
both
immediately precedes a noun, then so should
and
. In the example above, however,
both
is followed by an adjective (
deaf
) and
and
by a noun (
entreaty
).

The sentence needs to be recast, either as “He was deaf to both argument [noun] and entreaty [noun]” or as “He was deaf both to argument [preposition and noun] and to entreaty [preposition and noun].”

The rule holds true equally for other such pairs: “not only…but also,” “either…or,” and “neither…nor.”

Botswana.
Southern African republic, formerly Bechuanaland; capital Gaborone. The people are
Batswana
(sing. and pl.).

Botticelli, Sandro.
(c. 1445-1510) Italian painter, born Alessandro di Mariano di Vannik Filipepi.

bottleneck,
as Gowers notes, is a useful, if sometimes overworked, metaphor to indicate a point of constriction. But it should not be forgotten that it is a metaphor and therefore capable of cracking when put under too much pressure. To speak, for instance, of “a worldwide bottleneck” or “a growing bottleneck” sounds a note of absurdity. Bottlenecks, even figurative ones, don't grow, and they don't encompass the earth.

Boucicault, Dion.
(1822-1890) Irish playwright; pronounced
boo'-see-ko.

Boudicca
(d.
AD
62) is now the more common spelling for the Celtic queen traditionally known as
Boadicea.
Queen of the Iceni, she led an unsuccessful revolt against the Romans.

bougainvillea.

bouillabaisse.
Not
-illi-.

bouillon.
Not
-ion.
Broth.

bourgeois, bourgeoisie.

Bourgogne.
The French name for Burgundy.

boustrophedon.
Writing in which alternate lines go from right to left and left to right.

boutonnière.
Flower for buttonhole.

Boutros-Ghali, Boutros.
(1922–) Egyptian politician and civil servant; secretary-general of the United Nations (1992-96).

Bouygues Group.
French construction company.

bouzouki.
Greek stringed musical instrument.

Bowes Lyon.
(No hyphen.) Family name of the late British Queen Mother.

boyfriend, girlfriend.
(Each one word.)

boysenberry.

Brady, Mathew.
(1823-1896) American Civil War photographer. Note irregular spelling of first name.

braggadocio.
Hollow boasting, after the character Braggadochio in Spenser's
Fairie Queene
.

Brahman/Brahmin.
The first is a member of a Hindu caste; the second is used to describe long-established socially exclusive people (“Boston Brahmins”). The breed of cattle is spelled
Brahman.

Brahmaputra.
Asian river.

Brahms, Johannes.
(1833-1897) German composer.

Braille, Louis.
(1809-1852) French inventor of the embossed reading system for the blind.

Bramante, Donato di Pasuccio d'Antonio.
(1444-1514) Italian architect and artist.

Brancusi, Constantin.
(1876-1957) Romanian sculptor.

Brandeis, Louis D(embitz).
(1856-1941) American jurist; Brandeis University is named for him.

Brandywine.
Creek in Pennsylvania and Delaware, site of a battle in the Revolutionary War.

Braque, Georges.
(1882-1963) French Cubist painter.

Brasenose College,
Oxford University.

Brasília.
Capital of Brazil.

Braun, Wernher von.
(1912-1977) German-born American space scientist.

bravado
should not be confused with
bravery
. It is a swaggering or boastful display of boldness, often adopted to disguise an underlying timidity. It is, in short, a false bravery and there is nothing courageous about it.

BRD.
Abbreviation of Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

breach, breech.
Frequently confused.
Breach
describes an infraction or a gap. It should always suggest
break
, a word to which it is related.
Breech
applies to the rear or lower portion of things. The main expressions are
breach of faith
(or
promise
),
breech delivery, breeches buoy, breechcloth
, and
breech-loading gun
.

Breakspear, Nicolas.
(c. 1100-1159) Pope Adrian IV.

Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of.
(1918) Treaty that ended Russian involvement in World War I.

Bretagne.
French for Brittany.

Bretton Woods.
Mountain resort in New Hampshire, site of 1944 conference that led to the establishment of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Breuer, Marcel.
(1902-1981) Hungarian-born American architect and designer.

Breugel/Breughel.
Use
Brueghel.

Brezhnev, Leonid (Ilyich).
(1906-1982) Leader of the Soviet Union (1977-1982).

bric-a-brac.

Bridge of San Luis Rey, The.
Novel by Thornton Wilder (1927).