Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (32 page)

normalcy.
Although most dictionaries accept it as standard, it is still derided as a casualism by many authorities, who suggest
normality
instead.

Northern Ireland.
Part of the United Kingdom, comprising six counties: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone.

North Fork BanCorp.
New York–based banking company.

nosy.
Not
-ey.

nota bene.
(Lat.) “Note well” abbreviated
n.b.
(with periods) or
NB
(without).

Notes from Underground.
Not
the Underground
. Novel by Dostoyevsky.

not so much
is often followed by
but
when the word should be
as
, as here: “He was not so much a comic actor, but a real comedian.” Make it “He was not so much a comic actor as a real comedian.”

notwithstanding.
(One word.)

Nouakchott.
Capital of Mauritania.

n'oubliez pas.
(Fr.) “Don't forget.”

noughts and crosses.
British name for tic-tac-toe.

nouveau riche.
(Fr.) Mildly disparaging description of someone whose wealth is recently acquired; pl.
nouveaux riches.

Novocaine.
(Cap.)

Novosibirsk,
Russia.

NOW.
National Organization for (not
of
) Women.

nowadays.

NTSB.
National Transportation Safety Board.

NTT DoCoMo.
Japanese telecommunications company.

Nuits-Saint-Georges.
French wine.

Nuku'alofa/Nukualofa.
Capital of Tonga.

Nullarbor Plain,
Western Australia. Often misspelled
Nullabor
.

number.
Used with the definite article,
number
always takes a singular verb (“The number of people in the world is rising”); used with an indefinite article it always takes a plural verb (“A number of people are unhappy”).

numismatics.
The study or collection of coins or medals.

numskull,
not
numbskull
, is the preferred spelling for most, but not all, authorities.

Nunavut.
Canadian territory created in 1999.

Nunivak.
Second-largest Alaskan island (after Kodiak).

Nuremberg
(in German, Nürnberg) for the Bavarian city. Not
-burg.

Nureyev, Rudolf.
(1938–1993) Russian ballet dancer.

Nuuk.
Capital of Greenland; formerly Godthaab.

Nyasaland.
Former name of Malawi.

Nyerere, Julius (Kambarage).
(1922–1999) President of Tanganyika and (after its union with Zanzibar) of Tanzania (1961–1985).

Nymphenburg Palace,
Munich; in German, Schloss Nymphenburg.

Oo

O, oh, oho.
The first normally appears in literary or religious contexts; it is always capitalized and never followed by punctuation. The second is used in more general contexts to denote emotions ranging from a small sigh to an outcry; it is capitalized only at the start of sentences and normally followed by either a comma or exclamation mark.
Oho,
with or without an exclamation mark, denotes an expression of surprise.

OAS.
Organization of American States.

OAU.
Organization of African Unity.

Oaxaca.
City and state in southern Mexico.

Obadiah.
Old Testament prophet.

Obama, Barack.
(1961–) Democratic politician, U.S. senator from Illinois (2005–); full name
Barack Hussein Obama
.

Obasanjo, Olusegun.
(1937–) President of Nigeria (1999–2007).

obbligato.
In music, an indispensable part.

obeisance.
A show of deference.

Oberammergau.
Village in Bavaria, Germany, where celebrated passion play is performed every ten years.

obiter dictum.
(Lat.) A remark made in passing; pl.
obiter dicta
.

objet d'art,
pl.
objets d'art.

objet trouvé.
(Fr.) “A found object.”

oblivious.
Many authorities long maintained that
oblivious
can mean only forgetful. You cannot properly be oblivious of something that you were not in the first place aware of. But in its broader sense of merely being unaware or impervious,
oblivious
is now accepted universally.

oblique.

obloquy.
Verbal abuse; pl.
obloquies.

O'Brien, Flann.
Pen name of Brian O'Nolan (1911–1966), Irish writer, who also wrote a column in the
Irish Times
under the pseudonym Myles na Gopaleen.

obscurum per obscurius.
(Lat.) “The obscure by means of the more obscure.”

obsidian.
Glassy volcanic rock.

obsolete, obsolescent.
Things that are no longer used or needed are obsolete. Things that are becoming obsolete are obsolescent.

obstetrics, obstetrician.

obstreperous.
Noisy, vociferous.

obtuse angle.
One between 90 and 180 degrees.

obviate
does not mean reduce or make more acceptable, as is often thought: “A total redesign of the system should obviate complaints about its reliability” (
London Times
). It means to make unnecessary.

Occam's/Ockham's razor.
Paring all presumptions to the minimum, a principle attributed to the English philosopher
William of Occam,
or
Ockham
(c. 1285–c. 1349).

occult.

occur, take place.
Take place
is better reserved for scheduled events. When what is being described is accidental,
occur
is the better word.

ocher.

ochlocracy.
Government by mob rule.

octet.

octocentennial.
Eight-hundredth anniversary.

octogenarian.
Person from eighty to eighty-nine years old.

octopus,
pl.
octopuses
(or, in technical writing,
octopodes
).

oculist.

Oder-Neisse Line.
Boundary between Germany and Poland.

Odets, Clifford.
(1906–1963) American playwright.

odometer.
Device for measuring distance traveled.

odoriferous.

Od's bodkins.
Archaic oath, probably a corruption of “by God's body.”

Odysseus
(Greek)/
Ulysses
(Lat.). In Greek mythology, the king of Ithaca.

OECD.
Organization for (not
of
) Economic Cooperation and Development. The members are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

Oedipus complex.
Term coined by Freud to describe a child's (usually a son's) feelings of love for the parent of the opposite sex mingled with dislike for the parent of the same sex.

oenology/enology.
Study of wines. A connoisseur is an
oenophile.

oeuvre.
An artist's body of work.

O'Faoláin, Seán.
(1900–1991) Irish novelist and short story writer.

Offaly.
County in Republic of Ireland.

Offa's Dike/Dyke.
Eighth-century earthwork between England and Wales.

Offenbach, Jacques.
(1819–1880) German-born French composer; born Jakob Eberst.

off of
is redundant. Write “Get off the table,” not “Get off of the table.”

Ogdon, John.
(Andrew Howard) (1937–1989) British pianist.

ogre.

Oh, Oho.
See
O
,
OH
,
OHO.

O'Hare International Airport,
Chicago.

O. Henry.
Pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862–1910), American short story writer. The candy bar is
Oh Henry.

Oireachtas
for the Irish legislature, consisting of the president and the two assemblies, the Dáil Éireann and Seanad. It is pronounced
ur'-akh-tus
.

Ojos del Salado.
Andean mountain on Chilean-Argentinian border; second-highest peak in the Western Hemisphere (22,600 feet; 6,910 meters).

Okeechobee.
Lake and inland waterway, Florida.

O'Keeffe, Georgia.
(1887–1986) American artist.

Okefenokee Swamp.
Florida and Georgia.

Okhotsk, Sea of.

Olajuwon, Hakeem.
(1963–) Nigerian-born American basketball player.

Olazábal, José María.
(1966–) Spanish golfer.

Oldenburg, Claes.
(1929–) Swedish-born American sculptor.

Old Peculier.
An English beer.

Olduvai Gorge,
Tanzania.

Olivetti.
Formally Ing. C. Olivetti & Co. SpA, Italian industrial group, once famous for typewriters.

Olmert, Ehud.
(1945–) Prime minister of Israel (2006–).

Olympic-size swimming pool.
An official Olympics swimming pool is fifty meters long. Almost no one owns a private pool that large, so the description in respect to private pools is almost always a gross exaggeration.

Omar Khayyám
is the correct spelling of the Persian poet and mathematician. Note
-yy-.

omelet/omelette.
Either is correct.

omit, omitted, omitting, omissible.

omnipotent, omniscient.
The first means all-powerful, the second all-knowing.

on, upon.
Although some journalists think there is, or ought to be, a distinction between these two, there isn't. The choice is sometimes dictated by idiom (“on no account,” “upon my soul”), but in all other instances it is a matter of preference.

one
can be a grammatically tricky word. It takes a singular verb in straightforward constructions like “one out of every seven men is bald.” But when extra words are attached to it—
one or more, one of those
—it ceases to govern the verb and the sense of the sentence becomes plural. Thus the sentence “Inside each folder is one or more sheets of information” should be “are one or more” and “Nott is one of those rare politicians who doesn't mind what he says” should be “don't mind what they say.” A helpful trick to determine whether a singular or plural verb is needed is to invert the word order of the sentence: “Of those politicians who do not mind what they say, Nott is one.”

O'Neal, Shaquille.
(1972–) American basketball player.

one or more
is plural. For a discussion, see
ONE
.

only.
In general,
only
ought to be attached to the word or phrase it is modifying and not set adrift, as here: “The A Class bus only ran on Sundays” (
Observer
). Taken literally, the sentence suggests that on other days of the week the bus did something else—perhaps flew? The writer would better have said that the bus “ran only on Sundays” or “on Sundays only.”

Oftentimes, to be sure, clarity and idiom are better served by bringing
only
to a more forward position (“This will only take a minute,” “The victory can only be called a miracle”). And increasingly, it must be said, authorities are inclined toward leniency with regard to where
only
is permitted. Certainly it is always better to avoid an air of fussiness. But when, as in the example above, a simple repositioning puts the word in the right place without creating a distraction, there is no reason not to do it.

onomatopoeia.
The formation of words based on the sounds they denote, as with
buzz, bang
, and
vroom-vroom.

on to, onto.
Until the twentieth century
onto
as one word was almost unknown in both Britain and America, and its standing remains somewhat dubious in Britain. Today in the United States (and increasingly in Britain),
onto
is used where the two elements function as a compound preposition (“He jumped onto the horse”) and
on to
is used where
on
is an adverb (“We moved on to the next subject”).

oolong tea.

oozy.

op. cit.
Opere citato
(Lat.); “in the work cited.” Note two periods.

openness.
Note
-nn-.

opéra bouffe, opera buffa.
The first is a farcical French opera; the second a farcical Italian one.

Opéra-Comique,
Paris theater.

ophthalmologist, oculist, optometrist, optician.
Ophthalmologist
is often misspelled and even more frequently mispronounced. Note that it begins
oph-
and not
opth-
and that the first syllable is pronounced
off,
not
op.
Thus, it is similar in pronunciation and spelling to
diphtheria, diphthong,
and
naphtha
, all of which are also frequently misspelled and misspoken.

Ophthalmologist
and
oculist
both describe doctors who specialize in diseases of the eye. An
optometrist
is one who is trained to test eyes but is not a medical doctor. An
optician
is one who makes or sells corrective lenses.

Oporto,
Portugal; in Portuguese, Pôrto.

opossum
(or
possum
). The plural can be either
opossum
or
opossums
(or
possum/possums
).

Oppenheimer, J(ulius) Robert.
(1904–1967) American physicist.

oppressor.

optimistic, pessimistic.
Strictly speaking, both words should be used to describe a general outlook rather than a specific view, particularly with regard to the inconsequential. “He was optimistic that he would find the missing book” would be better with “was hopeful” or “was confident.”

optimum
does not mean greatest or fastest or biggest, as is sometimes thought. It describes the point at which conflicting considerations are reconciled. The optimum flying speed of an aircraft is the speed at which all the many variables that must be taken into account in flying—safety, comfort, fuel consumption, and so on—are most nearly in harmony.

opus magnum, magnum opus.
(Lat.) The first is a great work; the second is an author's principal work.

or.
When
or
links two or more singular items in a sentence, the verb must always be singular. “It was not clear whether the president or vice president were within hearing range at the time” should be “was within hearing range.”

oral, verbal.
Oral
can apply only to spoken words;
verbal
can describe both spoken and written words.

orange pekoe tea.

ordinal numbers.
First, second, third, etc. See also
CARDINAL NUMBERS
.

ordinance, ordnance.
The first is a command or decree; the second refers to military stores and materials.

ordonnance.
The proper arrangement of parts in a literary, musical, artistic, or architectural work.

Ordzhonikidze,
Russia; formerly Dzaudzhikau.