Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors by Bill Bryson

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I defy anybody not to pick this book up and thumb through it, and keep thumbing through it for a while. It looks like a list of words and expressions. Well, that's exactly what it is. Running through it, though, is the salty intellect of Bill Bryson. This, like his other books, shows us the relationship between the world and a man who wants to define, with precision, the things in that world. Aids is not a disease but "a medical condition". Bellwether comes from "wether", a castrated sheep with a bell around its neck who led the herd. Big Ben is not a clock — it's a bell. Do not confuse "poring" with "pouring". Pristine means unchanged, rather than spotless. A scale model of something is not a replica, because a replica must be the same size — so the term "exact replica" is wrong. But split infinitives, it turns out, are not.

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

What is the difference between cant and jargon, or assume and presume? What is a fandango? What's the new name for Calcutta? How do you spell supersede? Boutros Boutros-Ghali? Is it hippy or hippie? These questions really matter to Bill Bryson, ever since his days as a rookie subeditor on "The Times" back in the 1970s: as they do to anyone who cares about the English language.Originally published as "The Penguin Dictionary for Writers and Editors", Bryson's "Dictionary for Writers and Editors" has now been completely revised and updatedfor the twenty-first century by Bill Bryson himself. Here is a very personal selection of spellings and usages, covering such head-scratchers as capitalization, plurals, abbreviations and foreign names and phrases. Bryson also gives us the difference between British and American usages, and miscellaneous pieces of essential information you never knew you needed, like the names of all the Oxford colleges, or the new name for the Department of Trade and Industry - or the correct spelling of Brobdingnag. An indispensable companion to all those who write, work with the written word, or who just enjoy getting things right, it gives rulings that are both authoritative and commonsense, all in Bryson's own inimitably good humoured way.