Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (35 page)

Pilsener
(or
Pilsner
). Beer.

Pilsudski, Józef.
(1867–1935) Polish statesman.

pimento,
pl.
pimentos. Pimiento
and
pimientos
are accepted alternatives.

Pincay, Laffit, Jr.
(1946–) Panamanian-born American jockey.

pineal gland.

Pinero, Sir Arthur Wing.
(1855–1934) English comedic playwright.

Ping-Pong.
(Caps.)

Pinocchio.
Note
-cc-.

Pinochet, Augusto.
(1915–2006) President of Chile (1973–1990).

pinscher, Doberman.
Breed of dog.

pint.
A liquid measure equal to sixteen ounces in the United States, twenty ounces in Britain.

Pinturicchio.
Nickname of Bernardino di Betto Vagio (1454–1513), Italian painter.

Pinyin.
System for romanizing Chinese names. Pinyin was devised in 1953 but has been in widespread international use only since about 1977. See also
CHINESE NAMES.

piquant.
Pungent, alluring.

pique.
Resentment. “Fit of pique” is a cliché.

Piraeus.
Port of Athens.

Pirandello, Luigi.
(1867–1936) Italian author and playwright; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934.

Piranesi, Giovanni Battista
(or
Giambattista
). (1720–1778) Italian artist and architect.

piranha.
Species of fish.

Pirelli.
Italian tire manufacturer.

pirouette.
Graceful turn on one foot.

Piscataway,
New Jersey.

Pissaro, Camille.
(1830–1903) French painter.

pistachio.
Nut-bearing tree; pl.
pistachios.

pistil.
Part of a flower.

pitiable, pitiful, pitiless,
but
piteous.

Pitti Palace,
Florence. In Italian, Palazzo Pitti.

Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Not
-burg.

pixels.
Picture elements, the little squares from which computer graphics are composed.

pixie.
Not
pixy
. A sprite.

Pizarro, Francisco.
(c. 1475–1541) Spanish conquistador, conquered Peru, founded Lima.

pizzeria.
Not
pizza-
. Restaurant where pizzas are made.

Plaid Cymru.
Welsh nationalist political party; pronounced
plide kum'
-
ree
.

plan ahead.
Always tautological. Would you plan behind?

Planck, Max.
(1858–1947) German physicist, awarded Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.

planetarium,
pl.
planetariums/planetaria.

planetesimal.
Orbiting body with planetlike qualities, but too small to qualify as such.

Plantagenets.
Dynasty of English monarchs from Henry II to Richard III (1154–1485).

plaster of paris.
(No cap.)

plat du jour.
(Fr.) “Dish of the day.”

plateau.
pl.
plateaus
(or
plateaux
).

platen.
The roller on a typewriter.

plate tectonics.
Not
tech-.
The science of Earth's crust and its movements.

Platt-Deutsch/Plattdeutsch.
German dialect, also called Low German.

platypus,
pl.
platypuses.

plausible, plausibility.

“Play it, Sam”
is the correct line from the movie
Casablanca
; Humphrey Bogart never actually said, “Play it again, Sam.”

playwright.
Not
-write
.

PLC.
(U.K.) Public limited company, one whose shares are sold publicly and quoted on the stock market; equivalent to the American
Inc.
or German
AG.
Many companies write “plc” or “Plc,” but there is no logical reason for so doing.

plead innocent
is wrong, at least in the English-speaking world. Under the British and American judicial systems, one pleads guilty or not guilty.

plebeian.
Common, vulgar, of the lower classes.

plebiscite.
Vote of the people.

Pleiades.
In Greek mythology, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione; a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus.

Pleistocene.
Geological period.

plenary.
Full, complete. A plenary session of a council is one attended by all the members.

plenitude.
Not
plenti-
. An abundance.

plenteous.

Plessy v. Ferguson.
1896 Supreme Court case that upheld the view that children of different races could be educated separately as long as the quality of education was equal.

plethora
is not merely a lot; it is an excessive amount, a superabundance. For a word that is often similarly misused, see
SPATE
.

pleurisy.
Inflammation of the membrane covering the lungs.

Plexiglas.
(Cap.) Not
-ss.

Plimsoll line/mark.
Point down to which a ship may be loaded.

PLO.
Palestine Liberation Organization.

plum, plumb.
If it is edible or vegetative the word is
plum
(
plum pud
ding, sugerplum, plum tree
), but in all other senses the word is
plumb
(
plumb line, plumb the depths, plumb tired out
).

plumage.

plummy.
An affected rich, full voice.

plus
is a preposition, not a conjunction, and therefore does not influence the number of the verb. Two and two are four, but two plus two
is
four.

Plutarch.
Properly Ploutarchos (c. 46–c. 120). Greek historian, biographer, and philosopher.

plutocrat.
Person who has influence or power because of wealth.

p.m./PM.
Post meridiem
(not
-ien
), (Lat.) after noon.

PNC Park.
Pittsburgh baseball stadium, home of the Pirates.

Pocahontas.
(c. 1595–1617) North American Indian princess, known for saving the life of John Smith.

Pocatello,
Idaho.

pocket borough.
A British parliamentary borough controlled by one person or group; common before parliamentary reforms of 1832.

Podhoretz, Norman.
(1930–) American journalist and writer.

Poe, Edgar Allan.
(1809–1849) American poet and short story writer.

poet laureate.
For the plural,
poets laureate
or
poet laureates
are both generally accepted.

pogrom.
Methodical massacre of a minority group.

poinsettia.
Winter-flowering plant.

pokey, poky.
The first is slang for jail; the second means small, cramped, or slow.

Poliakoff, Stephen.
(1954–) British dramatist.

poliomyelitis.
Commonly shortened to
polio.
Once called (somewhat misleadingly) infantile paralysis.

politburo/Politburo.
The chief committee of a Communist Party.

Polizei.
(Ger.) Police.

Pollaiuolo, Antonio.
(1429–1498) Italian painter, sculptor, and goldsmith.

Pollock, Jackson.
(1912–1956) American artist.

Pollyanna.
An optimistic person, particularly one who is foolishly so; after the heroine of a 1913 novel by Eleanor Porter.

polonaise.
A slow Polish dance, or the music for it.

poltergeist.

Poltoratsk.
Former name of Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan.

polyandry.
State or practice of a woman having more than one husband at the same time.

polygamy.
State or practice of a man having more than one wife at the same time.

polypropylene.
Type of plastic.

pomegranate.
Round fruit with many seeds.

Pomeranian.
A toy breed of dog.

Pompeian.
Of Pompeii, the Roman city destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in
AD 79
.

Pompey.
(106–48
BC
) Properly
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
; Roman soldier and statesman.

Pompidou Center,
Paris. Formally Le Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou; also called Centre Beaubourg.

pompon.
Not
-pom.
A ball or tuft of material.

Ponce de León, Juan.
(1460–1521) Spanish explorer, discovered Florida.

Pontchartrain, Lake,
Louisiana.

Ponte Vecchio.
Famous bridge over the Arno, Florence, Italy.

Pont l'Évêque.
French town and type of cheese named after it.

pooh-bah.
Person who holds many offices at once, from the character Pooh-Bah in Gilbert and Sullivan's
The Mikado
.

pooh-pooh.
To dismiss or make light of.

Popescu-Tăriceanu, Călin.
(1952–) Prime minister of Romania (2004–).

poppadam
(or
poppadom
). Indian thin, crisp, fried bread.

populace, populous.
The first describes a general population. The second means heavily populated.

porcupine.

pore, pour.
Occasionally
pour
appears where
pore
is intended. As a verb,
pore
means to examine carefully (“He pored over the documents”) or, more rarely, to meditate.
Pour
indicates a flow, either literally (“He poured the water down the drain”) or figuratively (“The rioters poured through the streets”).

port, starboard.
When facing forward on a ship, port is to the left, starboard to the right.

Port-au-Prince.
(Hyphens.) Capital of Haiti.

portentous.
Not
-ious.

portico.
A porch supported by pillars; pl.
porticoes/porticos.

portland cement.
(Not cap.)

portmanteau word.
A word blending two others, e.g.,
smog
=
smoke
+
fog.

Portmeirion, Wales.
Fanciful Italianate village built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, and a brand of pottery that originated there.

Port Moresby.
Capital of Papua New Guinea.

Porto-Novo.
(Hyphen.) Capital of Benin.

Portuguese.

Port-Vila.
(Hyphen.) Capital of Vanuatu.

Portzamparc, Christian de.
(1944–) Moroccan-born French architect; on second reference he is Mr. (or Monsieur) Portzamparc, not de Portzamparc.

Poseidon.
Greek god of the sea; identified with the Roman god Neptune.

position.
Often a pointer to verbosity. “They now find themselves in a position where they have to make a choice” would be immeasurably better as “They now have to make a choice.”

possessives.
Problems with possessives are discussed in some detail in the Appendix under
APOSTROPHE
, but three especially common faults are worth mentioning here.

1. Failure to put an apostrophe in the right place. This is particularly frequent with words like
men's, women's
, and
children's
, which all too often appear as
mens', womens'
, and
childrens
'.

2. Failure to put an apostrophe in at all. This practice—spelling the words
mens, womens
, and
childrens
and so on—is particularly rife among retailers. It is painful enough to behold there, inexcusable elsewhere.

3. Putting an apostrophe where none is needed. Possessive pronouns—
his, hers, ours, theirs
, and so on—do not take an apostrophe. But sometimes one is wrongly inserted, as here: “I don't think much of your's” (
Independent
headline).

(See also “
OURS IS NOT TO REASON WHY
…”)

possible
is wrongly followed by
may
in constructions such as the following: “It is possible that she may decide to go after all” (
Daily Telegraph
). Make it either “It is possible that she will decide to go after all” or “She may decide to go after all.” Together the two words are wrong and unnecessary.