Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (43 page)

Three Mile Island.
Nuclear power station, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

threshold.

thrived/throve.
Either is acceptable, but most authorities prefer the latter.

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
is the full, formal title of the 1871 Lewis Carroll classic. Note the hyphen in
Looking-Glass
.

Thruway
is the correct official spelling in many highway contexts (New York State Thruway Authority, Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway).

Thucydides.
(c. 460–c. 400
BC
) Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War.

Tiananmen Square,
Beijing.

Tibullus, Albius.
(c. 54–19
BC
) Roman elegiac poet.

tic douloureux.
Disorder of the facial nerves. Its formal medical designation is trigeminal neuralgia.

tickety-boo.

tic-tac-toe.

tiddly-winks.

Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista.
(1696–1770) Italian artist.

Tierra del Fuego.
South American archipelago.

Tiffany, Charles Lewis.
(1812–1902) American jeweler and founder of the famous New York jewelry store; father of
Louis Comfort Tiffany
(1848–1933), American designer, known for design and production of Tiffany glass and Tiffany lamps.

Tigonankweine Range.
Mountains in western Canada.

tilde.
The mark (~) used in Spanish to denote the sound
ny,
as is
señor
or
cañón
; word pronounced
till'-duh.

Tilden, Bill.
(1893–1933) American tennis player, three-time world champion.

timber, timbre.
The first is wood; the second refers to sound.

Timbuktu.
Small city in Mali. The name is used to signify any very remote place.

time
often has a curious magnetic effect, attracting extra words to sentences, as in: “The property was occupied for a short length of time.” Make it “for a short time.” Occasionally,
time
itself is superfluous, as in constructions of this sort: “The report will be available in two weeks' time.”
Time
adds nothing to the sentence but wordiness.

time, at this moment in.
Unless you are striving for an air of linguistic ineptitude, never use this expression. Say “now.”

Timor Leste.
Asian republic; capital Dili.

tin lizzie.
A Model T Ford, not any old car.

tinnitus.
Persistent ringing in the ears.

Tin Pan Alley.
District of Manhattan where music publishers once congregated.

tinsel.

tintinnabulation.
Ringing sound of bells.

Tintoretto.
(1518–1594) Italian artist; real name Jacopo Robusti.

Tipperary.
Town and county in the Republic of Ireland.

tipsy.
Not
-ey.
Mildly intoxicated.

tiramisu.
Italian dessert.

Tirol.
German for Tyrol, region of Austria.

'Tis Pity She's a Whore.
Not
a Pity
. Play by John Ford (1633).

Titian.
(c. 1490–1576) Italian painter; in Italian,
Tiziano Vecellio.

titillate.

titivate.

Tito, Marshal.
(1892–1980) Prime minister of Yugoslavia (1945–1953), president (1953–1980); born Josip Broz.

tmesis.
Interposing a word between the syllables of another, as in
abso-bloody-lutely.

TNT.
A well-known explosive. The initials are short for
trinitrotoluene.

to all intents and purposes
is unnecessarily wordy. “To all intents” is enough.

toboggan.

toby jug.
(No caps.)

Tocqueville, Alexis (Charles Henri Maurice Clérel) de.
(1805–1859) French politician and historian.

together with, along with.
With
in both expressions is a preposition, not a conjunction, and therefore does not govern the verb. This sentence is wrong: “They said the man, a motor mechanic, together with a 22-year-old arrested a day earlier, were being questioned” (
London Times
). Make it “was being questioned.”

Togolese.
Of or from Togo.

Tojo, Hideki.
(1884–1948) Japanese prime minister (1941–1944), executed as war criminal.

Tolkien, J.R.R.
(1892–1973) English philologist and author of fantasies; the initials stood for John Ronald Reuel.

Tolstoy, Count Leo.
(1828–1910) Russian novelist.

tomato,
pl.
tomatoes.

tomorrow.

Toms River,
New Jersey.

ton, tonne.
There are two kinds of
ton
: a long ton (used principally in the United Kingdom), weighing 2,240 lbs./1,016 kg., and a short ton (used in the United States and Canada), weighing 2,000 lbs./907 kg. A
tonne
is the British term for what in America is normally called a metric ton; it weighs 2,204 lbs./1,000 kg.

tonnages of ships.
Deadweight tonnage
is the amount of cargo a ship can carry.
Displacement tonnage
is the weight of the ship itself.
Gross tonnage
measures the theoretical capacity of a ship based on its dimensions. When using any of these terms, it is only fair to give the reader some idea of what each signifies.

tonsillitis.

Tontons Macoute.
Civilian militia in Haiti; supporters of the Duvalier regimes.

Tony Awards.
Theatrical awards named for the actress and producer Antoinette Perry. They have been awarded since 1947. Pl.
Tonys.

topsy-turvy.

Torino.
Italian for Turin.

tormentor.
Not
-er.

tornadoes.

Torquemada, Tomás de.
(1420–1498) Spanish monk who organized the Inquisition.

torsos.

tortuous, torturous.
Tortuous
means winding and circuitous (“The road wound tortuously through the mountains”). When used figuratively it usually suggests deviousness (“a tortuous tax avoidance scheme”). The word is thus better avoided if all you mean is complicated or convoluted.
Torturous
is the adjectival form of
torture
and describes the infliction of extreme pain.

Toscanini, Arturo.
(1867–1957) Italian conductor.

total.
Three points to note:

1.
Total
is redundant and should be deleted when what it is qualifying already contains the idea of a totality, as here: “[They] risk total annihilation at the hands of the massive Israeli forces now poised to strike at the gates of the city” (
Washington Post
).

2. The expression
a total of
, though common, is also generally superfluous: “County officials said a total of 84 prisoners were housed in six cells” (
New York Times
). Make it “officials said 84 prisoners.” An exception is at the start of sentences when it is desirable to avoid spelling out a large number, as in “A total of 2,112 sailors were aboard” instead of “Two thousand one hundred and twelve sailors were aboard.”

3. “A total of 45 weeks was spent on the study” (
London Times
) is wrong. As with “a number of” and “the number of,” the rule is to make it “the total of…was,” but “a total of…were.”

totaled, totaling.

to the tune of.
A hackneyed circumlocution. “The company is being subsidized to the tune of $500 million a year” would be more succinct as “The company receives a subsidy of $500 million a year.”

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de.
(1864–1901) French painter; full name
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa.

toupee.
(No accent.)

Tourette syndrome
(pref.),
Tourette's syndrome
(alt.). Neurological disorder named for the French physician
Georges Gilles de la Tourette
(1859–1904).

Tournai,
Belgium, but
Tournay,
France.

tournedos.
(Sing. and pl.) Choice cut or cuts of beef.

tout à l'heure.
(Fr.) Soon, just now, a moment ago.

tout de suite.
(Fr.) Immediately.

tout le monde.
(Fr.) Everybody.

tovarich/tovarish.
Either is acceptable for the Russian word for
comrade;
in Russian,
tovarishch
.

toward, towards.
The first is the preferred form in America, the second in Britain, but either is correct.
Untoward
, however, is the only accepted form in both.

toxemia.
Blood poisoning.

traceable.

tradable.

trademark, trade name.
A trademark is a name, symbol, or other depiction that formally identifies a product. A trade name is the name of the maker, not of the product. Cadillac is a trademark, General Motors a trade name.

Tralee,
Ireland.

tranquillity,
but
tranquilize, tranquilizer.

transatlantic.
Most dictionaries and style books (but by no means all) prefer
transatlantic
to
trans-Atlantic
. Similarly,
transalpine, transarctic, transpacific
.

Transdniestra.
Breakaway part of Moldova.

trans fats.
(Two words.)

transgressor.
Not
-er.

transship, transshipment.

transitive verb.
In grammar, a verb that requires a direct object.

translucent
is sometimes wrongly treated as a synonym for
transparent
. A translucent material is one through which light passes but through which images cannot be clearly seen, as with frosted glass. Note also the spelling; it is not
-scent.

transsexual.

Trappist monk.

trattoria.
Italian restaurant; pl.
trattorie.

Traviata, La.
Opera by Giuseppe Verdi (1853).

treiskaidekaphobia.
Fear of the number 13.

trek, trekked.

Trentino-Alto Adige.
Region of Italy.

TriBeCa.
Short for Triangle Below Canal Street, New York City.

Triborough Bridge,
New York City.

Trinidad and Tobago.
Caribbean republic; capital Port-of-Spain. Natives are Trinidadians or Tobagonians, depending on which part of the republic they come from.

Trintignant, Jean-Louis.
(1930–) French actor.

triptych.
Painting on three panels hinged together.

trireme.
Ancient Greek ship with three banks of oars.

Tristan da Cunha.
British island colony in the south Atlantic Ocean.

Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, The Life and Opinions of.
Novel by Laurence Sterne (1760–1767).

trivia
is, strictly speaking, a plural, and a few dictionaries recognize it only as such. “All this daily trivia is getting on my nerves” should be “All these daily trivia are getting on my nerves.” There is no singular form (the Latin
trivium
now has only historical applications), but there are the singular words
trifle
and
triviality
. The other option, if the plural form seems ungainly, is to convert
trivia
into an adjective: “All these trivial daily matters are getting on my nerves.”

troglodyte.
Cave dweller.

troika.
A group of three.

Troilus and Cressida.
Play by Shakespeare (c. 1601). The poem by Geoffrey Chaucer is “Troylus and Criseyde.” In Boccaccio's
Il Filostrato
the spelling is
Criseida.

Trollope, Anthony.
(1815–1852) English novelist, son of
Frances Trollope
(1780–1863), novelist and travel writer.

trompe-l'oeil.
(Fr.) Painting designed to deceive the viewer into thinking that the object depicted is not painted but real; pronounced
tromp loy.

Trooping the Color.
The annual event celebrating the British queen's official birthday in June (as opposed to her actual birthday in April) is not the Trooping of the Color, as it is often written, even in Britain, but just Trooping the Color.