by Bill Bryson
Fehn, Sverre. (1924–) Norwegian architect.
feijoada. Brazilian national dish.
Feininger, Lyonel. (1871–1956) American artist; note unusual spelling of first name.
Feinstein, Dianne. (1933–) Democratic senator from California.
feisty.
feldspar.
Fellini, Federico. (1920–1993) Italian film director.
FEMA. Federal Emergency Management Agency.
femto-. Prefix meaning one-quadrillionth.
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. (1920–) American poet and writer.
Fermanagh, Northern Ireland county.
Ferrara. City in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Ferrari. Italian car.
Ferraro, Geraldine (Anne). (1935–) American Democratic politician, ran as vice presidential candidate with Walter Mondale in 1984.
ferrule, ferule. A ferrule is a metal cap or band used to strengthen a tool, as with the metal piece that attaches the brush to the handle of a paintbrush. A ferule is a ruler or stick used for punishment.
fervid means intense; not to be confused with fetid, meaning foul-smelling.
fettuccine.
Feuchtwanger, Lion. (1884–1958) German writer.
feu de joie. (Fr.) Ceremonial salute with gunfire; pl. feux de joie.
Feuerbach, Ludwig. (1804–1872) German philosopher.
feuilleton. Section of French newspaper containing literary reviews, fiction serializations, or other pieces of light journalism.
fever, temperature. You often hear sentences like “John had a temperature yesterday” when in fact John has a temperature every day. Strictly speaking, what he had yesterday was a fever.
fewer, less. Use less with singular nouns (less money, less sugar) and fewer with plural nouns (fewer houses, fewer cars).
Feydeau, Georges. (1862–1921) French playwright known for farces.
Feynman, Richard. (1918–1988) American physicist.
fiancé (masc.), fiancée (fem.).
Fianna Fáil. Irish political party; pronounced fee-yan'-a foil.
Fiat. Abbreviation of Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino, Italian car manufacturer.
fiddle-de-dee.
FIDE. Fédération Internationale des Échecs, world governing body of chess.
Fidei Defensor. (Lat.) “Defender of the Faith.”
FIFA. Fédération Internationale de Football Associations, world governing body of soccer.
fifth column. Enemy sympathizers working within their own country; the term comes from the Spanish Civil War when General Emilio Mola boasted that he had four columns of soldiers marching on Madrid and a fifth column of sympathizers waiting in the city.
Fifth Third Bancorp. U.S. banking group.
filament.
filet, fillet. Use the first when the phrase or context is distinctly French (filet mignon), but otherwise use fillet.
filial.
filibuster.
filigree.
Filipino (masc.) /Filipina (fem.). A native of the Philippines.
fille de joie. (Fr.) A prostitute.
Fillmore, Millard. (1800–1874) Thirteenth U.S. president (1850–1853).
finagle. To secure by cajoling; to use trickery.
finalize is still objected to by many as an ungainly and unnecessary word, and there is no arguing that several other verbs—finish, complete, conclude—do the job as well without raising hackles.
fin de siècle. (Fr.) “End of the century” normally applied to the end of the nineteenth century.
Fine Gael. Irish political party; pronounced feen gayle.
finial. Ornament on the pinnacle of a roof or similar.
finical, finicky. Both mean fussy, overprecise.
Finisterre, Cape. Westernmost point of Spanish mainland.
Finnegans Wake. (No apos.) Novel by James Joyce (1939).
fiord, fjord. Either is correct.
Firenze. The Italian for Florence.
first and foremost. Choose one.
first come first served. (No comma.)
first floor. Depending on context, it may be pertinent to remember that in Britain and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, the first floor is not the ground floor but the floor above it.
First Man in the Moon, The. H. G. Wells novel (1901); note in, not on.
Fischer, Bobby. (1943–2008) American chess player; world champion (1972–1975).
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich. (1925–) German baritone.
fish, fishes. Either is correct as a plural.
Fishburne, Laurence. (1961–) American actor.
Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco. Not -men’s.
fission, fusion. In physics, ways of producing nuclear energy: fission by splitting the nucleus of an atom, fusion by fusing two light nuclei into a single, heavier nucleus.
fisticuffs.
Fittipaldi, Emerson. (1946–) Brazilian racing car driver.
FitzGerald, Edward. (1809–1883) English scholar and poet, translator of Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.
Fiumicino Airport, Rome. Formally it is Aeroporto Intercontinentale Leonardo da Vinci, but it is more commonly known by the name of its locality.
fjord, fiord. Either is correct.
fl. Floruit (Lat.), meaning “flourished” used to indicate the productive period of a person (“fl. second century BC”) for whom more specific dates are lacking.
flack, flak. The first is a slightly pejorative term for a publicist. The second, a contraction of the German Fliegerabwehrkanonen, is antiaircraft fire and by extension criticism or abuse.
flagon. A drinking vessel.
flair, flare. Flair is a knack for doing something well; flare describes a burst of flame or other phenomenon involving light.
flak. See FLACK, FLAK.
flaky.
flamingoes.
flammable, inflammable. Inflammable means capable of burning but has so often been taken to mean the opposite that most authorities now suggest it be avoided. It is generally better to use flammable for materials that will burn and nonflammable for those that will not.
flaunt, flout. To flaunt means to display ostentatiously, to show off. To flout means to treat with contempt, to disregard in a smug manner.
flautist. Person who plays a flute.
Fledermaus, Die. Operetta by Johann Strauss the Younger (1874).
Fleming. A native of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium; the adjective is Flemish.
Fleming, Sir Alexander. (1881–1955) British bacteriologist, discoverer of penicillin; shared Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945.
fleugelhorn (or flügelhorn). Brass musical instrument.
fleur-de-lis, pl. fleurs-de-lis.
flexible.
flibbertigibbet. A scatterbrain.
floccinaucinihilipilification. The act of estimating as worthless; sometimes cited as the longest word in English.
flora, fauna. The first means plants, the second animals.
florescent, fluorescent. The first means in flower, the second radiating light.
floruit. (Lat.) Abbr. fl.; “flourished” used when the exact dates lived are not known. E.g., “Caedmon (fl. seventh c.).”
flotsam and jetsam. Jetsam is that part of a shipwreck that has been thrown overboard (think of jettison) and flotsam that which has floated off of its own accord. (A third type, wreckage found on the sea floor, is called lagan.) There was a time when the distinction was important: flotsam went to the crown and jetsam to the lord of the manor on whose land it washed up.
flounder, founder. Founder means to sink, either literally (as with a ship) or figuratively (as with a project). Flounder means to flail helplessly. It too can be used literally (as with someone struggling in deep water) or figuratively (as with a nervous person making an extemporaneous speech).
flourish.
flout, flaunt. The first means to disregard; the second to show off.
flügelhorn. Alt. sp
elling of fleugelhorn.
flummox.
flunky, flunkies.
fluorescent light.
fluoridate, fluoridation.
fluoroscope.
focaccia. An Italian bread.
fo’c’sle. Forecastle.
foehn. Type of warm mountain wind.
Fogg, Phileas. Not Phogg, not Phineas, for the character in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
fogy (or fogey). An old-fashioned person; pl. fogies (or fogeys).
föhn. See FOEHN.
foie gras. Fattened goose liver.
foley artist. (Not cap.) A specialist in dubbing sounds on film; named for Jack Foley (1891–1967), Hollywood sound effects editor.
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
folie à deux. (Fr.) A delusion shared by two people.
Folies-Bergère. Parisian music hall.
Folketing. Danish parliament.
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Fontainebleau. Château, town, and forest on the Seine near Paris; also a hotel in Miami, Florida.
Foochow. Use Fuzhou for the capital of Fujian Province, China. (It is pronounced foo-jo'.)
foot-and-mouth disease. (Hyphens.) Not hoof-and-mouth.
forbear, forebear. The first is a verb meaning to avoid or refrain from. The second is a noun and means ancestor.
forbid, prohibit. The words have the same meaning, but the construction of sentences often dictates which should be used. Forbid may be followed only by to (“I forbid you to go”). Prohibit may not be followed by to, but only by from (“He was prohibited from going”) or by an object noun (“The law prohibits the construction of houses without planning consent”). Thus the following is wrong: “They are forbidden from uttering any public comments.” Make it either “They are prohibited from uttering…” or “They are forbidden to utter…” A small additional point is that forbid’s past tense form, forbade, has the preferred pronunciation for-bad, not for-bade.
forceful, forcible, forced. Forcible indicates the use of brute force (“forcible entry”). Forceful suggests a potential for force (“forceful argument,” “forceful personality”). Forced can be used for forcible (as in “forced entry”), but more often is reserved for actions that are involuntary (“forced march”) or occurring under strain (“forced laughter,” “forced landing”).
force majeur. (Fr.) An uncontrollable event.
forcible.
forego, forgo. The first means to precede; the second means to do without. One of the most common spelling errors in English is to write forego when forgo is intended.
Forester, C. S. (for Cecil Scott) (1899–1966) English writer, chiefly remembered for naval adventures involving Horatio Hornblower; not to be confused with E. M. Forster.
foreword. An introduction to a book written by someone other than the book’s author.
forgather. Not fore-. The need for the word is doubtful since gather says as much and says it more quickly.
formaldehyde. (Not cap.)
former, latter. Former, properly used, should refer only to the first of two things and latter to the second of two things. Both words, since they require the reader to hark back to an earlier reference, should be used sparingly and only when what they refer to is immediately evident. Few editing shortcomings are more annoying and less excusable than requiring a reader to re-cover old ground.
Formica is a trademark.
Formosa. Former name of Taiwan.
Fornebu Airport, Oslo, Norway.
Forster, E. M. (for Edward Morgan) (1879–1970) English novelist.
forswear.
forsythia.
forte. (Abbr. f.) In music, loud; also, a person’s strong point.
fortissimo, fortississimo. The first (abbr. ff.) means very loud; the second (abbr. fff.) means as loud as possible.
Fort-Lamy. Former name of N’djamena, capital of Chad.
Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, site of first action in the Civil War.
fortuitous means by chance; it is not a synonym for fortunate. A fortuitous event may be fortunate, but equally it may not.
forty-niner. (No cap.) Participant in the 1849 California gold rush. The San Francisco football team is the 49ers (no apos.).
For Whom the Bell Tolls. Not Bells Toll. Novel by Ernest Hemingway (1940).
Foucault pendulum. For the device (pronounced foo-ko), but Foucault’s Pendulum (1988) for the novel by Umberto Eco.
founder, flounder. Founder means to sink, break down, or fail; flounder means only to struggle. A drowning person flounders; ships founder.
foundry. Not -ery.
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse represent Conquest, Slaughter, Famine, and Death.
fourth estate. In Britain, the press. The other three estates are the Lords, the Commons, and the Church of England.
Fowler’s. Common name for A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H. W. Fowler.
Foxe, John. (1516–1587) English clergyman, most remembered for the book commonly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs; not to be confused with George Fox (1624–1691), founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers.
fraction. A few authorities continue to maintain that fraction in the sense of a small part is ambiguous: 99/100 is also a fraction but hardly a negligible part. The looser usage, however, has been around for at least three hundred years. Even so, it would be more precise to say “a small part” or “a tiny part.” (See also PERCENT, PERCENTAGE POINT.)
fractious. Disorderly.
France is divided into the following twenty-two regions (English version in parentheses where appropriate): Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bretagne (Brittany), Bourgogne (Burgundy), Centre, Champagne-Ardennes, Corse (Corsica), Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Île-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrénées, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays-de-la-Loire, Picardie (Picardy), Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Rhône-Alpes.
Franche-Comté. Region of France.
Francis of Assisi, St. (1182–1226) Born Giovanni Francesco Bernardone; founder of Franciscan order of monks.
Frankenstein. The full title of the novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) is Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818). Frankenstein is the scientist, not the monster.
Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, is not to be confused with Frankfurt an der Oder, eastern Germany, on the border with Poland. The towns in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and several other U.S. states are all Frankfort.
Frankfurter, Felix. (1882–1965) American jurist.
Franz Josef Land. Archipelago in the Barents Sea.
frappé. (Fr.) Iced, artificially chilled.
Frau. (Ger.) Married woman, pl. Frauen.
Fräulein. (Ger.) Sing. and pl., unmarried woman/women.
Frayn, Michael. (1933–) English writer.
Frazer-Nash. Not Fraser-. British sports car.
Freddie Mac. Nickname of U.S. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. See also FANNIE MAE/FANNIE MAY.
Fredericksburg, Virginia; site of battle in Civil War.
Fredericton. Capital of New Brunswick, Canada.
Frederiksberg. Suburb of Copenhagen.
freesia. Flowering plant.
Freiburg (im Breisgau) for the ancient university town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, but Freiberg for its near namesake in Saxony.
Frelinghuysen, Rodney. (1946–) U.S. representative from New Jersey, one in a long line of politicians of that name in New Jersey.
Fremantle, Western Australia.
French Guiana. An overseas region of France on the South American mainland; capital Cayenne.
Frenchman Flat, Nevada; site of atomic bomb tests in 1950s.
French Somaliland. Former name of Djibouti.
fresh. Usually the word serves as an unobjectionable synonym for new, but it has additional connotations that make it inappropriate in some contexts, as the fo
llowing vividly demonstrates: “Three weeks after the earthquake, fresh bodies have been found in the wreckage” (cited by Spiegl in The Joy of Words).
fricassee, pl. fricassees.
fricative. A type of consonant.
Friedan, Betty. (1921–2006) American feminist; born Elizabeth Naomi Goldstein.
Friedman, Milton. (1912–2006) American economist, awarded Nobel Prize for Economics (1976).
Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Friesian/Frisian. Friesian is a breed of cattle; Frisian is the name of a north Germanic language and of a chain of islands lying off, and politically divided between, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. Friesian cattle in the United States are normally called Holsteins. Frisian is also sometimes applied to people from Friesland, the Dutch province that partly encompasses the Frisian islands.
frieze.
Friml, Rudolf. (1879–1972) Czech-born American pianist and composer of light operas.
Frisbee. (Cap.)
frisson. “A slight frisson went through the nation yesterday” (London Times). There is no other kind of frisson than a slight one. The word means shiver or shudder.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Region of Italy.
frontispiece. Illustration facing the title page of a book.
frowsty, frowzy. The first means musty or stale; the second, untidy or dingy.
Frühstück. (Ger.) Breakfast.
FTC. Federal Trade Commission.
Führer (pref.)/Fuehrer (alt.). German leader, particularly Adolf Hitler.
Fujiyama means Mount Fuji, so “Mount Fujiyama” is redundant. Make it either Fujiyama or Mount Fuji. The Japanese also call it Fujisan and Fuki-no-Yama.
fulfill, fulfillment, fulfilled, fulfilling.
fulsome means odiously insincere. “Fulsome praise,” properly used, isn’t a lavish tribute; it is unctuous and insincere toadying.
furor.
further, farther. Insofar as the two are distinguished, farther usually appears in contexts involving literal distance (“New York is farther from Sydney than from London”) and further in contexts involving figurative distance (“I can take this plan no further”).