Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson

One of the English language's most skilled and beloved writers guides us all toward precise, mistake-free usage.
As usual Bill Bryson says it best: English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, full of quirks and irregularities that often seem willfully at odds with logic and common sense. This is a language where 'cleave' can mean to cut in half or to hold two halves together; where the simple word 'set' has 126 different meanings as a verb, 58 as a noun, and 10 as a participial adjective; where if you can run fast you are moving swiftly, but if you are stuck fast you are not moving at all; [and] where 'colonel, ' 'freight, ' 'once, ' and 'ache' are strikingly at odds with their spellings. As a copy editor for the London Times in the early 1980s, Bill Bryson felt keenly the lack of an easy-to-consult, authoritative guide to avoiding the traps and snares in English, and so he brashly suggested to a publisher that he should write one. Surprisingly, the proposition was accepted, and for a sum of money carefully gauged not to cause embarrassment or feelings of overworth, he proceeded to write that book-his first, inaugurating his stellar career.
Now, a decade and a half later, revised, updated, and thoroughly (but not overly) Americanized, it has become Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, more than ever an essential guide to the wonderfully disordered thing that is the English language. With some one thousand entries, from a, an to zoom, that feature real-world examples of questionable usage from an international array of publications, and with a helpful glossary and guide to pronunciation, this precise, prescriptive, and-because it is written by Bill Bryson-oftenwitty book belongs on the desk of every person who cares enough about the language not to maul or misuse or distort it.

From the Hardcover edition.

BILL BRYSON is one of the best-selling and best-loved authors writing in English today. His books include A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Small Island, In a Sunburned Country, Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors, and a memoir of childhood, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His exploration of scientific knowledge, A Short History of Nearly Everything, earned him the 2004 Aventis Prize. Bryson lives in Britain with his wife and children. The Royal Society, the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth, is at the cutting edge of scientific progress. It supports many leading young scientists, engineers and technologists, influences science policy, debates scientific issues with the public, and much more. It is an independent, charitable body which derives its authority from its over 1,400 Fellows and Foreign Members: distinguished the eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780767910422
ISBN 10	0767910427
Title	Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words
Author	Bill Bryson
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Broadway Books
Year published	2002-08-13
Number of pages	241
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.