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hoi polloi HOI POLLOI Hoi polloi is Greek for “the common people,” but it is often misused to mean “the upper class” (does “hoi” make speakers think of “high” or "hoity-toity"?). Some urge that since “hoi” is the article “the hoi polloi” is redundant; but the general rule is that articles such as "the” and “a” in foreign language phrases cease to function as such in place names, brands, and catch phrases except for some of the most familiar ones in French and Spanish, where everyone recognizes “la"—for instance—as meaning “the.” “The El Nino” is redundant, but “the hoi polloi” is standard English. List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hoipolloi.html03/09/2005 15:38:19 hold your peace/say your piece HOLD YOUR PEACE/SAY YOUR PIECE Some folks imagine that since these expressions are opposites, the last word in each should be the same; but in fact they are unrelated expressions. The first means “maintain your silence,” and the other means literally “speak aloud a piece of writing” but is used to express the idea of making a statement. List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hold.html03/09/2005 15:38:19 holocaust HOLOCAUST “Holocaust” is a Greek-derived translation of the Hebrew term olah, which denotes a sort of ritual sacrifice in which the food offered is completely burnt up rather than being merely dedicated to God and then eaten. It was applied with bitter irony by Jews to the destruction of millions of their number in the Nazi death camps. Although phrases like "nuclear holocaust” and “Cambodian holocaust” have become common, you risk giving serious offense by using the word in less severe circumstances, such as calling a precipitous decline in stock prices a "sell-off holocaust." List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/holocaust.html03/09/2005 15:38:19 homophobic HOMOPHOBIC Some object to this word—arguing that it literally means “man-fearing,” but the “homo” in “homosexual” and in this word does not refer to the Latin word for “man,” but is derived from a Greek root meaning “same” while the “-phobic” means literally “having a fear of,” but in English has come to mean “hating.” “Homophobic” is now an established term for “prejudiced against homosexuals." List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/homophobic.html03/09/2005 15:38:20 home page HOME PAGE On the World Wide Web, a “home page” is normally the first page a person entering a site encounters, often functioning as a sort of table of contents for the other pages. People sometimes create special pages within their sites introducing a particular topic, and these are also informally called “home pages” (as in “The Emily Dickinson Home Page"); but it is a sure sign of a Web novice to refer to all Web pages as home pages. Spelling “homepage” as a single word is common on the Web, but distinctly more casual than “home page." List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/homepage.html03/09/2005 15:38:20 hone in HONE IN HOME IN You home in on a target (the center of the target is “home” ). “Honing" has to do with sharpening knives, not aim. List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hone.html03/09/2005 15:38:20 hors d” oeuvres HORS D’OEUVRES If you knew only a little French, you might interpret this phrase as meaning “out of work,” but in fact it means little snack foods served before or outside of (“hors” ) the main dishes of a meal (the “oeuvres” ). English speakers have trouble mastering the sounds in this phrase, but it is normally rendered “or-DERVES,” in a rough approximation of the original. Mangled spellings like “hors’dourves” are not uncommon. Actually, many modern food writers have decided we needn’t try to wrap our tongues around this peculiar foreign phrase and now prefer “starters.” List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hors.html03/09/2005 15:38:20 hyphenation HYPHENATION The Chicago Manual of Style contains a huge chart listing various sorts of phrases that are or are not to be hyphenated. Consult such a reference source for a thorough-going account of this matter, but you may be able to get by with a few basic rules. An adverb/adjective combination in which the adverb ends in “-LY” is never hyphenated: “His necktie reflected his generally grotesque taste.” Other sorts of adverbs are followed by a hyphen when combined with an adjective: “His long- suffering wife finally snapped and fed it through the office shredder.” The point here is that “long” modifies “suffering,” not “wife.” When both words modify the same noun, they are not hyphenated. A “light-green suitcase” is pale in color, but a “light green suitcase” is not heavy. In the latter example “light” and “green” both modify “suitcase,” so no hyphen is used. Adjectives combined with nouns having an “-ED” suffix are hyphenated: “Frank was a hot-headed cop.” Hyphenate ages when they are adjective phrases involving a unit of measurement: “Her ten-year-old car is beginning to give her trouble.” A girl can be a “ten-year-old” (“child” is implied). But there are no hyphens in such an adjectival phrase as “Her car is ten years old.” In fact, hyphens are generally omitted when such phrases follow the noun they modify except in phrases involving “all” or “self” such as “all-knowing” or “self-confident.” Fractions are almost always hyphenated when they are adjectives: “He is one-quarter Irish and three-quarters Nigerian.” But when the numerator is already hyphenated, the fraction itself is not, as in “ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths.” Fractions treated as nouns are not hyphenated: “He ate one quarter of the turkey." A phrase composed of a noun and a present participle (“-ing” word) must be hyphenated: “The antenna had been climbed by thrill-seeking teenagers who didn’t realize the top of it was electrified.” These are the main cases in which people are prone to misuse hyphens. If you can master them, you will have eliminated the vast majority of such mistakes in your writing. Some styles call for space around dashes (a practice of which I strongly disapprove), but it is never proper to surround hyphens with spaces, though in the following sort of pattern you may need to follow a hyphen with a space: “Follow standard pre- and post-operative procedures.” List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hyphenation.html03/09/2005 15:38:21 hyphens & dashes HYPHENS & DASHES Dashes are longer than hyphens, but since many browsers do not reliably interpret the code for dashes, they are usually rendered on the Web as they were on old-fashioned typewriters, as double hyphens like that. Dashes tend to separate elements and hyphens to link them. Few people would substitute a dash for a hyphen in an expression like “a quick-witted scoundrel,” but the opposite is common. In a sentence like “Astrid—unlike Inger—enjoyed vacations in Spain rather than England,” one often sees hyphens incorrectly substituted for dashes. When you are typing for photocopying or direct printing, it is a good idea to learn how to type a true dash instead of the double hyphen (computers differ). In old-fashioned styles, dashes (but never hyphens) are surrounded by spaces — like this. With modern computer output which emulates professional printing, this makes little sense. Skip the spaces unless your editor or teacher insists on them. There are actually two kinds of dashes. The most common is the “em-dash" (theoretically the width of a letter “M”—but this is often not the case). To connect numbers, it is traditional to use an “en- dash” which is somewhat shorter, but not as short as a hyphen: “cocktails 5–7 pm.” All modern computers can produce en-dashes, but few people know how to type them. For most purposes you don’t have to worry about them, but if you are preparing material for print, you should learn how to use them. List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hyphens.html03/09/2005 15:38:21 hypocritical HYPOCRITICAL “Hypocritical” has a narrow, very specific meaning. It describes behavior or speech that is intended to make one look better or more pious than one really is. It is often wrongly used to label people who are merely narrow-minded or genuinely pious. Do not confuse this word with “hypercritical,” which describes people who are picky. List of errors file:///C|/Temp/livres/commonerrors/errors/hypocritical.html03/09/2005 15:38:22