If galaxies comprise stars, surely stars cannot comprise galaxies. Our language columnist makes sense of “comprise”—and other such troublesome words
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe traditional rule is that “the whole comprises the parts, and the parts compose the whole”. The pyramid comprises the blocks, not the other way round; by the same reasoning, “comprised” is wrong too. But if you do not know this rule, you are hardly alone. It was a favourite of Theodore Bernstein, a longtime copy guru at the, who repeated it in usage books of 1958, 1965 and 1977.
“Sanction”, for example, can mean both “to approve of” and “to lay a penalty upon”. “Fast” can mean speedy or stuck in place. “Cleave” can mean to split, or to cling tightly. “Fulsome” praise can be full-throated and genuine, or cloyingly insincere. One class of Janus words is particularly troublesome: those that mean different things on opposite sides of the Atlantic. “Moot”, for instance, means “that which can be argued; debatable” in Britain; it means “not worthy of discussion” in America.
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