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.Menninger Clinic, the.Psychiatric hospital founded in 1925, moved toHouston, Texas, in 2003; the Menninger Foundation remains inTopeka.menorah.Seven-branched candelabrum used in Jewish worship inancient times; today s Hanukkah menorah has nine branches.Menorca.Spanish name for Minorca.Menotti, Gian Carlo.(1911 2007) Italian-born American composer.men s, women s.However eagerly department stores and the likemay strive to dispense with punctuation in their signs (writing Mens Clothing or Womens Department ), the practice issubliterate and to be avoided in any serious writing.Equally in-correct, if slightly less common, is placing the apostrophe after 224 Menuhin, Yehudi / metathesisthe s (e.g., mens hats, womens facials ).However, note thatthe apostrophe is discarded in such compounds as menswearand womenswear.See also children s.Menuhin, Yehudi.(1916 1999) American-born British violinist.meow.The sound that cats make; in Britain and elsewhere it is usu-ally spelled miaow.Mephistophelean (or Mephistophelian).Evil; after Mephistopheles, thedevil to whom Faust sold his soul.Mercalli scale.A measure of earthquake intensity; named for theItalian volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli (1850 1914).Mercedes-Benz.(Hyphen.) The plural is Mercedeses, but is bestavoided.meretricious.Vulgar, insincere.meringue.Confection made from egg whites and sugar.merino.Type of sheep; pl.merinos.meritocracy.System of government based on merit.Merkel, Angela.(1954 ) German chancellor (2005 ).Merrion Square, Dublin.mesmerize.Messaggero, Il.Italian newspaper.Messerschmitt, not -schmidt, for the type of aircraft.metal, mettle.Metal denotes chemical elements such as gold andcopper; mettle is for contexts describing courage or spirit.metamorphose (verb), metamorphosis (noun), pl.metamorphoses.metaphor, simile.Both are figures of speech in which two things arecompared.A simile likens one thing to another, dissimilar one: He ran like the wind ; She took to racing as a duck takes towater. A metaphor, on the other hand, acts as if the two com-pared things are identical and substitutes one for the other.Comparing the beginning of time to the beginning of a day, forinstance, produces the metaphor the dawn of time. metathesis.The transposition of sounds or letters in a word or be-tween words; the latter commonly are called spoonerisms. mete, meet / Midwest, Middle West 225ýÿmete, meet.The first means to allot; the second means suitable.Onemetes out punishment, but a fitting punishment is meet.meteor, meteorite, meteoroid.Meteoroids are pieces of galactic debrisfloating through space.If they enter Earth s atmosphere asshooting stars, they are meteors.If they survive the fall to Earth,they are meteorites.meter, but metric and metrical; one meter equals 39.37 inches.meticulous.Several usage books, though fewer and fewer dictionar-ies, insist that the word does not mean merely very careful, butrather excessively so.Unless you mean to convey a negative qual-ity, it is usually better to use scrupulous, careful, painstaking, orsome other synonym.metonymy.Figure of speech in which a thing is described in termsof one of its attributes, as in calling the monarch the crown. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Hollywood film studio, abbreviated MGM.metronome.Instrument for marking time.mettle.Courage or spirit.Meuse.River in northern Europe; in Dutch, Maas.mezzanine.Mezzogiorno.The southern, poorer half of Italy.mezzotint.Method of engraving, and the engraving so produced.MGM.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.miaow.British spelling of meow.Michaelmas.Feast of St.Michael, September 29.Michelangelo.(1475 1564) Italian artist, architect, and engineer; fullname Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.micro.Prefix meaning one-millionth, or very small.Micronesia, Federated States of.Comprises Korsae, Ponape, Truk, andYap; capital Kolonia.Middlesbrough.Not -borough.City in northern England.Mid Glamorgan.(Two words, no hyphen.) County in Wales.Midi-Pyrénées.Region of France.Midwest (one word), Middle West (two words). 226 Mientkiewicz, Doug / MindanaoMientkiewicz, Doug.(1974 ) American baseball player.Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig.(1886 1969) German-born U.S.architect.mijnheer, mynheer.The first is the Dutch spelling, the second the En-glish of the Dutch term for sir. Either should be capitalizedwhen placed before a name.mileage.miles gloriosus.Latin for glorious soldier. A braggart, particularlya braggart soldier.Pronounced meel-us glor-ee-oh-sus.milieu.Environment.militate, mitigate.Often confused.To militate is to operate againstor, much more rarely, for something: The news of the scandalmilitated against his election promises. To mitigate meansto assuage, soften, make more endurable: His apology miti-gated the insult. Mitigate against often appears and is alwayswrong.Milius, John.(1944 ) American film writer and director.Milken, Michael.(1946 ) American financier.Millais, Sir John Everett.(1829 1896) British painter.Millay, Edna St.Vincent.(1892 1950) American poet.millennium.Note -nn-.The preferred plural is millenniums, but mil-lennia is also accepted.milli-.Prefix meaning one-thousandth.milliard.British term now almost never used there or anywhere else,meaning 1,000 million or 1 trillion.millipede.Miloaević, Slobodan.(1941 2006) President of Serbia (1989 1997).Hedied while on trial on charges of genocide and crimes againsthumanity in The Hague.milquetoast, not milk-, for a timid person.The name comes from anold newspaper cartoon called The Timid Soul featuring a char-acter named Caspar (not -er) Milquetoast.Mindanao.Island in the Philippines. Mindszenty, József, Cardinal / misshapen 227ýÿMindszenty, József, Cardinal.(1892 1975) Roman Catholic primate ofHungary, long opposed to Communist regime.minimize, strictly speaking, does not mean merely to play down orsoften.It means to reduce to an absolute minimum.Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain; in Spanish, Menorca.Minos.In Greek mythology, a son of Zeus and Europa, and king ofCrete.Minotaur.In Greek mythology, a figure that is half man and halfbull.Minsk.Capital of Belarus.minuscule.Frequently misspelled.Think of minus, not mini.minute detail.The two words not only are tautological, but also havea kind of deadening effect on any passage in which they appear,as here: Samples of the shards were brought back to the college,where they were studied in minute detail. Why not just say Samples of the shards were brought back to the college forstudy ? One can normally assume that any objects being sub-jected to study will be examined closely.minutia.A detail; pl.minutiae.Note that the latter is pronouncedmin-oo-she, not min-oo-she-ay.mirabile dictu.(Lat.) Wonderful to relate.Miricioiu, Nelly.(1952 ) Romanian opera singer.MIRV.Multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle; a type ofballistic missile.miscellaneous.mischievous.mise-en-scène.Stage or film scenery, or the general setting of anevent.mishit.misogamist, misogynist.The first hates marriage, the second hateswomen.misshapen. 228 Mississauga / modemMississauga.Suburb of Toronto.Missolonghi, Greece.misspell.If there is one word that you don t wish in print to mis-spell, it is this one.Note -ss-.misspend.misstate.misstep.mistime.mistletoe.mistral.Cold, unpleasant wind in France.MIT.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.mitigate, militate.The first means to soften or make more endurable;the second to act against.mitochondrion.Type of cell organelle; pl.mitochondria.Mitsukoshi.Japanese department store chain.Mitterrand, François (Maurice Marie).(1916 1996) President of France(1981 1995).Mitzi E.Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, New York.Miyazawa, Kiichi.(1919 2007) Prime minister of Japan (1991 1993).Mnemosyne.Greek goddess of memory and mother of the nineMuses by Zeus.MO.Postal abbreviation of Missouri
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