Nuclear incest

are as to be regarded as a novelty," the writercould have better written, "Mother-son incestis an extreme rarity." Oedipus Rex belies anyclaim that incest might have to novelty.novitiate; noviciate. This word-meaning(1) "the period during which a person is anovice"; (2) "a building where novices arehoused"; or (3) "a novice"-is preferablyspelleq novitiate. Noviciate is a variant formfound primarily in BrE.now. For a fairly common misspelling, seeknow.nowhere; nowheres. The first is standard.The second is a dialectal word. Cf. anywhere.nowhere near as is a casualism for not nearlyas. It appears in both ArnE and BrE-e.g.:"The technology, which is nowhere near as[read not nearly as] sophisticated as a fluxgenerator bomb, could easily move from lawenforcement to the criminal and terrorist population.... " "Cyber Terrorism," Am. Banker,8 Sept. 1997, at 43./ "Admittedly, Tony Blairis nowhere near as [read not nearly as] terrifyingas Mrs. T .... " Nicholas Lloyd, "SpinDoctors in Overdose," Times (London), 6 Aug.1997, at 21.nuance. Although in French this word is spokenwith stress on the second syllable, in Englishthe best (and commonest) pronunciationis Inoo-ahnts/.nuclear is pronounced Inoo-klee-Jr/-notInoo-kyJ-IJr/. Though presidents and othereducated persons have had difficulty pronouncingthe word correctly, if you can do ityou should. See PRONUNCIATION (B). Cf. ME­TATHESIS.nucleus. In traditional senses, the plural isnuclei-not nucleuses. E.g.: "He said the genetictherapy company scientists hope to targetthe mutation by injecting a small moleculemade of DNA, the basic material of all cellnucleuses [read nuclei]." Mark Guidera, "Oncorto Develop Gene Therapy for Obesity,"Baltimore Sun, 26 Mar. 1996, at 2C./ "[ForDNA testing to work,] there have to be cellnuclei present, and hair that has been pulledaway from its roots doesn't contain any nuclei."Laurie P. Cohen, "Inside the Cell," WallSt. J., 19 Dec. 1997, at AI.But in sports talk-in which nucleus means"a core of strong players on a team"-nucleusesis standard. E.g.:• "Now, with Villanova and Georgetown returningwith strong nucleuses, UConn's reign willbe tested." Steve Richardson, "UConn's BigEast Reign Faces Challenges," Dallas MorningNews, 5 Nov. 1995, at 12B.• "The Islanders, with two potential lottery picksin the 1997 draft, plus one of the better youngnucleuses in the National Hockey League,could afford to surrender the five No.1 draftpicks required to sign either Sakic or Forsberg."Eric Duhatschek, "Cash Crunch," CalgaryHerald, 15 Feb. 1997, at D4.• "Christie Burden, Megan Frank and LatoyaRobinson all started a year ago and along withSelwyn make for one of the best-if nottallest-nucleuses around." Michael S. Snyder,"Strongest in Decades," Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale),19 Nov. 1997, at 22.See PLURALS (B).nuke, v.t., is a slangy word that means notonly "to attack with nuclear weapons" butalso "to destroy, demolish" or "to microwave(food)." The following examples illustrate thethree senses:• "I don't think I've watched my video ofthe movie'Fail Safe,' in which New York City getsnuked, more than 30 or 40 times." Mike Royko,"Read On, Gluttons for Punishment," ChicagoTrib., 12 Mar. 1987, at C3.• "Jordan nuked the Knicks ... and settledthe double-teaming controversy, too." "EasternLowlights Make for Strange Playoff Race,"Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 2 Apr. 1995,at8D.• "Remember this the next time you rip open afreshly nuked bag of microwave popcorn:You're really getting a whiff of rotten eggs.""Popping-Good Smell Is Old Eggs," Daily News(L.A.), 31 Mar. 1997, at L2.number. See amount.number of, a. Some pedants think that correctnessdictates a number of people is. Onecritic, for example, refers to "the growing habitof using plural verbs with singular nouns,"adding: " 'A number of voters were unhappy'illustrates the offense." F. Thomas Trotter,"Out on the Campaign Trail, English GrammarTrampled," Nashville Banner, 12 Sept.1996, at A13.But a number of is generally-and quitecorrectly-paired with a plural noun and aplural verb, as in there are a number of reasons-e.g.:• "A growing number of U.S. service companiesare pursuing an international 'good man-