The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style : A ...

36 bazaar and bizarre
Some use lavatory, literally a washing
place. Latrine is a communal toilet place
in a military type of setting. Each word
traces to the Latin lavare, to wash (latrine
via lavatrina, bath).
What soldiers call a latrine, sailors call
a head. If the enclosure is a small, outdoor
shack with no plumbing, it is an
outhouse or privy. The john and the can
are slang.
In Britain you can ask for the w.c., the
initials of water closet. An informal synonym
there is the loo.
BAZAAR and BIZARRE. See Homophones.
BE, AM, IS, ARE, WAS, WERE.
See Active voice and passive voice;
“AIN’T”; “AREN’T I?”; Collective
nouns; DUE TO; Pronouns, 10D; Subjunctive;
Verbs, 1, 3; WAS and WERE;
WHO, 3.
BECAUSE. 1. Ambiguity. 2. Incompatible
pairs. 3. Who is talking?
1. Ambiguity
Because needs to be handled with care
in a sentence containing more than one
idea. Take this sentence, from a newspaper:
Only 20 percent of Californians
would vote to re-elect Senator Alan
Cranston because of his involvement
in the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal,
a new California Poll shows.
It could be interpreted as saying that
only 20 percent of Californians would
vote for the senator “because of his involvement
. . .” and that others would
do so for other reasons. The context suggests
that the sentence would be better
recast in this way, separating two ideas:
A new California Poll shows that
only 20 percent of Californians would
vote to re-elect Senator Alan Cranston
and that his support is so small because
of his involvement in the Lincoln
Savings and Loan scandal.
The word causes particular confusion after
a negative clause.
The witness said that the case was
not brought before the committee because
of the incident the night before.
Did the witness testify that as a result of
“the incident” the case was not brought
before the committee? Or did he deny
that “the incident” caused the case to be
brought before the committee? We do
not know.
Another quotation illustrates the hazardous
use of because after a negative
and, secondarily, the ungainly use of because
twice in one sentence. In a trade
journal for the newspaper industry, an
article tells of a British newspaper that
increased its circulation by cutting its
price. The writer comments:
This cheers me up because it suggests
that circulation is not declining
because readers are morons who
don’t care.
By itself, the sentence is ambiguous. One
could rationally interpret it in either of
these ways:
1. The information suggests that circulation
is not declining, the reason being
that readers are morons, who don’t
care how bad their newspaper is.
Thus I am cheered.
2. The information suggests this: The
reason that circulation is declining is
not that readers are morons, who fail
to appreciate how good their newspaper
is. I am cheered to know that it is
another reason.
The context points to the second interpretation.
(The message is that the industry
has no control over the intellect of its