Bryson•s Dictionary for Writers and Editors

palate, palette, pallet / panjandrum � 255
palate, palette, pallet. Palate has to do with the mouth and taste.
Palette is the board used by artists. Pallet is a mattress, a machine
part, or the wooden platform on which freight is stood.
palaver. Fuss.
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Paleocene. Geological epoch.
paleology. Study of antiquities.
paleontology. Study of fossils.
Palikir. Capital of Micronesia.
palindrome. A word or passage that reads the same forward and backward,
as in “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.”
palisade.
Palladian architecture. The style of architecture of Andrea Palladio
(1508–1580).
pall-mall, pell-mell. The first was a game popular in the eighteenth
century. A favored site for playing it later became the London
street Pall Mall. For the act of moving crazily or in haste, the
word is pell-mell. All versions of the word, including Pall Mall,
are pronounced pell mell.
Palme, Olof. (1927–1986) Swedish politician.
Palmers Green, London (no apos.).
PalmPilot (one word) for the handheld organizer.
palomino. Type of horse; pl. palominos.
palsy.
Pamuk, Orhan. (1952–) Turkish novelist, awarded Nobel Prize for
Literature in 2006.
panacea is a universal remedy, a cure for all woes, and is not properly
applied to a single shortcoming.
pandemonium.
panegyric. A formal speech of praise.
Pangloss. An excessively optimistic character in Voltaire’s Candide;
hence any optimistic person.
panjandrum. Self-important person, pompous official.