The Penguin Guide to Plain English

developed out of tidivate, that is to make tidy. It is used of the final

touches to hair, to make-up or to dress, made just before appearing in
company.
tortuous I torturous
I have just heard on the radio a reference to the experience o f a man w ho
was kidnapped. There was emphasis on w hat he endured in several
tortuous m onths o f im prisonment. Clearly the person w ho w rote the
report thought that the w ord tortuous was connected w ith the w ord
torture. But it isnt. The w ord the news w riter wanted was torturous,
the adjective derived from torture. The w ord tortuous derives from
the w ord tort. It refers to what is twisted, w inding or crooked, the
reverse o f direct and straightforward. Thus one m ight speak of someone
having to make a tortuous journey by some difficult and circuitous
route. Coincidentally I read in the newspaper that it was inevitable that
Danny W ilsons torturous season in charge of Sheffield W ednesday
w ould take another debilitating tw ist. Plainly the w ord here should be
tortuous.
tragedy / travesty
A travesty is an unw orthy mockery of something, farcical in its extrava
gance. Yet we read this about a shrine to D. H. Lawrence in New Mexico,
w hich is suffering from neglect.
Its going to be lost to future generations, and that will be a travesty.
This appears to be one of those blunders w hich result from confusing
two words that are similar in sound. Presumably the w riter meant: and
that will be a tragedy.
trustful I trustworthy
It seems surprising that anyone could confuse these words. Adjectives
that end in -ful, such as truthful and fearful, convey the m eaning
full o f truth and full of fear. Just so trustful means full o f trust.
By contrast, adjectives w hich end in -w orthy, such as praisew orthy
and blam ew orthy, mean deserving o f praise and deserving of
blam e. Nevertheless, in a BBC Radio 4 discussion about the quality of
treatment provided by the Health Service, we hear an educated voice
declaring: