The Associated Press Stylebook helps create standards for publication writing. It tells writers and editors how to spell words and how to render numbers, among other things. It also offers rules on grammar and usage. It is the stylebook we rely on at The N&O, supplemented by an internal stylebook. The AP stylebook can be a valuable tool; it can also be a path to confusion.

I have mentioned that I have a bad habit of buying and collecting books on grammar and usage. For me, a new or updated usage book is like the newest iGadget to many tech fans: I must have it.

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Among the new entries in the Associated Press Stylebook for 2008 is one on "myriad." The AP says that "myriad" is an adjective and is not followed by "of." The dictionary that AP uses, though, gives the noun use of "myriad" first.

"Myriad" means an indefinitely large number; it is a synonym of "innumerable." Bryan A. Garner writes in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage that "myriad is more concise as an adjective than as a noun." Fowler's Modern English Usage points out that the word comes from Greek for "ten thousand." Almost no one adheres to that old meaning for "myriad."

Here is a post on The Mavens' Word of the Day about myriad as a noun. The American Book of English Usage also points out the long history of myriad as a noun. Merriam-Webster online also recognizes myriad as a noun.

As for me, I will use "myriad" as an adjective. I'd rather not fight about it. 

I ordered the new version of the Associated Press Stylebook for my home use (we expect to get them in office soon). The book has a summary of the changes right after the foreword on a page titled "What's New." One of the most interesting changes for grammar geeks is the "collective nouns" entry. Here is a part of the entry:

Collective nouns: Nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns: class, committee, crowd, family, group, herd, jury, orchestra, team. ...

Team names and band names, however, take plural verbs. The Miami Heat are battling for the league's worst record.

That team and band names are to be treated as plural is a change. I am glad that the stylebook finally spells this out. Although we had been treating singular-sounding names as singular (The Who comes to mind), I agree with this rule. It's easier to apply it consistently.

P.S. I guess that should be "The Who come to mind."