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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tarchon" data-source="post: 850873" data-attributes="member: 5990">The key point is that none of the synonyms for comprise work in the phrase, which is because the phrase "comprised of" doesn't make any sense with comprise used in its basic meaning.   Comprise is simply not commonly used as a synonym for compose except in this one fixed phrase (though sometimes you see "comprised from" and "comprised out of").  I just did a search of comprise on AltaVista - every use without the preposition I looked at is in the basic sense of "include" while every instance with the preposition is in the sense of "compose," giving us this bizarre word that completely flips around its meaning when it's constructed with "of," "out of," or "from."  It's so glaringly obvious that the similarity to "compose" leads to this that I personally can't look at this phrase without it leaping out as an instance of the author's vocabulary being overreached.The other day I was in a meeting where a speaker said he was "reticent" to do something.  I knew very well that he meant either "reluctant" or "hesitant" because they're obviously similar and I've heard people make that mistake before, but that doesn't make it stand out to me any less as a kind of semi-educated usage, someone trying to impress the audience with a vocabulary he didn't quite have control over.("Reticent" for those who don't know basically means "silent" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)I don't object so much to colloquial uses of such things, but it seems to me as though professional authors should have a better grasp of the words they use.It is a judgement call as with most usage issues, but i think the case against "comprised of" is pretty strong.</blockquote>

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