Prof. Cuthbert Vellacott

Author of the Society’s standing motto for the use of "comprise". Prof. Vellacott held that "the whole comprises the parts; the parts compose the whole; the construction ‘is comprised of’ is, and remains, a barbarism". His personal motto, inscribed on the bookplate of every volume in his library and on his gravestone in Highgate, was Pars in toto, totum in partibus (the part in the whole; the whole in the parts). The Society adopted the motto for the Hyphenation Sub-committee in 1947. The Sub-committee has not, since adoption, conducted business.