One man’s mission to get ‘comprised of’ off Wikipedia
I guess everyone has their pet peeves.
Medium profiled the Wikipedia editor “Giraffedata” on Tuesday. The prolific wiki-contributor — real name Bryan Henderson — has made over 47,000 edits, almost always to remove the common but often-misused phrase “comprised of.” The misuse stems from confusion over two verbs, “comprise” and “compose.” By definition, “comprise” means “composed of,” so you’re essentially saying “composed of of.”
For example: “The monthly jobs report is comprised of two surveys” should read: “The monthly jobs report consists of two surveys.”
Henderson has the editing process down to a science, and most take seconds. Fellow editors and Wikipedia higher-ups have praised Giraffedata’s commitment to his noble task.
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