is George Dubya Bush an imbecile

Ahem:

The whole comprises the parts.

The parts compose the whole.

The whole is composed of the parts.

Carry on.

It’s also redundant. “Composed of of”?

Crap. Could a passing Mod please fix my coding up there?

Perhaps, but if we go by The Scotsman, brogue is acceptable.

I think burr gets tagged to a Highland accent, so we both win. :wink:

Golly, Jeff– I didn’t even read the AHD definition, I just assumed that since someone was citing AHD for the correctitude of “comprised of,” that it was actually set down that way – largely because AHD is notorious for including outrageously incorrect definitions of words, without usage notes, on the basis of the error being common amongst gasoline-huffing grade-school dropouts.

God, I hate that dictionary. It’s like the Anti-OED.