The Compact OED grudgingly accepts "is comprised of" to mean "is composed of" but doesn't allow an active use of "comprised" to mean "composed".
http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dev_dict&field-12668446=comprise Ben On Wed, 10 Feb 2010, Sam Seaver wrote:
BOOK 13: *(er) The Story So Far: Some factions which comprised this huge army -> Some factions which composed this huge army [tp: also affects other GM books]<snip>*(er) 235: the huge cubes of marble that once comprised this section of Kaag's curtain-wall -> the huge cubes of marble that once composed this section of Kaag's curtain-wall [tp]The use of the word 'comprised' here is legal, and even sounds better than 'composed'. http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en|en&q=comprise Sam ~~~~~~ Manage your subscription at //www.freelists.org/list/projectaon
