diff --git a/man2/accept.2 b/man2/accept.2
index d396e09ac..b25b86b8b 100644
--- a/man2/accept.2
+++ b/man2/accept.2
@@ -284,12 +284,12 @@ flag set (see
 .SS The socklen_t type
 The third argument of
 .BR accept ()
-was originally declared as an `int *' (and is that under libc4 and libc5
+was originally declared as an \fIint *\fP (and is that under libc4 and libc5
 and on many other systems like 4.x BSD, SunOS 4, SGI); a POSIX.1g draft
-standard wanted to change it into a `size_t *', and that is what it is
+standard wanted to change it into a \fIsize_t *\fP, and that is what it is
 for SunOS 5.
-Later POSIX drafts have `socklen_t *', and so do the Single Unix Specification
-and glibc2.
+Later POSIX drafts have \fIsocklen_t *\fP,
+and so do the Single Unix Specification and glibc2.
 Quoting Linus Torvalds:
 
 .\" .I fails: only italicizes a single line
diff --git a/man2/getsockname.2 b/man2/getsockname.2
index 348f75170..420b003cf 100644
--- a/man2/getsockname.2
+++ b/man2/getsockname.2
@@ -95,8 +95,10 @@ function call appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.
 .SH NOTES
 The third argument of
 .BR getsockname ()
-is in reality an `int *' (and this is what 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 have).
-Some POSIX confusion resulted in the present socklen_t, also used by glibc.
+is in reality an \fIint *\fP
+(and this is what 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 have).
+Some POSIX confusion resulted in the present \fIsocklen_t\fP,
+also used by glibc.
 See also
 .BR accept (2).
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
diff --git a/man2/recv.2 b/man2/recv.2
index 2a9243fc4..5d031485c 100644
--- a/man2/recv.2
+++ b/man2/recv.2
@@ -411,17 +411,17 @@ flags.
 .SH NOTES
 The prototypes given above follow glibc2.
 The Single Unix Specification agrees, except that it has return values
-of type `ssize_t' (while 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 all have `int').
+of type \fIssize_t\fP (while 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5 all have \fIint\fP).
 The
 .I flags
-argument is `int' in 4.x BSD, but `unsigned int' in libc4 and libc5.
+argument is \fIint\fP in 4.x BSD, but \fIunsigned int\fP in libc4 and libc5.
 The
 .I len
-argument is `int' in 4.x BSD, but `size_t' in libc4 and libc5.
+argument is \fIint\fP in 4.x BSD, but \fIsize_t\fP in libc4 and libc5.
 The
 .I fromlen
-argument is `int *' in 4.x BSD, libc4 and libc5.
-The present  `socklen_t *' was invented by POSIX.
+argument is \fIint\ *\fP in 4.x BSD, libc4 and libc5.
+The present  \fIsocklen_t\ *\fP was invented by POSIX.
 See also
 .BR accept (2).
 
diff --git a/man2/send.2 b/man2/send.2
index c07d5d19f..7ca24a6a5 100644
--- a/man2/send.2
+++ b/man2/send.2
@@ -357,13 +357,13 @@ flag is a Linux extension.
 The prototypes given above follow the Single Unix Specification,
 as glibc2 also does; the
 .I flags
-argument was `int' in 4.x BSD, but `unsigned int' in libc4 and libc5;
+argument was \fIint\fP in 4.x BSD, but \fIunsigned int\fP in libc4 and libc5;
 the
 .I len
-argument was `int' in 4.x BSD and libc4, but `size_t' in libc5;
+argument was \fIint\fP in 4.x BSD and libc4, but \fIsize_t\fP in libc5;
 the
 .I tolen
-argument was `int' in 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5.
+argument was \fIint\fP in 4.x BSD and libc4 and libc5.
 See also
 .BR accept (2).
 
diff --git a/man2/vm86.2 b/man2/vm86.2
index 5a3aebf60..361aa8415 100644
--- a/man2/vm86.2
+++ b/man2/vm86.2
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ In Linux 2.1.15 and 2.0.28 it was renamed to
 and a new
 .BR vm86 ()
 was introduced.
-The definition of `struct vm86_struct' was changed
+The definition of \fIstruct vm86_struct\fP was changed
 in 1.1.8 and 1.1.9.
 .LP
 These calls cause the process to enter VM86 mode (virtual-8086 in Intel
diff --git a/man3/getgrouplist.3 b/man3/getgrouplist.3
index 88b9c95d1..118b9cce9 100644
--- a/man3/getgrouplist.3
+++ b/man3/getgrouplist.3
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ If
 .RI * ngroups
 is smaller than the total number of groups found, then
 .BR getgrouplist ()
-returns a value of `\-1'.
+returns \-1.
 In all cases the actual number of groups is stored in
 .RI * ngroups .
 .SH "VERSIONS"
diff --git a/man3/memmem.3 b/man3/memmem.3
index 664e5415e..431c96ee2 100644
--- a/man3/memmem.3
+++ b/man3/memmem.3
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 .\"     Linux libc source code
 .\"     386BSD man pages
 .\" Modified Sat Jul 24 18:50:48 1993 by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
-.\" Interchanged `needle' and `haystack'; added history, aeb, 980113.
+.\" Interchanged 'needle' and 'haystack'; added history, aeb, 980113.
 .TH MEMMEM 3  1998-01-13 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
 .SH NAME
 memmem \- locate a substring
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ substring, or NULL if the substring is not found.
 This function is a GNU extension.
 .SH BUGS
 This function was broken in Linux libraries up to and including libc 5.0.9;
-there the `needle' and `haystack' arguments were interchanged,
+there the \fIneedle\fP and \fIhaystack\fP arguments were interchanged,
 and a pointer to the end of the first occurrence of \fIneedle\fP
 was returned.
 Since libc 5.0.9 is still widely used, this is a
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ dangerous function to use.
 Both old and new libc's have the bug that if \fIneedle\fP is empty
 \fIhaystack\fP\-1 (instead of \fIhaystack\fP) is returned.
 And glibc 2.0 makes it worse, and returns a pointer to the
-last byte of `haystack'.
+last byte of \fIhaystack\fP.
 This is fixed in glibc 2.1.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR strstr (3),
diff --git a/man3/putenv.3 b/man3/putenv.3
index 673edd454..95d5012c5 100644
--- a/man3/putenv.3
+++ b/man3/putenv.3
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ This has been fixed in glibc 2.1.2.
 .LP
 The 4.4BSD version, like glibc 2.0, uses a copy.
 .LP
-SUSv2 removes the `const' from the prototype, and so does glibc 2.1.3.
+SUSv2 removes the \fIconst\fP from the prototype, and so does glibc 2.1.3.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR clearenv (3),
 .BR getenv (3),
diff --git a/man3/wprintf.3 b/man3/wprintf.3
index abdbeaf7d..554291a7c 100644
--- a/man3/wprintf.3
+++ b/man3/wprintf.3
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ modifier is present, the
 If no
 .B l
 modifier is present: The
-.IR "" `` "const char *" ''
+.I "const\ char\ *"
 argument is expected to be a pointer to an array of character type
 (pointer to a string) containing a multibyte character sequence beginning
 in the initial shift state.
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ before the end of the array is reached.
 If an
 .B l
 modifier is present: The
-.IR "" `` "const wchar_t *" ''
+.I "const\ wchar_t\ *"
 argument is expected to be a pointer to an array of wide characters.
 Wide characters from the array are written up to (but not including) a
 terminating null wide character.
diff --git a/man5/nsswitch.conf.5 b/man5/nsswitch.conf.5
index 47a159e9e..544e1dfc3 100644
--- a/man5/nsswitch.conf.5
+++ b/man5/nsswitch.conf.5
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ nsswitch.conf \- System Databases and Name Service Switch configuration file
 Various functions in the C Library need to be configured to work
 correctly in the local environment.
 Traditionally, this was done by
-using files (e.g., `/etc/passwd'), but other nameservices (like the
+using files (e.g., \fI/etc/passwd\fP), but other nameservices (like the
 Network Information Service (NIS) and the Domain Name Service (DNS))
 became popular, and were hacked into the C library, usually with a fixed
 search order.