Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (10 page)

Chayefsky, Paddy.
(1923–1981) American playwright and screenwriter.

cheap, cheep.
The first means inexpensive; the second refers to the sound birds make.

cheddar cheese,
but Cheddar (cap.) for the place in England whence it originated.

Cheeryble brothers.
Characters in Charles Dickens's
Nicholas Nick-leby
.

Chelyabinsk,
Siberia, Russia.

Chemnitz,
Germany; formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt.

Chennai
is the new official name for Madras, India, but until it is fully established both names should probably be used on first reference.

Chennault, Claire.
(1890–1958) American general, organized Flying Tigers air corps in World War II.

Chequers.
Official country home of the British prime minister, near Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire.

Chernenko, Konstantin.
(1911–1985) President of the Soviet Union (1984–1985).

Chernobyl.
Ukrainian site of world's worst known nuclear accident (1986).

Cherokee.
North American Indian people.

Chery.
Chinese car manufacturer; not
Cherry
.

Chesapeake Bay,
Maryland and Virginia.

Chesebrough-Pond's.
U.S. cosmetics and household products company.

Cheviot Hills,
England and Scotland.

ChevronTexaco.
(One word.) Oil company.

Chevy.
Diminutive form of
Chevrolet.

Chevy Chase,
Maryland.

Cheyenne.
North American Indian people, river, and capital of Wyoming.

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport,
Mumbai, India; note
Chh-.

Chiang Kai-shek.
(1887–1975) Leader of Nationalist Republic of China (1928–1949) and first president of Taiwan (1950–1975).

chiaroscuro.
Interplay of light and shade.

Chicano,
pl.
Chicanos.

Chichén Itzá.
Mexican ruins.

Chickamauga,
Georgia; not
-magua.
Site of Civil War battle (1863).

chickenpox.
(One word.)

chicory.
Herb.

Chihuahua.
City and state in Mexico and breed of dog.

chilblain.
Not
chill-.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
Not
Child
. Poem by Lord Byron.

children's
is the only possible spelling of the possessive form of
children
.

chili,
pl.
chilies.

chimera.
A wild or fanciful creation, taken from
Chimera
(sometimes
Chimaera
), a mythological beast with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a serpent.

China, Republic of.
Official name of Taiwan, used almost nowhere except in Taiwan itself. The mainland country is the
People's Republic of China.

chinchilla.

Chincoteague
for bay, island, and town in Virginia or Maryland.

Chinese names.
The system now used almost everywhere for transliterating Chinese names into English is Pinyin (which means transcription). This has occasioned many striking changes in the rendering of Chinese names:
Mao Tse-tung
is now
Mao Zedong; Peking
is now
Beijing.
In some cases, particularly where long-established names are concerned, older forms continue to be used—
Confucius, Hong Kong, Shanghai
—but even many of these are slowly changing. If uncertain, or where confusion is likely, it is a courtesy to give both names: “Chang Jiang River, formerly known as the Yangtze.”

Chingachgook.
Character in James Fenimore Cooper's novel
The Deerslayer
(1841).

chinook.
Warm, dry wind that blows off the Rocky Mountains.

chipmunk.
Not
-monk.

Chippendale, Thomas.
(c. 1718–1779) English furniture designer and manufacturer.

Chi
in
u.
Capital of Moldova.

chitterlings
is the formal name of the dish made from pig's intestines, but it is often more informally spelled
chitlins.

chivvy.
To hurry or harass.

chlorophyll.

chockfull
(or
chock-full
). But the brand of coffee and restaurants is
Chock full o'Nuts.

chocolate.

Choctaw.
Native American group.

cholesterol.

Chomsky, Noam.
(1928–) American linguist.

Chongqing.
City in Sichuan Province, China; formerly referred to as
Chungking.

Chopin, Frédéric François.
(1810–1849) Polish composer.

chord, cord.
A
chord
is a group of musical notes or a type of arc in geometry; a
cord
is a length of rope or similar material of twisted strands, or a stack of wood. You speak with your vocal cords.

Chou En-lai.
(1898–1976) Prime minister of China (1949–1976). The name is now usually spelled
Zhou Enlai.

Christ Church, Christchurch.
Christ Church
is the spelling and full name of the Oxford college (i.e., not
Christ Church College
). The communities in New Zealand and England are
Christchurch
.

Christiania.
Former name of Oslo.

Christie's.
London auction house; formally Christie, Manson & Woods, but the parent company styles itself
Christies International
(no apos.).

Christ's College,
Cambridge University.

Christy Minstrels.

chromosome.

chronic, acute.
Chronic
means constant or long-standing;
acute
(when applied to an illness or a situation) means approaching a crisis.

chrysalis.
The formal plural, and the one to use in scientific contexts, is
chrysalides,
but
chrysalises
is acceptable for more general writing.

chrysanthemum.

chukker.
Period of play in polo.

Church of Christ, Scientist
(with comma) is the formal name of the Christian Science church.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Formal title of the Mormon Church.

Churchs Ferry
(no. apos.), North Dakota.

chutzpah.
(Yid.) Shameless impudence, brashness.

Chuvashiya.
Russian republic.

ciao.
(It.) Salutation meaning either hello or goodbye.

Ciba-Geigy.
Swiss pharmaceuticals company.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
(106–43
BC
) Roman orator and statesman.

Ciechanover, Aaron.
(1947–) Israeli scientist, awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry (2004).

Cimoszewicz, Wlodzimierz.
(1950–) Prime minister of Poland (1996–1997).

Cincinnati,
Ohio.

Cincinnatus, Lucius Quintus.
(c. 519–c. 439
BC
) Roman general.

Cinderella.

CinemaScope.
Wide-screen film system.

cinéma vérité.

cineraria.
Type of flower; pl.
cinerarias.

cinnamon.

cinquecento.
(It.) Literally “the five hundreds” Italian name for the sixteenth century.

Cinque Ports,
England; pronounced
sink.

cipher.
Not
cypher
.

circadian.
Taking place in twenty-four-hour cycles.

Circe.
In Greek mythology, an enchantress on the island of Aeaea who detained Odysseus and his men, turning the latter into swine and bearing a son by the former.

circumstances, in the
and
under the.
A useful distinction can be drawn between the two.
In the circumstances
should indicate merely that a situation exists: “In the circumstances, I began to feel worried.”
Under the circumstances
should denote a situation in which action is necessitated or inhibited: “Under the circumstances, I had no choice but to leave.”

cirrhosis.

Citigroup Inc.,
the financial services corporation, has a habit of dazzling inconsistency with regard to capitalization and spacing when naming subsidiaries. Among its offshoots are
Citibank, Citi Cards, CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage
, and
Citi Private Bank.
Take care.

Citizens Bank Park.
Philadelphia baseball stadium, home of the Phillies.

Citlatépetl.
Dormant Mexican volcano.

C. Itoh.
Japanese trading company.

Citroën.
French automobile.

city names.
Where cities have the same name as surrounding territory, it is normal to capitalize
City
even when it is not formally part of the place name. Thus,
New York City, Mexico City, Luxembourg City, Quebec City.

Ciudad Trujillo.
Former name of Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.

Civitavecchia.
Italian coastal city, north of Rome in Latium.

Clare, County,
Ireland.

Claridge's Hotel,
London, but
Hôtel Claridge,
Paris.

clarinetist.

Clarke, Arthur C(harles).
(1917–) English science-fiction writer.

Clemenceau, Georges (Eugène Benjamin).
(1841–1929) Prime minister of France (1906–1909, 1917–1920).

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne.
(1835–1910) American author better known by his pen name, Mark Twain.

clerestory.
A windowed wall, usually in a church.

clerihew.
Four-line nonsense poem devised by
Edmund Clerihew Bentley
(1875–1956).

climactic, climatic, climacteric.
Climactic
means appearing at a climax (“the climactic scene in a movie”);
climatic
means having to do with climate and weather (“the climatic conditions of the Brazilian rainforest”);
climacteric
is a noun signifying a time of important change and is most commonly applied to menopause.

cloisonné.
A type of enamel work.

close proximity
is inescapably tautological. Make it “near” or “close to.” See also
SCRUTINY, SCRUTINIZE
.

Clouseau, Inspector.
Fictional character mostly portrayed by Peter Sellers in
Pink Panther
films.