by Bill Bryson
Chanukah. Use Hanukkah.
chaparral. Scrubby thicket of the American West.
chapati/chapatti. Type of unleavened bread from India.
chaperon.
Chappaquiddick. Island off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, made internationally famous in 1969 when Senator Edward Kennedy drove a car off a bridge following a party and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died.
chargé d’affaires, pl. chargés d’affaires.
Charlemagne. Charles I (742–814), first Holy Roman Emperor (800–814).
Charlotte Amalie. Capital of U.S. Virgin Islands.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport, North Carolina.
Charlottenburg. Suburb of Berlin.
Charollais cattle.
chary. Doubtful, cautious; but chariness.
Charybdis. In Greek mythology, a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. It is often paired metaphorically with Scylla, a six-headed monster who lived nearby. In this sense Charybdis and Scylla signify any highly unattractive—and unavoidable—dilemma.
chastise. Not -ize.
Chateaubriand, Francois-René, Vicomte de. (1768–1848) French statesman and writer. The steak dish named for him is usually not capitalized.
Châteaubriant, France.
Château-Lafite, Château-Margaux. French red wines.
Chatham House Rule, Not Rules. A rule of confidentiality formulated in 1927 at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, or Chatham House, London. Under it information gathered at a meeting may be used, but the source may not be disclosed.
Chattahoochee River, Georgia and Alabama.
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Chatto & Windus Ltd. British publisher.
chauffeur.
Chávez, Hugo. (1954–) President of Venezuela (1999–); full name Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías.
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.
Chiinu. 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.
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br /> 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.
Clwyd. County of northern Wales; pronounced kloo'-wid.
Clytemnestra. In Greek mythology, the wife of Agamemnon.
cnidarians. Members of the phylum of marine invertebrates that includes jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones. Also called coelenterates.
Cnossos/Cnossus. Alternative spellings for ancient capital of Crete; usually spelled Knossos in American usage.
Coahuila. State in northeastern Mexico.
Cobb, Irvin S(hrewsbury). (1876–1944) American journalist and humorist.
Cobh, County Cork, Ireland; pronounced cove.
COBOL. Common Business Oriented Language, an early computer programming language.
Coca-Cola. (Hyphen.) The diminutive term Coke should always be capitalized.
coccyx. Tailbone; pl. coccyxes.
cock-a-leekie soup.
cockney. (No cap.) A native of London’s East End; pl. cockneys.
coconut. But the Marx Brothers Broadway show and movie is The Cocoanuts.
cocoon.
coelacanth for the ocean fish famed in scientific circles for its archaic qualities. Pronounced see-luh-kanth.
coequal is a pointless word; co- adds nothing to equal that equal doesn’t already say alone.
Coetzee, J. M. (for John Maxwell) (1940–) South African–born Australian author, awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Coeur de Lion, Richard. (1157–1199) Richard the Lionheart, Richard I of England.
cogito, ergo sum. (Lat.) “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes’s aphorism.
cognoscente. A person who is well informed or of elevated taste; pl. cognoscenti.
Cohan, George M. (for Michael) (1878–1942) American songwriter and performer, playwright, and producer.
Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude. (1933–) French physicist, born in Algeria; awarded Nobel Prize for Physics (1997).
Cointreau. Liqueur.
Coleman, Ornette. (1930–) American jazz saxophonist.
coleus.
Colgate-Palmolive. (Hyphen.) Personal products company.
colic, but colicky.
coliseum, Colosseum. The first applies to any large amphitheater; the second is a particular amphitheater in Rome.
collapsible. Not -able.
collectible is the normal U.S. spelling, but collectable is an accepted alternative.
collectives. Deciding whether to treat nouns of multitude—words like majority, flock, variety, group, crowd, and so on—as singulars or plurals is entirely a matter of the sense you intend to convey. Although some authorities have tried to fix rules, such undertakings are almost always futile. On the whole, Americans lean to the singular and Britons to the plural, often in ways that would strike the other as absurd (compare the American “The couple was married in March” with the British “England are to play Hungary in their next match”). A common fault is to flounder about between singular and plural. Even Samuel Johnson stumbled when he wrote that he knew of no nation “that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability.” Clearly the italicized words should be either singular both times or plural both times. See also NUMBER and TOTAL.
collisions can occur only when two or more moving objects come together. If a car runs into a stationary object, it is not a collision.
Colman, Ronald. (1891–1958) English actor.
Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. Town east of Paris where Charles de Gaulle is buried.
Colombia. South American country; capital Bogotá.
Colombo. Capital of Sri Lanka.
Colón, Cristóbal. Spanish spelling of Christopher Columbus. In his native Italy, his name was Cristoforo Colombo.
colonnade.
colossal.
Colosseum, Rome.
Colossus of Rhodes.
colostomy.
Colquhoun. Scottish name; pronounced ko-hoon'.
Columba, St. (521–597) Irish saint associated with the Scottish island of Iona.
Columbus Day. Second Monday in October.
combatant, combated, combating.
combustible. Capable of being burned.
Comédie-Française. National theater of France; formally, the Théâtre Français.
Comedy of Errors, The, not A, for the play by William Shakespeare.
Comerica Park. Detroit baseball stadium, home of the Tigers.
comestible. Foodstuff.
comic, comical. Something that is comic is intended to be funny (“a comic performance”). Something that is comical is funny whether or not that was the intention (“a comical misunderstanding”).
Comiskey Park. Former Chicago baseball stadium, home of the White Sox; the team’s stadium is now called U.S. Cellular Field.
commedia dell’arte. Type of farcical Italian comedy.
commence. An unnecessary genteelism. What’s wrong with “begin”?
commingle. To mix together. Note -mm-.
commiserate.
committal.
Commodus, Lucius Aelius Aurelius. (AD 1
61–192) Roman emperor (AD 180–192).
Comoros. Island state off Madagascar; capital Moroni.
compact disc. Not disk.
comparatively. “Comparatively little progress was made in the talks yesterday” (Guardian). Compared with what? Comparatively should be reserved for occasions when a comparison is being expressed or at least clearly implied. If all you mean is fairly or only a little, choose another word. See also RELATIVELY.
compare to, compare with. These two can be usefully distinguished. Compare to should be used to liken things, compare with to consider their similarities or differences. “He compared London to New York” means that he felt London to be similar to New York. “He compared London with New York” means that he assessed the two cities’ relative merits. Compare to most often appears in figurative senses, as in “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
compatible.
compatriot for a fellow countryman. Not to be confused, in meaning or spelling, with expatriate.
compel, impel. Both words imply the application of a force leading to some form of action, but they are not quite synonymous. Compel is the stronger of the two and, like its cousin compulsion, suggests action undertaken as a result of coercion or irresistible pressure: “The man’s bullying tactics compelled us to flee.” Impel is closer in meaning to encourage and means to urge forward: “The audience’s ovation impelled me to speak at greater length than I had intended.” If you are compelled to do something, you have no choice. If you are impelled, an element of willingness is possible.
compendium. No doubt because of the similarity in sound to comprehensive, the word is often taken to mean vast and all-embracing. In fact, a compendium is a succinct summary or abridgment. Size has nothing to do with it. It may be as large as The Oxford English Dictionary or as small as a memorandum. What is important is that it should provide a complete summary in a brief way. The plural can be either compendia or compendiums. The OED prefers the former, most other dictionaries the latter.
complacent, complaisant. The first means self-satisfied, contented to the point of smugness. The second means affable and cheerfully obliging. If you are complacent, you are pleased with yourself. If you are complaisant, you wish to please others. Both words come from the Latin complacere (“to please”), but complaisant reached us by way of France, which accounts for the difference in spelling.
Compleat Angler, The. Book by Izaak Walton (1653).
complement, compliment/complementary, complimentary. The words come from the same Latin root, complere, meaning to fill up, but have long had separate meanings. Compliment means to praise. Complement has stayed closer to the original meaning: it means to fill out or make whole. So a gracious guest compliments a host; an espresso after dinner complements a meal. In the adjectival forms complementary and complimentary the words retain these senses, but complimentary has the additional meaning of something given without charge: a complimentary ticket, for instance.