Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) (9 page)

Carrara.
Town in Tuscany, Italy, and the fine white marble quarried nearby.

Carrasquel, Chico.
(1928–2005) Venezuelan baseball star, played mostly for Chicago White Sox.

Carrefour.
French supermarket group.

Carroll, Diahann.
(1935–) American singer and actress.

Carroll, Lewis.
Pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898).

cartel
describes not just any alliance of businesses but one designed to maximize prices; unless a negative connotation is desired, avoid the word.

Carter Barron Amphitheatre,
Washington, D.C. Note that
Amphitheatre
is spelled
-re.

Carthusian.

Cartier-Bresson, Henri.
(1908–2004) French photographer.

cartilage.

Carton, Sydney.
Principal character in Dickens's
A Tale of Two Cities.

Caruso, Enrico.
(1874–1921) Italian tenor.

Cary, Joyce.
(1888–1957) British author; full name Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary.

caryatid.
In architecture, a female form used as a supporting pillar.

Casablanca,
Morocco.

Casals, Pablo.
(1876–1973) Spanish cellist.

Casanova (de Seingalt), Giovanni Jacopo/Giacomo.
(1725–1798) Italian adventurer.

cashmere.

Cassamassima, The Princess.
Novel by Henry James (1886).

Cassandra.
In Greek mythology, she was given the power of prophecy by Apollo but doomed never to be believed. The name is now used as a synonym for any prophet of doom.

Cassatt, Mary.
(1845–1926) American impressionist painter.

cassava.
Root crop widely grown in Africa and parts of Asia and South America; also known as manioc, yuca, or tapioca.

Cassavetes, John.
(1930–1989) American actor and director.

cassette.

Cassiopeia.
A constellation in the northern hemisphere named for the mother of Andromeda in Greek mythology.

cassowary.
Flightless bird.

castenets.
Spanish rhythm instruments.

caster, castor.
The first is the spelling for a wheel on a chair; the second is the spelling of the oil or bean.

Castile.
Area of northern Spain; in Spanish, Castilla. The name appears in two Spanish regions: Castilla–La Mancha and Castilla-León.

Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount.
(1769–1822) British statesman.

castrato.
Castrated soprano; pl.
castrati.

casus belli.
(Lat.) Act that gives rise to war.

catalyst
is not just any agent of change, but one that hastens change without becoming changed itself.

catamaran.

catarrh.

cater-corner.
Not
catty-corner
.

Catharine's College, St.,
Cambridge University, England, but
St. Catherine's College,
Oxford.

CAT scan.
Short for computerized axial tomography.

Catullus, Gaius Valerius.
(c. 84–c. 55
BC
) Roman poet.

Caudillo.
(Sp.) “Leader” title assumed by General Francisco Franco of Spain.

cauliflower.

cause célèbre.

caveat emptor.
(Lat.) “Let the buyer beware.”

caviar.

Cawley, Evonne Goolagong.
(1951–) Australian tennis star.

Cayenne.
Capital of French Guiana.

CBC.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

CBS.
Columbia Broadcasting System.

CCCP.
Abbreviation in the Cyrillic alphabet of Soyuz Sovyetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), former USSR.

Ceau¸sescu, Nicolae.
(1918–1989) President of Romania (1967–89); pronounced
chow'-chess-coo
.

cedilla.
Mark [,] placed under a
c
to indicate that it is pronounced in French as an
s
, in Turkish as
ch
, and in Portuguese as
sh
.

ceilidh.
(Gaelic) A gathering for music and dancing; pronounced
kay'-lee
.

Cela, Camilo José.
(1916–2002) Spanish novelist, awarded Nobel Prize for Literature (1989).

celebrant, celebrator.
The first is the term for persons taking part in religious ceremonies. Those who gather for purposes of revelry are celebrators.

celibacy
does not, as is generally supposed, indicate abstinence from sexual relations. It means only to be unmarried, particularly if as a result of a religious vow. A married person cannot be celibate, but he may be chaste.

Cellini, Benvenuto.
(1500–1571) Italian sculptor, goldsmith, and author.

Celsius, centigrade.
(Abbr. C.) Interchangeable terms referring to the scale of temperature invented by
Anders Celsius
(1701–1744), a Swedish astronomer. To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply the Celsius temperature by 1.8 and add 32, or use the table in the Appendix.

cement, concrete.
The two are not interchangeable.
Cement
is a constituent of
concrete,
which also contains sand, gravel, and crushed rock.

cemetery.
Not
-ary.

Cenozoic era.
The present geological era, beginning about 65 million years ago. In earlier periods it was sometimes also spelled
Caenozoic
or
Cainozoic
.

centavo.
A monetary unit in many countries of South and Central America equivalent to one one-hundredth of the country's main unit of currency; pl.
centavos.

center around.
Center
indicates a point, and a point cannot encircle anything. Make it “center on” or “revolve around.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Atlanta. Federal institution that deals with matters of public health. Note the plural
Centers.
It is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

centrifugal/centripetal force.
Centrifugal force
pulls away from;
centripetal force
draws toward.

Cephalonia.
Greek island in the Ionian chain; in Greek, Kephallinia.

Cerberus.
In Greek mythology, a three-headed dog that stood guard over the gates to the underworld.

Ceres.
Roman goddess of grain, identified with the Greek goddess Demeter.

CERN.
Originally Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, now the Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Cervantes, (Saavedra) Miguel de.
(1547–1616) Spanish author.

c'est la guerre.
(Fr.) “That's the way of war.”

Cévennes.
Mountains in southern France.

Ceylon.
Former name of Sri Lanka.

Cézanne, Paul.
(1839–1906) French impressionist painter.

cf.
Confer. (Lat.) “Compare” used in cross-references.

Chablais.
Region of Haute-Savoie, France.

Chablis.
French village and white burgundy wine (also cap.).

chacun à son goût.
(Fr.) “Each to his own taste.”

chacun pour soi.
(Fr.) “Everyone for himself.”

chador.
Large piece of cloth worn by some Muslim women, which is wrapped around the body to leave only the face exposed; pl.
chadors
.

chaebol.
Korean business conglomerate; pl. same.

chafe, chaff.
To
chafe
means to make sore or worn by rubbing (or, figuratively, to annoy or irritate). To
chaff
means to tease good-naturedly.

chaffinch.
Type of bird.

Chagall, Marc.
(1889–1985) Russian-born French artist.

chagrined.

chaise-longue,
pl.
chaises-longues.

Chakvetadze, Anna.
(1987–) Russian tennis player.

Chaliapin, Feodor (Ivanovich).
(1873–1938) Russian opera singer.

challah
(or
chalah
or
hallah
). Type of Jewish bread.

Chalon-sur-Saône, Châlons-en-Champagne, Chalonnes-sur-Loire,
France.

Chamberlain, Sir (Joseph) Austen.
(1863–1937) British politician, awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1925); son of
Joseph Chamberlain
(1836–1914), also a politician; half brother of
(Arthur) Neville Chamberlain
(1869–1940), British prime minister (1937–1940).

Chamberlain, Wilt.
(1936–1999) American basketball player.

Chambers's Encyclopaedia.

chameleon.

chamois.
The plural is also
chamois
, for both the antelope and the cloth for wiping cars.

Champagne.
Region of France, formally Champagne-Ardenne; the wine is
champagne
(no cap.).

champaign.
An open plain.

Champaign,
Illinois.

Champaigne, Philippe de.
(1602–1674) French painter.

Champigny-sur-Marne.
Suburb of Paris.

Champlain, Samuel de.
(1567–1635) Founder of Quebec.

Champollion, Jean François.
(1790–1832) French Egyptologist who helped decipher the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone.

Champs-Élysées,
Paris.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Post in the British Cabinet that has no formal duties, enabling the holder to take up special assignments for the prime minister.

Chancellorsville, battle of.
Note
-orsv-.
Battle in the Civil War.

Chandigarh.
Indian city laid out by Le Corbusier.

Chang Jiang
(Pinyin)/
Yangtze River.
If you use the Pinyin spelling (as many users now do) you should make at least passing reference to the Yangtze, as that name is much more widely known in the English-speaking world.

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.