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called Lady John X. Daughters of dukes, marquesses, and earls will similarly put Lady before their names: Lady Mary Y. Wives of other kinds of peers, and of knights and baronets, are referred to as Lady X or Lady Y; that is, their first names are not used. Sir John Blogg’s wife is simply Lady Blogg, not Lady Mary Blogg. Life peers are people of distinction who are elevated to the peerage but whose titles die with them.

British Guiana. Former name of the South American country now known as Guyana.

British Honduras. Former name of Belize.

British Indian Ocean Territory. Group of 2,300 scattered islands in the Indian Ocean run as a British colony; principal island Diego Garcia.

Britten, (Edward) Benjamin. (1913-1976) English composer; later Baron Britten of Aldeburgh.

Brobdingnag. Not -dig-. Place inhabited by giants in Gulliver’s Travels.

broccoli.

Bronfman, Edgar M(iles). (1929–) Canadian businessman.

Brontë, Anne (1820-1849), (Patrick) Branwell (1817–1848), Charlotte (1816-1855), and Emily (Jane) (1818-1848): English literary family. Among their best-known works are Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

brontosaurus. Not bronta-. Type of dinosaur.

Brooke, Rupert (Chawner). (1887-1915) English poet.

Brookings Institution (not Institute), Washington, D.C.; named after Robert Somers Brookings (1850-1932), American philanthropist.

Brooks, Van Wyck. (1886-1963) American critic and historian.

brouhaha. An uproar.

Brown v. Board of Education. 1954 landmark civil rights case in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were illegal. See also PLESSY V. FERGUSON.

brucellosis. Disease of cattle.

Brueghel, Pieter, the Elder. (c. 1520-1569) Not -eu-. Flemish painter and father of two others: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1638) and Jan Brueghel (1568-1625).

Bruges (Fr.)/Brugge (Flemish). Historic city in northern Belgium.

Brummell, (George Bryan) Beau. (1778-1840) Celebrated English dandy.

Brundtland, Gro Harlem. (1939–) Norwegian prime minister (1981, 1986-1989, 1990-1996).

Bruneau-Jarbidge. Site of historic supervolcano in Idaho.

Brunei. Independent oil-rich state on Borneo; capital Bandar Seri Begawan. A native is a Bruneian.

Brunel, Isambard Kingdom. (1806-1859) British engineer; son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849), also an engineer.

Brunelleschi, Filippo. (c. 1377-1446) Renaissance architect and sculptor.

Brunhild. In Scandinavian sagas, she is a Valkyrie, or priestess, in a deep sleep. In Wagner’s Ring cycle, the name is spelled Brünnhilde.

Brussels. Capital of Belgium. In French, Bruxelles; in Flemish, Brussel.

brussels sprouts. (No cap., no apos.)

Bryan, William Jennings. (1860-1925) American lawyer, orator, and politician.

Bryant, William Cullen. (1794-1878) American journalist, critic, and poet.

Brzezinski, Zbigniew K. (1928–) Polish-born American academic and statesman.

BSE. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, more commonly known as mad cow disease.

BST. Bovine somatotropin, a genetically engineered hormone used to increase milk production in cows.

BTU. British thermal unit, the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.

Buccleuch. Ancient British dukedom; pronounced buck-loo'.

Bucharest. Capital of Romania; in Romanian, Bucureti.

Buddenbrooks. Novel by Thomas Mann (1901).

Buddha, Buddhist, Buddhism.

Buddleia. Genus of shrub.

buenos días (for “good day” or “hello” in Spanish), but buenas (not -os) noches (“good night”) and buenas tardes (“good afternoon”).

buffalo. The plural can be either buffalo or buffaloes.

Bugatti. Sports car.

Bujumbura. Capital of Burundi.

Bulfinch, Charles. (1763-1844) American architect.

Bulfinch’s Mythology. Subtitle of The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867).

bull’s-eye, in the sense of a target.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward. (1803-1873) Also Baron Lytton, English writer and politician, celebrated for penning the classically bad opening line “It was a dark and stormy night” in his novel Paul Clifford (1830). The annual Bulwer-Lytton