Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors - Bill Bryson [24]
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.
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