Free Bryson's Dictionary For Writers And Editors (v5.0) by Bill Bryson Page A

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