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

million acres, or 32.7% of the land in the U.S…. Property in the area is currently fetching $125 to $225 per acre.” The notion of currency is implicit in both statements, as it is in most other sentences in which
current
and
currently
appear.
Currently
should be deleted from both. (The second sentence could be further improved by changing “is fetching” to “fetches.”)
    curriculum vitae. Another name for a résumé.
    Curtiss aircraft. Named after Glenn Curtiss (1878–1930), American inventor and aviator.
    Curtiz, Michael. (1888–1962) Hungarian-born American film director; born Mihály Kertész.
    curtsy. Not
-ey.
    curvaceous. Not
-ious.
    cut back is generally tautological, as here: “Losses in the metal stamping division have forced the group to cut back production.” More succinct to say “have forced the group to cut production.”
    cyanosis. Turning blue from lack of oxygen.
    cyclamen.
    cymbal. Percussion instrument.
    Cynewulf. (fl. eighth c.) Anglo-Saxon poet.
    Cyrillic alphabet. Alphabet widely used for Slavonic languages. It is named after St. Cyril, who is popularly credited with its invention. Some of the characters vary slightly between Russian, Bulgarian, and other languages.
    cystic fibrosis. Genetic disease.
    cystitis.

Dd
    Dachau. Town near Munich, site of infamous concentration camp in World War II.
    Dadullah, Mullah. (1966–2007) Afghan Taliban commander; sometimes called Dadullah Akhund.
    Daedalus. In Greek mythology, father of Icarus and builder of the Labyrinth; but the character in the works of James Joyce is Stephen Dedalus and the pseudonym used by the Italian author Umberto Eco is also Dedalus.
    daguerreotype. Early photographic process, named after Louis Daguerre (1789–1851), French painter and photographer.
    Dahomey. Former name of Benin.
    Dai-Ichi Kangyo. Japanese bank.
    Dáil Éireann. Lower house of Irish parliament; pronounced
doyle air-ran.
    DaimlerChrysler AG. German car manufacturer, separated in 2007 into Daimler AG and Chrysler Holding.
    daiquiri.
    Dalai Lama. The high priest of Tibet.
    d’Alembert, Jean Le Rond. (1717–1783) French mathematician.
    Damariscotta. Town and lake in Maine.
    Danaë. Mother of Perseus in Greek mythology.
    danke schön. (Ger.) “Thank you very much.”
    d’Annunzio, Gabriele. (1863–1938) Italian writer and adventurer.
    danse macabre. Not
dance
. From the French for “a dance of death.” The plural is
danses macabres
.
    Dante Alighieri. (1265–1321) Italian poet; the adjective is
Dantesque
.
    Danzig. Former name of Gdansk, the Polish city.
    D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles. Former advertising agency.
    Dardanelles. The narrow channel linking the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, known in antiquity as the Hellespont.
    Dar es Salaam. Former capital of Tanzania. See also DODOMA .
    Darjeeling for the tea, but Darjiling for the Indian city for which it is named.
    data is a plural. Although this fact is widely disregarded, you should at least be aware that “The data was fed into a computer” is incorrect. It is also worth observing that the sense of
data
is generally best confined to the idea of raw, uncollated bits of information, the sort of stuff churned out by computers, and not used as a simple synonym for
facts
or
reports
or
information
.
    da Vinci, Leonardo, for the Florentine artist (1452–1519). On second reference he is properly referred to as “Leonardo,” not as “da Vinci.”
    Davy, Sir Humphry. (1778–1829) Not
Humphrey
. English chemist.
    Dayan, Moshe. (1915–1981) Israeli general and politician.
    dB is the abbreviation for
decibel.
    DDR. Short for Deutsche Demokratische Republik; former East Germany.
    DDT. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, an insecticide.
    debacle. A rout or ruin; in French,
débâcle.
    De Bakey, Michael. (1908–) American heart surgeon.
    de Beauvoir, Simone. (1908–1986) French