Bryson•s Dictionary for Writers and Editors

Dante Alighieri / DeBusschere, Dave
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Dante Alighieri. (1265–1321) Italian poet; the adjective is Dantesque.
Danzig. Former name of Gda ńsk, 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 author.
De Benedetti, Carlo. (1934–) Italian industrialist.
debonair. In French, it is débonnaire.
Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage. Guide to British aristocracy.
Debs, Eugene V(ictor). (1855–1926) American socialist and labor leader.
DeBusschere, Dave. (1940–2003) American basketball and baseball
player.