Bryson•s Dictionary for Writers and Editors

84
Cratchit, Bob / crocheted, crocheting
Cratchit, Bob. Character in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
Crécy, Battle of (1346).
Creekmur, Lou. (1927–) American football player.
crème brûlée. Literally “burnt cream”; custard dessert.
creole, pidgin. A pidgin is a simplified and rudimentary language
that springs up when two or more cultures come in contact. If
that contact is prolonged and generations are born for whom
the pidgin is their first tongue, the language will usually evolve
into a more formalized creole (from the French for “indigenous”).
Most languages that are commonly referred to as pidgins
are in fact creoles.
crêpes suzette. (Not cap.) When crepes is used on its own in most
circumstances the circumflex may be dropped.
crescendo is not a climax or conclusion. It is the movement toward
a conclusion. Properly, it should be used only to describe a gradual
increase in volume or intensity.
Cressida, Troilus and. Play by Shakespeare (c. 1601). The poem by
Geoffrey Chaucer is “Troylus and Criseyde.” In Boccaccio’s Il
Filostrato the spelling is Criseida.
crevasse, crevice. A crevasse is a deep fissure, particularly in thin ice;
a crevice is a narrow and generally shallow fissure.
Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John. (1735–1813) Born Michel Guillaume Jean
de Crèvecoeur; French-born American essayist.
cri de coeur. (Fr.) An impassioned plea.
crime passionnel. (Fr.) A crime motivated by sexual jealousy.
crisis, pl. crises.
criterion, pl. criteria.
Croat, Croatian. The first describes the people of Croatia; the second
is a more general adjective (“a Croatian city”).
Croce, Benedetto. (1866–1952) Italian writer, philosopher, and politician.
crocheted, crocheting.