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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
Swiss chard and brussels sprouts
The AP and New York Times style books do not capitalize "brussels" in sprouts, but what about Swiss chard? With careful chefs deleting spinach as an ingredient from their menus, this question is, well, cropping up. Capitalizing the Swiss in chard feels right to me, but I wonder what the strict grammarians say. - Curious in Gloucester
Top answer
com /]ONE LOOK DICTIONARY SEARCH[/url], you'll see that almost all dictionaries capitalize Swiss chard , while about half of them capitalize Brussels sprout . Both are obviously proper names and deserving of a capital S and B , respectively. I suggest that the reason for the anomaly may be that the sprout entered the language about 300 years before the chard-- time enough for it to become a common noun among the hoi polloi.
- com /]ONE LOOK DICTIONARY SEARCH[/url], you'll see that almost all dictionaries capitalize Swiss chard , while about half of them capitalize Brussels sprout .
- Both are obviously proper names and deserving of a capital S and B , respectively.
- I suggest that the reason for the anomaly may be that the sprout entered the language about 300 years before the chard-- time enough for it to become a common noun among the hoi polloi.
- If there is a more definitive solution to the conundrum, I am unaware of it.
- Welcome to English Forums, Curious.
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2 Answers
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If you look the vegetables up in the [url=http://www.onelook.com/]ONE LOOK DICTIONARY SEARCH[/url], you'll see that almost all dictionaries capitalize Swiss chard, while about half of them capitalize Brussels sprout.
Both are obviously proper names and deserving of a capital S and B, respectiv
Both are obviously proper names and deserving of a capital S and B, respectiv
00
Here you go:
3.4. Derivatives of proper names used with acquired independent
common meaning, or no longer identified with such names, are
set lowercased. Since this depends upon general and long-continued
usage, a more definite and all-inclusive rule cannot be formulated
in advance.
roman (type)
brussels sprouts
v
3.4. Derivatives of proper names used with acquired independent
common meaning, or no longer identified with such names, are
set lowercased. Since this depends upon general and long-continued
usage, a more definite and all-inclusive rule cannot be formulated
in advance.
roman (type)
brussels sprouts
v
0
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