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Bobcat should not be used in a generic sense as a description of skid-steer loaders or other equipment
Boche derogatory slang for Germans; Bosch, the household appliance or power tools manufacturer
bodyline one word, no quotes for the cricketing tactic; use lower case in general usage such as bodyline bowling but cap for the Bodyline tour (of the 1932–33 Ashes)
boffin avoid as a synonym of scientist, except ironically or in direct quotes
Bogart, Humphrey but (Sir) Dirk Bogarde
bogey (golf, plural bogeys); bogie (wheels); bogy (ghost); but note bogeyman
Bohemia, Bohemian cap only in specific reference to the geographical entity but lower case bohemia, bohemian metaphorically
Bolshevik
bolshie lower case for rebellious; cap in (derogatory) political context
bolt hole two words
bombscar bomb, fire bomb, nail bomb, petrol bomb, suicide bomb etc; but hyphenate verbal or adjectival use, eg to fire-bomb, a nail-bomb attack
bombshell in metaphorical use, as in “drop a bombshell”, is a cliché. Avoid
bonanza another greatly overworked word that should be avoided wherever possible
Bonfire Night initial caps; see Guy Fawkes Night
Book of Common Prayer, the roman
bookshop
boom overused word
Boötes pronunciation requires a diaeresis on the name of the constellation, should you ever have to refer to it
border lower case, even the one between England and Scotland (north of the border); cap the (Scottish) Borders; remember that the border is not marked by Hadrian’s Wall
bored with/by not of
-born normally prefer to use nationality, rather than country, eg English-born, but there are exceptions, eg Singapore-born; for counties, cities etc, normally use the noun, eg London-born, Manchester-born, Dorset-born, but again there are exceptions, eg Cornish-born
born/borne the second is what you want except when writing about birth. Something to be borne in mind; a theory borne out by the facts; an initiative (or a tree) that has borne fruit; shame borne in silence etc
borstals no longer exist; they are now young offender institutions
bortsch Russian or Polish soup
Bosphorus a strait, not a river
Botox trade name, so must cap
bow tie no hyphen
box office as noun, two words; but hyphenate when adjectival (eg box-office success)
box setsboxed sets may be more logical for the collections of CDs, DVDs etc, but no one says it; we must concede defeat
boy band two words. Note also girl band
boyfriend, girlfriend
boy’s own as generic phrase, lower case and roman; but the old publication was called The Boy’s Own Paper
braille lower case
brainchild try to avoid this cliché
branch in police context, eg special branch, anti-terrorist branch, lower case unless there is any risk of confusion
breakthrough avoid describing every bit of medical and scientific progress as a breakthrough — “a significant development or discovery, especially in science”. It isn’t
breakout, breakdown (as noun, each one word); but to break out etc, and break-up (hyphenate as noun)
breastfeed(ing) no longer use hyphen
breaststroke no longer hyphenate the swimming discipline
Breathalyser (cap, proprietary), but to breathalyse (lower case, generic)
breathtaking no hyphen
breech birth
brevity Verbosity clouds meaning. Brevity is a virtue, in phrases, sentences, whole passages of writing. Even in words. Use short rather than long ones if you can: “be” rather than “exist”, “go” rather than “proceed”, “know” rather than “comprehend”, “do” rather than “perform”, “execute” or “carry out”. Whenever you write a long word, consider a short one instead. When you write a long sentence or paragraph, ask yourself why
Bric Brazil, Russia, India and China collectively, all relatively fast-growing developing economies; thus, eg the Bric countries. (The financial wizards who coined Bric are also responsible for Mint: Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Mercifully, perhaps, this has yet to gain quite the same currency in the wider world; if it has to be used at all, it should be explained)
bridges cap as in Severn Bridge, London Bridge, Southwark Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge
Britain is now widely used as another name for the United Kingdom or Great Britain, and pragmatically we accept this usage. Strictly, Great Britain = England, Wales, Scotland and islands governed from the mainland (ie not Isle of Man or Channel Islands); United Kingdom = Great Britain and Northern Ireland; British Isles = United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands
British Overseas Territory eg Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn Islands; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; Turks & Caicos Islands. Note that they may have a premier rather than a prime minister, so always check
Britpop not Brit Pop; and Britart
Broadmoor inmates are patients, not prisoners, as it is a hospital
broadsheet retains some currency as a way to describe the serious British press, even though most British newspapers are now of a smaller format (tabloid, or compact; Berliner etc). Quality, serious or (at a pinch) upmarket may be used as appropriate synonyms
Brobdingnagian cap. Huge, immense, unnaturally large; from Brobdingnag, the imagined land of giants in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels; use sparingly, for colour and rhetorical force, eg “a politician with a truly Brobdingnagian ego”
brownfield, greenfield as in building sites. But note green belt (two words)
brownie points lower case
Brummie (not Brummy), Geordie, Scouse etc, people and dialect, all capped
Brylcreem
BSE bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow (no need for quotes) disease. See mad cow disease
buddleia thus. Buddleja (cap, note j) is the scientific spelling, after Linnaeus, for the genus of shrubs known commonly as butterfly bush, but despite that, Collins and Oxford dictionaries give buddleia (lower case, note i) as the common spelling, and that is what we must use. See wisteria (what is it with botanists?)
budget lower case; the budget, Philip Hammond’s budget, budget day; also note pre-budget report and autumn statement (lower case)
buffalo plural buffaloes
Buggins’s turn awkward, perhaps, but consistent with Times style of such possessives
buglers, trumpeters cavalry regiments have trumpeters, infantry regiments have buglers. They are not interchangeable
builder’s merchant(s) as in shepherd’s pies, the apostrophe does not move in the plural
bulletproof adjective or verb, one word
bullion is gold or silver in unminted form
bull-mastiff, bull-terrier
bullring, bullfight(er)
bullseye
bumf prefer to bumph
bunga-bunga lower case, hyphen, eg in the context of sexually charged déshabillé partying linked to Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister. The derivation is uncertain and theories abound, including genuine African origins, a Fascist colonialist-racist construct or a word given to Mr Berlusconi via Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the deceased Libyan leader
bungee jumping no hyphen
bureau plural bureaux or bureaus depending on context; eg bureaux de change, Citizens Advice Bureaux; but prefer bureaus for writing desks and distant newspaper offices
burka prefer to burqa for the long, enveloping garment worn by Muslim women in public. The niqab is the piece of cloth that they use to cover the face. The hijab is a covering for the hair and neck
Burma not Myanmar (except in direct quotes); the inhabitants are Burmese, while Burmans are a Burmese people
Burns Night (caps, no apostrophe) falls on January 25
burnt not burned
Burton upon Trent no hyphens; and note the colloquial gone for a burton (lower case)
bus, buses noun; but in verbal use, busses, bussed, bussing
Bush, George W do not use Jr. Refer to him subsequently as Mr Bush or the former president. Refer to his father as the first President Bush or George Bush Sr
“businesses that depend on water” beware this and similar phrases. All businesses depend on water to some extent; some businesses, eg farms, are especially dependent on water
But there is no grammatical rule to prevent it starting a sentence; even Fowler describes this as a superstition. Be aware, however, that there are readers (and editors) who dislike it, and that it is easily overdone. Be sure, in any case, that “but” is the word you want; it often seems to be used to add a note of spurious drama where all that is meant is “and”
buyout and buyback one word as nouns; but prefer buy-in, take-off, shake-out, shake-up, sell-off, sell-out etc with hyphens, wherever the composite noun looks hideous
buzzword one word
by-election
bylaw
bypass noun or verb
by-product
bystander
byte (abbreviate as B) is a computer term for a small collection of bits (binary digits), roughly equivalent to one character. Do not confuse with bite (as with teeth). But note soundbite
Byzantine cap in historical context (art, architecture, empire); lower case in general use (complexities etc)
Cc (#ulink_298f3da0-a009-5930-ae28-38e5b5e6de63)
cabbie (not cabby) as colloquialism for taxi driver
cabinet lower case in both British and foreign use, whether used as a noun or adjectivally, except (rarely) if a cap seems absolutely necessary to avoid confusion. Note Cabinet Office, but cabinet secretary (or secretary of the cabinet), war cabinet. All cabinet committees should be lower case, eg the cabinet committee on science and technology
Caernarfon (town and parliamentary constituency, no longer Caernarvon), but Lord Carnarvon
caesarean section lower case. Babies are delivered, not born, by this surgery
café with accent
caffeine prefer to caffein
cagoule but kaftan
call centre noun, two words; hyphen as adjective, eg call-centre manager
call-up (noun), but to call up
camaraderie not cameraderie
