Oral History Program Style Guide: Section 3: Preferred Spellings for Frequently Encountered Words and Terms

Numbers

8 mm (film type)

16 mm (film type)

3-D, three-dimensional

Jump to: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X  

A

a while (2 words: obj. of preposition); awhile (1 wd: adverb)

ACT UP - no need to spell out, but should be in all caps

aesthetic

African American (no hyphen unless adjective)

aha

antebellum

archaeology

the Archive Project (Visual AIDS)

Area (club)

Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard

Art AIDS America (exhibition)

art-making

artwork

Ashanti

avant-garde

B

back and forth (adv); back-and-forth (n, adj)

backtrack (1 word)

baisse taille

Ballroom scene

balsa wood

band saw (2 words.)

basket maker

Bay Area

bentwood

bicentennial

Black C.A.R.E. (Black Community AIDS Research and Education)

blow job (two words)

blowpipe

body monitors

boxwood

Boy Scouts; scouting, scout leader; Boy Scout leader

brand-new

brush plate

buttonhole (1 word)

C

cabinetmaker (1 word)

camel hair (or camel's hair)

candleholder

candlestick

catalogue

Catch One (club, LA)

chain saw

champleve (1 word)

chest of drawers

china paint

chinoiserie (lowercase)

chokin

Christie's

civil rights movement (lowercase)

Club Fuck!

coal miner (2 words.)

ColorCore

copy editor / copyedit

counterculture

craftsman

crosshatch (v, n)

cross-hatching (n)

cuff links (2 words.)

custom-made

cut out (v, 2 words)

cutout (n, adj)

D

da Vinci

Dahoumey

damascene

Damascus steel

dango

de Kooning

decision making (n, 2 words)

Depression

die-in

dinnerware

disc (for recording)

"documenta" when referring to the series of exhibitions; "documenta 7" or whatever number when referring to a specific exhibition.

drywall

Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!)

E

Early American

earthwork

East Coast (but going east, eastern)

Ecstasy (capitalized; recreational drug)

electro + process (1 wd., electroplate, etc.)

email

eye-opener

F

Fahrenheit

faience

fall-front (desk)

feminist movement

fiberglass

fierce pussy (all lowercase)

Fiesta (ware)

fine-tune

firebox

fire-glazed

firsthand

flatware

flossa

fly-shuttle loom

free-form

freelance

freestanding (1 word)

fresco, -oes

Fulbright Program (various awards within)

full time (n)(rarely encountered), usually full-time (adj/adv)

fund-raising

furniture maker

G

gay-bashing

gemstone

GI Bill (no periods)

glassblower

glassmaker

GMAD (Gay Men of African Descent)

GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis)

God, goddam (n,v), goddamed (adj, adv)

gold leaf (n, 2 words.)

gold medal (lowercase)

Gran Fury (artist collective)

gray (not grey)

GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency)

Guggenheim Fellowship

Gump's

H

hairpin (1 word)

hand-blown

hand-building, hand-built

handcrafted (1 word)

hand-forging

handmade

hand-make

hand-quilted

handsaw

hands-on

hand-spun

handweaver, handwoven

hardwood (1 word)

high chair (2 words)

high tech

high-rise

HIV government assistance programs (spell out in brackets)

HIV-positive

hollowware

honan

HOWL! Festival

I

iCI (Independent Curators International, NY)

ikat

ikebana

Imari

internet (lowercase)

ironwork, glasswork, etc.

J

jacquard (fabric)

Jacquard loom (named after inventor)

jewelry maker (2 words.)

jigsaw (1 word)

K

Kaposi sarcoma, Kaposi sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV)

karat

kente

kilnload

L

LA (not L.A.) (with exceptions)

La MaMa

LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)

lace making (2 words.)

Le Palace (club, Paris)

lengthwise

Lesbian Herstory Archives

LGBT Center (cap C, NYC)

life-size(d)

lifetime

linocut

long-range

long-standing

long-term

longtime

lost wax, lost-wax process

low-fire

low-tech

Lucite

lumberyard (1 word)

M

MacArthur Fellowship

makara

mange

man-made

mass-produced, mass production

mat (n,v) (around a picture)

matte (nonglossy finish)

medium (mediums is plural for materials; media is "mode of expression")

metalsmith, metalworker

MicroGeneSys

mid-'70s

Midwest, but midwestern

mingei

Mission District

MOCA

mock-up

model making (2 words.)

mokume gane

MoMA

MSM (Men having Sex with Men or Men Seeking Men) (also WSW)

Mylar

N

NEA grant, fellowship (unless titled)

niello

nunome-zogan (per MFA, Boston)

O

October (journal)

off and on (adv; hyphenate if adj; ditto one of a kind, one on one, etc.)

okay (not OK or ok)

open-minded

Oribe

Oriental

P

palate (taste)

palette (colors)

Palladium (club)

pallet (bed)

paper cord

papermaking (1 word)

part-time (adj)

Ph.D., B.A.

photo + technique =1 word., photogravure, (but photo etch)

Plexiglas

plique-à-jour (accent grave over "a")

postwar

pottery-making

Prescription drug names (especially if obscure) add "[prescription drug]"

Printmaking

PS1

Pyramid Club

Q

quilt maker, quilt making (2 words)

R

raku

ready-made

redwood

resume (no accents necessary)

Rhodes Scholar/Scholarship

rokusho

rolltop (1 word)

rosewood

round-over (except as verb, then two words, no hyphen)

rya

S

S/M, S and M if "and" is spoken (S-and-M if adjective)

salt glazing (n), salt-glazed (adj), salt-glaze (v)

sandblast(ing)

sapwood

sawmill

Scotch tape

S-curve

semiprecious

setup (n, 1 word)

shakudo

short-lived

short-term (unless n)

silk screen (n, 2 words.)

silk-screen (v & adj)

silkworm

sketchbook

slip-casting

SOFA (Sculptural Objects & Functional Art)

SoHo (with exceptions like an organization that doesn’t capitalize the "H")

Sotheby's (Parke-Bernet Galleries, '37-64; Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co, '64-70)

South, but southern

spell-check

Sperone Westwater

still life (2 words.; hyphenate for adj.)

still lifes

stoneware

strip piecing

Styrofoam

Super 8 (film type)

T

tabletop (1 word)

TAG (Treatment Action Group)

takaniku zogan

tape recorder (n, 2 words)

tape recording (n, 2 words)

tape-record (v)

T-cells

terra-cotta

The Kitchen (performance space)

The Marys

theater, not theatre

tie-dye

time frame (2 words)

time-consuming

time-out

tinfoil

tintype (1 word)

toolmaker, toolmaking (1 word)

Treatment and Data committee (precursor to TAG)

T-shirt

tulip tree

tulipwood

tussah

TV

U

ukiyo-e

underpainting

university-educated (adj)

university-trained (adj)

USA, DC, LA, Washington, D.C., U.S., U.K., the States

V

van Gogh

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)

Voulkos's (for possessive)

W

WAC (Women's Action Coalition)

watercolor (1 word)

website, web, but World Wide Web

well known (adv)

well-known (adj)

West Coast (but west, western)

WHAM (Women's Health Action and Mobilization)

wheat paste (n, two words); wheat-paste (adj or verb)

wheel-thrown, wheel throwing

widespread

wide-spreading

women's movement

wood carving

wood turning (2 words., per Renwick)

woodblock (1 word)

wood-carver

woodcraft

woodcut

woodworking, woodwork, woodshop

workshop

wrought iron

X

xerox (lowercase), but Xerox machine

X-ray (n)

x-ray (v)