| Comment | Note the comment in M-W regarding "french fry" – "noun, often capitalized 1st F"
CMOS Q&A has an explanation for this sort of exception to the capitalization rules:
According to CMOS, 16th ed., 8.60,
Personal, national, or geographical names, and words derived from such names, are often lowercased when used with a nonliteral meaning. For example, the cheese known as “gruyère” takes its name from a district in Switzerland but is not necessarily from there; “swiss cheese” (lowercase s) is a cheese that resembles Swiss emmentaler (which derives its name from the Emme River valley).
The type of cheese known as "swiss cheese" in the US is most likely produced in the US, and thus the term is not used literally. This non-capitalized form makes it possible to distinguish it from "Swiss cheese" (which would then be any type of cheese that comes from Switzerland). The same can be said for "french dressing."
That said, note that CMOS's answer included "often lowercased" – in both of these cases, however, the uppercased version would be accepted by almost all. |
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