A Dictionary of Cont..

capitalize 84
planets are capitalized, but the words sun.
moon, and enrth are written without capitals
except when listed with the planets.
Names of the months and of the days of the
week are capitalized, but not the names of the
seasons. Names of holidays and of religiously
significant dates, such as Labor Day and St.
Agnes’ Eve, are capitalized, but not other identifying
names such as election day.
Names of historical significance, such as
Magna Cartn, the Dark Ages, Code Napoleon,
are capitalized, as are outstanding sport events,
such as the Kentucky Derby, Sadie Hawkins
Day.
6. Substitute Names and Personifications. In
general, any words that are used to individualize
are given a capital letter. Nicknames, such as
Billy the Kid, Old Hickory, and popular names
of organizations, such as the GOP, the Quakers,
are always capitalized. A common noun used as
a substitute for a proper noun is capitalized,
as the Administration. the Cape (Caue Cod),
Father. This applies to the words the Co&;
when used to mean the judge of the court, as
in The Court denied the appeal.
When inanimate objects, geographical divisions,
and aspects of nature are spoken of as if
they were persons, or are given fanciful titles,
the names are capitalized, as in Old Faithful,
Mother Nature, the Bluegrass, the Badlands,
the Skull and Crossbones, the Red, Whmite, and
Blue. In this sense the names of the seasons are
sometimes capitalized, although they are ordinarily
written without a capital.
SPECIAL PROBLEMS
1. Titles of books, songs, lectures, movies,
pictures, plays, newspapers, and of sections or
subdivisions of written material are capitalized.
In these titles the first word and all nouns, pronouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and interjections
are given an initial capital. Prepositions
and conjunctions are capitalized: (1) when they
contain four or more letters, (2) when Ithey are
of equal importance with another word in the
title which is capitalized, or (3) wh’en they
would otherwise be the only lower-care word
in the title. Foreign-language titles should be
capitalized according to the practice in that
language.
2. When a proper noun has lost its original
meaning and become a common noun, it should
be written without a capital, as in sandwich,
kelly green, bourbon whiskey, madras cloth.
Similarly, adjectives derived from proper nouns
are capitalized as long as they retain their original
meanings, as in Elizabethan, Freudian, but
are written without a capital when the original
meaning is no longer significant, as in caesarean.
In scientific classifications, a species derived
from the name of the classifier is always put in
lower case, as in Magnolia watsoni.
3. Single letters used as syllables are: always
capitalized, as in X-ray, vitamin B, the pronoun
I and the exclamation 0.
4. When two names or titles have a common
element they may be written together as a plural
title, as in First and Elm Streets, Presidents
Roosevelt and Truman.
5. The word the may be capitalized in order
to adhere to an authorized form, as in The
Hague, or in order to confer greater honor, as
in The King. This is unusual, however, and is
found only in very formal writing.
6. In expressions of time, it was once customary
to capitalize the letters A.M. and P.M.
Today, the lower-case forms a.m. and p.m. are
preferred.
7. A common noun used with a date, number,
or letter, as a reference may be capitalized or
not according to taste, as in Article V or article
V, Chapter 3 or chapter 3.
8. Hyphenated words are capitalized as they
would be if they were written without a hyphen.
9. When documentary accuracy is required,
the capitalization in the original text should be
retained.
capitalize. In the literal sense one can capitalize,
convert into capital, only something that already
belongs to him. If one has shares he can capitalize
on them by giving them as collateral for
a loan or by selling them. If he has a factory he
can capitalize a corporation by selling stock.
Something of this idea carries over into the
metaphorical uses of the word, though it is not
always borne in mind. A man may capitalize on
his misfortunes, for example, by narrating them
over the radio or exhibiting himself on a television
show. But the producer and announcer of
the show do not capitalize on the misfortunes
of others; they exploit them.
caption has given some purists a conniption. In the
sense of a heading or title and, even more, the
legend under a picture, it is an Americanism.
“Rare in British use,” grumps Fowler, “& might
well be rarer.” Partridge thinks it is all right to
use it for words above a picture (“as it should
be”) but feels it is “misused” to mean a legend
underneath. But why? It doesn’t come from the
Latin cap&, head, anyway; but from capere, to
take. Americans spend a lot of time looking at
pictures and they have to have a convenient
term for the bit of printing that sometimes goes
along with them. Caption is now standard usage.
captor; capturer. Capturer sounds a little awkward,
but it is as correct as captor if anyone
wants to use it.
carcass. See corps.
carcinoma. The plural is carcinomas or carcinomata,
not carcinomae.
care. This verb may be followed by an infinitive,
as in I do not care to go. If the -ing form of a
verb is used it must be introduced by the preposition
about, as in I do not care about going.
care a rap, not to. A rap was a counterfeit farthing.
A farthing is worth about half a cent. It
seems incredible that anyone would go to the
trouble of counterfeiting a coin of so little value
-especially when the penalty was death-but
it is a measure of the poverty and desperation
of the Irish that in the eighteenth century they
did. Copper halfpence or farthings . . . have
been for some time very scarce, Swift wrote in