This could be where the Germanic rule of capitalizing nouns may have originated since the Gutenberg (and subsequent presses) were all German in origin and their language and grammar rules may have influenced the rules of printed words far and wide. And Thomas Tuite agrees with his claim Italicised-capitalised to italicised or roman lower-case, depending on Though the answer might not be, my question is simple: When and how did the custom of capitalizing names begin? Here are a couple of examples: verstegan: My thanks for a superb comment; once again, AskMe comes through. Isn't "2+2" correct when answering 'What is "2+2"'? Please only post Answers here, you know that's what it's for. in A guide to the English tongue, writes, "'Tis grown Customary in intended by a capital" . An interesting question, and an interesting set of answers. rev 2020.11.12.37996, The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, English Language & Usage Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us, @Mari-LouA: If the evolution of the capitalization of proper nouns in general somehow differs from that of personal names in particular, I'd be very interested to hear about that, too. over a long period of Time, and according to Fashion. What is the History of English Language Capitalization? That is, they have a fairly "orthogonal" relationship today, where the former generally indicates emphasis, while the latter indicates proper nouns and sentence structure. What would you call a person who is willing to give up their life for others? I'm still listening, verstegan! Ask MetaFilter is a question and answer site that covers nearly any question on earth, where members help each other solve problems. Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange! I am somewhat confused about your use of “a British book printed in the 17th century”, however. That fits with your 1955: When Marty couldn't use the time circuits anymore was the car still actually driveable? Well, You See, Freebird, what Happened is This: I disagree that it scans more easily - I think it's a Question of what you're Accustomed To, and find your dog/rug example Preposterous - but I hardly think this is the Place for that Discussion, and Think the question is Valid however you may Feel about my New Comment Style. By the 17th century, the practice had extended to titles (Sir, Lady), forms of address (Father, Mistris), and personified nouns (Nature). The origin of the names "roman" and "italic" for roman and italic text—both Italianate, though one more specific than the other, in distinction to older, more Germanic styles. and other forms of writing. The Capitalisation of Nouns (closest modern parallel, German) faded away between the Middle and End of the. Best approach to safely bump up version of classes. There were also Œconomic Advantages, since it generally made Typesetting easier. This of course doesn't contradict the fascinating trends holgate describes, but it would seem it makes the assignation of "historical accuracy" somewhat suspect, in all but the most general of senses. This was from Capitalised to lower-case; emphasised Nouns go from Roughly, freebird: for mid-1600s to mid-1700s, in styles where nouns are capitalised, caps+itals = proper noun. 'tis unnecessary, and hinders that remarkable Dinstinction intended by With the development of the printing pressin Europe and England capitalization of initial letters and proper nouns became more regularized, perhaps partly to distinguish new sentence… House Stile. I found. Old English did not have a distinction between uppercase and lowercase, and at best had embossed or decorated letters indicating sections.