No reason to cap a season
October 17th, 2008 at 07:00am Barry Wood
The previous week it was a medical issue. This past week I was on vacation. But now I’m back and raring to blog.
While I was away, a reader called to complain about a headline in which “fall,” the season, was not capitalized and said she was taught otherwise in school. Unfortunately, that’s probably ture.
Capitalization is an issue often determined by “house rules,” and in our own little worlds we tend to use uppercase for what we think is important. If a teacher wants you to capitalize the seasons, you probably should — while you’re in that classroom. In the big, bad outside world, however, “spring,” “summer,” “fall” or “autumn,” and “winter” are generally lowercase.
In fact, writing “the Fall” could be interpreted as referring to the concept in Christian theology of “the Fall of Man” — “Adam’s sin of yielding to temptation in eating the forbidden fruit, and his subsequent loss of grace.” Now that’s a term deserving of the big-letter treatment.
Entry Filed under: capitalization
4 Comments Add your own
1. Neal Ken | October 17th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I FALL all over myself reading some of your classic lines.
2. Barry Wood | October 18th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Dear Neal Ken:
Thanks for the comment. Just be sure you don’t get hurt when you fall. I need all the fans I can get.
3. Leonardo duh Vinci | October 19th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Your mentioning capitalizing Fall, reminds me that we capitalize I (me). I am aware that in the German language many words are capped, but their I (ich) is not capped.
Any idea why we capitalize I? We don’t cap a (item) which is a one letter word. And this leads me to asking what rule of thumb is used in the German language of using caps on various words? I know the latter is not your meat and potatos, so I (cap) don’t expect you to answer that question (small q).
4. Barry Wood | October 21st, 2008 at 2:10 am
To Leonardo:
So far I haven’t found an explanation for why “I” is capped and “a” isn’t. Two guesses spring to mind: “I” has to be able to stand alone, whereas “a” gets a noun and often adjectives to be associated with. The other is pure ego: What could be more important than “I”?
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