The earth v. Earth

[sagehen]

>
>Of course, I'm abstracting away from the fact that any noun or
>adjective in English can be made proper and, therefore, require
>capitalization, as is the case with Tarzan's son, Boy. OTOH, cf,
>German, in which every noun is capitalized. There's nothing intrinsic
>about this sort of thing.
>
>-Wilson
~~~~~~~~~~~
The fastidious French, on the other hand, honor a proper noun by removing
its capital when it has become so well-incorporated into French life that
it is recognized as a fully-fledged French word.  American mfrs, with their
jealous  & zealous protection of their precious brand names might be
comforted by adopting the French attitude when some miscreant uses, e.g.,
"kleenex" w/out cap or .
AM



~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org