« Blog Reading for Boomers | Home | MS WORD DICTIONARY SUCKS »
Do you capitalize Internet?
By hal | April 16, 2007
Do you capitalize the word “Internet?” And when does a proper name become a common noun?
This is an issue of some importance to all online copywriters. It’s bothered us for some time that Internet remains a proper noun – after all, we don’t capitalize Cable or Water or Electricity. But, like the Internet, they are all piped to the house by a utility.
Internet is not associated with the name of a person (like pasteurization or Darwinism) or a trademarked brand name (like Kodak and Kleenex). It’s not even a singular entity – I get mine from Earthlink. Maybe you get yours from Time Warner.
Furthermore, Internet has become the commonest of common words, reflecting its importance in contemporary society. Its rising usage parallels the decline of words including hi-fi, pager and fax.
All the major reference sources show Internet with a capital “I.” These include:
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
American Heritage Dictionary
Merriam-Webster
Microsoft Word always underlines in green our attempts to use internet instead of Internet. Interestingly, many dictionaries allow Google in lower case, as in “I googled it.”
So what’s up with the Internet? Maybe it’s the word “the” that sometimes precedes it. Makes the Internet feel all special and important. But even that’s fading away. We could correctly say (or write):
Kids today have always had the Internet.
Or:
Kids today have always had internet.
Here at Online-Copywriter, we think the Internet should get off its high horse and admit its commonness. Call it the price of popularity. The sainted William Safire would probably call us permissivists.
Other online copywriters are invited to weigh-in with their own heavy thinking about Internet.
Topics: online words, ad words |
April 17th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Also, consider “email.” Capitalizing the letter “e” is never done except by technology troglodytes (and it looks wierd woo).
Do you have the same advice regarding the “Web” (”web”)? How about when writing the bulky phrase “World Wide Web?”
When does a commonly-available, non-branded technology noun pass from capitalization to pedestrian lower-case?
When writing copy with tech words, I also check current usage in business media, like WSJ, NYT, Forbes, as well as broadly-read tech media like C|NET and CIO, or for a leading look, Wired and Network World.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Interesting comments - the capitalization conundrum is pretty widespread with web words, apparently. Got a post coming up later this week about hyphenation.
The fun never stops.
But, yes, absolutely, lowercase everything that seems like a common noun, I think.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
OK, I’m all for abaondoning the capital “I” - anything so I don’t have to shift while keyboarding. But I admit I am rather taken aback that someone posting to a copywriting forum apparently forgot the rule about It and the possessive - no apostrophe. The Internet gets of its high horse and admits its commonness. Let’s do what we can to set an example of how to use the English language and not carry on bad habits or misinformation. Thanks.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Mea culpa. Well-deserved reputation as a horrible proof reader. See previous post about frustrations with MS Word Dictionary.
December 10th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
We all need proofreaders behind us. Ms. Chandler typed “gets ‘of’ its high horse,” instead of “gets ‘off’ its high horse.”
March 9th, 2008 at 12:11 am
While you are at it, please change weigh-in to weigh in. The hyphen makes it a noun. Think pick-up (or pickup) vs. pick up.
March 11th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Tuff crowd!
March 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Should we capitalize “mail”?
Noooooooooo. Then, why email?
Do we capitalize “post office”? Noooooooooooooo.
Then why internet.