GetWiki

{{short description|Word that changes meaning when capitalized}}{{More citations needed|date=March 2010}}A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized; the capitalization usually applies due to one form being a proper noun or eponym.BOOK, Lederer, Richard, The Word Circus, 1998, Merriam-Webster, 0877793549, 23,weblink registration, 23 December 2015, It is a portmanteau of the word capital with the suffix -onym. A capitonym is a form of homograph and – when the two forms are pronounced differently – is also a form of heteronym. In situations where both words should be capitalized (such as the beginning of a sentence), there will be nothing to distinguish between them except the context in which they are used.Although some pairs, such as march and March, are completely unrelated, in other cases, such as august and catholic, the capitalized form is a name that is etymologically related to the uncapitalized form. For example, August derives from the name of Imperator Augustus, who named himself after the word augustus, whence English august came. Likewise, both Catholic and catholic derive from a Greek adjective meaning "universal".Capital letters may be used to differentiate between a set of objects, and a particular example of that object. For instance in astronomical terminology a distinction may be drawn between a moon, any natural satellite, and the Moon, the natural satellite of Earth.

In English

{{see also|Capitalization in English}}

Philosophical, religious, and political terms

A particular example of where capitonyms are prominent is in terminology relating to philosophy, religion, and politics. Capitalized words are often used to differentiate a philosophical concept from how the concept is referred to in everyday life, or to demonstrate respect for an entity or institution.Words for transcendent ideas in the Platonic sense are often capitalized, especially when used in a religious context. Examples include "Good", "Beauty", "Truth" or "the One".BOOK, The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th, 2010, 8.93, 978-0-226-10420-1, The word "god" is capitalized to "God" when referring to the single deity of monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, and common to capitalize pronouns related to God (He, Him, His, etc.) as well;BOOK, Shewan, Ed, Applications of Grammar: Principles of Effective Communication, 2003, Liberty Press, 1930367287, 112, BOOK, Elwell, Celia, Practical Legal Writing for Legal Assistants, 1996, Cengage Learning, 0314061150, 71, this practice is followed by many versions of the Bible, such as the NKJV.BOOK, The Bible translator: Volumes 43–45, 1992, United Bible Societies, 226, BOOK, Cabal, Ted, The Apologetics Study Bible, 2007, B&H Publishing Group, 978-1586404468, xix, In this tradition, possessive pronouns are also capitalized if one is quoting God; "My" and "Mine" are capitalized, which should not be done when a human speaks.BOOK, The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing, 1997, Dundurn, 1550022768, 77, registration,weblink The pronouns "You", "Your", and "Yours" are also sometimes capitalized in reference to God.BOOK, The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults, 2004, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1592760945, 8, Other distinctions sometimes made include church (meaning a building) and Church (meaning an organization or group of people), and the liturgical Mass, versus the physical mass.As political parties are often named after philosophies or ideologies, a capital letter is used to differentiate between a supporter of the philosophy, and a supporter of the party, for instance Liberal, a supporter of any Liberal Party, and liberal, a supporter of the philosophy of liberalism. Terms such as "small-l liberal" may be used to indicate the concept that an individual supports.WEB,weblink How the Liberal Party left Malcolm Fraser behind, Charles Richardson, 27 May 2010, 2010-12-30, Crikey, Similar examples are conservative/Conservative, democrat/Democrat, libertarian/Libertarian, republican/Republican, socialist/Socialist, communist/Communist, and a supporter of labour/Labour.

List of capitonyms in English

The following list includes only "dictionary words". Personal names (Mark/mark, Will/will), place-names (China/china, Turkey/turkey), company names (Fiat/fiat), names of publications (Time/time) etc. are all excluded as too numerous to list. Adjectives distinct from placenames (e.g. Polish/polish) are allowed. Pairs in which one word is simply a secondary meaning of the other – e.g. Masonry (secret society), which is in essence a peculiar use of the word masonry (wall building) – are omitted.{| class="wikitable sortable"|+! Capitalised word! Lowercase word! Notes|Arabic: of or relating to the Arabic language or Arabic literature|arabic: gum arabic, also called gum acacia, a food ingredient|

Ares ({{IPAc-en>ˈ	iː|z}}): god of war	Hectare#Are>ares ({{IPAc-en	ɑr	ˈ	z}}): plural of are, a metric unit of area| Different pronunciations

August ({{IPAc-en>ˈ	g	s|t}}): the eighth month of the year	august ({{IPAc-en>ɔː	g	s|t}}): majestic or venerable| Different pronunciations

|Bohemian: Relating to Bohemia|bohemian: Socially unconventional|

Cancer: a Cancer (constellation)>constellation and Cancer (astrology)	sign, or a Cancer (genus)>genus of crab|cancer: a class of diseases|

|Catholic: Of the Western ChristianCatholic Church, as differentiated from e.g. the Eastern Orthodox Church|catholic: Universal; all-encompassing.|

Celt ({{IPAc-en>k	l	s	l	Celts>Celtic peoples who speak Celtic languages.	celt ({{IPAc-en>s	l|t}}): A prehistoric chisel-bladed tool.| Often different pronunciations

|Cuban: from Cuba|cuban: relating to cubes, as in cuban prime (rare technical use)||Divine: relating to God|divine: to discover by intuition or insight; to locate water, minerals, etc.; a theologian| In lower case, the word can take either meaning|Gallic: relating to France or to the ancient territory of Gaul|gallic: relating to galls (abnormal plant growths) or gallic acid||Hamlet: A play by William Shakespeare, or the play's protagonist|hamlet: a small town|

Ionic: relating to Ionia or to a Ionic order>style of classical architecture|ionic: relating to (chemical) ions|

|Lent: the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter|lent: past tense and participle of to lend|

Mandarin Chinese>Mandarin: a Sinitic language spoken in northern and western China, especially in and around Beijing|mandarin: a member of an elite or powerful group or class, as in intellectual or cultural milieus; also, a type of citrus fruit

|March: the third month of the year|march: to walk briskly and rhythmically||May: the fifth month of the year|may: modal verb||Mosaic: Relating to Moses|mosaic: a kind of decoration|

Muse: One of the Muse>nine Greek goddesses involved with the arts, music, poetry, etc.|muse: A person who serves as inspiration for artistic endeavours; also, to ponder reflectively over.|

|Natal: A British colony that then become one of the four provinces of the Union of South Africa and the Republic of South Africa during the apartheid era, i.e. before 1994. It is so named because its major port city, now called Durban, was initially named Porto do Natal (Portuguese for "Christmas Port") due to Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landing there on Christmas Day, 1492.|natal: Relating to childbirth.|

Pole: a Polish people>Polish person|pole: a long, thin cylindrical object; various other meanings|Pole is not genetically related to pole: The Old English word for "pole" was spelled pal with a short a (compare ModE stone and OE stan).

Polish ({{IPAc-en>ˈ	oʊ	ɪ|ʃ}}): from Poland	polish ({{IPAc-en>ˈ	ɒ	ɪ|ʃ}}): to create a shiny surface by rubbing; a compound used in that process| Different pronunciations

|Scot: a native of Scotland|scot: a payment, charge, assessment, or tax|

Scotch: from or relating to Scotland, or a Scotch whisky>form of whisky|scotch: to put an end to something (especially rumours); also the form of whisky|

|Swede: a person from Sweden or of Swedish descent|swede: the yellow root of Brassica napus||Welsh: from or relating to Wales|welsh: to renege (on an agreement)| The verb welsh (also spelled welch) is of unknown etymology but is often described as deriving from the adjective Welsh and consequently perceived as insulting to people from Wales.

Example in poetry

The poem "Job's Job" from Richard Lederer's The Word Circus is an example of the use of capitonyms:{{poemquote|In August, an august patriarchWas reading an ad in Reading, Mass.Long-suffering Job secured a jobTo polish piles of Polish brass.}}

Other languages

In other languages there are more, or fewer, of these pairs depending on that language's capitalization rules. For example, in German, where all nouns are capitalized, there are many pairs such as Laut 'sound' ~ laut 'loud' or Morgen 'morning' ~ morgen 'tomorrow'. In contrast, in Italian, as well as Spanish, very few words (except proper names) are capitalized, so there are extremely few, if any, such pairs. An example in Spanish is Lima (city) ~ lima 'file (tool)' or 'lime (fruit)'. In Portuguese, an example is Peru (country) ~ peru 'turkey' (bird).

References

{{reflist}}