Ask Dr. Design
Dear Dr. Design: What’s the deal with capital letters? Were they invented in a capital city, like italics were invented in Italy? –Not Your Type, Dallas
Actually, Notchmytype, they were not invented in a capital city and they shouldn’t really be called capital letters, as if they were chiseled into column capitals by the ancient Greeks. They should be called majuscules (the little letters are minuscules).
The terms upper case and lower case came from printers, probably going back to Gutenberg, who kept caps in an “upper” type case or drawer and the little letters were in the “lower case”, which was, uh, below the upper type case.
So the next time your editor asks you a question about capping a word, say: “Hey, you mean majuscules?” Your editor will be so impressed, a raise and promotion will be likely!
Dr. Design
doc@newsdesignschool.com