Capitals

Capitals (majuscula), in contradistinction to small letters (minuscula), are larger and differently shaped letters employed in writing and printing to help the eye, to relieve the uniformity of the page, to increase the facility of keeping and finding the place, to mark the beginnings of sentences, proper names, &c. Among the ancients, and during the earlier part of the middle ages, no distinction between capitals and small letters was known; in a sense, writing was originally all capitals (UNCIALS, q.v.); and after the practice had been introduced of beginning books and chapters with great letters, often adorned or illuminated with much artistic ability, it was long before capitals were employed in such a way as could afford much real advantage to the reader. At the present day they are almost universally in use, even in the printing of Greek and Latin books. Considerable diversity has existed at different times with regard to the employment of them, the books of the 17th and 18th centuries exhibiting a much greater proportion of them than those of the present day. In German books all substantives usually begin with a capital letter; in English or French books of the present day they in general appear only at the beginnings of sentences, of proper names, and lines of poetry. Adjectives formed from proper names, as English, French, and the like, are generally begun with a capital in English books, but not in French nor in German ones. SMALL CAPITALS are so called as being smaller than the initial capitals. See ALPHABET, WRITING.