Timeline for Should apartheid be capitalised?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 20, 2017 at 17:19 | comment | added | MCsuchNsuch | Also, I do mention that the use of “Apartheid” gets used less than “apartheid”, but that doesn’t stop them both from being valid. | |
| Nov 20, 2017 at 17:17 | comment | added | MCsuchNsuch | No particular reason to trust them, but I think a more fitting example of this is “Holocaust”. It can be capitalized, right? Yes. It can refer to a specific thing. It’s also a historical event. Proper noun in that respect. Capitalization should happen. There’s also a common usage of the word. True, it is diminishing, but still “holocaust” can be used and be correct. The question for “apartheid” is whether this person is using it in a common way or in a “proper” (for lack of better word) way. It can be argued that it’s either or both in that sentence. | |
| Nov 20, 2017 at 14:59 | comment | added | herisson | But according to the Google Ngram Viewer, "McCarthy era" is actually more common than "McCarthy Era". So that brings us down to "World War I", "the Middle Ages", and "the Roaring Twenties" as evidence for a rule of capitalizing the names of events, eras and periods of time. | |
| Nov 20, 2017 at 14:58 | comment | added | herisson | Is there any particular reason to trust the Grammarly blog post? I haven't heard great things about their grammar checker, and I assume their blog is an even lower priority for them. The examples given there are "World War I", "the Middle Ages", "The McCarthy Era", "Roman Britain", and "the Roaring Twenties". It seems to me that "McCarthy" and "Roman Britain" would be capitalized anyways because they are proper nouns. So the main evidence for a capitalization rule for eras is "World War I", "the Middle Ages", and "the Roaring Twenties" (along with the word "Era" in "The McCarthy Era"). | |
| Nov 20, 2017 at 14:15 | comment | added | MCsuchNsuch | Updated my response. In short, I think both are valid. | |
| Nov 20, 2017 at 14:12 | history | edited | MCsuchNsuch | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Changed answer
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| Nov 20, 2017 at 14:05 | history | edited | MCsuchNsuch | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Edited to address comment
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| Nov 20, 2017 at 13:57 | comment | added | Oddthinking | So what about in the context I mentioned? Which is it? | |
| Nov 20, 2017 at 12:19 | history | answered | MCsuchNsuch | CC BY-SA 3.0 |