Internet, Web Enjoy One Final Day As Proper Nouns (go.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The Internet and Web will be downgraded to "internet" and "web" tomorrow with the new edition of the AP Stylebook. Therefore, today marks their last day as proper nouns. The AP Stylebook is a manual that many journalists follow, offering a comprehensive guide to the usage of words, style, spelling and punctuation. "The argument for lowercasing Internet is that is has become wholly generic, like electricity and the telephone. It never was trademarked and is not based on any proper noun," writes Tom Kent, AP Standards Editor. "The best reason for capitalizing it in the past may have been that the term was new. At one point, we understand, 'Phonograph' was capitalized." The two names will join the likes of website (formerly Web site) and email (formerly e-mail).

Comments

Generic?

[OrangeTide]

Wouldn't there have to be more than one Internet for there to be an internet? Is Internet 2 another internet, or is it a research WAN?

What do I call this network I am on now? I tend to call it the Internet.

I usually call the planet I'm standing on "Earth" and not "earth". Although I can use the word "earth" for just about any pile of dirt.

I certainly recommend calling the start that Earth revolves around the Sun and not a sun. A lowercase "sun" is a useful generic term for the many suns of the universe. Sol is another name we like to use for the Sun, but "Sol" not necessarily the preferred name in English.

Re:Generic?

[swillden]

Exactly. There is and always has been a reason to distinguish between the general concept of an internet, and the specific, publicly-accessible, globe-spanning Internet.

However, I guess that it is very rare for AP articles to need to draw that distinction. Whatever. I'm going to continue using "Internet" to refer to the Internet and "internet" to refer to the concept of an internet.

It's a proper noun and should be capitalized

[Xylantiel]

There is only one Internet. That's what the capital is for. It is a proper noun indicating the network of all globally routable addresses. If the people at the AP are so clueless as to not know that, no wonder the news is so bad.

Oxford English Dictionary

[Roger W Moore]

I would have thought the Oxford English Dictionary was the usual arbiter of the English language. They actually make note of the difference between its use without a capital letter and with:

Originally (with lower-case initial): a computer network comprising or connecting a number of smaller networks, such as two or more local area networks connected by a shared communications protocol; an internetwork; spec. such a network (called ARPANET) operated by the United States Department of Defence. In later use (usually the Internet): the global network comprising a loose confederation of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols...

This is far better researched than a style guide used by US journalists which seems to have made the change entirely for arbitrary reasons. It also makes sense to capitalize it since there is only one, well unless you get your language from George Bush but I'd hate to think they are using him as an inspiration.

Re:Can we downgrade Linux, too?

[Lumpy]

Looks like the Microsoft devs have a lot of free time on their hands again.

Honestly, you guys have a lot of bugs you need to fix, stop trolling slashdot and get back to work.

I've never much cared for the AP guidelines

[Red_Chaos1]

This does not make sense to me. It's not just "a" Internet or "a" Web, they are "the" Internet and "the" Web. Unlike the Phonograph, there are not multiple vendors and multiple versions. It's all one very unique thing.

Re:can't change facts

[Samantha Wright]

Consider 'the world.' Or 'the sky.' There's only one of each (synecdoche and other planets notwithstanding) but we don't really regard them as proper nouns. In fact, you have to go back pretty far to find a language where one of these vast media are encoded in a way that's even ambiguously a true proper noun in what is still decidedly poetic writing. I confess I initially resisted the idea of this too, but... it's not really a bad thing, in the end. The dream of the ARPANET, NSFnet, and other early nets was always to create a network medium that was invisible and omnipresent. This is just another step on that journey.

Re:typical commenter

[phantomfive]

Wikipedia articles are that much better/reliable than Facebook posts?!

YES