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Sorry, I missed this.
Can’t go into all the reasons the above is incorrect
No, please do.
but no: em is lowercase.
Yes, as I said. See above.
In brief:
The word em is the name of a measurement based on, but no longer dictated by, the letter M.Indeed.
Context and rarity clarify its meaning. It doesn’t need a capital, like it doesn’t need putting in bold or underlining. It is. We don’t need to gild the lily. English dropped capitalisation of all Nouns in Sentences just because they’re Names a couple of Centuries ago.
I'm not sure I understand in what way this is meant to be an argument. Plenty of names and specific nouns are capitalised in English. This is often to clarify different usages of the same word, e.g. 'the Bible' or 'the bible of the XYZ movement'. Part of the misunderstanding here seems to be the assumption on your part that just because something doesn't 'need' something, it shouldn't have it? I don't think I can really work out what you meant to mean, though.
There’s an argument for preference, sure! Why would I care about personal usage? I wouldn’t dream of arguing the point if you hadn’t ‘corrected’ me with such authority in the first place.
Where did I correct you? I said: 'It should always be ...' and that continues to be my view. A correction would be: 'It is always ...' or just the correct word/spelling/whatever.
Capitalising ‘em’ makes as much sense as capitalising ‘alpha’ every time you use it (eg: he was no Alpha male). Just because it once referred to a capital, doesn't mean it needs a capital. If it was about the shape, it could be argued for. Take the L.
It's actually a good case in point and very similar. I would here likewise capitalise 'Alpha male' and consider that better than lowercase.
Again, can’t believe I have such strong opinions on usage of em. Need to go to Nerd Nite, be among my tribe.
So, did you go? :)
Oliver Schick-
Aha! We have a fundamental difference in our understanding of what constitutes common and proper nouns. I'm going with this version, so we'll have to agree to disagree.
Bible vs bible is a nice example of how metaphorical use of proper nouns can make them common nouns though.
It started in uppercase as 'this is the Bible of this' because it once had direct reference to the actual Bible (proper noun) but, through a lot of usage, it became a common metaphorical phrase and is now 'the bible of xyz' (common noun) when used transitively.
So, did you go? :)
Not yet. Nerd Nite doesn't appear to be happening atm. If anyone knows of a grammar geeks' gathering, I'm there! :)
croggy
Can’t go into all the reasons the above is incorrect, but no: em is lowercase.
In brief:
The word em is the name of a measurement based on, but no longer dictated by, the letter M.
Context and rarity clarify its meaning. It doesn’t need a capital, like it doesn’t need putting in bold or underlining. It is. We don’t need to gild the lily. English dropped capitalisation of all Nouns in Sentences just because they’re Names a couple of Centuries ago.
There’s an argument for preference, sure! Why would I care about personal usage? I wouldn’t dream of arguing the point if you hadn’t ‘corrected’ me with such authority in the first place.
Capitalising ‘em’ makes as much sense as capitalising ‘alpha’ every time you use it (eg: he was no Alpha male). Just because it once referred to a capital, doesn't mean it needs a capital. If it was about the shape, it could be argued for. Take the L.
Again, can’t believe I have such strong opinions on usage of em. Need to go to Nerd Nite, be among my tribe.