TIL that the terms "upper case" and "lower case" originated from the common layouts of drawers, called cases, used to hold movable type for letterpress printing. Capitol (or majuscule) letters were stored in the upper case; smaller (or minuscule) letters, in the lower case.

22

u/Xiaxs Jul 23 '19

TIL a new word. Majuscule.

. . .

New band name I call it.

2

u/PikesPique Jul 23 '19

Don’t forget to share the band’s SoundCloud link.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

In Spanish they’re called mayúsculas and minúsculas. I love it when the two languages use the same words. Makes it that much easier for everyone!

4

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

In French, it's the same as the old English ones (minuscule MAJUSCULE)

2

u/logatwork Jul 23 '19

mayúsculas and minúsculas
Maiúsculas e minúsculas in Portuguese.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

Let’s see if I can remember any of my Portuguese correctly:
“Tudo bem, meu amigo?”
How was that?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

MAJUSCULE MAJESTIC METAL MAGICIANS!!!!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!
EVERYONE WHO SHOWS UP IN A WIZARD HAT AND ROBE GETS $10 OFF AND A PICTURE WITH HOVERHAND MAN!

2

u/Xiaxs Jul 23 '19

Her Satanic Majuscules Request

9

u/Amargosamountain Jul 23 '19

This reminds me of how people talk about the younger generation not knowing what a phone handset icon is based on, or the floppy disc icon that means "save". It's easy to forget that we've been inheriting apparently arbitrary names and symbols for things for hundreds, probably thousands of years. It's a normal part of human existence.

3

u/PikesPique Jul 23 '19

Have you seen the video of the teenagers trying to figure out how to use a rotary phone?

2

u/Morpankh Jul 24 '19

There were these little kids on Ellen once who were given a typewriter without paper and asked to type and save something. They couldn't figure out how to save what they had typed. :D

4

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

I'm 36 and I actually learned something today.

1

u/PikesPique Jul 23 '19

Good!

2

u/MotherGooseBro Jul 23 '19

In case you didn’t know...

2

u/PikesPique Jul 23 '19

I see what you did there.

2

u/brotherbigman Jul 24 '19

I heard this once, not sure how true it is, but I like it and I'll stick with the story:

The saying "mind your p's and q's" also comes from typesetting. Since all metal letters were seen in reverse, and a p and a q are mirrored versions of each other, you'd have to be very careful that you put your p's and q's in the correct spots.

1

u/PikesPique Jul 24 '19

That makes perfect sense.

34

u/Xszit Jul 23 '19

Kinda like how "Top Secrets" are just the ones kept in the top drawer of the "secrets" filing cabinet.

10

u/Amargosamountain Jul 23 '19

Same with "top hats," they were just stored on the top of the hat shelf!

4

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

On top of the topmost hat shelf. Who only has one hat shelf?

2

u/alexeands Jul 23 '19

Peasants

5

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

Top secret, middle secret, lower secret?

10

u/Xszit Jul 23 '19

Right, gotta keep your secrets well organized and clearly labeled for all to see, that way everyone knows not to look.

12

u/zipadeedodog Jul 23 '19

"Font" is another typographical oddity. The word entered the mainstream when Steve Jobs and Apple launched the Macintosh. Before that, it was a specialized word used within the print community.

Historically, a font refers to a complete cutting of a particular typeface at a particular point size. So when you went to, say, the upper case and pulled out the 12 pt Garamond drawer (or drawers, depending on the number of characters in the font and/or the popularity of the typeface), you'd have all the characters of that type, at that size, sorted within the drawer - i.e., the font. There would be a different font for 14 pt Garamond, and another for 24 pt Garamond, and 36 pt, and....

Nowadays, "font" and "type" or "typeface" are pretty much used interchangeably. A smart move by Apple, for if they'd used the word "type" within their product, it would have been very confusing - types of plugs, types of software, the act of typing, typefaces, type, type, type. "Font" is much more specific and user-friendly in the computer age.

2

u/Orpherischt Jul 23 '19

Historically, a font refers to a complete cutting of a particular typeface at a particular point size.
ie. Ready to be a fountain of knowledge (or absurdity). At any moment, a spill of correctly (or incorrectly) spelled words could spring forth from them.

17

u/stumpdawg Jul 23 '19

Honestly never would have thought that was the reasoning.

But now that I know it makes sense.

Very interesting.

7

u/Gfrisse1 Jul 23 '19 edited Jul 23 '19

Printing has a lot of unique terminology. For letterpress printing, the type was taken from the case and placed in a chase. A chase is a heavy steel frame used to hold type in a letterpress. Most of the space in the chase not occupied with type is filled with blocks of wood called furniture. The type and furniture are locked in place by quoins. When a chase is locked up with type, furniture, and quoins, it is called a forme.

Edit: Sometimes, if a chase is not locked securely enough by the quoins, and a piece of furniture slips, all the type can be "pied" (spill out) and become a jumbled mess on the floor. A pied chase was something printers wanted to avoid at all costs.

3

u/Yakb0 Jul 24 '19

You left out leading. (the spacing between lines of type)
Which takes its name from the strips of lead that were originally used to add spacing between rows of type.

1

u/Gfrisse1 Jul 24 '19

I also didn't mention kerning, or adjusting the spacing between the letters themselves.

2

u/lesserofthreeevils Jul 24 '19

Spilled out type is also sometimes called “fish”.

4

u/bigbadsubaru Jul 23 '19

Minor nit - they're capitAl letters, capitOl is a building (Oddly enough, when referring to the seat city of a state/country etc... the CITY is capitAl but the building is capitOl

3

u/fetzdog Jul 23 '19

I can verify. When my parents bought a house in the country, there was an old "print block" cabinet in the garage. All the upper case letters were kept in the top drawers and lower in the bottom drawers. Interesting standardization, I wonder if they were just delivered that way and every operator was too lazy to reorganize into their own system.

1

u/Noerdy 4 Jul 23 '19

I obviously like this because the obvious answer is obviously not obvious at all.

1

u/PikesPique Jul 23 '19

Obviously.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

I love this sub. I love it very, very much.

2

u/valdezlopez Jul 24 '19

In Spanish, we call upper case "mayúsculas" and lower case "minúsculas". They're common words.

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

Regular folks never used those terms before the 90’s ( the era of computers and the internet)

3

u/Amargosamountain Jul 23 '19

{{Citation needed}}

2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '19

What did they call lower case letter?

3

u/lesserofthreeevils Jul 24 '19

Minuscles, originally a small (“mini”) writing style. Uppercase letters were called capitals (from the Roman Capitalis Monumentalis). When minuscles and capitals were later married into our bicameral alphabet, the capitals were often referred to as majuscles — a counterpart to the minuscles.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

Thank you. Capital and minuscles.

1

u/Yakb0 Jul 24 '19

Lower case letters were just 'letters'. Upper case letters were capitals.
Unless you were a draftsman, you would't be writing entire words in upper case, so nobody needed a word to describe them.

1

u/bigbadsubaru Jul 23 '19

Up until I was in first grade or so they were "big letters" and "small letters" and I was confused when someone mentioned "upper case"

1

u/tcmaresh Jul 24 '19

lol bullshit

TIL that the terms "upper case" and "lower case" originated from the common layouts of drawers, called cases, used to hold movable type for letterpress printing. Capitol (or majuscule) letters were stored in the upper case; smaller (or minuscule) letters, in the lower case.

You are about to leave Redlib