1047. This week, we look at word pairs like "august/August" that change their meaning when capitalized and how you can make your meaning clear. Then, we look at how we got to the point where U.S. presidents always seem to say, "The state of the union is STRONG," in their State of the Union addresses.
1047. This week, we look at word pairs like "august/August" that change their meaning when capitalized and how you can make your meaning clear. Then, we look at how we got to the point where U.S. presidents always seem to say, "The state of the union is STRONG," in their State of the Union addresses.
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff. Today, we're talking about capitalization and the strange phrase "the state of the union."
by Susan Herman
Have you ever danced with an august partner at an August wedding? Had to polish a piece of Polish silverware? Or eaten lima beans in Lima, Peru?
Let's talk about "-nyms," words ending in the Greek suffix meaning "name," which is usually spelled as "O-N-Y-M." You likely learned about three common "nyms" in school – synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms. But there are many other
"-nyms" out there. In past episodes, we've covered homonyms (and their cousins homographs and homophones), acronyms (not to be confused with abbreviations and initialisms), eponyms, contronyms, retronyms, and demonyms.
Today we’re going to explore one of the more interesting "-nyms": the capitonym – a word that changes meaning and sometimes pronunciation when it's capitalized. "Capitonym" is a portmanteau – a blending of two or more words – of "capital" and the suffix "-onym."
Now, let's go back to the examples I gave at the beginning: The word "august" with a lowercase "A" means "inspiring" or "worthy of respect," while the capitalized form is the eighth month of the year. But they can be pronounced the same way. (An alternate pronunciation for the lowercase form is "august.") Then, lowercase "polish" means to rub until shiny, and "Polish" refers to the country in Eastern Europe. Finally, lowercase "lima" is a type of bean, while "Lima" with a capital "L" is the capital of Perú. And notice that these last two examples definitely have different pronunciations. So what's up with that?
Well, capitonyms are complex creatures. Strictly speaking, words like lowercase "cancer" (the disease) and capitalized "Cancer" (a constellation and zodiac sign) are homographs, since they are spelled the same but have different meanings. They are also homophones because they are pronounced the same. But wait; there's more! More broadly, the two words are also homonyms, since they are spelled and pronounced the same. It really depends on how you define the terms. Some, like "polish" and "Polish" and "lima" and "Lima" are also heteronyms. They’re spelled the same but have different pronunciations. So capitonyms can do quadruple duty! So let's just stick with "capitonyms."
Digital document library SCRIBD and ProWritingAid offer some categories and examples of capitonyms that are useful. For each category, we'll give you some sentences with capitonyms that are homonyms and homophones – meaning they are pronounced or written the same, or both. In all the following examples, the first instance of the word is lowercase, and the second is capitalized.
And here are some examples of capitonyms that are homographs (or heteronyms). You'll notice that these pairs are all pronounced differently.
For those of you who can't get enough of our new "-nym" friend, you can find an extensive list on the online dictionary and language resource Wordnik. And you'll find a link to that in the transcript of this episode.
Now, you true language nerds (guilty!) might be wondering if capitonyms exist in other languages. The answer is yes, but among languages that use capital and lower-case letters, their frequency varies greatly. According to The Language Closet, "[on one extreme, German nouns are always capitalized …" For example, the capitalized noun "Laut" means "sound," but the lowercase adjective "laut" means "loud." And the capitalized noun "Morgen" means "morning," but the lower-case adverb "morgen" means "tomorrow." But languages that don't capitalize so many words – like Romance languages – can also have capitonyms, even if it's not quite as frequent.
In Italian, for example, "Messa" with a capital "M" refers to a particular religious mass, while lower-case "messa" means a general "mass" and is also the past participle of the verb "mettere," used as a feminine adjective meaning "placed" or "put." And traveling back to Lima, Peru, lower-case "lima" means "file" in Spanish, as in a nail file. Then, in Portuguese, the capitalized country "Peru" is distinguished from the lowercase "peru," which means "turkey."
Finally, capitonyms are only obvious in writing, so here are a few things to keep in mind:
If both words require capitalization, like at the beginning of a sentence, be sure to add context to make it easier to understand.
And sometimes words are mistaken for capitonyms when they're really just words that require capitalization – or not – depending on how they're used. For example, seasons are lowercase, just like their noun and verb counterparts, like "fall from grace" or "spring into action"), but they are capitalized when they're part of a formal name, like the Winter Olympics.
Next, specific academic courses are capitalized (like "Biology 101," "Sociology 201"), but we don't capitalize general areas of study (like "biology major" or "sociology class").
And finally, professions or titles are lowercase when used in the general sense, like "family doctor" or "the group's president," but capitalized when referring to specific people with their name, like "Dr. Squiggly" or "President Aardvark."
So now you're armed with another "-nym" to go with "acronym," "retronym," and more. What are some other capitonyms you've seen? Let me know on Bluesky or in the YouTube comments.
That segment was written by Susan Herman, retired multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and instructor for the federal government.
by Mignon Fogarty
We're coming up on the time of year when the president in the United States gives the State of the Union address to Congress, and I got this message from Kate on LinkedIn about the assessment we pretty much hear every year: "The state of the union is strong."
She says it feels redundant. The union is what's strong, so why not just say that? "The union is strong." Why do we need "the state of the union"?
Even though she realizes it's never going to change, she wants to know why we say it this weird way.
Well, thanks for the question, Kate!
Until I started researching this, I didn't realize that it's only called the "State of the Union" address the second, third, and fourth years of a president's term. The first year, since the president has barely been in office, it's called the "inaugural address." Presidents didn't always do it that first year, but Ronald Reagan did it in 1981, and presidents have been doing it their first year ever since. (And don't blame Kate for getting it wrong. She actually asked this question last year, so it would have been the State of the Union address. Sorry it took me so long to answer!)
So this presidential update to Congress is actually mandated by the U.S. Constitution, which says the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union."
It doesn't have to be a speech — for many years, presidents submitted written reports — and it doesn't have to happen in January or February, but it does have to happen from time to time.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to actually use the phrase "State of the Union" in one of his speeches in 1934, and Gerald Ford was the first to use the phrase "The state of the union is …" in 1975. But then he actually said "not good." I'm imagining that he got to the statement by thinking something like, "I'm giving the address where I'm supposed to update Congress on the state of the union. Well, the state of the union is not good."
Then, in 1983, Reagan was the first president to say, "The state of the union is strong." And again, as with giving the inaugural address, subsequent presidents thought Reagan was onto something, and they have described the state of the union with some form of the word "strong" in 29 of the next 33 speeches.
So even though it was Ford in 1975 who started the trend of saying "The state of the union is something or other," it sounds like old-timey language to me. For example, I can imagine reading something in a novel from the 1800s like "The state of his situation was loathsome."
And even though the phrase "state of the union" comes from the Constitution, you'll also see that both the phrases "the state of the" and "the state of his" were much more common in the 1800s than they are now if you do a Google Ngram search.
Since archaic language tends to survive particularly well in ritualistic places such as songs and prayers, and in legal documents such as contracts and laws, it's not super surprising that presidents would be drawn to working in a phrase that appears in the Constitution.
So thanks for the question, Kate. You're right that it would be much more direct to just say "The union is strong." But if tradition holds, we're going to keep hearing from presidents that the state of the union is strong no matter what happens.
Sources
"2024 State of the Union." The White House. March 7, 2024. https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2024/ (accessed January 8, 2025)
Desjardins, Lisa. "The word nearly every president uses to describe the state of the union." PBS News. March 6, 2024. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-word-nearly-every-president-uses-to-describe-the-state-of-the-union (accessed January 8, 2025)
Kreiser, Maria and Greene, Michael. "History, Evolution, and Practices of the President’s State of the Union Address: Frequently Asked Questions." Congressional Research Service. January 29, 2024. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R44770.pdf (accessed January 8, 2025)
Shogun, Colleen J. "The President’s State of the Union Address: Tradition, Function, and Policy Implications." Congressional Research Service.January 16, 2015. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R40132.pdf (accessed January 8, 2025)
Finally, I have a familect story from Anna Maria:
Hi, Mignon.
My name is Anna Maria Vona. I live in Philadelphia. My last name is V as in Victor ONA. That's Vona.
I have a little familect story.
It's hard to describe this, but it's usually when [unintelligible] all goes all out and does everything perfect.
Like things on Pinterest, that everything is just perfect, or you do a party with this theme, and you take it to the nth degree.
My little sister used to call it "Nee-nee." Like N-E-E-N-E-E.
Like, it's also "nee" is when you see an obituary.
It's, you know, Anna Maria Vona nee, [unintelligible] San Antonio; that was my maiden name.
So, in that respect, "nee-nee" was something my little sister made up when she probably about seven or eight, and we would point to our knee and kind of, with our index finger and kind of move it around and go, "nee-nee."
So, if you did, like, your Christmas wrapping paper was just like perfect. And if a candy cane maybe pattern, and you put candy canes on top, that would be like, "nee-nee."
Or having mostly used for parties, decorating, you know, decorating cakes, just doing it to the nth degree.
And it's also a hallmark of what we did in our family, and we would always try to outdo each other, especially around the holidays. And we'd go, "nee-nee-nee."
And then a couple years ago, during the pandemic, I was driving, and I saw a license plate that said, "nee-nee."
So, I don't know if that was someone else's familect, but it was, it certainly was a hit when I texted it to my family, and we all got a good laugh.
So, that's my little story.
The next time you see, you know, a friend maybe doing everything just, like, perfect, and just say, "nee-nee."
And that was how we conveyed over-the-top stuff. Thank you. Bye-bye.
How funny. Thanks a lot Anna Maria.
If you want to share the story of a word you use with your family or friends that's just an insider thing nobody else would know — your familect — you can send it to me through a voice chat on WhatsApp, or you can call the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL, and both of those are in the show notes.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Davina Tomlin in marketing; Holly Hutchings in digital operations; Dan Feierabend in audio; Brannan Goetschius, director of podcasts; Morgan Christianson in advertising; and Nat Hoopes in marketing who is a die-hard Kansas basketball fan.
And I'm Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl and author of the tip-a-day book "The Grammar Daily." That's all. Thanks for listening.