Are there situations when 'Capitol Hill' should NOT be capitalized as a proper noun?
"Capitol Hill" is a proper noun as a name for both the area where the US Capitol building sits as well as a residential district. Of course these should be capitalized when used as proper nouns.
But also, in news and politics, people often use "Capitol Hill" as an informal nickname meaning "members of Congress" or areas including nearby congressional buildings that may not technically sit atop Capitol Hill, but be related to the work or culture of the Capitol. What about that?
English has some rules for "always" capitalizing words, three examples being: "I" (myself), "English", and "Indian". These words should always be capitalized.
So, is "Capitol Hill"—in reference to anything Washington, DC -related—also among words that should always be capitalized? Or, if not, what is an example of when not to?
Resources that use the term, but do not answer this question specifically:
- Capitol Hill (Wikipedia)
- Capital vs. capitol (Grammarly)
capitalization nicknames
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
add a comment |
"Capitol Hill" is a proper noun as a name for both the area where the US Capitol building sits as well as a residential district. Of course these should be capitalized when used as proper nouns.
But also, in news and politics, people often use "Capitol Hill" as an informal nickname meaning "members of Congress" or areas including nearby congressional buildings that may not technically sit atop Capitol Hill, but be related to the work or culture of the Capitol. What about that?
English has some rules for "always" capitalizing words, three examples being: "I" (myself), "English", and "Indian". These words should always be capitalized.
So, is "Capitol Hill"—in reference to anything Washington, DC -related—also among words that should always be capitalized? Or, if not, what is an example of when not to?
Resources that use the term, but do not answer this question specifically:
- Capitol Hill (Wikipedia)
- Capital vs. capitol (Grammarly)
capitalization nicknames
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
add a comment |
"Capitol Hill" is a proper noun as a name for both the area where the US Capitol building sits as well as a residential district. Of course these should be capitalized when used as proper nouns.
But also, in news and politics, people often use "Capitol Hill" as an informal nickname meaning "members of Congress" or areas including nearby congressional buildings that may not technically sit atop Capitol Hill, but be related to the work or culture of the Capitol. What about that?
English has some rules for "always" capitalizing words, three examples being: "I" (myself), "English", and "Indian". These words should always be capitalized.
So, is "Capitol Hill"—in reference to anything Washington, DC -related—also among words that should always be capitalized? Or, if not, what is an example of when not to?
Resources that use the term, but do not answer this question specifically:
- Capitol Hill (Wikipedia)
- Capital vs. capitol (Grammarly)
capitalization nicknames
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
"Capitol Hill" is a proper noun as a name for both the area where the US Capitol building sits as well as a residential district. Of course these should be capitalized when used as proper nouns.
But also, in news and politics, people often use "Capitol Hill" as an informal nickname meaning "members of Congress" or areas including nearby congressional buildings that may not technically sit atop Capitol Hill, but be related to the work or culture of the Capitol. What about that?
English has some rules for "always" capitalizing words, three examples being: "I" (myself), "English", and "Indian". These words should always be capitalized.
So, is "Capitol Hill"—in reference to anything Washington, DC -related—also among words that should always be capitalized? Or, if not, what is an example of when not to?
Resources that use the term, but do not answer this question specifically:
- Capitol Hill (Wikipedia)
- Capital vs. capitol (Grammarly)
capitalization nicknames
capitalization nicknames
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
edited 2 days ago
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
asked 2 days ago
Jesse Steele
447212
447212
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
The only case I can think of where it would make sense is if capital were being used as an adjective to describe an arbitrary hill, rather than referring to the section of DC or as a metanym for Congress.
For instance,
Bunker Hill is a capital hill.
That said, there probably aren't many contexts in which we'd rate the quality of hills, and use "capital" to describe it. Maybe if you're talking about whether a hill is a good one for sledding.
EDIT:
I just realized (based on someone's attempted edit) that this is actually a homonym of the word being discussed. The word "capitol" with an "o" is a noun, usually only refers to the building housing a legislature. When capitalized it refers to the building in DC used by the US Congress, but it can also be lowercase to refer to the analogous buildings in state capitals. I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, or other named geographic/political locations, so it would always be capitalized.
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f478389%2fare-there-situations-when-capitol-hill-should-not-be-capitalized-as-a-proper-n%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
The only case I can think of where it would make sense is if capital were being used as an adjective to describe an arbitrary hill, rather than referring to the section of DC or as a metanym for Congress.
For instance,
Bunker Hill is a capital hill.
That said, there probably aren't many contexts in which we'd rate the quality of hills, and use "capital" to describe it. Maybe if you're talking about whether a hill is a good one for sledding.
EDIT:
I just realized (based on someone's attempted edit) that this is actually a homonym of the word being discussed. The word "capitol" with an "o" is a noun, usually only refers to the building housing a legislature. When capitalized it refers to the building in DC used by the US Congress, but it can also be lowercase to refer to the analogous buildings in state capitals. I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, or other named geographic/political locations, so it would always be capitalized.
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
add a comment |
The only case I can think of where it would make sense is if capital were being used as an adjective to describe an arbitrary hill, rather than referring to the section of DC or as a metanym for Congress.
For instance,
Bunker Hill is a capital hill.
That said, there probably aren't many contexts in which we'd rate the quality of hills, and use "capital" to describe it. Maybe if you're talking about whether a hill is a good one for sledding.
EDIT:
I just realized (based on someone's attempted edit) that this is actually a homonym of the word being discussed. The word "capitol" with an "o" is a noun, usually only refers to the building housing a legislature. When capitalized it refers to the building in DC used by the US Congress, but it can also be lowercase to refer to the analogous buildings in state capitals. I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, or other named geographic/political locations, so it would always be capitalized.
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
add a comment |
The only case I can think of where it would make sense is if capital were being used as an adjective to describe an arbitrary hill, rather than referring to the section of DC or as a metanym for Congress.
For instance,
Bunker Hill is a capital hill.
That said, there probably aren't many contexts in which we'd rate the quality of hills, and use "capital" to describe it. Maybe if you're talking about whether a hill is a good one for sledding.
EDIT:
I just realized (based on someone's attempted edit) that this is actually a homonym of the word being discussed. The word "capitol" with an "o" is a noun, usually only refers to the building housing a legislature. When capitalized it refers to the building in DC used by the US Congress, but it can also be lowercase to refer to the analogous buildings in state capitals. I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, or other named geographic/political locations, so it would always be capitalized.
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
The only case I can think of where it would make sense is if capital were being used as an adjective to describe an arbitrary hill, rather than referring to the section of DC or as a metanym for Congress.
For instance,
Bunker Hill is a capital hill.
That said, there probably aren't many contexts in which we'd rate the quality of hills, and use "capital" to describe it. Maybe if you're talking about whether a hill is a good one for sledding.
EDIT:
I just realized (based on someone's attempted edit) that this is actually a homonym of the word being discussed. The word "capitol" with an "o" is a noun, usually only refers to the building housing a legislature. When capitalized it refers to the building in DC used by the US Congress, but it can also be lowercase to refer to the analogous buildings in state capitals. I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, or other named geographic/political locations, so it would always be capitalized.
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
edited 6 hours ago
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
answered 2 days ago
Barmar
9,6001429
9,6001429
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
add a comment |
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Could also be referring to a capital "HILL".
– Hot Licks
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
Possibly, although many would call that an "all capitals 'HILL'"
– Barmar
yesterday
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
I don't think there would be any "Capitol Hill" constructions that don't refer to the location of the US Congress, so it would always be capitalized. There is a neighborhood in Seattle called Capitol Hill, and I'm sure there are in other cities, but they would also always be capitalized.
– Azor Ahai
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
Thanks, I've updated the answer to refer to named locations.
– Barmar
6 hours ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f478389%2fare-there-situations-when-capitol-hill-should-not-be-capitalized-as-a-proper-n%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
