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Subject:Fall or fall?? From:Robert W Jones <JonesR -at- ACT-EASTERN-PO -dot- ACT -dot- ORG> Date:Mon, 31 Jul 1995 15:46:00 CST
Hi all,
I have been plagued with a capitalization problem with which I hope to get
some help. I work for an educational organization and write
marketing copy for our programs. In education, our big season is the Fall
of the year, and also when marketing to educators, it is especially
important to use correct grammar. Herein lies my problem.
In the past, dictionaries which I have used make the point that "Fall" as a
season is capitalized. You should note that neither spring, summer, nor
winter is to be captilized -- except, or course, at the beginning of a
sentence. This always struck me as odd, but I assumed that the
capitalization came from the biblical reference, "The Fall of man."
Because of the fact that Fall is the only capitalized season, I
occasionally return to the dictionary to make sure that my capitalization
is correct.
In my paperback American Heritage Dictionary (1983), I find this: "Often
Fall. Autumn." All the other definitions of fall are lowercase, as they
should be. In the latest hardcover American Heritage (1993), there is no
reference to the autumnally defined fall being capitalized.
Has anyone else noticed this change? How do you all deal with this issue?
