Capitalization Question

[AsylumSeeker]

I have a question about the military jeep referred to as a Humvee. I tried to research this on my own and couldn't find anything so here I am.

The term "Humvee" is not a word but military jargon to begin with derived from a much longer name, yet it is a name for a specific type of a military vehicle, which leads up to my question. If written mid-sentence should it be "Humvee" or "humvee"? "Humvee" looks correct to me but I'm really not sure.

 

[PennLady]

I have a question about the military jeep referred to as a Humvee. I tried to research this on my own and couldn't find anything so here I am.

The term "Humvee" is not a word but military jargon to begin with derived from a much longer name, yet it is a name for a specific type of a military vehicle, which leads up to my question. If written mid-sentence should it be "Humvee" or "humvee"? "Humvee" looks correct to me but I'm really not sure.

I hope someone else can find a real reference on this. All I can say is my gut feeling is "Humvee." I think if I saw "humvee," it'd actually confuse me for a minute. My hub agrees with me, fwiw, and he's more familiar with military jargon than I am.

My husband suggests researching the use of the name "Huey" for a Bell-UH1 Iroquois helicopter and using that for an example. "Huey" is a nickname but would be capitalized, i.e., "The Huey came over the rise." But you might have better luck searching that term, one that's been in use for a while.

 

[Tzara]

I have a question about the military jeep referred to as a Humvee. I tried to research this on my own and couldn't find anything so here I am.

The term "Humvee" is not a word but military jargon to begin with derived from a much longer name, yet it is a name for a specific type of a military vehicle, which leads up to my question. If written mid-sentence should it be "Humvee" or "humvee"? "Humvee" looks correct to me but I'm really not sure.

The word "Humvee" is a registered trademark of its manufacturer, AM General, who shows it as capitalized on its website.

 

[Great_Brit]

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) is a military 4WD motor vehicle created by AM General.

 

[PennLady]

The word "Humvee" is a registered trademark of its manufacturer, AM General, who shows it as capitalized on its website.

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) is a military 4WD motor vehicle created by AM General.

I knew someone would have the answer!

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I knew someone would have the answer!

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[JackandJilldo]

For now, it is capitalized. However, if in time this becomes a general designation, it can become a lower cased word. A good example of this was used in your inquiry.

Jeep has two connotations. Like the Humvee, it started out as a pronouncable word from initials, GP, short for General Purpose (vehicle), but referred to as JEEP. In time, the Willys vehicle became known as a Jeep, while any offroad vehicle was called a jeep.

See where this is going?

 

[elfin_odalisque]

For now, it is capitalized. However, if in time this becomes a general designation, it can become a lower cased word. A good example of this was used in your inquiry.

Jeep has two connotations. Like the Humvee, it started out as a pronouncable word from initials, GP, short for General Purpose (vehicle), but referred to as JEEP. In time, the Willys vehicle became known as a Jeep, while any offroad vehicle was called a jeep.

See where this is going?

No, not quite. The GP designation became jeep before the 'proper noun' was used/registered by the manufacturer. 'Humvee' is trademarked and can't be used for any other vehicle.

 

[sr71plt]

Not quite like that, but same result. "Humvee" is also a military designation predating the commercial vehicle use and "Jeep" is also a trademarked name. But Webster's doesn't capitalize the generic use of jeep (if it's the Jeep vehicle model now owned by Ford, it should be capped) and it does capitalize "Humvee." So I'd just go with the dictionary.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

... 'Humvee' is trademarked and can't be used for any other vehicle.

So is Hoover for vacuum cleaners, but it doesn't stop people in the UK using it as a generic term for all brands, and as a verb.

 

[sr71plt]

So is Hoover for vacuum cleaners, but it doesn't stop people in the UK using it as a generic term for all brands, and as a verb.

British usage is irrelevant to requirements in U.S. market writings (and this is a U.S.-based Web site). U.S. trademark requires that a name be rendered as trademarked when publishing to the U.S. market. You can use the term, you just have to render it as trademarked.

 

[colddiesel]

British usage is irrelevant to requirements in U.S. market writings (and this is a U.S.-based Web site).

Quite correct, but this is a website not a market.

The Literotica readership is about 40% American followed by about 11% Indian, 10% British and so on. Given that the ownership of Literotica has such an international advertizing base, I doubt they would be so enthusiastically assertive in dismissing alternative conventions.

 

[driphoney]

Nice to see some things never change around here.

I've always adored the Brit term "hoovering".

Where I grew up everyone used a kleenx. I still ask for a Kleenx when I mean tissue. So, wonder if that's gotten lower-cased or is the term so isolated that it hasn't. By the way, trademarked or not, manufacturers have to love when their product is so closely identified with an item it becomes the default term.

 

[sr71plt]

Quite correct, but this is a website not a market.

The Literotica readership is about 40% American followed by about 11% Indian, 10% British and so on. Given that the ownership of Literotica has such an international advertizing base, I doubt they would be so enthusiastically assertive in dismissing alternative conventions.

You can, of course, render the terms anyway you like with little chance of objection. But AS asked what the proper way of rendering the terms are, and they are American words--and are involved in U.S. trademark to boot. So AS is getting the answers to the question he actually asked.

I'm sure if they were British words, you'd insist on following British conventions.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

... Where I grew up everyone used a kleenx. I still ask for a Kleenx when I mean tissue. So, wonder if that's gotten lower-cased ...

Not officially in the US or UK. Merriam-Webster Online lists it with a capital letter but defines it as —used for a cleansing tissue. Oxford Online also lists it with a capital letter and defines it as a trademark and as an absorbent disposable paper tissue.

 

[colddiesel]

You can, of course, render the terms anyway you like with little chance of objection. But AS asked what the proper way of rendering the terms are, and they are American words--and are involved in U.S. trademark to boot. So AS is getting the answers to the question he actually asked.

I'm sure if they were British words, you'd insist on following British conventions.

There are British words but the only place you'll find' em is in Welsh and Gaelic. They are very rare in English -- though Afon and Cwm are examples.

My original spoken language was Lallans (Lowland Scottish). though I write and speak standard English most of the time these days.

Humvee is indeed an American trademark, but it was also trademarked in Japan, Germany and many other jurisdictions simultaneously, so that doesn't help much.

I don't hold a particular brief for either English or American conventions, indeed in many respects, prefer for example, CMS to Fowler where those authorities differ. In publishing, however, I would say one or the other, not some half baked in between of personal preferences.

On this site though, I would prefer to see English in all its varieties enjoyed, rather than see unnecessary restrictions applied.

And I know I've gone off topic, but there you are.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Quite correct, but this is a website not a market.

The Literotica readership is about 40% American followed by about 11% Indian, 10% British and so on.

I find this a bit surprising as far as the percentages go. In my experience I would have thought the readership is about 40% British, 15% Indian, 10% American, and so on. As I said, just my experience. Thanks for the additional information about the correct capitalization for Humvee, think it looks better capitalized

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

There are British words but the only place you'll find' em is in Welsh and Gaelic. They are very rare in English -- though Afon and Cwm are examples.

My original spoken language was Lallans (Lowland Scottish). though I write and speak standard English most of the time these days. ...

UK English has inherited all of its traditional words from previous languages. Some new words have been coined for new discoveries/inventions, e.g. aeroplane and television. Even those have usually been created from old roots being combined.

The only one I can think of off-hand which was purely invented without an etymological origin is the verb "to boycott" which was derived from the name of a bad landlord in pre-republic Ireland and whose name was Charles C. Boycott. I suppose Rolls-Royce as an adjective indicating superlative quality is similar, but it still has capital letters in the OED.

Lallans is not a genuinely different language, just a particularly differentiated dialect of English, as opposed to Gaelic, Cornish and Cymraeg which are distinct languages.
An example from the Scots Language Society (http://www.lallans.co.uk/) is:
This wabsteid rowes swackest wi Realplayer (tm) dounladit an set as defaut for pleyin MP3 file types. Gin ye need this saftware the link til the corrie o this jot will tak ye til thair wabsteid. See an howk for the free pleyer - that dis aa ye'll need.
I think most speakers of any form of English as their first language could understand that with a little effort.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

UK English has inherited all of its traditional words from previous languages. Some new words have been coined for new discoveries/inventions, e.g. aeroplane and television. Even those have usually been created from old roots being combined.

The only one I can think of off-hand which was purely invented without an etymological origin is the verb "to boycott" which was derived from the name of a bad landlord in pre-republic Ireland and whose name was Charles C. Boycott. I suppose Rolls-Royce as an adjective indicating superlative quality is similar, but it still has capital letters in the OED.

Lallans is not a genuinely different language, just a particularly differentiated dialect of English, as opposed to Gaelic, Cornish and Cymraeg which are distinct languages.
An example from the Scots Language Society (http://www.lallans.co.uk/) is:
This wabsteid rowes swackest wi Realplayer (tm) dounladit an set as defaut for pleyin MP3 file types. Gin ye need this saftware the link til the corrie o this jot will tak ye til thair wabsteid. See an howk for the free pleyer - that dis aa ye'll need.
I think most speakers of any form of English as their first language could understand that with a little effort.

So Brits are "suck-ups"?

Not meaning to sound demeaning, but this is what I get from what you say.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

So Brits are "suck-ups"?

Not meaning to sound demeaning, but this is what I get from what you say.

The English language results from much the same process as the creation of modern North America, successive waves of incoming people who settled here. The difference is that ours started about 1500 years earlier than the colonisation of North America.

We have lots of words based on Latin or Greek, mostly longer words like "defenestration" or "hebdomadal", then lots of four letter words based on Nordic or Germanic roots, like "work" and "hard". Add in a few from more distant lands, like "samovar", "pyjama" and "rickshaw" from Russian, Urdu/Persian and Japanese respectively and you have modern UK English.

 

[colddiesel]

UK English has inherited all of its traditional words from previous languages.

How would you define UK English: with difficulty perhaps. The notion of attaching a nationality to the language is largely absurd, whether it be UK, American, Australian, or whatever.

Most of the differences are merely accent but with a sprinkling of differing vocabulary. Occasionally distinct dialects develop but with a few exceptions they are usually mutually comprehensible.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

How would you define UK English: with difficulty perhaps. ...

The authority for UK English is the Oxford English Dictionary, which also notes some US usages and spellings. For US English it is Webster's which largely ignores UK usages and spellings.

... Most of the differences are merely accent but with a sprinkling of differing vocabulary. Occasionally distinct dialects develop but with a few exceptions they are usually mutually comprehensible.

That "sprinkling" runs to hundreds of different usages of individual words, and yet more of phrases.

Many of the word differences are very confusing. A few examples:
US purse is handbag in the UK and purse in the UK is US pocket book.
US suspenders (for a man) is braces in the UK; conversely US braces (for teeth) is braces in the UK.
US truck (on the road) is lorry in the UK.
US gondola on the railroad is truck on the railway in the UK.

Understanding one version is difficult if the reader is native to the other.

Phrases are even more misleading. Examples:
In the UK shoot off means "leave in a hurry" whereas in the US it means masturbate.
In the UK knock up means "wake up by hammering on a door" whereas in the US it means impregnate.

"Divided by a common language" has never been so true. At least if I am looking at French I know it is a different language which needs to be translated, so I am not very surprised when le four does not mean the four.

 

[sr71plt]

The authority for UK English is the Oxford English Dictionary, which also notes some US usages and spellings. For US English it is Webster's which largely ignores UK usages and spellings.

Tilt. Webster's is full of British variation spellings.

For instance, every "Briticism" definition you cite (including "knock up": to summon) is also in Webster's--and you'll find "shooting off" more relating to "hurrying off" in American writing than you will ejaculating (not just masturbating).

Look up all those ". . . our" spellings. They are there in Webster's. You just didn't look before leaping.

 

[driphoney]

US gondola on the railroad is truck on the railway in the UK.

In the UK shoot off means "leave in a hurry" whereas in the US it means masturbate.

There are many other examples, but a reasonable reader quickly moves beyond the confusion, no differently than when he/she pieces other descriptions together and comes up with a slightly different mental picture than the author.

I had to single out those two references because, though I grew up alongside railroad tracks but not in a railroad family, I've never heard railroad "cars" called anything but "cars", "wagons" or maybe Pullman's by older folks referencing passenger cars.

As for "shooting off", while in context I would understand the sexual intention of what was meant by "shooting off," I've mostly heard it refering to ill-thought-out speech as in, "There goes George shooting his mouth off at the boss again, he's gonna get us all fired." Someone will occasional speak of "shooting off at the hip" which means the same thing.

"Jerking off" is the male masturbatory phrase for "wanking" you would hear most often I think.

One term that took me years to sort out was "jumper".

Over all, all colonials and the British home world understand each other pretty well, so I'm not sure why we continue to argue over this.

Now ... can someone help me think out tomorrow's little test essay en español, por favor?

 

[searchingforperfection]

What a hoot!

I worked for a company with offices in 100+ countries, and often went to classes and symposia with coworkers from around the world.

I took one class, in particular, with five other students. We were each native English speakers, but each of us was from a different country.

We discovered that almost any informal phrase that any of us used would cause at least one of us to snicker.

Example:

I was describing a situation and used the phrase "gobbling up resources." The guy from the UK just about lost it, and he told this joke:

A man was walking along when he saw a little green man with pointy ears sitting on the curb with his head down between his knees. Never having seen a little green man with pointy ears before, he asked "Are you a goblin"?

"No," the goblin replied, "I'm just feeling a little light-headed."