Odd capitalization question

[NotWise]

When using a proper noun as a slang word, should the word still be capitalized?

"Sheba," as in The Queen thereof, is a specific case. Sheba was a 1920's slang term for girlfriend, and "girlfriend" would not be capitalized. Is "Will you be my sheba," correct, or should it be "Will you be my Sheba."?

 

[KeithD]

I would cap it. If it had entered the lexicon enough to be a generic, separate definition word, it would be listed as such in Webster's. It isn't.

 

[NotWise]

I would cap it. If it had entered the lexicon enough to be a generic, separate definition word, it would be listed as such in Webster's. It isn't.

Thanks.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Much as I would hesitate to argue with my esteemed colleague, I would not necessarily capitalize it.

Using an analogy, consider the slang Down Under for girl or girlfriend, the word 'sheila'. Now that must have started off as a girl's name, a proper noun. Now, often as not, there is no cap used, making it the same as the North American words 'babe', 'sweetie' or 'squeeze'. So, in that sense, no.

In another however, one could be asking the lady if she will be your queen. To use a Shakespearean analogy, consider Hamlet, in which the prince's evil uncle sends him to England bearing a letter asking the king of that nation to execute him. In it, Hamlet's uncle implores, "Do it England!" (instead of, "Do it, Charlie!" or something). In other words, he uses the name of the kingdom as a term for the ruler of the kingdom. In that sense, 'Will you be my Sheba?" is quite romantic, implying that the lady rules your heart.

Your call, in other words. My call, anyway.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

It seems like you're essentially using Sheba as an eponym. Usually style guides recommend capitalizing eponymous words unless they've become common (like quixotic or mercurial).

 

[KeithD]

"sheila" is in Webster's uncapped, so, as was the base of what I suggested, it has been determined to have entered the lexicon as having its own generic meaning. "Sheba" isn't.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm with TP on this - Sheba presumably isn't her name, so she's just some sheila from down the road, a tart, a slut, a bit of tail, whatever. I suppose one might refer to a Tart, a Slut, a Bit of Tail, but it sure looks odd to me, to write a slang moniker with a capital.

Edit: Urban Dictionary spells it lower case - "a young woman with a lot of sex appeal."

Webster's just ain't caught up yet .

 

[KeithD]

The question is about "Sheba," not "sheila." "Sheba" isn't some "sheila" down the road. The word "sheila" has made it into the lexicon. It's in Webster's. "Sheba" hasn't. It's not in Webster's.


ON The OTHER HAND, for erotica and Literotica, there is indeed support for lowercasing it. The Urban Dictionary lowercases it in terms of a woman with sex appeal.


https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sheba

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Well would you write "He's a regular Einstein" or "He's a regular einstein"?

 

[JJonah]

Simple. It was a ‘20s slang term?

Find contemporary examples in print and see if they’re capitalized. There’s your answer.

“Research,” in other words.

 

[NotWise]

Simple. It was a ‘20s slang term?

Find contemporary examples in print and see if they’re capitalized. There’s your answer.

You find that simple?

 

[JJonah]

You find that simple?

Research is something I enjoy.

So....

OED should have plenty. “Simple” isn’t always fast.

 

[SimonDoom]

We're talking about two completely different things.

"Sheila" can be a name, but the Australians use it as slang for a female. You would not capitalize it used this way. It doesn't refer to a particular person named "Sheila." It's a common noun.

"Sheba" and "Einstein" are proper nouns that refer to specific persons, and can be used in a figurative way to describe someone as having the traits of those two specific persons. These are proper nouns that should be capitalized.

 

[NotWise]

We're talking about two completely different things.

"Sheila" can be a name, but the Australians use it as slang for a female. You would not capitalize it used this way. It doesn't refer to a particular person named "Sheila." It's a common noun.

In 1920's slang "jane" would be the equivalent to "sheila"

"Sheba" and "Einstein" are proper nouns that refer to specific persons, and can be used in a figurative way to describe someone as having the traits of those two specific persons. These are proper nouns that should be capitalized.

I don't think "Sheba" was used to describe women as having the traits of the Queen of Sheba (from the old silent movie). It just meant "girlfriend." Symmetrically, "Sheik" (or sheik) from Rudolph Valentino's character, meant "boyfriend." I doubt it implied similarity to Rudolph Valentino or to an actual Sheik.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't think "Sheba" was used to describe women as having the traits of the Queen of Sheba (from the old silent movie). It just meant "girlfriend." Symmetrically, "Sheik" (or sheik) from Rudolph Valentino's character, meant "boyfriend." I doubt it implied similarity to Rudolph Valentino or to an actual Sheik.

I did a bit more research about "sheba" (there's no substitute for, you know, actually gathering facts from their source instead of pulling them out of one's ass, which I try not to do as a matter of course but do sometimes, nevertheless) and it looks like you're right. It was used as slang in the 1920s and would be an uncapitalized common noun.

 

[NotWise]

I'm with TP on this - Sheba presumably isn't her name, so she's just some sheila from down the road, a tart, a slut, a bit of tail, whatever. I suppose one might refer to a Tart, a Slut, a Bit of Tail, but it sure looks odd to me, to write a slang moniker with a capital.

Oh wait. I didn't think that 'sheila' was necessarily a slut. If so, then I'll take back my comparison of "jane" and "sheila" because "jane" was just any girl.

 

[jaF0]

And what about the BritSlang ... bird?

By the way, fuck Webster, Shakespeare, urban shit and know-it-alls, this it Lit.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Simple. It was a ‘20s slang term?

Find contemporary examples in print and see if they’re capitalized. There’s your answer.

“Research,” in other words.

You find that simple?

Not trivial, but...

"I've watched the flapper and her shiek;
she's not just what one would call meek,
in these jazzy — bim-bam days :
perhaps she smokes a cigarette,
and gulps the drink which she can get,
by artful Sheba ways..."
- Railway Signaling and Communications, Volume 17, Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 1924.

Google Books lets you search by publication date. Here's the search I used to find that example, looking for books with "Sheba" published in between 1920 and 1929.

That search produced nineteen hits; the first eighteen are irrelevant (mostly references to the Queen of Sheba, places like Bath-sheba or Beer-sheba, somebody's chicken, and somebody else's name). But the nineteenth has the excerpt above, linking to this scan.

I'm not entirely sure what that poem is doing in a book on railway signalling, but the language does look like the right vintage, and it looks like the same usage you mention.

I'd be happier if I could find more than one example, but that one example does support capitalisation.

Not very useful in this case due to false positives from Queen of Sheba, Bath-sheba etc., but Google Ngrams can also help with some historical usage questions.

 

[Jada59]

I would cap it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Oh wait. I didn't think that 'sheila' was necessarily a slut. If so, then I'll take back my comparison of "jane" and "sheila" because "jane" was just any girl.

It's not. Just implies a woman, often but not always an attractive one.

 

[NotWise]

Not trivial, but...

"I've watched the flapper and her shiek;
she's not just what one would call meek,
in these jazzy — bim-bam days :
perhaps she smokes a cigarette,
and gulps the drink which she can get,
by artful Sheba ways..."
- Railway Signaling and Communications, Volume 17, Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 1924.

Nice find. So Sheba is capitalized, but shiek is not?

 

[Etaski]

Oh wait. I didn't think that 'sheila' was necessarily a slut. If so, then I'll take back my comparison of "jane" and "sheila" because "jane" was just any girl.

Heh. Well, I just read it in context, NotWise, and though I'd never seen it before, you did a good job defining it within the story. I would go with the contemporary example, since RubenR could dig one up and I understood it fine.

And as an aside, I've been called a "top sheila" before by an Aussie friend. He wasn't calling me a great slut. Methinks that's in the context, too.

 

[JJonah]

Nice find. So Sheba is capitalized, but shiek is not?

Sheikh is a title, not a name. It’d be like capitalizing “duke.”

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Exactly, sheik is just a title. Sheba is being used eponymously.

 

[Touch_type]

Hoover/hoover? (Vacuum cleaner.cleaning - not sure if it's common in the US). I'd never capitalise as noun or verb.