Comments on: Adorkable and capitonyms http://blog.wordnik.com/adorkable-and-capitonyms Connecting people with meaning. Wed, 09 May 2012 19:58:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David Giltinan http://blog.wordnik.com/adorkable-and-capitonyms/comment-page-1#comment-343 David Giltinan Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:17:05 +0000 http://blog.wordnik.com/?p=202#comment-343 It seems regrettable that this list should be based on a definition that is, at best, highly questionable and very probably just plain wrong. Tellingly, Wordnik itself does not provide a definition for "capitonym"; I hope that when they do, they choose to cast a wider net than Wikipedia, which is the only source I can find for "words which differ in meaning depending upon" capitalization status. The widely accepted meaning is "words which differ *in pronunciation* and meaning depending upon capitalization status"; to cite just one reference, see the Wordsmith AWAD archives, for December 13th 2001. At the very least, this list should be renamed to reflect the correct usage of the word. It seems regrettable that this list should be based on a definition that is, at best, highly questionable and very probably just plain wrong. Tellingly, Wordnik itself does not provide a definition for “capitonym”; I hope that when they do, they choose to cast a wider net than Wikipedia, which is the only source I can find for “words which differ in meaning depending upon” capitalization status.

The widely accepted meaning is “words which differ *in pronunciation* and meaning depending upon capitalization status”; to cite just one reference, see the Wordsmith AWAD archives, for December 13th 2001.

At the very least, this list should be renamed to reflect the correct usage of the word.

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