CamelCase

Compound words which have no spaces but capital letters within the word (common in software and website names like MySpace) are said to be in CamelCase, due to the ‘hump’ in the middle caused by the capital. There’s plenty of interesting history and usage of this case in the linked Wikipedia article. I can’t imagine that it’s going to be that long before a word in this case gets into the OED (assuming there’s not one there already), and I look forward to reading angry letters written by Daily Mail readers bemoaning the state of the language on the day this happens.

I have a pet theory (for which I happily offer no evidence whatsoever) that the names of people and their usernames will begin to merge in the next century or so as the Internet becomes more and more hard-wired into daily life: as such, I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing names in CamelCase before too long, such as RichardHolden (or, as my first child will be called, LOLHolden). In all honesty, I can’t imagine how this wouldn’t happen.

Link

3 comments

  1. Alex Steer says:

    CinemaScope is camel-cased in the OED.

    This fact has been brought to you by an excess of spare time.

  2. Richard says:

    Ahh, interesting. How did you find that out? I’m assuming you didn’t go through every entry until you saw one. I mean, I know you said spare time, but that would be ridiculous.

  3. Alex Steer says:

    Tried to work out old camel-cased words from the Supplement era, on the basis that they were slightly more prone to putting random trade names in than the brilliant young lexicographers of the present day. I’m sure you could do some regexp wizardry to find all the camel-cased headwords, but I for one plan to save that for the grand finale once I’ve ended war and cured disease.

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