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Topic: Why isn't "human" capitalized?

Nim
The Aardvark asked for a dagger
Member # 205

posted

TSN: "Otherwise, it seems to be related to the word "earth", which means "dirt"."

Well, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We are carbon based, Earth and earth do have some sensible connections,
established long before people knew about atoms and chemistry, which is nice.

As for "dirt", let me tell you carbon is one of the dirtiest things in existence.
Why just last month I got some black toner on me shirt when changing the cartridge on an office printer, that crap won't come off easily. *snarf*

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"I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!"
Mel Gibson, X-Men

Registered: Aug 1999 | IP: Logged

Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256

posted

Yeah, it's a real pain to remove diamond stains. [Smile]

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".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO

Registered: Nov 1999 | IP: Logged

Ritten
A Terrible & Sick leek
Member # 417

posted

Although, last time I talked with a hewmon from anywhere else they were talking of moving back to Earth.....

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"You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus
"Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers
A leek too, pretty much a negi.....

Registered: Sep 2000 | IP: Logged

TSN
I'm... from Earth.
Member # 31

posted

I hope you didn't try to wash the toner off w/ warm water. Heat sets it.

Registered: Mar 1999 | IP: Logged

Timo
Moderator
Member # 245

posted

Calvin as Spiff capitalizes "Earthling" (at least when the text is printed and not inked in all-caps), which is what I'm sticking with.

And incidentally, since the subject of foreign things-used-in-lieu-of-proper-language was brought up again: in Finnish, there is no difference between "English" the nationality, "English" the language and "English" the descriptive adjective. None of them is capitalized in any context, even though "England" is. All are used as if simple adjectives. Which is just as well, since we don't say our equivalent of "English" when we mean the language. We say our equivalent of "England". That is, "Englanti" is the geopolitical entity, "englanti" is the language spoken thereabouts.

Where we got all that is a complete mystery, since most of our pretense for organized grammar and spelling rules comes from Germanic influences.

Timo Saloniemi

Registered: Nov 1999 | IP: Logged

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