internet or Internet

A

andersxman

Senior Member
Denmark/danish
I think that I remember having been told that internet should always be written with a capital I - Internet...

I do not remember the explenation, but maybe.. just maybe it has something to do with the word "Internet" being a registered trademark..... Maybe you are all laughing your a.. of now, maybe I'm so far of as you can possibly be, but I think I remember having learned something like this somewhere... Does anyone know?
 
    • andersxman said:
    I think that I remember having been told that internet should always be written with a capital I - Internet...

    I do not remember the explenation, but maybe.. just maybe it has something to do with the word "Internet" being a registered trademark..... Maybe you are all laughing your a.. of now, maybe I'm so far of as you can possibly be, but I think I remember having learned something like this somewhere... Does anyone know?
    Click to expand...

    I can't think of a reason why it would be written with a capital letter - as far as I know only proper nouns get a capital letter, and the pronoun "I".
     
    Originally (in form internet): a computer network consisting of or connecting a number of smaller networks, [...] In later use (usu. the Internet): the global computer network (which evolved out of ARPAnet) providing a variety of information and communication facilities to its users, and consisting of a loose confederation of interconnected networks which use standardized communication protocols;
    Click to expand...
    OED
    I'd give it an initial capital if talking about the Internet, referring specifically to the network. There is, after all, only one of it.
    As an adjective, internet gets no capital.
    A poor justification, but the best I can do:p

    PS It isn't a registered trademark.
     
    If you check out with Word, it corrects internet to Internet, with capital "I". I don't know why...
     
    Amityville said:
    So if we talk about the net, should it be the Net, do you think ?
    Click to expand...
    I pass on that one.
    Because of the potential confusion between local networks, the private wide area network I work within, and the Internet, I wouldn't ever use the net/Net.
     
    panjandrum said:
    I pass on that one.
    Because of the potential confusion between local networks, the private wide area network I work within, and the Internet, I wouldn't ever use the net/Net.
    Click to expand...

    The Net (referring to the Internet) is fairly colloquial anyway.
     
    I always capitalize Internet. I don't necessarily know why.
     
    Why are words capitalized such as God and Bod. The Internet is unique and therefore requires a capital letter???



    elroy said:
    I always capitalize Internet. I don't necessarily know why.
    Click to expand...
     
    I always write it with a capital 'I'. I think it is seen as a name like a city, country etc which are all written with a capital letter in English.
     
    sallyjoe said:
    Why are words capitalized such as God and Bod. The Internet is unique and therefore requires a capital letter???
    Click to expand...

    Maybe because they're proper names. We also capitalize Google, Wikipedia, Webster's, Jehova, New York, the Bronx ... and why? Just because they are proper names like the Internet.
     
    Personally, I don't capitalise internet. I imagine people do because it started out as a proper name, like Arpanet, but I feel that it's come of age and is just a thing like any other at this point.
     
    Traditionally (and formally), the Internet has been capitalized because it is a proper noun--it is a specific network that was developed by the US Dept. of Defense in the 1960s. Similarly, the Net and the Web have had the same treatment.

    Because of the current ubiquity of the Internet, some people have decided to drop the capital letter (the internet). Both forms are now acceptable.
     
    On the Italian forum there was a heated debate recently over gli italiani vs gli Italiani(no prizes for guessing which was the preferred form under Mussolini:) ).Sometimes the use of capitals can be useful to distinguish e.g. i romani(the inhabitants of present-day Rome) from i Romani(the people of A(a?)ncient Rome). I get the impression that there is similar variation in the government vs the Government between BE and AE.

    As far as the Internet is concerned, although all the dictionaries I have consulted give Internet, the trend seems to be towards writing internet and net:

    http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-int1.htm

    Carlo
     
    There is still only one instance of Internet, although internet protocols may be used within local networks. To date, within the IT world, it still gets a capital letter. The external world, of course, may be different. As usual with capitalisation, I would expect AE to lead the way in dispensing with the capital.
     
    Whodunit said:
    Maybe because they're proper names. We also capitalize Google, Wikipedia, Webster's, Jehova, New York, the Bronx ... and why? Just because they are proper names like the Internet.
    Click to expand...

    I don't consider internet a proper noun, internet is a tool, the net is a tool. It refers to thousands of computers connected one another [inter = between].
    In other words, by now we use internet as we use the phone, the television, the radio ect.

    You quote Google, but this is a proper name, the name of a search engine!
    Wikipedia is a wide encyclopaedia, it's a proper name.
    A proper name is Explorer, Netscape, because they call a specific browser.
    I think in Italian is more correct to write "internet". in BE and AE, well, I don't know. For ex, you write "I" in capital letter, while we write "io", in small letter.


    Bye for now.
    :)
     
    panjandrum said:
    As usual with capitalisation, I would expect AE to lead the way in dispensing with the capital.
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    And do you say that with a warm glow admiration or the green pallor of disgust? ;)
     
    Timpeac has misquoted me slightly.

    A resigned air of inevitability:D

    For as long as I can possibly manage it, I will continue formally to write Internet on all occasions. In my small corner of the world, that's the way it's gonna be.
     
    Here in NY, we often say "the internets" as a totally colloquial and silly thing (never in a document -- don't even think it :)). It started as a joke after George W. referred to rumors "on the internets", but has somehow spread like fungus to become rather common if intentionally silly usage.

    N.B.: Some people find talk of "the internets" really annoying; I find this usage somewhat less annoying than that of my hipper techie friends who are fond of sarcastically calling it the "interweb."
     
    Hello,

    Does the distinction between capitalized and non-capitalized forms correspond to the distinction between "the Internet" (= the whole network) and "internet" (= service connecting people to the Internet)?

    For example, is the use of upper/lower case in these sentences correct?

    - I searched the Internet for further information
    - My house didn't have internet until 1995
    - My friend just called and asked me to look up something on the Internet, because internet wasn't working at his house.
    etc.?
     
    Last edited:
    Gavril said:
    Hello,

    Does the distinction between capitalized and non-capitalized forms correspond to the distinction between "the Internet" (= the whole network) and "internet" (= service connecting people to the Internet)?

    For example, is the use of upper/lower case in these sentences correct?

    - I searched the Internet for further information
    - My house didn't have internet until 1995
    - My friend just called and asked me to look up something on the Internet, because internet wasn't working at his house.
    etc.?
    Click to expand...
    I think this agrees with what Panjandrum says above. For me it seems odd to give "internet" a capital letter in any circumstance.
     
    Usage has definitely changed, as you can see from that link. I've noticed myself that nobody seems to capitalise "the internet" anymore.

    (My own explanation is that everyone is now so used to its existence that it doesn't seem so awesome any more.:D)
     
    JimNill said:
    Internet !!!:)
    Click to expand...
    No, sorry.:thumbsdown:

    The answer is, "it's used both ways."

    Until recently, The Associated Press Stylebook, the defacto style guide used by American newspapers and journalism schools, specified an upper-case 'I,' but recently changed to lower-case, based on the greater use of the lower-case version.

    As with all style issues, the rule is "pick a style guide" and be consistent - or use whatever is specified by your employer or educational institution.
     
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