Lower-Case Letter

A Lower-Case Letter is a grapheme letter that ...

• Example(s):
  • a, a, [math]\displaystyle{ \text{a} }[/math].
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Upper-Case Letter.
• See: Letter Case, Type Case, Movable Type, Letterpress Printing.

---

---

References

2017

• (Wikipedia, 2017) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Terminology Retrieved:2017-6-21.
  • The terms upper case and lower case can be written as two consecutive words, connected with a hyphen (upper-case and lower-case), or as a single word (uppercase and lowercase). These terms originated from the common layouts of the shallow drawers called type cases used to hold the movable type for letterpress printing. Traditionally, the capital letters were stored in a separate shallow tray or "case" that was located above the case that held the small letters, and the name proved easy to remember since capital letters are taller.
    • Majuscule (or ), for palaeographers, is technically any script in which the letters have very few or very short ascenders and descenders, or none at all (for example, the majuscule scripts used in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, or the Book of Kells). By virtue of their visual impact, this made the term majuscule an apt descriptor for what much later came to be more commonly referred to as uppercase letters.
    • Minuscule refers to lower-case letters. The word is often spelled miniscule, by association with the unrelated word miniature and the prefix mini-. This has traditionally been regarded as a spelling mistake (since minuscule is derived from the word minus), but is now so common that some dictionaries tend to accept it as a nonstandard or variant spelling. Miniscule is still less likely, however, to be used in reference to lower-case letters.

---