Goth or goth?

Hard to say. A quick search on GoodSearch reveals both. Personally, since it identifies a subculture mode of dress and style of music, I'd say lower case. It's not really a formal title.

I prefer lower case also. It's like if you talk about punk music, you don't capitalise the 'p'.

Do mean the style or ethnic group? Ethnic capitalize, style no.

Ethnic group?

Edit: Oops. I see what you meant. I was thinking of babies coming out with black army boots on.

Medieval tribe: Goth

Modern subculture: goth

maxmordon said:

Medieval tribe: Goth

Modern subculture: goth

Click to expand...

Agreed. I demand that you use lower case! Or upper case! Depending on... what you... are refering to...

billyf027 said:

Do you capitilize the word goth?

Click to expand...

I would treat it like the name of any other subculture: punk, hippie, skater, gangsta, and so on. If there were a subculture whose name began with a proper noun--say, "Elizabethan cyberpunk" (that'd be pretty cool, actually!)--then I'd capitalize the proper noun part ("Elizabethan"). But not otherwise.

I'm not sure why this is the case, because other value systems such as religions and political groups--which are also, in a sense, subcultures--get capital letters: Catholic, Jewish, Pagan, Democrat, Green, etc. But for whatever reason, we don't capitalize "punk" or "hippy," and therefore we shouldn't capitalize "goth." I think the confusion with "goth" comes from the fact that you often see "Gothic" capitalized--when you're talking about something that actually is Gothic (e.g. Gothic architecture), I guess it is a proper noun. But not when it's the name of a subculture.