Should 'internet' begin with a capital letter?

For whatever it's worth, both the Apple iOS and Google Android autocorrect dictionaries force the capital letter.

I would check the CMoS, but my subscription ran out. :/

I agree with you Danny. It's like saying the library, you don't capitalize the L. The word internet isn't a company or a trademark.

There are internets, and there is the Internet.

No, only inventions by Al Gore are capitalized. The internet is no longer one of them.

There is no right answer. Some publishers do, some publishers don't.

Grammar Girl states it is Internet.

Jesus, how behind the times are yous guys? We call it the 'tubes these days.

Chase said:

No, only inventions by Al Gore are capitalized. The internet is no longer one of them.

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I believe that you are right.

Internet still is a proper noun, as is World Wide Web.

Chicago Manual, APA, and MLA all capitalize it.

So do dictionaries.

Capitalize.

Medievalist said:

Internet still is a proper noun, as is World Wide Web.

Chicago Manual, APA, and MLA all capitalize it.

So do dictionaries.

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House styles vary on this, as do style manuals. Many (in addition to those cited by Medievalist, include the New York Times stylebook) insist on capitalization; some specify the reverse.

The key thing is to be consistent about whatever you choose. Capital-I "Internet" is probably the safer choice, because it's the more conservative.

This is a dictionary moment. All I've checked say Big First Letter. So it's a Big First Letter for me.

I note that all the computer book publishers I work for use I in Internet, W for World Wide Web, and Website--but they are all over the map on email/e-mail, Website/Web site.

I have a speshul cheat sheet so I can easily remember which is which.

PinkAmy said:

I agree with you Danny. It's like saying the library, you don't capitalize the L. The word internet isn't a company or a trademark.

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But there's more than one building called "the library" and there's no specific main one that everyone calls the Library. There's the Library of Congress, but you don't just call it the Library.

alleycat said:

There are internets, and there is the Internet.

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"Those" are probably "intranets."

It's The Internet because there's exactly one and that's its name, like the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. Actually, there have been more moons known to humanity since Galileo pointed a telescope at Jupiter, but the Moon still refers to the same old one it always has.

Medievalist said:

I note that all the computer book publishers I work for use I in Internet, W for World Wide Web, and Website--but they are all over the map on email/e-mail, Website/Web site.

I have a speshul cheat sheet so I can easily remember which is which.

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That all makes sense except I don't know why website would be capitalized. It seems like everyone has one thesedays.

No wait, I'm thinking of a Facebook page that everyone has thesedays. Whatever.

IIRC (it's been so long) it was originally e-mail, but I just write email nowadays. It's such a common word that the dash is so Last Millenium. Off-topic, but there was some article about email being a dying medium nowadays with so many people going to Twitter, Facebook and all that other crap social media.

At least there are a few Usenet newsgroups still in use...

I think the internet would be fine with either. It doesn't much care about these things.

benbradley said:

At least there are a few Usenet newsgroups still in use...

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There are a ton of Usenet groups still going. You hear more about torrent sites, but Usenet is the real underground pirating scene.

benbradley said:

IIRC (it's been so long) it was originally e-mail, but I just write email nowadays. It's such a common word that the dash is so Last Millenium. Off-topic, but there was some article about email being a dying medium nowadays with so many people going to Twitter, Facebook and all that other crap social media.

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Yeah, that's bull shit. Really. What we are seeing though is an interesting priority-of-information thing. There's been an increase in legit email--but it's more directed than pre-twitter etc.

benbradley said:

At least there are a few Usenet newsgroups still in use...

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Don't tell anyone--UseNet is alive and well in terms of binaries, and all those Google Groups are running on NNTP servers.

benbradley said:

It's The Internet because there's exactly one and that's its name, like the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun.

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It can also be said to be "the internet" for the same reasons as cited above.

Although my Webster says earth is "often" spelled with a capital E (the same with moon [often M-] and sun [often S-]) the examples in every instance of earth, moon, and sun are such: "the celestial body that revolves around the earth" and "accompanies the earth in its yearly revolution about the sun."

Conversely, there are billions of suns and moons. Why are ours so special?

kuwisdelu said:

Conversely, there are billions of suns and moons. Why are ours so special?

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Becausethey directly influence and affect our lives. There are billions and trillions of suns. But our Sun is the only truly important one to us. This is probably because humans are selfish by nature, so we want to make everything that's "ours" to seem more important than any other (assuming there are alien races.

Assuming the Andromeda galaxy's suns are large and strong enough to go supernova (unlike ours, which cannot), and assuming their heat and light could reach us near immediately, all of them going supernova may affect us on Earth. Of course, realistically, the stars are so far away that what we see in the sky is thousands of years old; many stars have died and been born, and simply the light has yet to reach us.

But of course, to emphasize, if our Sun were to explode, it would reach as far as Mars and incinerate everything between. And, of course, with the flux change of gravitational force, the other planets would likely not be able to stay in the same orbit.

DannySherbet said:

Simple question: should the word 'internet' begin with a capital letter?

I've seen it with and without. What's the verdict?

My personal thought is no, and for two reasons: "Internet", for me, is no more of a proper noun than "world" or "sky", and too many capital letters interrupt the flow of a sentence.

Danny.

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Does the style guide you're using say it's a proper noun?

This isn't really a grammar issue; different sources are going to say different things, here.