Comments on: moon vs. Moon: A Study in Arrant Pedantry

By: Dr. Paul D. Spudis

Dr. Paul D. Spudis — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:16:47 +0000

Brian,

I agree with you. A lowercase “martian” is an adjective. When “Martian” is capitalized, it is a noun and refers to an inhabitant of Mars, as in “Marvin is a Martian.”

By: Brian Shiro

Brian Shiro — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:52:42 +0000

Thanks for this well-stated post. I got into an argument with a colleague once on the subject of whether “martian” should be capitalized. I argued that it should not because it is an adjective, just like “lunar.” What is your position?

By: Pillownaut

Pillownaut — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:26:32 +0000

Well said. I always capitalize “Moon” and find it pet-peevy if I see it with a lower-case m. All other satellites have proper names — just as ours used to. First it was the Greek Goddess Selene, then the Roman (Latin) Luna. The idea that we’ve added an article to it, making it “the Moon” doesn’t make it any less a prominent satellite deserving of a proper name.

By: Phil Stooke

Phil Stooke — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:01:05 +0000

I capitalized Moon in my atlas, and (if my memory is correct, it was a while ago) I checked the preface to your book before deciding to do so. As it coincided with my own preference, it had to be right!

By: Michael Spence

Michael Spence — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:56:34 +0000

Most of the questionable decisions I’ve found in AP style (e.g. lower-casing “the President”) appear to be based not on grammar or other logic but simply upon type size. A capital _M_ takes up more room in the line of type; newspapers want to pack as many words into the column-inch as possible; ergo they’ll use the smaller alphanumeric character, in this case the little _m_.

And although it could be argued that there is only one true “moon” and all others are merely satellites (since their period of revolution is not a month), I would still like to see this exclusivity emphasized with a capital _M_.

By: Chuck Wood

Chuck Wood — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:30:13 +0000

I absolutely agree!
The Moon is a specific place, whose beauty and uniqueness deserves capitalization far more than all the little runt satellites of the outer planets!