Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The opposite of miniscule

In all my years around publishing and printing, I've never heard of this word.

ma·jus·cule /muh-juhs-kyool, maj-uh-skyool
–adjective
1. (of letters) capital.
2. large, as either capital or uncial letters.
3. written in such letters (opposed to minuscule).
–noun
4. a majuscule letter
History: 1720–30; < L majuscula (littera) a somewhat bigger (letter), equiv. to majus-, s. of major major + -cula -cule

-cule, thanks for asking, is a form of -cle, which is a suffix found in french loanwords of Latin origin, originally diminutive nouns, and later in adaptations of words borrowed directly from Latin or in Neo-Latin coinages: article; conventicle; corpuscle; particle. In Latin, this suffix formed from verbs and  nouns that denoted a place appropriate to the action of the verb (cubicle, receptacle) or a means by which the action is performed (vehicle).

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