Lowercases

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Sets or writes text in small non-capital letters rather than capitals ; refers to the set of small alphabetic characters used in ordinary writing
2. Prints or types words in small letters instead of capitals ; denotes the small, non-capital characters that make up an alphabet
3. Puts text into small letters rather than uppercase ; names the small alphabetic symbols, as opposed to capital letters, in a typeface

Etymology: "Lowercases" is the third-person singular present form of "lowercase", a verb meaning to set text in small letters rather than capitals. The verb grew out of the noun phrase "lower case", which describes the small alphabetic characters themselves. The name comes from the printing trade, where type was stored in a wooden tray divided into compartments: capitals sat in the upper part of the case, and the smaller letters sat in the lower part, within easy reach of the typesetter's hand. Over time, "lower case" was used as a modifier before another noun, and it was then written as one word or with a hyphen. Writers and editors did this to make the grammar easier to read, so that a phrase like "lower-case letters" stopped looking like two separate ideas. Once the compound was established as a noun, it could be turned into a verb, so that to lowercase a word means to convert its capital letters to small ones.

Synonyms: small letters

Antonyms: uppercase, capitals