majuscule

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French majuscule, from Latin maiusculus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmædʒəskjuːl/

Noun

majuscule (countable and uncountable, plural majuscules)

1. (countable) A capital letter, especially one used in ancient manuscripts.
2. (uncountable) Capital letters.
   • 1951, Arthur Calder-Marshall, The Magic of My Youth, R. Hart-Davis, page 111:

     Up to this point, Loveday appeared to be an exceptionally typical undergraduate, in that he wrote in majuscule what his fellows scribbled in lower case.

   • 1972, Wiener Studien, H. Böhlaus, →ISBN, page 89:

     But it is far from impossible that a scribe writing in minuscule should choose majuscule for a correction at this point: for example, if he had written u for n the only way to avoid all misunderstanding might be to indicate the correction with a capital letter.

   • 1975, Aubrey Diller, The Textual Tradition of Strabo’s Geography: With Appendix, the Manuscripts of Eustathius’ Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, A. M. Hakkert, →ISBN, page 47:

     Many of these strips are palimpsest and bear earlier writing in majuscule and old minuscule.

Antonyms

• minuscule

Derived terms

• majuscular
• majuscule writing

Translations

upper-case letter — see capital letter

French

Etymology

Ellipsis of lettre majuscule.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʒys.kyl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

majuscule f (plural majuscules)

1. capital letter (uppercase letter)

   Antonym: minuscule

Further reading

• “majuscule”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Adjective

majuscule

1. vocative masculine singular of majusculus