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We used to capitalize references to "the President" (of the US) even when his name wasn't included. And we used to capitalize "state" even when a particular state (State of California) was not mentioned. Is it now considered proper usage not to capitalize either of those?

herisson
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mzungu
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    Are you sure there has been a change over time? – herisson Nov 08 '15 at 01:34
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    The words are capitalized or not depending on how the word is being used. There is no doubt some difference between "formal" and "informal", but the basic "rules' are fairly static (if obscure). – Hot Licks Nov 08 '15 at 01:58
  • The irresistible question is who's "we"? – choster Nov 09 '15 at 16:21
  • This is certainly a duplicate of the substance of the question that Hot Licks links to in a comment above. It's unfortunate that the accepted answer there is flawed by a misstatement regarding the recommendation in The Chicago Manual of Style for handling "president Obama" versus "President Obama." (Chicago prefers the latter style.) – Sven Yargs Nov 10 '15 at 09:34

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The word state isn't generally capitalized because it doesn't form part of the name of a state. For instance, you may check with the act that granted statehood to California. All references in the text are to "the state of California."

However, there are two idiosyncratic states -- the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Those initial-cap names are designated in their constitutions at the links. Of course, they're still lower-case states.

deadrat
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  • I grew up in Washington, and it still peeves me that journalists refer to the city Washington, D.C. as "Washington" and the state as "Washington S(s)tate".

    The name of the state is not "Washington S(s)tate". (That's the name of a university in Pullman, WA, fondly nicknamed "Wazzu".)

    So that seems to be another exception.

     – Brian Hitchcock Nov 08 '15 at 10:57
  • @Brian Hitchcock I'm a copy editor for a paper in Washington and AP style requests the term "Washington state" be used instead of "Washington State" for that very reason. – Azor Ahai -him- Nov 09 '15 at 18:28
  • By Washington I mean the state north of Oregon haha. Everyone I know calls the other Washington DC in all usage – Azor Ahai -him- Nov 09 '15 at 18:29