0

Which of these is the best choice:

"He was beaten with bibles."

or

"He was beaten with Bibles."

My take is the lowercase "bibles" is most appropriate because in this case, the term "bibles" is speaking about the objects, not "the Bible" as a text. That is, it's functioning as a common noun.

Thoughts?

EDIT: No, the linked-to discussion specifically doesn't deal with plurals, so it doesn't help.

Joey Connick
  • 11
  • 2
  • 3
    Does this answer your question? Should I capitalize "bible" in "the Christian Bible"? "the Discordian Bible"?. Basic rule is capitalise if they're copies of a holy book especially the Christian Bible, don't capitalise if they're being beaten with a programmers' bible. There doesn't seem to be detailed discussion of the plural form, but you can see it capitalized as Bibles e.g. on Wikipedia. – Stuart F Jan 05 '23 at 12:09
  • If they used bibles to beat him with, instead of ordinary books, it still doesn't merit capitalization, unless you use The Bible (which would be hard in the plural). But there are much better books to beat people with. I'd go for an unabridged dictionary -- Webster's 2nd was unbeatable for beating people with. – John Lawler Jan 05 '23 at 17:08
  • What about other books when taken as objects? "He was beaten with War and Peaces" or "He was beaten with war and peaces". – GEdgar Jan 05 '23 at 18:02
  • Good point re: War and Peace... I guess to me the difference is there is no generic version of War and Peace, whereas it's established "bible" can be used in a non-specific sense. – Joey Connick Jan 06 '23 at 00:41

0 Answers0