Where did the terms Uppercase & Lowercase come from?

Question

We all know the terms, uppercase is the BIG LETTERS or CAPITAL LETTERS and lowercase is the little letters. I just need to know where the terms uppercase and lowercase came from and if you could give me a link to a site that would be great!

- Thanks!!

Angel Baby: how do you get uppercase and lowercase from slang? can you alaborate?

xoran99: they put SLUGS on a typewriter?!?!?!?!?!?!?! wow. good to know

Answer 1

This terminology comes from the movable-type printing press, which was the primary method of printing text for hundreds of years. Individual letters were little metal blocks (sometimes called slugs) which were slid into place on a big slab, ink was rolled onto the letters, then they were pressed onto paper. The individual letters were separated into two drawers or cases for easy access -- the capital letters happened to be kept in the higher of the two cases. They came to be known as uppercase letters and their counterparts became lowercase.

What were they called before uppercase? They were called majuscule. Lowercase letters were called minuscule.

Answer 2

A long, L O N G time ago, when I was a kid (before 1960)
type setting was not done on computers! Type was set by hand. Each letter of the alphabet was on a piece of metal about 1/8 inch square, and an inch long. All of the letters were kept in large wooden cases, about 3 feet square. The cases were divided into little boxes, one for each letter of the alphabet, one for each number, and one for each punctuation mark. The capital letters were kept in a separate case, above the small letters. Soooo- the capital letters were in the UPPER case and the small letters were kept in the LOWER case. Those terms stuck with us, even after typesetting was taken over by Linotype machines, and finally by computers.

Answer 3

I heard that it's from the days when typesetters had to put the individual slugs on a plate to print a page. The slugs were kept in cases; the capital letters went in the upper case, and the small letters went in the lower case. I can't find a good reference, though.

Answer 4

when there were the old printing presses that you had to load manually, the capital letters would be in the UPPER CASE and the not capital letters would be in the LOWER CASE of the box they kept the letters in. To lazy to find a site sorry. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Haven't' read your other answers, taw, but I think the terms probably came from Gutenberg when he invented the printing press... he put the capital letters above and the littles below, so he and his helpers could reach for them easily and nearly automatically.
for the Gutenberg history:
http://counterspace.motivo.com/

Answer 6

I'm gonna add a point to this, the era of moveable type not only gave us "upper case" and "lower case" as explained above, but also the expression "mind your p's and q's". Since the letters on the moveable blocks were reversed, it was very easy for a novice to reverse them, and that was one of the first things the novice was taught to do, watch them carefully.

Answer 7

it came from slangs because some people just want to have a different meaning to the samething.