Quote:
Originally Posted by taosaur
But I have these two cents which absolutely must be dropped 
There is no correct spelling because obviously the issue is still evolving and it's not a settled question. Usage does seem to be dividing along discernible lines, though. The hyphenated "e-book" has become the formal spelling for use in journalistic and technical writing, while "ebook" dominates casual usage. Commercial usage trends toward imitating the eInk and iWhatnot trademarks with "eBook." We're very likely stuck with all three for quite some time.
Of course, as the novelty wears off we'll more often drop the "e" entirely in favor of "book," using "electronic" or "digital" when it's necessary to specify format. |
I prefer e-book, but it doesn't matter what I prefer. I think ebook will likely become standard, with eBook being virtually certain to be dropped. The English language just doesn't use capitals for non-proper nouns, and it isn't likely to make an exception for e-books. The capitals in acronyms tend to be dropped when the acronym is word-like. SCUBA becomes scuba, RADAR became radar, while DVD is unlikely to become dvd, as DVD isn't like a word. Aspirin, once a trademarked product became aspirin, a generic word. The Xerox Corporation and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation fight against the trend toward eliminating capitals, fighting to make sure Xerox doesn't become xerox and Kleenex doesn't become kleenex. If someone wishes to use eBook, I'm not going to fight them on it, I don't care if people spell it that way. It would simply be completely counter to how the English language behaves and changes for the B in eBook to remain capitalized.
As for the spelling of John, when it's a proper noun, spell it however you like. But when talking about a toilet, it's "john". Calling a toilet "John" would seem to imply thinking the toilet was a person.