In BDSM relationships, a dominant male is often referred by his submissive counterpart as a "master", "sir" or by some other honorific. Some in the BDSM lifestyle insist that words referring to the dominant person in a relationship should always be capitalized, whereas those referring to the submissive partner should be written in lower case. While such a generalization does not adhere to the rules of the English language, I can't help but think that there are situations where capitalization is appropriate.
In particular, I am wondering whether capitalization of "master" is appropriate in the following examples, where the word refers to a specific person:
"Welcome home, Master."
"No, Master, I haven't finished my chores yet."
"My Master will be with you shortly."
I believe that the capitalization in the first two examples is correct, but not in the third. However, I am not certain about which rules apply and I'd appreciate it if somebody could shed more light on the matter.
Best Answer
Capitalization (especially of titles) is a tricky business in English. There is no hard-and-fast rule about capitalization. In fact, many of the major style guides disagree on exactly what should or shouldn't be capitalized. However, I'll give some general guidelines and let you make up your own mind:
In all major style guides, when a title is used as a name in direct address of that individual, it is capitalized. For example: "That was very kind of you Mom." "I love you Dad." "Stop being so good to me, Master." "So, I have to have surgery, Doctor?"
When referring to a specific individual with their title, the title should be capitalized. For example: "I was excited when President Barrack Obama walked in the room." "My favorite comic book character is Mr. Tony Stark." "It took a while, but we finally got in to see Doctor John Smith."
However, (somewhat less commonly) some prefer that occupational titles not be capitalized, unless abbreviated. For example, "Dr. John Smith" and "doctor John Smith".
Most style guides prefer titles used in reference to be lowercase. For example, "I love my mother." "The president gave a great speech." "My doctor did a great job with my surgery."
However, some titles are exempted from this. God (when referring to the Judeo-Christian god) is always capitalized. The King and the Queen are often capitalized. (For example, "The Queen has quite a way with words.") When referring to a specific office, there is disagreement about what should or should not be capitalized. Chicago and Wikipedia prefer "the president of the United States", while NY Times prefers "the President of the United States". However, everyone prefers "King of France" to "king of France".