Learn English – Why is “biblical” the only proper adjective to not use upper case

adjectivescapitalizationetymology

Generally, when an adjective is derived from a proper noun, the adjective also has a capital initial, hence Googleable, Mancunian, British, and Shavian. (In contrast, verbs are not given capitals, hence to google and to hoover.) For some reason, though, biblical is an exception. The word Bible itself can be used as a normal noun (the fisherman’s bible, or a bible for cooks), but biblical clearly refers to the proper-noun usage of Bible, and yet it is not given a capital initial. Why is this?

(Actually, a minority of dictionaries do give a capital initial, but that usage is rare in my experience.)

Best Answer

It appears that the central assumption in your question is questionable. Snailboat, FumbleFingers, and Sven Yargs have given examples to the contrary.

Wikipedia asserts:

An adjective can lose its capitalization when it takes on new meanings, such as chauvinistic. In addition, over time, an adjective can lose its capitalization by convention, generally when the word has overshadowed its original reference, such as gargantuan, quixotic, titanic, or roman in the term roman numerals.

FumbleFingers notes that at least one of these is true of biblical.

As to why biblical has become one of the proper adjectives that has lost its capitalization, the final, parenthetical, comment in your question is a large part of the answer--it is acceptable because it is commonly done. (My prescriptivist tendencies balk at this common fact without effect.) Perhaps the prevalence of the word and the book itself (which my hotel room nightstand comment referenced) has facilitated the "decapitalization" process.