Proper noun
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| + | A '''proper noun''' is a [[noun]] that in its primary application refers to a unique entity, such as ''[[London]]'', ''[[Jupiter]]'', ''[[Sarah]]'', or ''[[Microsoft]]'', as distinguished from a '''common noun''', which usually refers to a [[Class (philosophy)|class]] of entities (''city, planet, person, corporation''), or non-unique instances of a certain class (a ''city'', another ''planet'', these ''persons'', our ''corporation''). | ||
| - | ''Proper nouns'' (also called ''proper names'') are nouns representing unique entities (such as ''London'', ''Jupiter'' or ''Johnny''), as distinguished from common nouns which describe a class of entities (such as ''city'', ''planet'' or ''person''). Proper nouns are not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier (such as "any" or "some"), and are used to denote a particular person, place, or thing without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have. | + | ==See also== |
| - | In [[English language|English]] and most other languages that use the [[Latin alphabet]], proper nouns are usually [[capitalization|capitalized]]. Languages differ in whether most elements of multiword proper nouns are capitalised (e.g., American English ''House of Representatives'') or only the initial element (e.g., Slovenian ''Državni zbor'' 'National Assembly'). In [[German language|German]], nouns of all types are capitalized. The convention of capitalizing ''all'' nouns was previously used in English, but ended circa 1800. In America, the shift in capitalization is recorded in several noteworthy documents. The end (but not the beginning) of the [[United States Declaration of Independence#Annotated text of the Declaration|Declaration of Independence]] (1776) and all of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] (1787) show nearly all nouns capitalized, the [[United States Bill of Rights#Text of the Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] (1789) capitalizes a few common nouns but not most of them, and the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment]] (1865) only capitalizes proper nouns. | + | *[[Name]] |
| - | + | *[[Proper name (philosophy)]] | |
| - | Sometimes the same word can function as both a common noun and a proper noun, where one such entity is special. For example the common noun ''god'' denotes all deities, while the proper noun ''God'' references the [[monotheism|monotheistic]] [[God]] specifically. | + | |
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| - | Owing to the essentially arbitrary nature of [[Orthography|orthographic]] classification and the existence of variant authorities and adopted [[Style guide|''house styles'']], questionable capitalization of words is not uncommon, even in respected newspapers and magazines. Most publishers, however, properly require ''consistency'', at least within the same document, in applying their specified standard. | + | |
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| - | The common meaning of the word or words constituting a proper noun may be unrelated to the object to which the proper noun refers. For example, someone might be named "Tiger Smith" despite being neither a [[tiger]] nor a [[smith (metalwork)|smith]]. For this reason, proper nouns are usually not [[translation|translated]] between languages, although they may be [[transliteration|transliterated]]. For example, the German surname ''Knödel'' becomes ''Knodel'' or ''Knoedel'' in English (not the literal ''Dumpling''). However, the [[Transliteration|transcription]] of place names and the names of [[monarch]]s, [[pope]]s, and non-contemporary [[author]]s is common and sometimes universal. For instance, the [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] word ''Lisboa'' becomes ''[[Lisbon]]'' in [[English language|English]]; the English ''London'' becomes ''Londres'' in French; and the [[ancient Greek|Greek]] Ἁριστοτέλης (''Aristotelēs)'' becomes [[Aristotle]] in English. | + | |
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A proper noun is a noun that in its primary application refers to a unique entity, such as London, Jupiter, Sarah, or Microsoft, as distinguished from a common noun, which usually refers to a class of entities (city, planet, person, corporation), or non-unique instances of a certain class (a city, another planet, these persons, our corporation).
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Proper noun" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
