A reader recently sent me the following message:
I’m writing a historical fiction work and I have characters referring to each other as ‘husband,’ ‘wife,’ ‘daughter,’ or ‘son.’ Should the highlighted letters be capitalized?
My copy editor said yes, but I say no.
Your thoughts?
Example:
“What standards, my lady?”
“Ones higher than your own, husband.”
“As high as all that, then? Lucky for you, mine are lower.”
Unfortunately for this reader, the editor is in the right this time.
You see, husband in this case (and presumably the other terms as well) functions as a nickname of sorts. And nicknames are generally capitalized.
Let me show you.
First, let’s use the following sentence from the reader’s example:
“Ones higher than your own, husband.”
Now, we substitute husband with the character’s actual name: we’ll pretend it’s John.
“Ones higher than your own, John.”
Notice how John is capitalized?
When we use husband as a substitute for the actual name, it still functions as though it were the name.
Compare these two examples:
- “Ones higher than your own, Husband.”
- “Ones higher than my husband’s.”
In the first, we’re using husband as a way to address the person, as if it were the name. In the second, we’re using husband in a generic sense, so there’s no need to capitalize it.