A linguistic fancy

[drwex]

Assertion: there are word-pairs in English that differ in meaning, but are spelled the same, except one of the pair is capitalized. We rule out pairs where the words are obviously of the same origin, e.g. Buffalo (city) and buffalo (intimidate/awe). Both come from the animal also known as the bison.

Intuitively it seems like there should be a large number of such pairs, but
Polish (people from Poland) and polish (to give a shine to)
Moor (ancient Arabs) and moor (a marshy type of land)
Reading (city name) and reading (the act of consuming a book)


Can my erudite readers come up with more such pairs?

ETA: WotW has two good ones in comments, and there's a whole class of people names that fit the rule but that I hadn't thought of.

Comments

[coraline]

are you invalidating all the names? Dick, Pat, and and Mat are ones that come to mind immediately...

[wotw]

Not to mention Warren, John, Jack, Norm, Mike, Tony, Drew, and Mallard.

Also Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and Comet.

[wotw]

I believe your example of a non-example is actually an example
of an example. It is my understanding that the city of Buffalo
takes its name from the French expression meaning "beautiful
water" and has nothing to do with the bison.

[drwex]

I think that's an urban legend. Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the matter:

Most popular accounts hold that the name "Buffalo" is a corruption of the French phrase beau fleuve, "beautiful river," a phrase supposedly exclaimed by French explorers upon seeing the Niagara River, but this theory is contradicted by primary sources.

[wotw]

Mosaic (related to the prophet Moses) and mosaic (made of small tiles)

[drwex]

That's an excellent one!

[wotw]

Tangier (city in Morocco) and tangier (more tangy)

[drwex]

That's stretching it slightly, since you're using a word that's still not particularly English, but I'll grant it.

[wotw]

Chad (African country or man's name) and chad (hanging shred of paper)

[awfief.livejournal.com]

and Brad and brad too. :)

This reminds me of when I was about 9 and playing Scrabble with my family, and I'd put down a proper noun (I forget what the word was at this point). My brother said, "you can't use proper nouns!" I asked what that was. He explained, "it's like a regular noun but the first letter is capitalized, like countries and stuff".

To which I replied, "but the letters are ALL capitals!"

'cause in Scrabble they are. :)

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Brad (man's name) vs. brad (small nail)

Romance (family of languages including French, Italian, and Rumanian) vs. romance (love story)

Constitutional (relating to a meta-law document) vs. constitutional (brisk exercize)

Herb (man's name derived from Herbert) vs. herb (aromatic greenery used in cooking)

That's all I got for now.

[drwex]

I'm pretty sure that the Romance languages were so named because of their association with romance, the concept.

Constitutional, as in the walk, is related to a person's constitution, which I believe is the same root formation. I'd have to go to the OED for that one.

See above about names.

[unseelie.livejournal.com]

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

I've heard it as,

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

for what it's worth.

[wotw]

K2 (mountain in the Himlayas) and k2 (functor in algebraic k-theory).

[wotw]

I (myself) and i (a square root of -1).

[wotw]

May (a month) and may (is allowed to)

[wotw]

Likeiwise March/march. And August/august, though it's possible
they both derive from Augustus.

[wotw]

Moose (a cartoon animal with antlers that walks on two legs) and moose
(a real animal with antlers that walks on four legs)

[drwex]

That fails for the same reason the deer names fail.

[wotw]

Easter (a holiday) and easter (less far to the west)

[drwex]

Although I suspect "easter" appears in the Scrabble dictionary it doesn't seem to appear in any other I can find.

[wotw]

Angle (an invader of what is now England) and angle (to fish, for example)

[drwex]

Yes, that's certain to be a good pair since the Angles were Germanic and angle has some Latinate root.

[wotw]

Cardinal (an official of the church) and cardinal (a type of number).

Presumably cardinal (the bird) has a derivation related to that of
Cardinal (the church official) (both being related to the color red)
but I conjecture that cardinal (the number) has a separate derivation
and therefore this example counts.

[drwex]

As far as I can tell they all share a root and all refer to things of fundamental importance.

[wotw]

Peer (a member of the House of Lords) and peer (a person who urinates).

[ceo]

Or, peer, v. to look closely.

[wotw]

Attic (a dialect of ancient Greek) vs attic (the top room in a house)

Or is it possible these share a derivation?

[drwex]

I can't see how they could share any derivation. Attic(a) was a place in ancient Greece, I believe. Ah, Wikipedia says it was "Attica".

I can't find any etymology for the top of the house meaning, though.

[wotw]

Belch (hailing from Belgium) and belch (a popular activity among teenage
boys)

And if Belch doesn't mean hailing from Belgium, well it damn well should.

[drwex]

That's funny.

[wotw]

Douchebag (an epithet) and douchebag (a piece of equipment for douching).
naiad thinks these might have related etymologies, but I think
she's just guessing.

[drwex]

I think they're completely related. And the epithet is not a proper noun anyway.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

Tony/tony.

[drwex]

See above in re peoples' names; or is there another meaning for Tony as a proper noun?

[wotw]

Anus (members of an ancient tribe) and anus (a body part)

[wotw]

Lent (Christian days of penance) and lent (temporarily allowed the use of)

[bluegargantua]

I hope this one hasn't been used...

Mars (the planet) and mars (defaces)

later
Tom

[wotw]

Batman (a guy in a cape) and batman (an orderly in the British army)

[wotw]

Homer (Greek poet) and homer (home run)

Mister (form of address for a man, as in "Hey, Mister") and mister (a spray
bottle)

[wotw]

What if a word has three meanings?

In meaning A, the word is capitalized
In meaning B, the word is not capitalized
In meaning C, the word is not capitalized

Meanings A and B have a shared etymology; meaning C is quite separate.

Then do I get to use the pair A/C, or does the existence of the pair
A/B disqualify A/C?

Pseudo-example:

A: Boxer (member of a Chinese secret society)
B: boxer (pugilist)
C: boxer (one who puts things in boxes)

A and B have the same etymology. Can I still use A/C? (In this case
probably not, because I'm guessing B/C also share an etymology---pugilists
contend in box-shaped arenas. But what if that weren't the case?)

In view of this ambiguity in the rules, I think we need to erase the entire
thread, get a clarification and start all over.