Word for the Wise

November 23, 2005 Broadcast

Topic: Carolingian minuscule

A fellow in Georgia wrote us with a tidbit of information of the type that—you should pardon the pun—impressed us greatly. His subject was typography; his tidings concerned the script called Caroline or Carolingian minuscule.

For folks who aren't sure they know their Greek, we'll explain the pun. The term typography comes from the Greek terms for "impression" plus "writing." The type known as Caroline minuscule dates back to the reign of Charlemagne, late in the 8th century. The name of the Frankish ruler Charlemagne—King Charles—gave us the Latinism Caroline or Carolingian. The word minuscule, which comes from the Latin term meaning "rather small," originally named "script composed of lower case letters."

Got all that? Then we're ready to move ahead to explain how that script came into being. Charlemagne, whose efforts as a grown man to teach himself to write had been met, according to his biographer, with ill-success, commissioned the development of a standardized and legible script to be used throughout his lands.

During the Renaissance, Italian printers looking for a less Teutonic style of print borrowed the Carolingian minuscule under the impression they had discovered a script dating back to Ancient Rome. They were wrong, but the clean Carolingian retained its popularity long enough to be considered the basis of modern typefaces.

Impress us with your typed words.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.