Thursday, October 05, 2006

Halloween style tips

A lot of people are getting to A Capital Idea looking for Halloween style, so here's a (partially) recycled post from 2003 with some style tips. (I noted in 2003, when I was still in Wichita, that I'd turned on the heater by Oct. 1. Here in Dallas now, it's in the 90s.)

Halloween is always capitalized. (It's short for All Hallow Even, or All Hallows Eve, and is sometimes written Hallowe'en. But not in newspapers.)

Trick or treat is the noun. It's hyphenated for the verb and trick-or-treater.

Jack-o'-lantern has an apostrophe after the O.

Bats are mammals but not rodents.

The only full moon this month happens tomorrow, Oct. 6.

Lowercase devil, but capitalize Satan and Lucifer.

Now, is it candy apples or candied apples? I like candied, but I think candy is winning out over time. It's definitely candy corn.

And waxed lips means something entirely different from wax lips.

3 Comments:

At 9:19 AM, October 06, 2006, Blogger WordzGuy said...

>candy apples

Sounds like this is undergoing the ice cream phenomenon, which is a done deal, but is still underway with old-fashion and grill cheese sandwich, among others.

 
At 3:57 PM, October 06, 2006, Blogger Karl Weber said...

and don't forget "ice tea"

as for bats not being rodents, I get confused because I have vague memories of being told as a child that a bat was a kind of rat with wings . . . as in the German word fledermaus

 
At 7:02 PM, October 06, 2006, Blogger Nicole said...

Yes, Phreaddy, thank you! I've made the change.

 

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