Tuesday, October 2, 2012

God/god: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, October 2, 2012

God/god 
When “God” is the name of a god, as in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it needs to be capitalized like any other name (“Allah” is just Arabic for “God,” and many modern Muslims translate the name when writing in English). When it is used as a generic term, as in “He looks like a Greek god,” it is not capitalized.

If you see the word rendered “G*d” or “G-d,” it’s not an error, but a Jewish writer reverently following the Orthodox prohibition against spelling out the name of the deity in full.

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