LORD vs. Lord
  • ny_ct_fl_ms_organist
    Posts: 33
    I notice that throughout the Psalms sometimes LORD is all caps and sometimes Lord is written with usual first letter capitalization. For example Psalm 130:2, "If you, LORD, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand?" The function of the word is the same in both places, so why the difference? Also, are there any resources out there that give standard practices for properly entering and citing texts into worship aids?
  • Paul F. Ford
    Posts: 857
    The printing convention of LORD in initial cap/small caps occurs when any part of the tetragrammaton (YHWH) is in the Hebrew text (in the case you cite: YH). When the Hebrew text has "Adonai," then "Lord" is used.
    Thanked by 2ny_ct_fl_ms_organist Andrew Motyka
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,944
    It's an old typographical convention of English scriptural translation for the Tetragrammaton (conventionally, YHWH) as opposed to Adonai, which is rendered as Lord.
    Thanked by 2ny_ct_fl_ms_organist CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    Unfortunately, much (if not most) printing software and inattentive typesetters do not set the Tetragrammaton LORD with a caps/small caps version of the font family (for which, typing "Lord" would render the word with L in caps and "ord" in small caps), such as Knuth's MetaFont families for TeX and LaTeX.

    To make matters worse, most computer font families (the TeX family being a notable exception) do not provide caps/small caps versions of their fonts. Hence, as a kludge (and if the software permits it), if one wants to render LORD in caps/small caps, one (typically) has to type LORD in the current font size and then highlight "ORD" and change the font size to about 3/4 of the size ... that is, if the software even allows such inline size alterations.

    Fortunately, Finale does allow such font size changes (and I make use of this in my own editions), and it is possible to use a font-size kludge in MediaWiki instllations; however, the forum software here seems not to allow it, viz.:

    L<font size="75%">ORD</font>
    L<font size=75%>ORD</font>
    L<font size=small>ORD</font>
    L<font size="small">ORD</font>
    L<font size=6pt>ORD</font>
    L<font size="6pt">ORD</font>

    all yield the same:

    LORD
    LORD
    LORD
    LORD
    LORD
    LORD

    This leaves the editor/typesetter with the problem, whether to use "LORD" or "Lord" in setting the translated acronym for the Tetragrammaton. More and more, I am beginning to prefer using "LORD" over "Lord" as the proper way to handle this problem when setting in caps/small caps is not possible.
    Thanked by 1ny_ct_fl_ms_organist
  • ny_ct_fl_ms_organist
    Posts: 33
    @CHGiffen I know exactly what you're talking about. Luckily, I have a cut-and-paste solution for that in Word. I marvel that you know how to do that in Finale.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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