When using the word “president” before a name, I know that the word is capitalized:
President Elizabeth Barbour was recently elected.
When referring to a regular, non-prestigeous organization, the word president is not capitalized unless used with a name.
William Tilstrom is the president of the union.
But when the reference is to the the highest political office in the United States, do you capitalize it even without the name? I was taught to do so even in college and the Fourth Edition of Harbrace backs me up. Examples of such usage:
Someday Harold Ford will be the President.
Bill Frist, another Tennessean, may also become the President of the United States.
I’ve noticed a tendency not to capitalize the title lately unless used with a name. I see it everywhere. So I’ve checked the Eleventh Edition of Harbrace – a girl can never have too many copies – and found that capitalization is no longer required without the name.
When did this change come about? Anyone have another edition of Harbrace? Would it ever be correct to write this sentence?
Jacob Goldblum will become the president of the United States.
Isn’t God a name? I’ve never heard it used as a title. It’s either a proper noun referring to the single Judeo-Christian deity (“I believe that God answers prayers.”) or a regular noun (“The Greeks believed in many gods.”) I believe I have been whooshed.
This is a change within my adult experience. Style books once routinely capitalized almost every kind of title. Today they routinely capitalize almost nothing.
However, unless you are in a position in which you have to follow the dictates of a style book, there is nothing incorrect about referring to a capital P President. Style is just that, not a rule or a commandment.
You don’t even have to capitalize god if you don’t want to. There are millions of gods, after all, and none of them is any more special than any other.
Thanks for your responses. There is this compulsive part of me that won’t allow myself to break a Harbrace rule knowingly – even when Harcourt and Brace makes the change.
The name of the Judæo-Christian god is YHVH, which is unpronounceable, so everybody calls Him “God” instead, which when capitalized is His title, His job description, so to speak. The word god can also be lowercased when using it in a generic sense. To speak of capital-G “God” is like referring to the boss by his title. That’s why I cited this as the only job title that gets capitalized apart from the name.
I edit at my work, I’ve been copy editing for years, and I get squicked whenever I see writers capitalizing generic job titles. I’m an editor, not “an Editor,” dammit. That goes for “president of the United States” the same as for anybody. Hell, I thought the U.S.A. was supposed to be an egalitarian polity equal citizens, we fought a damn revolution to get rid of the king. (Not “the King.” Only Elvis is “the King.”)