I think it would. But you’d have to go back to at least the 12th edition from 1969 to check.
I’m way too old to remember what my elementary school teachers said. I’m thinking of books and newspapers.
Aha. Let me pull a book from that era off my shelf. How about 1965’s Ray Ginger, Age of Excess. (Good readable history of the post-Civil War era.) First book I pulled off the shelf, with no idea of what I’d find inside. Obviously, I can’t prove that so feel free to test it yourself with older books.
I doubt any of those usages would be capitalized today.
Interesting. I still tend to waffle over East & West, particularly when saying East Coast or West Coast. Lately I think I’ve been leaving them small case, but my urge is to cap them.
I still cap East Coast and West Coast. One of the local English-language newspapers caps the regions of Thailand – North, South, Northeast – but lowercases them when it’s northeastern, northern etc. The catch is the Central region; they never seem to be sure what to do with that, since “central” is not a noun. They generally cap it while being sure to use the word “region,” as in “Central region.”
They also use “Deep South” for the American Deep South, but “deep South” for the farthest southern provinces in Thailand. There’s years-long Muslim insurrection raging down there, so it’s mentioned quite a lot.
I’m thinking of books and newspapers.