Re: How do YOU refer to the Palm Device?

[Bob Ebert]

At 1:15 AM -0700 4/24/99, Thomas Engelmeier wrote:
>Acording to what I learned at school a capitalized word is never ever an
>adjective. Especially not in english, where only names are capitalized. OK,
>it's not my mother language, it's the second foreign language I learned.

I was curious, so I did a web search, and the grammar references all seem to indicate this is allowed. One example from <http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/grammar/adjectives.htm>:

Capitalizing Proper Adjectives
When an adjective owes its origins to a proper noun, it should probably be capitalized. Thus we write about Christian music, French fries, the English Parliament, the Ming Dynasty, a Faulknerian style, Jeffersonian democracy. Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives: the Nixon era, a Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet (but a contemporary novelist and medieval writer). Directional and seasonal adjectives are not capitalized unless they're part of a title:
We took the northwest route during the spring thaw. We stayed
there until the town's annual Fall Festival of Small Appliances.


In your defense, however, I noticed that many style guides suggest avoiding the use of a noun as an adjective to improve clarity. Perhaps that's the rule you're remembering?