Whether you’re typing out a text, drafting an email, or even handwriting a sentence with good old-fashioned pen and paper, switching between uppercase and lowercase letters is probably second nature. Unless, of course, you’re Gen Z with an aversion to any and all grammatical rules holding this fragile world together…but that’s a different conversation. 

Point being, while most of us know the names of these two basic fixtures of writing, we don’t know the surprising history behind how they got their names. 

Our story begins in Europe, with the invention of movable type. Which, as we know, transformed how books were produced. These giant machines assembled words by arranging individual letters, each one encased in a reusable block. Getting those letters into the right order required meticulous organization, and that’s where the terminology we still use today began to take shape. 

Cases. Actual, literal cases.

Printers store their metal........

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