Talk:black letter

Tea room discussion

Note: the below discussion was moved from the Wiktionary:Tea room.

Entry says countable. True?—msh210℠ 20:57, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

The type style is both countable and uncountable. I'll add some citations. —Michael Z. 2009-01-05 23:21 z

Surely the type is the proper noun Blackletter, whilst one can also say “there’s some blackletter [the text as a mass]”, “it’s written using blackletters [referring to the individual characters]”, &c… † ﴾^(u):Raifʻhār ^(t):Doremítzwr﴿ 19:17, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

It is not the proper name of a typeface like Helvetica, but a type style, comparable to roman, italic, etc (there might also be specific designs titled Blackletter by their designer).

It seems that every spelling is used every conceivable way: the noun is more commonly black letter, and attributive more often black-letter or blackletter. A typeface is blackletter or a blackletter, while text printed in this style is blackletter or (set) in blackletter.

The plural definitely applies to particular fonts, for example, in the days of metal type, a typesetter's 12-point blackletter and his 24-point blackletter were two blackletters (just as your computer's Helvetica italic and Times italic are two italics). I suspect that type can be set in blackletters too, but I don't see an example at the moment. —Michael Z. 2009-03-31 22:55 z

I stand corrected! † ﴾^(u):Raifʻhār ^(t):Doremítzwr﴿ 00:16, 1 April 2009 (UTC)