@mwichary I've moved the block back: Here's a CAPITAL SHOUTING from 1816, 40 years earlier than my previous find: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30653178/earliest_known_use_of_capitals_for/ …
To my eyes, FWIW, that feels much more tenuous of a connection. But also, I’m curious: is there much use in finding an earlier discovery that’s a one-off, disconnected from a later trend? (Ties into a larger theme I’m struggling with of the value of the “first.”)
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(I mean, don’t get me wrong, I do that myself A LOT. :·) )
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Finding context is very hard in which people say, “I am using this in this way to express this emotion/emphasis.” So finding an example in which someone fairly clearly uses CAPITALS to indicate emphasis within a text and in an allegorical way is at least a precursor.
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At some point before 1856, when my previously found earliest usage (in which someone says, “shouted in capital letters”), this became convention. Was it convention 40 years earlier? This would indicate there was some association.
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"First" is usually awful. I've tried to write an article on the history of the "smiley" but it easily devolves into "humans like to make simple depictions of faces". I did write an article on the first advertisement for an automobile, and even that turns out to be unclear.
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