case, upper and lower

The two possible forms taken by letters of the alphabet: capitals (upper case) and lower case. Capitals are used to begin proper nouns (John, Concorde, Dr Smith); the beginning of a sentence; the beginning of a sentence of direct speech (He said: ‘Come here!’); and the principal words in a title (Far from the Madding Crowd).

In the days when typesetting was done by hand, printers used to keep letters in a low case, near to hand; the less often used capitals were stored in a higher (upper) case.