Also called minuscule.

Lowercase letters are the smaller forms of alphabetic letters, at least in scripts like Latin that have two cases. Lowercase letters are the opposite of uppercase letters (or majuscules/capitals).

HISTORY

The words ending with -case are a legacy from the era of printing with movable metal type. For the English-language, letters (metal pieces of type) from one font size were traditionally sorted into two wooden drawers or cases, one for each kind of characters. Capitals were in the kept in the upper case, and lowercase letters were on the bottom one. Later, single drawers would be used for an entire font. There, capitals were kept the upper section of the drawer, above the lowercase.

Even though they appeared later than their uppercase “parents,” lowercase letters went through many more iterations. Some of these evolutions were influenced by history (invention of new tools), cultures (preference for certain styles) and geography (influence of nearby cultures).