Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 14:26:16 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: David Dawes <dawes@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au>, John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu> Cc: FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Misspelling in lib/libutil/login_cap.3 [w/ patch] Message-ID: <19980411142616.52233@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19980411143046.35436@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au>; from David Dawes on Sat, Apr 11, 1998 at 02:30:46PM %2B1000 References: <199804102256.IAA07810@cimlogic.com.au> <Pine.BSF.3.96.980410230946.14017G-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu> <19980411143046.35436@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au>
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(Following up to -chat, where the discussion should have been for a long time). On Sat, 11 April 1998 at 14:30:46 +1000, David Dawes wrote: > On Fri, Apr 10, 1998 at 11:12:23PM -0500, John Fieber wrote: >> On Sat, 11 Apr 1998, John Birrell wrote: >> >>> Chad M. Fraleigh wrote: >>>> >>>> "authorisation" should be "authorization". >>> >>> In my _*English*_ dictionary, either is acceptable. >> >> Citation please? >> >> Not found in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed), nor any of >> the American dictionaries I have on hand (American Heritage, >> Webster). > > I have a copy of "The Concise Oxford Dictionary", 6th ed (1976). It > shows both forms, with the "z" version preferred. > > Also, "The Macquarie Dictionary", 1st ed, revised (1985), which is > considered by many to be the reference for English as used in Australia > shows both with the "s" version preferred. That's correct. Australian spelling is more frenchified than British spelling in this matter. My viewpoint on this is that neither spelling is incorrect. Somewhere, a recognized dictionary allows it. As somebody (John) observed, the OED prefers -ize to -ise, and that's the spelling I normally use. It does have problems, though, since the words ending in -ise come from two different roots, and you can't use -ize for everything (advertize?). Since the spelling isn't incorrect, I can't see any reason to change it. In some cases, it may be statement of opinion. If you want to go around changing the text of man pages, it would make more sense to correct real spelling mistakes and unclear formulations first. >> It may be acceptable somewhere, but I dare say that the "z" >> version is much more widely accepted. > > I tend to agree. I used to think that the "s" version was the real > "English" form (consistent with traditional Unix 'spell -b'), but some > time ago an Englishman who was somewhat pedantic about such things > pointed out that this wasn't the case (referencing the Oxford English > Dictionary). I've come to the conclusion that the "s" form is more > common in Australian English than elsewhere, and it happens to be the > form I use too. Possibly. It's pretty much in common usage in the UK as well, despite being deprecated by the OED. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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