Is it a prescriptive issue? Does anyone have the etymology of the spelling variants?
I actually have no idea. I just know that I've seen "lens" a lot and "lense" never, that I can recall. Which means precisely nothing, etymologically speaking.
Wait... except now "lense" looks okay to me. But it looked so wrong just a second ago! Oh, and now it looks wrong again. I am confused.
Was it part of that American "let's make spelling make more sense" movement that "corrected" the spelling of 'colour' to 'color', 'metre' to 'meter', etc?
I dunno. I don't recall seeing it in the lists of Websterized things.
I only started thinking about it when my mother started sending email.
I don't know, Plei. My guess is either the American version is changed to distinguish from the British (color/colour), or is the more archaic version that was moved away from in Britain (fall/autumn).
Which is really no use.
They claim they made all those up too, though.
I occasionally claim to be the King of the Moon. I think they're both rather spurious claims. But who knows? Either way, there's jargon I hear regularly, and there's Varietyspeak that I don't.
It's quite possibly a distinction that occurs only in my head, and any excuse to justify my irrational hatred of Varietyspeak will do. I can live with that.
Was it part of that American "let's make spelling make more sense" movement that "corrected" the spelling of 'colour' to 'color', 'metre' to 'meter', etc?
This movement, incidentally, being why the Red Sox are spelled with an "x."
Today I saw "friends" spelled "frenz". I almost wept weeped.
I was just reading a book that talked about "programmes" that are parts of "organizations" -- Canadian, right? With the UK/US combo dealie?
I was just reading a book that talked about "programmes" that are parts of "organizations" -- Canadian, right? With the UK/US combo dealie?
Um, we contains multitudes?
[edit: Nevermind. To drink coffee makes our reading English possible.]