Quote:
Originally Posted by chucksabr
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Outstanding link. Also explains why you people can't spell honour correctly
(and pretty much every other word with a weak inflection 'u' (colour)), Oh and two things before you guys jump down my throat for that comment:
1. It's called ENGLISH for a reason.
2. I'm just messing with you.
*A strange variety of Dictionaries are sold in vast numbers in this country INCLUDING "Webster's English Dictionary" (originally published by the guy mentioned in your link), "Collins' English Dictionary" (a Scottish guy) and "Chambers Dictionary" (probably the best single volume English Dictionary there is - used for the official world Scrabble contest rules) amongst the foremost. But the
definitive, and ridiculously HUGE (it comprises 20 volumes), Oxford English Dictionary is generally treated as
law, is updated yearly, and includes definitions for "American English".
"The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press, is by a considerable margin the largest dictionary of the English language. Work began on the dictionary in 1857[2]:103–4,112 but it was not until 1884 that it started to be published in unbound fascicles as work continued on the project under the name A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society.[3]:169 In 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was first used[4] unofficially on the covers of the series and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, it fully replaced the name in all occurrences to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one volume supplement[4] and more supplements came over the years until in 1989 when the second edition was published in twenty volumes.[4] As of 24 March 2011, the editors had completed the third edition from M to Ryvita. With descriptions for approximately 750,000 words, the Oxford English Dictionary is the world's most comprehensive single-language print dictionary according to the Guinness Book of World Records."
"The OED is the focus of much scholarly work about English words. Its
headword variant spellings order list influences written English in English-speaking countries."