On Sun, Feb 10, 2008 at 11:58:13AM +0000, h...@crypt.org wrote:
> As far as I remember, they used not so long ago to list -ise as the primary
> form and -ize as a US English variant. (Though I'm not sure the OED ever
> did that: see the mention of OUP in the first reference below.)
The OED's entry for -ize says:
" ... the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in
its origin the Gr. -{iota}{zeta}{epsilon}{iota}{nu}, L. -iz{amac}re;
and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in
English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to
that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the
termination is uniformly written -ize. "
For -ise it says:
" a frequent spelling of -IZE, suffix forming vbs. "
but note that is also says:
" suffix of ns. ... properly:{em}L. -{imac}tia, but also, in words of
learned formation, put for L. -icia, -itia, -icium, -itium, as in L.
justitia, judicium, servitium ... [has mostly changed to -ice, eg
justice] ... but -ise is found in franchise, merchandise ...
If you have a card from a UK public library, then you can probably get
at the online version here and consequently demolish my selective
quoting :-)
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/lclogin
--
David Cantrell | Reality Engineer, Ministry of Information
I don't do .INI, .BAT, or .SYS files. I don't assign apps to files.
I don't configure peripherals or networks before using them. I have
a computer to do all that. I have a Macintosh, not a hobby.
-- Fritz Anderson
