On Wed, Aug 30, 2006 at 05:08:24PM +0100, Anne Wilson wrote: > On Wednesday 30 August 2006 16:57, Michael Hennebry wrote: > > On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, Grumpy_Penguin wrote: > > > I had to explain to an English teacher the difference between fuse and > > > fuze > > > > What was the distinction that you were trying to make? > > In the dictionary I just checked, the definitions refer > > to each other and pretty much make them synonyms. > > > Since I'd never heard of 'fuze' I checked four dictionaries. Three > of them didn't list it. The fourth said that it is a 'US variant > spelling of "fuse"' I had always thought fuze (as detonator) a Briticism, so I looked it up in my copy of Mencken's The American Language (1982, as updated with new material by Raven McDavid). According to Mencken, in both senses it is a Briticism. Further, he says that American spelling is gaining ground even in Britain, and that even the Overdose of English Dictionary prefers some American spellings to English, e.g. ax to axe. He cites the (British) Authors' and Printers' Dictionary (1956) as preferring jail and jailer over gaol and gaoler, and fuse to fuze. In a footnote, he refers to the Dictionary of U.S. Army Terms (Washington, 1943) as preferring fuze for a detonating device. That lead me to look it up in the Overdose Of English Dictionary (1971), which accepts both spellings for both the detonator and bringing together, but doesn't mention the electrical device at all. It includes a 1644 use of fuse in the former sense. On spell checking this email, I found that the aspell dictionary doesn't accept fuze as sufficiently American. Is everyone now thoroughly muddled? Good. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
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