Re: Spell Catcher [was spelling checker]

In article
<1iok9bw.1fbj4191yezlyjN%real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Tim Streater <timstreater@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

zoara <me18@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The problem with the Apple spelling checker from my point of view is
that there is no way of managing the user dictionary. Can one examine
its contents, modify them, and so on? Nope.

Unless, of course, you google for "edit osx dictionary" and click the
first hit.

That wouldn't have occurred to me. As it happens, I couldn't think of a
search term that might be suitable for finding out how to do what I'd
like with the OS X spelling checker.

I thought what you wanted to do was "edit the OSX dictionary"?

<puzzled> Which dictionary, precisely? Lots of dictionaries on a
modern computer, some of which are even concerned with human spelling.

Who cares which dictionary. What z suggested as a google search term is
in any case a likely starting point. You telling me that you don't
goggle for something unless you can specify what you want down to the
last detail?

[snip]

A big mistake by the OED, then.

Partridge's `Usage and abusage' has this to say on the subject:

"-ize and -ise, verb-endings. Fowler, in Modern English Usage, has an
admirable article on the subject. The following summary rule is based on
the O.E.D.'s article (at -ize): You will be safe if you make every verb,
every derivation noun or participial adjective, conform to the -z type,
for this suffix comes, whether direct or via Latin or French, from the
Greek -izein: to employ -ise is to flout etymology and logic. Moreover,
whether the spelling be -ise, or -ize, the pronunciation is -ize:
another reason for using it.

And 'though I', who have for years foolishly resisted this scholarly and
common-sensible rule, 'says it as shouldn't', yet the rule is single and
exceptionless:

Where there are, in dictionaries, the alternatives -ise (etc.) and -ize
(etc.), use -ize!."

Fowler's Modern English Usage tells us:

"-IZE, -lSE, IN VERBS. In the vast majority of the verbs that end in
-ize or -ise & are pronounced -iz, the ultimate source of the ending is
the Greek -izo, whether the particular verb was an actual Greek one or
was a Latin or French or English imitation, & whether such imitation was
made by adding the termination to a Greek or another stem. Most English
printers follow the French practice of changing -ize to -ise; but the
OED of the Oxford University Press, the Encyclopaedia Britannica of the
Cambridge University Press, The Times, & American usage, in all of which
-ize is the accepted form, carry authority enough to outweigh superior
numbers. The OED's judgement may be quoted :- 'In modern French the
suffix has become -iser, alike in words from Greek, as baptiser,
evangeliser, organiser, & those formed after them from Latin, as
civiliser, cicalriser, humaniser. Hence, some have used the spelling
-ise in English, as in French, for all these words, & some prefer -ise
in words formed in French or English from Latin elements, retaining -ize
for those of Greek composition. But the suffix itself, whatever the
element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -izein, Latin
-izare ; &, 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 & phonetic '.

It must be noticed, however, that a small number of verbs, some of them
in very frequent use, like advertise, devise, & surprise, do not get
their -ise even remotely from the Greek -izo, & must be spelt with -s-;
the more important of these are given in a list in the article -ISE. The
difficulty of remembering which these -ise verbs are is in fact the only
reason for making -ise universal, & the sacrifice of significance to
ease does not seem justified. "

So who is it that's made the mistake?

The etymology of these words is a matter of indifference to me. -ize
looks shitty so I don't use it, and of story. And as you point out,
there's a number of words which use -ise anyway.
.