Re: The one already done

tristan alexander mcleay scripsit:

> Also, does anyone know Webster's logic behind respelling 'colour' as
> "color", but not 'source' as "sorce", which, being a stressed vowel,
> would need it more, IMHO.
Webster was basically merging the suffixes "-our" and "-or", which have
for many centuries been pronounced the same.  As a consequence,
he cleaned up the derivatives:  why "honour" and "honourable"
but "honorific"?

(There is a theory that "-or" is used only for Latin derivatives,
and "-our" for words that came in through French, but this has
been shown to be false.)

Webster's treatment of "-er" and "-re" was founded on the same
principle.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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