'ize Vs 'ise

A long time since I posted anything potentially useful. I guess that I have not discovered much over the last few months!

This started irking me more than usual today so I found the reasons why this happens with your spell check in MS Word. A bit of a detraction from my usual Networking and Linux related gaff. Also literally just a copy and paste from http://www.shaunakelly.com



"Word spells words like 'organize' with American spelling"


In Australian English, Word will mark 'center' and 'color' as errors, but it accepts both 'organize' and 'organise' as correct.


Many Australians spell words like 'organize' with -ise. But the dictionaries prefer -ize.


I think I'm right in saying that the Macquarie Dictionary (which has become a kind of de facto standard of Australian English) uses both, but prefers -ize.


There is no entry in the Oxford English Dictionary for 'organise' or 'agonise' or similar -ise words. The OED says:


"…in modern French the suffix has become -iser…. But the suffix itself …

is in its origin the Greek [ ], Latin -izare; 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."


Given that lots of people use -ise, but the main dictionaries either use or prefer -ize, I guess it's reasonable for Word to allow both as correct.


For what it's worth, my understanding (largely based on the etymologies in the big OED) is that the British had one of their routine love affairs with the French in the 19th century. It was then that the Brits abandoned the -ize words in favour of the French -ise. About the same time, they stuck an extra 'me' on the end of program to make the truly awful 'programme'. (As far as I know, we don't have telegrammes or anagrammes, for example!)


So 'organise' and 'programme' are French spellings. The real "British" spellings are 'organize' and 'program'. But the Americans had long since left home with the old British spellings before the British adopted French spellings. And so today many people see the -ize spelling as American!