| @ribhump: Actually, both -ize and -ise are equally acceptable in British English, apart from a few words like `advise' and `advertise' where both dialects accept only -ise. The suffix comes from the Greek suffix -izein, through the Latin -izare; the spelling -ise is due to later French influence. The OED uses -ize which is a good choice for a dictionary because words ending -ize can always be written -ise but, as noted above, some words ending -ise can only be written that way. As such, it's not really correct to refer to -ize as `the US spelling'. Anyway, this random education in etymology aside, both spellings should be accepted and probably are, by now. :-) |
