# Words that have changed spelling in your lifetime
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 15, 2013, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997 "2013-03-15T10:40:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/21 "2013-03-15T18:02:15Z")
Kindly direct me to the display of facsimile machines.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/22 "2013-03-15T18:25:49Z")
When I was a kid, \*hiccough \*was right and \*hiccup \*was wrong. Now hiccough earns me a red-squiggly underline, and the online dictionaries prefer hiccup (but will accept hiccough, I sense grudgingly).
I guess \*dialogue \*and \*dialog \*have both been acceptable for my lifetime, but Microsoft has made dialog much more common.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/23 "2013-03-15T18:32:03Z")
Maybe: never mind --\> nevermind, post-Nirvana. Although the one word is still underlined.
Not spelling, but: care-a-mel has become car-mel. I resist. I expect it to be spelled like the mount or city any day now.
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### Author:  [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/24 "2013-03-15T18:36:18Z")
I’m still waiting for sherbert to become the official spelling.
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/25 "2013-03-15T18:37:22Z")
To my dismay, “everyday” seems to be becoming an acceptable (or at least common) form of “every day.”
And yes, there IS supposed to be a difference.
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### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/26 "2013-03-15T19:00:38Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> When I was a kid, \*hiccough \*was right and \*hiccup \*was wrong. Now hiccough earns me a red-squiggly underline, and the online dictionaries prefer hiccup (but will accept hiccough, I sense grudgingly).
Great example. I’d almost forgotten, but I was taught to spell it “hiccough” too.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/27 "2013-03-15T19:07:19Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> I’m not sure if this is accurate, but I’m sure I’ve seen this often enough to assume that:
>
> Brits now spell it “skeptic” instead of “sceptic.”
>
> Americans now spell it “disc” instead of “disk” and sometimes I see them spell it “grey” instead of “gray.”
Not really.
Sceptic is still the standard British spelling. “Skeptic” is considered archaic over here.
Brits use “disk” for the computer storage medium, “disc” for round objects generally, including compact discs.
Same with “programme” - we use the American-style “program” for computers, “programme” for TV or a “programme of events”.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/28 "2013-03-15T19:26:49Z")
I think I was into my 20s before I realized it wasn’t sherbe **r** t! :smack:
US usage is the same: compact disc, floppy disk, hard disk drive. I guess a single HDD platter would be a disc? :dubious:
Gray and grey are interchangeable, although gray is much more common in most places. I am told that towards vs. towards etc. have a regional distinction, but I notice no clear rules in US usage.
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### Author:  [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/29 "2013-03-15T19:27:00Z")
Despite being American, I was taught to spell “color” as “colour” when I was a kid. Then I switched elementary schools and the teacher marked my work down repeatedly before finally insisting that it was spelled “color”. I thought that was odd at the time.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/30 "2013-03-15T19:29:40Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> I guess \*dialogue \*and \*dialog \*have both been acceptable for my lifetime, but Microsoft has made dialog much more common.
I still have a dialogue with people but select from dialog boxes.
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### Author:  [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/31 "2013-03-15T20:29:42Z")
I have two print dictionaries and a cookbook in which the singular form of cookies is cooky. Yep, it used to be cooky.
I remember our 4th grade teacher told us that we should use actress and authoress when appropriate, but allowed that authoress seemed to be on its way out (1969).
There never has been an i after the v in mischievous, regardless of mispronunciations.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/32 "2013-03-15T20:47:37Z")
A friend of mine, California born and bred, swears that in his idiolect, there is a word “unwieldly” spelled and pronounced that way. I am always annoyed that “advisor” (as in “academic advisor”) is always red-lined.
Although the older spellings “through” and “though” are hardly gone, I think they are on the way out. And not a moment too soon. Someone uppost mentioned a list a nouns that had been verbed. Well, “phone” has been a verb for as long as I can recall (I am 76). Many of the others on the list are neologisms (e.g. “text” in the current verbal meaning, “email” no matter how you spell it.)
FWIW, the compact OED deprecates the spellings “gaol”, “kerb”, “tyre”, “programme”.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/33 "2013-03-15T21:33:05Z")
I’ve noticed more and more people abbreviating “microphone” to “mic” rather than “mike.” It’s always disconcerting to me. I understand not using “mice,” but hell, I’d rather see “maic.” 😃
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### Author:  [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/34 "2013-03-15T22:19:01Z")
When I was a kid, it was spelled:
Hwæt. We Gardena in gear-dagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon
But now it’s spelled:
What. We of the Spear-Danes in old days
of the people-kings, power heard,
how the princes brave deeds did
I am _really_ fucking old.
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### Author:  [@steviep24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steviep24)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/35 "2013-03-15T22:25:14Z")
“Like” is now spelled “liek” and “the” spelled “teh” when it comes to internet/texting usage.
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/36 "2013-03-15T22:26:30Z")
The one that always gets me is niger (as in the seed you feed to finches) is now spelled nyjer. It was always pronounced as you probably pronounce the second. That change was of course engineered as political correctness.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/37 "2013-03-16T13:21:16Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> Gray and grey are interchangeable, although gray is much more common in most places. I am told that towards vs. towards etc. have a regional distinction, but I notice no clear rules in US usage.
I thought it was “grey” until I started coding HTML
The original specification for web browsers required them to accept anything as best they could, so all web browsers accepted “grey” – some thought I meant GRay, and some thought I meant GREen
(I’ve done it here, so you can compare the colours you see for gray/grey/green)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/38 "2013-03-16T13:56:43Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#):
>
> My computer gives me a red squiggly when I write the word “catalogue.” I guess the current vogue is for “catalog,” though the “-ue” were definitely included when I was a kid.
>
> I was also taught to write “catsup” instead of “ketchup” and “doughnut” instead of “donut.”
All of those, plus ‘dialogue’. My dad had a 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 [7-Lit **re**](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8463/8095019563_949a4d735d.jpg). That’s how I learned to spell it as a child.
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/39 "2013-03-16T15:38:43Z")
“Antivenin” became “antivenom”.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-changed-spelling-in-your-lifetime/652997/40 "2013-03-16T15:41:30Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> “Antivenin” became “antivenom”.
[Indeed](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=653958).
.
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