Re: What is the language "British"?

On Wed, Aug 30, 2006 at 05:08:24PM +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
On Wednesday 30 August 2006 16:57, Michael Hennebry wrote:
On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, Grumpy_Penguin wrote:
I had to explain to an English teacher the difference between fuse and
fuze

What was the distinction that you were trying to make?
In the dictionary I just checked, the definitions refer
to each other and pretty much make them synonyms.

Since I'd never heard of 'fuze' I checked four dictionaries. Three
of them didn't list it. The fourth said that it is a 'US variant
spelling of "fuse"'

I had always thought fuze (as detonator) a Briticism, so I looked it
up in my copy of Mencken's The American Language (1982, as updated
with new material by Raven McDavid). According to Mencken, in both
senses it is a Briticism.

Further, he says that American spelling is gaining ground even in
Britain, and that even the Overdose of English Dictionary prefers some
American spellings to English, e.g. ax to axe. He cites the (British)
Authors' and Printers' Dictionary (1956) as preferring jail and jailer
over gaol and gaoler, and fuse to fuze.

In a footnote, he refers to the Dictionary of U.S. Army Terms
(Washington, 1943) as preferring fuze for a detonating device.

That lead me to look it up in the Overdose Of English Dictionary
(1971), which accepts both spellings for both the detonator and
bringing together, but doesn't mention the electrical device at
all. It includes a 1644 use of fuse in the former sense.

On spell checking this email, I found that the aspell dictionary
doesn't accept fuze as sufficiently American.

Is everyone now thoroughly muddled? Good.

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: What is the language "British"?
    ... "FUZE noun A mechanical or electrical device that initiates the ... Fuze was ONLY detonator. ... while going back and looking in dictionaries from the 1940's and 1930's ... they may no longer reflect current usage. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: What is the language "British"?
    ... something up and the fuze is an electronic version of same. ... A fuse is an electrical device. ... I've been doing electronics ... use American toys that call themselves dictionaries. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: What is the language "British"?
    ... On Wednesday 30 August 2006 16:57, Michael Hennebry wrote: ... What was the distinction that you were trying to make? ... Since I'd never heard of 'fuze' I checked four dictionaries. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: What is the language "British"?
    ... blow something up and the fuze is an electronic version of same. ... I've been doing electronics ... "FUZE noun A mechanical or electrical device that initiates the ... use American toys that call themselves dictionaries. ...
    (Fedora)