وحيد فرج
20/03/2007, 11:18 AM
ise or –ize
The difference is indeed between American and British spellings, but as you've probably guessed, things aren't quite as simple as that.
The suffix -ize has been around in English since the late 16th century. This is such a useful suffix for making verbs from adjectives and nouns that it has become one of the most common in English; we got it via French, which of course uses the spelling -ise.
It orginally comes from the Greek infinitive verb ending -dzein. As early as the 3rd century, Christians were taking Greek words such as baptidzein and Latinizing the endings, as in baptizare. Originally, only Greek base words were Latinized in this way, but then the French began using the ending for Latin base words, as in réaliser.
Influenced by French, English speakers borrowed many Latinized Greek words, such as apologize, which has always been spelled with a z. They also picked up the suffix and have used it to coin verbs ever since, from fossilize (18th c.) to itemize (19th c.) to computerize (20th c., of course!).
The spelling of the suffix tended to be -ize, which makes perfect sense considering the pronunciation and the spelling of the Latin and Greek endings. However, because many of these words were borrowed into English from French, the -ise spelling was often seen. At some point during the vogue for codification and standardization engendered by the Englightenment, some bright spark in England decided that all words with Latin bases should be spelled with -ise, and all words with Greek bases could continue to be spelled with -ize. Thus Britons got saddled with having to memorize even more irregular spellings than we have to--although more and more, they are using the -ize ending themselves.
This idea never caught on in America, where -ize continued to be preferred. There is some dispute about the etymology of analyze so that some argue it really ought always to be spelled analyse, but otherwise Americans always spell this suffix with a z. As for words such as prize, surmise, surprise, and revise, these are not examples of a 'root + -ize' formation. You can look up the etymologies of individual "exceptions" to the -ize rule in any good dictionary..
Wendalyn
The difference is indeed between American and British spellings, but as you've probably guessed, things aren't quite as simple as that.
The suffix -ize has been around in English since the late 16th century. This is such a useful suffix for making verbs from adjectives and nouns that it has become one of the most common in English; we got it via French, which of course uses the spelling -ise.
It orginally comes from the Greek infinitive verb ending -dzein. As early as the 3rd century, Christians were taking Greek words such as baptidzein and Latinizing the endings, as in baptizare. Originally, only Greek base words were Latinized in this way, but then the French began using the ending for Latin base words, as in réaliser.
Influenced by French, English speakers borrowed many Latinized Greek words, such as apologize, which has always been spelled with a z. They also picked up the suffix and have used it to coin verbs ever since, from fossilize (18th c.) to itemize (19th c.) to computerize (20th c., of course!).
The spelling of the suffix tended to be -ize, which makes perfect sense considering the pronunciation and the spelling of the Latin and Greek endings. However, because many of these words were borrowed into English from French, the -ise spelling was often seen. At some point during the vogue for codification and standardization engendered by the Englightenment, some bright spark in England decided that all words with Latin bases should be spelled with -ise, and all words with Greek bases could continue to be spelled with -ize. Thus Britons got saddled with having to memorize even more irregular spellings than we have to--although more and more, they are using the -ize ending themselves.
This idea never caught on in America, where -ize continued to be preferred. There is some dispute about the etymology of analyze so that some argue it really ought always to be spelled analyse, but otherwise Americans always spell this suffix with a z. As for words such as prize, surmise, surprise, and revise, these are not examples of a 'root + -ize' formation. You can look up the etymologies of individual "exceptions" to the -ize rule in any good dictionary..
Wendalyn