WORD LISTS

American "-or" words

September 6, 2009
By Ben Zimmer (New York, NY)Visual Thesaurus ContributorVisual Thesaurus Moderator
These words are spelled with "-our" in British English, but thanks to Noah Webster, Americans spell them with "-or."

More here: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1975/

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Tuesday September 8th 2009, 3:59 PM
Comment by: Lynne M.
Thanks! Being born and raised in Canada, and having moved to the US, I have always been a little uncertain about the "or" and "our" words. Now I have a list and know how it happened. I knew about the Normans and pork, beef, etc. but the "our" makes sense now too.
Saturday September 12th 2009, 7:56 AM
Comment by: Patricia P. (North Tonawanda, NY)Top 10 Word Lister
Thanks for these words!
Wednesday September 16th 2009, 12:18 PM
Comment by: Jan K. (London United Kingdom)
I think you'll find that the U exists in English spellings, not "British" English spellings. There's no such thing as "British English", as the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish have their own varieties of English.

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