E.R.N. Reed wrote:
Graywolf wrote:
I would think it is an British variant of lens.
That would be why the ten dictionaries I consulted came from both sides
of the "pond." (Although I think both Webster's and Oxford dictionaries
also show the spellings in the other dialect.) In any case, I grew up
with the non-American* version of English spelling, and had never seen
"lense" until I started hanging around newsgroups.
Same place I first encountered "aperature", "warrantee" used in place of
"warranty" and "loose" as the opposite of "find."
As a matter of fact, when I was in this heated discussion on a newsgroup
about "lense" a few years ago, there were American posters who said
"it's the British spelling" and non-Americans who assumed it was
American. As I said at the time, having checked these multiple,
multinational sources, it is apparently neither British nor American but
just plain wrong.
Its appearance in a single dictionary source *since* that time suggests
to me its origin is misspelling finally recognized through sheer
persistence.
*no such thing as "British" spelling. There's American English, and then
English used by everybody else in the English speaking world. "British
spelling" implies the non-American version is the minority version,
where in fact the opposite is true.
And that's my pet rant, guys!
ERNR
Well said! Mine too, and thanks for saying it. It DID need saying.
keith whaley
