Heres one that may have reared its head here before.

Is it Pearlize or Pearlise?

I have tried different dictionaries and online look ups and have come to the conclusion that... it doesn't really matter. I just wanted to get to the root of my pedancy. Here in Enzed we use british english. Any thoughts on the matter would be most welcome.

One Look has only the "z".

I think that generally it's "ise" in England, and "ize" in the US.

My understanding too. It may also have something to do with the word origins. English borrows a lot from french where I belive the 'ise' is more dominant?

My understanding is that it was originally -ize but the Brits, in their excessive love of the French, changed over to the French -ise.

british english

Ah, yes, well. The OED (all editions) lists entries with -ize suffix. There is an entry for -ise, but it is merely glossed as a variant of -ize. If one is to apply the etymological fallacy pedantically, one ought to observe that the French did not invent the suffix (i.e., it isn't from Latin). It is Greek in origin, where a zeta is used.

This is what the OED does, it seems to me. They note that some prefer the spelling -ise for words borrowed from French, and -ize for words borrowed from Greek. But then they say

I know 'shift happens' but I can't seem to get away from the fact that the truth is out there and should to some degree be adhered to.
So in my opinion the Ize have it.

he pronunciation is also with z

Indications are that the pronunciation of zeta in Classical greek was not the same as the pronunciation of z in English: Gk /dz/ PDE /z/.

Interesting topic..I have noticed that the 's' is often exchanged with a 'z' in the word paradise!

This seems mostly in songs for some reason.

I have noticed that the 's' is often exchanged with a 'z' in the word paradise!

The word paradise does not contain the suffix -ise. It is ultimately from and Old Iranian word pari- 'around' (cf. Greek περι- (peri-) + daiz- 'to heap up, build' (cf. English dough, Latin fingō 'to touch, handle; form, shape') meaning enclosure and later walled park or garden.

daiz- 'to heap up, build' --> dais, surely?

lolz

According to AHD4 dais is from Latin discus and don't call yourself Shirley.

dais, surely?

Why? As Faldo has pointed out, the two words are not related. The Indo-European root for the Persian root daiz- is *dheigh-, and in Latin that initial dh corresponds to an f (cf. Latin fumus 'smoke', Greek θυμος (thumos) 'mind, soul', Sanskrit dhuma 'smoke' < PIE *dheu-m-).

Thank you both.