I was writing the word theatre, the other day and thought, 'why do some people spell it 'theater', which is correct and why the two ways of spelling it? It happens with other '-er' and '-re' words too, like centre and sabre.

This is strictly from my (often faulty) memory, but I believe that the -er and -or (instead of -our) are from the spelling reforms of Noah Webster, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in his attempt to regularize (!) and Americanize spelling. The standard American spelling is theater, but it is very common for a building or an organization to use theatre, based, I think, on the notion that it is more arty. The small town that I live in actually has two theaters that use the -re spelling.

Arty isn't the half of it. (Well, actually, it's artsy that isn't the half of if.) Why we didn't also correct the solecistic spelling of words ending in -le is beyond me.

Ahah! I know the answer to this one...something about the dictionary writers...will try to find the book and will report back...it was something about the english dictionary writer publishing his dictionary, the american man didn't like the english man so published his own 'american' dictionary...like I said I will search for the book and tell you in a more concise and literate way!

Giving angels more angles?

Anyone who says you don't have too much time on your hands
does not know you.

Non Angli, sed Angeli

Ah, Latin. Beautiful phrase, actually rolls off the tongue.
(Augustine, correct?)

In my neighborhood, Augustine's a volcano.

Peter

My query was in relation to Operating Theatre.
I know that they are called theatre's because once they were semi-circular amphitheatres that aloud public viewing of operations as entertainment then learning. So I guess it fits the 'arty' theme some what......


I await your findings..Bex.

I'm not Bex, but again I would say this is spelled Theater in the States. Our friend Wikipedia has an article about them. Not sure how much more a misnomer it is for an OR with a glassed off observational area than it is for a plain old OR with no observational area at all.

The story goes that Bishop Augustine, who later would
be sent to England, one day saw several very blond children
for sale in the slavery market of Rome. Never having
seen such beautiful children he asked whence they came,
and was told from "the land of the Angles". His reply
was "not Angles but angels." (non Angli, sed angeli).

I always thought theater was the US spelling, and theatre from the UK or France...

As did I, but I see it being used more and more
frequently here in US. Artsy? Snobbish? To be an eye-catcher?

it's somewhat akin to spelling a grillroom with an 'e' on the back.

what's a grillroom when it's at home?
Oh and I have remembered the name of that book but I won't be able to go home and get it until tomorrow

Yes, grillroom with an 'e' on the back falls under snobishe.

Sort of like: "Ye Olde Anything"....another misunderstood
"E".

Ah there is a shop near me called

"Ye Olde Chippe Shoppe"

the owner/server said she did it because of all of the misplaced Es hanging around...

I like that.....snobishe.

We have a "Ye Olde Haire Shoppe"....lady's hair salon.
Dumb.

>what's a grillroom when it's at home?

a grill.
-ron o.

So why the -room? As in kitchen or BBQ? or just for the sake of it?

to distinguish the informal restaurant from the thingy whotsit on your patio.

grillroom

Ah an Americanism then...we call the thing on the patio a barbecue and those restaurants are "so and so's Bar and Grill" our grill is a setting on an oven for bacon and such or a griddle(plate)

Where is the useless "E" on grillroom? Something got
lost here in translation? Or 're' or 'er'?

>"so and so's Bar and Grill"

the 'e' *isn't on grillroom, the 'e' would be on "so and so's Bar and Grille".

see def'n no. 3 on grill, the noun..
grill

p.s. - there is a legitimate use for grille, of which grill is also a variant. it's found on the front of many cars, etc. see no. 5 on the grill link above.

It was nice to have a quick response from someone for once.

I've never seen the term grillroom.

Nor have I.

When you look at the synonym of 'grill' its synonym would be 'torture chamber'.