Re: [PATCH 10/15] regulator: documentation - consumer interface

[Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 03:51:02PM +0200, Timothy Clacy wrote:
> > > > initialization
> > > >         ^
> > > 
> > > Not in the UK :)
> > 
> > Actually, wrong.  "Initialize" is correct spelling in the UK 
> > too - I've checked several UK dictionaries printed in the 
> > 1960s, 1970s and 1980s sourced from different printers, and 
> > they all agree on that.
> 
> In what context did 'initialize' appear in a 1960s dictionary? According
> to the Cambridge dictionary, 'initialise' is the English spelling and
> 'initialize' is the American spelling (simplified English); similarly
> for 'finalise'.

The Little Oxford Dictionary, compiled by George Ostler, Third Edition,
printed at The Clarendon Press.  Third edition dated 1941, reprinted
1955, and 1957, with revisions dated 1959..1962, 1964 and 1966.

It lists:

organize, v.t. (-zable), furnish with vital organs; give orderly
structure to; bring into working order.  ~zation, n. (esp.)
organized body or system.

The previous entries to this are: organic, organism, organist.  No
'organise' is listed.

However:

supervise' (-z). v.t. (-sable), over see; watch or direct the carrying on
or work of.

No initialise, initialize, finalise or finalize are listed in this
dictionary.


Odhams Dictionary, edited by A.H.Smith (UCL) and J.L.N.O'Loughlin (Oxford)
has:

organize, but no organise.  supervise but not supervize.  However, this
dictionary does list "finalize" but not "finalise" in the "recent
additions to the English language" section.

Since both final and initial are both derived from Latin (finalis and
initialis respectively) and finalize is listed, logic suggests initialize
based upon the information in this dictionary.

The overall message which this is saying is that there's no one correct
"all -ize should be -ise" or "all -ise should be -ize".

So... organize, initialize, finalize and supervise are all spellings
which have grounds for being more correct (in my eyes) than organise,
initialise, finalise and supervize respectively.

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