Sunday 16 June 2013

Both glamourous and humourous

  I've noticed what I have "dubbed (as)" - minor peeve there - "US / BrE hypercorrection", as in book shops having a "Humourous" section. I first noticed this in a UK Borders and wondered if there was any significance in this being a US chain.

  But is it really hypercorrection going on here? Or just co-incidence that these two examples have US connections? An American writing BrE might be tempted to overdo the humor / humour change. Brits in the US might lose touch a little or momentarily "over-egg" it, too. I noticed it in the recent article by, I think, a British 'Telegraph' correspondent in the US. The example in this case was "glamourous". A trend or just a common spelling mistake by BrE speakers? Comments, please.

3 comments:

  1. I'd say it's a common spelling mistake, and an understandable one. I wouldn't ordinarily read hypercorrection into it.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Stan. Sure you are right - you usually are.

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  2. Is this anything to do with spellchecking being in Americanese?

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