From: Alan Beale <biljir@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2000 08:58:28 -0400

With regard to "naught" vs. "nought", 11 dictionaries list "nought".
5 consider it a variant of "naught", 6 (by my rules) do not.  Two of
the 12 in fact consider "naught" to be the primary spelling for the
meaning "nothing", but "nought" to be the primary spelling for the
meaning "the digit zero".  This is a close call, but I think that
6of12 actually got this one right.

Here are some other words where the decision as to whether a word is a
variant is very close:

ambience: The majority think it is a variant of "ambiance".  A
minority think it's a distinct word.  In this case, I think the
minority is "right".

amuck: Majority says not a variant of "amok".  I tend to disagree.

analog: Majority says different from "analogue".  Minority disagrees.

arithmetical: Majority says variant of "arithmetic".

beaux: Majority says this is the preferred plural of "beau".

blond: Majority says different from "blonde", minority says variant.

bosun: Majority says different from "boatswain", minority says
variant.

caldron: Majority shows distinct from "cauldron".  Very strange.

camomile: Majority says distinct from "chamomile".  Peculiar.

chateaux: Equal evidence for being the primary plural of "chateau" or
a variant.

crawfish: Majority says variant of "crayfish", minority lists
separately.

eucalypti: Equal division between primary or alternate plural of
"eucalyptus".

expedience: Majority says variant of "expediency", minority disagrees.

faggot: Majority show as variant of either "fag" or "fagot", minority
considers separate.  This is a good example where my sources have
introduced distortion, since I consider it pretty clear that "faggot"
is a word in its own right.

fibre: Majority says British spelling of "fiber", minority says
American variant.

filet: Majority says separate word, minority says variant of "fillet".

forwards: Majority says separate word, minority says variant of
"forward".  (Of course, adding inflections solves this one.)

geographic, geographical: Half believe these are variants, half list
separately or show only one.

geological: Majority consider distinct from (or do not list)
"geologic", remainder consider a variant.

girt: Majority considers a word in its own right, minority shows only
as alternate past tense of "gird".

goitre: EVenly divided between British spelling or American variant of
"goiter".

henceforward: Majority: variant of "henceforth", minority: distinct.

hewn: Majority says alternate past participle of "hew", minority says
primary.

jeweller: Majority: variant of "jeweler", minority: British spelling.

marvellous: Majority: British spelling of "marvelous", minority:
American variant.

meagre: Majority: British spelling of "meager", minority: American
variant.

notary, notary public: Majority: distinct (or only one listed),
minority: variants.

offence: Majority: British spelling of "offense", minority: American
variant.

optima: Majority: primary plural of "optimum", minority: alternate
plural.

panelling: Evenly divided between being a British spelling or an
American variant of "paneling".

papyri: Evenly divided (among those that listed it) between primary or
alternate plural of "papyrus".

pedagogical: Majority lists as distinct from "pedagogic", or lists
only "pedagogical"...minority considers it a variant.

plushy: Equal division between variant of "plush" and distinct word
camps.

practise: Equal division between British spelling and American variant
camps.

resiliency: Equal division between variant of "resilience" and
distinct word camps.

rigamarole: Majority: separate word.  Minority: variant of
"rigmarole".

sceptic: Majority: British spelling of "skeptic", minority: American
variant.

smoulder: Majority: American variant of "smolder", minority: British
spelling.

sunburnt: Majority: Alternate past tense of "sunburn", minority: word
in its own right.  I have to agree with the minority.

sweepstake: Majority: Variant of "sweepstakes".  Minority: word in its
own right.  Two dictionaries list only "sweepstake".

tee shirt: Equal division between separate word and variant of
"T-shirt".  (Not that this matters for your application.)

thru: Majority: separate word, minority: variant of "through".  In
this case, the majority is substantial, but I thought it worth
mentioning since I imagine from the spell-checker perspective, you
want only to accept "through".

towelling: Majority: American variant of "toweling", minority: British
spelling.

townsfolk: Majority: Variant of "townspeople", minority: separate
word.  I presume a spell-checker would have to consider them separate.

tuberculous: Even division between variant of "tubercular" and
separate word camps.

unrivalled: Majority: American variant of "unrivaled", minority:
British spelling.

utopian: Half of the dictionaries consider this a variant of
"Utopian".  Most of the remainder list only "utopian".  One lists both
as distinct.

Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 18:03:35 -0400

On Thu, 6 Jul 2000 13:33:29 -0400 (EDT), Kevin Atkinson wrote:

  In case your interested here is the list of additional words [that
  were not marked as variants in 6of12.txt] that I considers variants
  and removed form the main dictionary: amuck blonde caldron camomile
  nought rigamarole

These seem reasonable choices to me, except possibly for "blonde".
There seems to be a bit of consensus that "blond" is masculine and
"blonde" is feminine.  But not everyone accepts this, and I'm sure
some would disagree on principle with having gender-specific words of
this sort anyway.


