is HONOURARY acceptable spelling?

>> So honorary it is. I doubt that colorize ,however spelt, is a word in British English; sounds like something our American friends have just made up. Surely the verb is: to colour. Can anybody give me a context for this? Language is of course evolving but the "ize" brigade do tend to get carried away! <<

It's used to refer to works that were originally in black-and-white, and later had color added. For instance, colorized films, colorized comics, colorized iPods.

Hum. Coloured film, coloured comics and coloured iPods works just fine for me. The use of the verb supports the transitory nature from their previous monochrome state without needing to inventize more words. If we already have colour films and coloured films why do we need colorized films? My 5 year-old child certainly doesn't colorize the pages of his colouring books and the process is exactly the same (albeit slightly less neatly done) as adding colour to and old black-and-white film.

>> Hum. Coloured film, coloured comics and coloured iPods works just fine for me. The use of the verb supports the transitory nature from their previous monochrome state without needing to inventize more words. If we already have colour films and coloured films why do we need colorized films? My 5 year-old child certainly doesn't colorize the pages of his colouring books and the process is exactly the same (albeit slightly less neatly done) as adding colour to and old black-and-white film. <<

There's an older sense in which "colorize" just means "to color"; the OED's earliest citation for this usage is 1611. So if they are indeed equivalent, as you suggest, then it's hardly a recent invention.

But the newer meaning is a cinematographic term of art used to refer to the process of using a computer to convert a black-and-white film to color (slightly different from filling in a coloring book). You might find the -ize endings distasteful, but it's certainly a word in British English.

Thanks Raghav - most interesting. 1611 eh? Its invention is probably not the fault of the Americans then! Still do not like it but what's the harm? We are not the Académie Française.

My personal pet hate is "productionalise", don't go telling me that is of seventeenth century origins too.