is HONOURARY acceptable spelling?

Milton   Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:44 pm GMT
Hi.
I would like to know if the word HONOURARY is used in UK and Canada?
Or it should be spelled HONORARY?
criss   Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:45 am GMT
yes honourary is used t=in the uk and canada. im in school now and if i were to write honorary it would count as a spelling mistake
Guest   Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:04 am GMT
I'm from Canada and I'd certainly never use "honourary". It's "honorary". Likewise, I would write "colour", yet "colorize" not *"colourize".
Lazar   Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:48 am GMT
Criss is mistaken. Regardless of whether you use "honor" or "honour", the spelling "honorary" is universal in all dialects. (Look it up in the Cambridge Online Dictionary.)

As for "colo(u)ri(s/z)e", the Longman Dictionary ( http://www.ldoceonline.com/ ) says that the "u" is optional in British English.
DJ   Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:01 am GMT
It is normal to write honorary and colorise in British English. Note: there is no choice about honorary. There is no alternative spelling. Colorise: maybe the dictionary says colourise is an option, but that would be very much the minority choice. Arguably - and I say this as an aficionado of OED spellings - the correct British spelling is colorize.
Lazar   Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:07 am GMT
Google results favor "colorise" over "colourise" by about 3 to 5; and the analogies of "generous, generosity" and "honour, honorary" would support "colorise".
criss   Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:40 pm GMT
yes sorry about that it is in fact "honorary"

my apologies
Guest   Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:51 pm GMT
Honourary is the Frenchy way, just like colour
MRB   Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:08 pm GMT
Oh don't be silly. Colour is standard British spelling. Brits have to consciously remember to write "color" when writing raw HTML or it doesn't work. The French for "honorary" is honoraire. Actually.
Charlotte   Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:05 am GMT
It OUGHT to be HONOURARY and COLOUR, but HONORARY and COLOR if you are in America or they'll probably all stare at you.
Lazar   Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:41 am GMT
"Honorary" and its cogantes don't use "ou" in Latin, French or any dialect of English.
DJ   Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:59 am GMT
Charlotte, read the thread. Honorary is the spelling in every country of the world.
Liz   Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:43 pm GMT
Yes, that's "honorary" in Britain, too.
Simon   Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:16 am GMT
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!
Milton   Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:04 pm GMT
''colorizer'' is used more than ''colorize''.