"ize" or "ise"

Wekk   Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:21 pm GMT
Is it burglarise or burglarize?
Rick Johnson   Wed Aug 31, 2005 6:21 pm GMT
..........or just burgle!
Uriel   Thu Sep 01, 2005 1:13 am GMT
Either, Wekk. Depends on where you are.
JJM   Fri Sep 02, 2005 8:02 pm GMT
Yep.
Adam   Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:11 am GMT
It's "burglarise".

Having the "ize" ending on words doesn't make sense to me, because "ise" is phonetically more accurate than "ize."
Adam   Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:15 am GMT
[Q] From Sid Murphy: “In words including the ending -ize or -ise, such as organize and categorize, does British English spell them with an s or a z? I would also appreciate a comment on derivation.”

[A] The broad rule is that the -ize forms are standard in the US, but that -ise ones are now usual in Britain and the Commonwealth in all but formal writing. For example, all British newspapers use the -ise forms; so do most magazines and most non-academic books published in the UK. However, some British publishers insist on the -ize forms (Oxford University Press especially), as do many academic journals and a few other publications (the SF magazine Interzone comes to mind). Most British dictionaries quote both forms, but—despite common usage—put the -ize form first.

The original form, taken from Greek via Latin, is -ize. That’s the justification for continuing to spell words that way (it helps that we say the ending with a z sound). American English standardised on the -ize ending when it was universal. However, French verbs from the same Latin and Greek sources all settled on the s form and this has been a powerful influence on British English. The change by publishers in the UK has happened comparatively recently, only beginning about a century ago (much too recently to influence American spelling), though you can find occasional examples of the -ise form in texts going back to the seventeenth century.

I like the -ise forms myself, in part because being British I was brought up to spell them that way, but also because then I don’t have to remember the exceptions. There are some verbs that must be spelled with -ise because the ending is a compound one, part of a larger word, and isn’t an example of the suffix. An example is compromise, where the ending is -mise, from Latin missum, something sent or placed. Some other examples spelled -ise are verbs formed from nouns that have the s in the stem, such as advertise or televise.

At the risk of sounding like a style guide, but in the hope you may find them useful for reference, these are the words always spelled in -ise, whatever your local rule about the rest: advertise, advise, apprise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disfranchise, enfranchise, enterprise, excise, exercise, improvise, incise, premise, revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise.

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JJM   Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:31 am GMT
Folks:

We're talking about spelling here. S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G.

English spelling has regional variations. This is one of them.

Choose either "-ise" or 'ize" but try to be consistent in your use.

That's it.

Next subject, please.
Winston   Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:09 am GMT
A very broad generalisation of it is this:

North Americans and those learning North American English tend to PREFER "ize"

British, Australians, NZs etc TEND TO PREFER "ise", and those learning the language again consult which form of the language they intend to conform to before sticking with a particular spelling.
Uriel   Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:51 am GMT
Well, Adam, I don't know about you, but I tend to pronounce it "ize". Maybe you say "isssse", I don't know.
greg   Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:19 am GMT
Adam : tu ne veux pas troquer ton <magazines> pour <magasines> ?