the psychology of Gray/Grey

[Bob Haas]

I use "theatre/theater" in exactly the way you mention, Lynne--theatre
equaling drama and theater equaling edifice--despite knowing that there's
essentially no difference.  But despite that knowledge, I still use both
theatre and theater.  It just feels correct.

But the whole grey/gray thing?  No diff.  I tend to use grey, but I couldn't
really say why.  Probably some suppressed anglophilic agenda.

bob

> From: Lynne Murphy <lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 15:58:05 +0100
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: the psychology of Gray/Grey
>
> With theatre/theater, I'll bet that people will associate the former
> with an art form and the latter with lecture or operating theaters.
> But this, again, I think is an issue of style (use the more European
> spelling for the more 'cultural' thing) rather than two lexical items
> existing.  (To beat one of my favo(u)rite drums, it's a matter of
> metalinguistic rather than linguistic knowledge.)