follow suite >> follow suit

[Joel S. Berson]

I can understand the use of both -- although I am not a user of
"suite".  Perhaps more common in Europe?

Doesn't "suit" come from the French "suite"?  OED2 says "[a. AF.
siwte (12th c.), siute, sute, seute, suite = OF. sieute, later
suitte, etc. (mod.F. suite, see suite)"

And OED2 has this quotation: "1849 Chambers's Inform. People II.
663/2 If a person happens not to follow suite, or trump a suite." --
although it's its only "follow suite".

Joel

At 10/14/2007 08:07 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>OK, I've just been corrected. For some reason, when I was young, I
>>learned the spelling "suite" for the sets of cards -- I always
>>understood that it was spelled "suite" but pronounced "suit." I'm
>>quite sure I read it that way in one of the books that was formative
>>for me as a youth, but I can't check, because I've lent my copy. At
>>any rate, Mark Mandel has been so good as to point out that I've been
>>wrong all these years! (No doubt I had seen it spelled "suit" before,
>>but the people who do things like poker standings and ads aren't
>>people you trust absolutely in spelling matters, and it's not
>>otherwise often written down.)
>
>I think "suite" for "suit [of cards etc.]" is simply a variant
>spelling in modern times.
>
>Searching Google Books for <<"follow suit">> gives 1890 items while
><<"follow suite">> gives 'only' 415: still far too many for sporadic
>error, I think. Of course I didn't examine every item, but quick
>browse indicates that the 'literal' (card-playing, domino-playing)
>and the 'metaphoric' senses of the phrase both have multiple examples
>of each spelling ... and both spellings were used 200 years ago ...
>and both are used currently, in seemingly respectable books.
>
>I don't know how I'm supposed to pronounce "suite" in "follow suite".
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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