Your questions answered

In a previous entry, I asked if there was anything you'd like me to ask the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary while I was among them. Here are answers to a couple of questions that might be of general interest:

When "meh" gets added.

Actually, the question isn't "when" but "if." Before they add a word, the OED editors need about 10 years' worth of print (or now Internet) citations, to show that the word has staying power. Fiona McPherson, the editor in charge of new words, explained, "Once it goes in, it never comes out."

Next question, which arrived in e-mail:

The accepted spelling of the conjugation of the present tense of the verb "try" is as follows:

I try, you try, he/she tries, we try, they try

Then you have the noun, "three tries at bat."  Is there a reason (origin) why he/she tries is not spelled at he/she trys, so that the verb has a different spelling than the noun?

I'd rephrase that question more generally as: Why do most words that end in "y" (for instance, "try") switch to "ie" in the plural and in certain verb forms?
 
According to Philip Durkin, the head of the OED's etymology section, in the Middle English period people freely wrote either "y" or "i" in words like "try," as they pleased. But as spellings regularized, the general feeling was that "y" looked good at the end of a word but not so much in the middle of one. Hence the switch we make from "y" to "ie" when the word form ends in "s." It's a "graphic convention," Durkin said.

Comments

This reminds me of when I bought a British sport car, an Austin-Healy, back in the 60's. Some of the spellings in the owner's handbook were amusing to me, such as "tyre" (tire) and kurb (curb.) I may not be correct about their spelling of that last one. Of course, many Americans are familiar with "wind screen" (windshield) and drop top (convertible.) There'll always be an England.
Ralph S.

Posted by Ralph Simmons | October 17, 2008 2:35 PM

I can understand why "try" becomes "tries" as a plural and sometimes as a verb. It's the general rule.

What about the exceptions? Why is "whys" the plural of "why" and why is "drys" the plural of "dry"?

Posted by john farmer | October 17, 2008 8:31 PM

Ralph, in England you make sure your tyres are not too close to the kerb. But you do curb your temptation to use Americanisms . . .

Posted by Kevin Morrison | October 17, 2008 9:59 PM

Anyone nostalgic for the presumable glory days of the British sports car knows that a convertible is a "DROPHEAD"..not a "DROP TOP" . There may or may not always be an England, but he British auto is no more.

Posted by Wallace Feldman | October 18, 2008 4:58 PM

Their boot is our trunk, their bonnet is our hood, and our top is their hood. So wouldn't a convertible be a drop hood? Also, their saloon is our sedan.

I'm going to go visit our saloon now, and won't be driving my sedan afterward, I promise.

Posted by Tom Hurley | October 18, 2008 8:23 PM

I always have to think about whether to spell the clothes drying maching as "drier" or "dryer". Neither looks right, but both are accepted.

Posted by Jenny | October 22, 2008 1:51 PM