[Python-ideas] Canceled versus cancelled (was Re: Interrupting threads) (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Tue Jan 29 18:28:25 CET 2013

On 1/29/2013 8:18 AM, Richard Oudkerk wrote:

On 29/01/2013 9:54am, Antoine Pitrou wrote:

Of course, I sympathize with native English speakers who are annoyed by the prevalence of Globish over real English. That said, Python already mandates American English instead of British English. Is Future.cancelled() an acceptable American spelling?

Slightly controversial, but 'Yes'. My 1960s Dictionary of the American language gives 'canceled' and 'cancelled'. Ditto for travel. I see the same at modern web sites: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cancel http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cancel

Both give the one el version first, and that might indicate a preference. But I was actually taught in school (some decades ago) to double the els of travel and cancel have have read the rule various places. I suspect that is not done now. More discussion:

http://www.reference.com/motif/language/cancelled-vs-canceled http://grammarist.com/spelling/cancel/

The latter has a Google ngram that shows 'canceled' has become more common in the U.S., but only in the last 30 years. It has even crept into British usage.

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=canceled%2Ccancelled&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=6&smoothing=3&share=

On the other hand, just about no one, even in the U.S., currently spells 'cancellation' as 'cancelation'. That was tried by a few writers 1910 to 1940, but never caught on.

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cancelation%2Ccancellation&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=

-- Terry Jan Reedy

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