Orthopedic? Orthopaedic?

[Ross]

I was just wondering if anyone could clear up when each usage of Orthop(a)edic is used. I've seen it with an a and without an a in all sorts of circumstances. Just curious.

Thanks

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[jimjones]

I'm going to guess that it's England English vs U.S. English. Similar to feces/faeces.

 

[Smoke This]

I'm going to guess it's something akin to pedantic vs. paedantic.

 

[tidy_kiwi]

Orthopedic/pediatric/feces/encyclopedia are all used by people who never learnt to spell words correctly.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING A U.S. ENGLISH!!!!

Microsoft shall be informed.....


All joking aside - I think both versions are now acceptable although you won't catch the Queen spelling sulphur with an f.....

 

[jue]

i agree with tidy_kiwi, brits rule. i can't imagine spelling colour without a "u", i actually tried that once when i was in elementary school and it cost me a point.
by the way in answer to the original question paed is english while ped is american.

 

[jue]

sorry i just read the original post again, orthopaedics is english while orthopedics is american.

 

[Starflyr]

There are a lot of words in the english language that are like this, amoeba, ameba (yes, that is the current spelling in textbooks), etc. What happened here is that most of those words were originally greek, transliterated through latin. The Greeks had letters that Latin didn't, so the dipthongs were introduced. Since English is an ever-evolving language, people have decided that use of random extraneous letters is confusing and have thus removed them without changing the sound of the word. "Greek and Latin in Scientific Terminology" is a very good resource if you're interested in learning more. It is true, that the people living in the UK have generally avoided the changes that Americans made, though the changes, even in America are relatively recent, and many older scientists and doctors still used the dipthong-ed spellings.

Star

 

[Cobragirl]

I think it's because many americans are getting too lazy to look stuff up in a dictionary when they don't know how to spell something!!! It's just easier to mispell it and then call it "american"! AMEBA??????? Good Lord! I think they've just changed the spelling so that the kids can concentrate on figuring out WHAT an amoeba is rather than worrying their pretty little heads with something as inconsequenchal as proper spelling and word usage!

I don't claim to be an english major or anything, but I do TRY to spell things correctly and if I'm not sure I look them up (as in a DICTIONARY...not spell checker). I don't think "modern" English is E-volving...I think it's D-evolving!

 

[efs]

One of my favourites is haemo-

It just looks like it sounds better than hemo-