Sceptic/ skeptic

[UnquietDad]

Do you use the American spelling? A lot of people seem to these days.

More than once on here I have been laughed at for using "sceptic", by people who didn't known the difference between sceptic and septic.

Other hideous Americanisms which it seems to be acceptable to use in British English now:

• "sulfur"

• the date with no "the" and no ordinal (i.e. "Monday Twenty-three June")

• "24/7"

• "so" in the "Chandler from Friends" way, e.g. "I am so not getting this."

I imagine you've not been to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" yet then.

I used to use sceptic, but then found myself mostly on US skeptic sites (and listen to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe) and have gradually adopted the American spelling.

Mostly, I think, because we don't seem to have as thriving a skeptic movement over here in the UK.

Actually, thinking about it, to my eyes both spellings look wrong...

It wouldn't occur to me to use skeptic.

Sulphur/sulfur tends not to crop up in my writing ever

No "the" irritates me

I may have used 24/7 on occasion...

Tend not to do so either.

to answer the question... sceptic. Always.

Sulfur turns up in compounds listed on shampoo ingredient bottles all the time. Have a look next time you are bored in the shower.

Ah, but is that because the actual manufacturing takes place elsewhere, perhaps?

I think it's so the same label can be reproduced throughout most world markets without the need for it to be expensively translated and reprinted. (viz. also "aqua" and not "water").

Sceptic. Skeptic looks wrong, as does sulfur.

I think t'internet has truly buggered up my spelling actually. Because I frequent more US sites than UK sites many Americanisms look "right" as Britishisms (yes, I know that isn't really a word) do. I manage to resist color over colour and sidewalk/pavement etc, but certainly the less well-used words like sceptic/skeptic and all the -ize -ise endings find me staring at the page endlessly trying to work out which one is right.

I know I'm not the only one. I have an American friend who lived a while in the UK and now lives in Spain. She's a writer who writes for both American and British markets - she quite often IMs me to check which spelling is the British/American one (poor soul, blind leading the blind) as she just can't see it anymore.