Why grey instead of gray, I wonder. Many years ago I realized I was spelling it with an e and didn’t know why. Later I realized there were a few other words I spelled in similarly British fashion (for instance, judgement), as I apparently learned them in a Philadelphia elementary school a loooong time ago.
To be accurate, the gray/grey difference is not exactly American/British since both spellings are used (and generally accepted) on both sides. My favorite wordsbook (Amer. Herit. 5th) lists gray first with grey as a variant, while the OED lists them reversed, but neither dictionary has any comment on the difference. (The Internet, however, seems certain the diff is American/British.)
Why grey instead of gray, I wonder. Many years ago I realized I was spelling it with an e and didn’t know why. Later I realized there were a few other words I spelled in similarly British fashion (for instance, judgement), as I apparently learned them in a Philadelphia elementary school a loooong time ago.
To be accurate, the gray/grey difference is not exactly American/British since both spellings are used (and generally accepted) on both sides. My favorite wordsbook (Amer. Herit. 5th) lists gray first with grey as a variant, while the OED lists them reversed, but neither dictionary has any comment on the difference. (The Internet, however, seems certain the diff is American/British.)