Thursday, January 24, 2008

Gray or Grey?

My spelling has never been great, but then the English language doesn't always have consistent rules either. As I continue to write about black and white photography, I have to reference the color gray (grey?). The questions is: how should I spell it?

The researcher in me took over and I decided to consult Webster. As it turns out, both spellings are acceptable and both spellings mean the same thing - the color. However, the roots come from different places.

Gray is American English. Grey is British English. I haven't yet found a source that tells me when it changed from an 'e' to an 'a', but I surmise it had something to do with wanting to be different from the Mother Country back when we decided to be independent.

As far as my blogs go, I will use either spelling, but I lean towards using the British spelling. I make no promises that I will be consistent, but at least now we know where the variations came from!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

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