Comments on: Adapter / Adaptor

Question: Adapter / Adaptor

jnthnjng — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:20:40 -0800

Language bigots: adapter or adaptor?

bigots meant in the nicest possible way of course.

By: enrevanche

enrevanche — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:35:27 -0800

(shrug) My dictionary lists "adaptor" as an acceptable variant of "adapter."

Googlewar results: "adapter" gets 38,800,000 hits vs. "adaptor" with 15,800,000.

Personally, I don't have strong feelings about it either way, as long as you pick one and use it consistently. It would seem that "adapter" is the more common spelling by a better than two-to-one margin, however.

(Language bigot qualifications: I've been a technical writer and editor for about twenty years now.)

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:35:28 -0800

I just got hassled by someone about this a few weeks ago! I was emailing a guy about getting some stuff set up for a presentation I was giving. I said "OK good I'll bring my adapter" and he replied with "Yes, make sure you have your ADAPTOR with you" [all-caps, just like that]. I hadn't even known there was something to be bigoted about before that. I'm American and he's Australian, if that matters.

By: thirdparty

thirdparty — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:37:06 -0800

It appears to be an American/British thing, but both spellings are acceptable on both continents.

A better question: Diarrhea or Diarrhoea?

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:38:31 -0800

That entry pretty clearly says that both are correct. The one listed first in the entry will be more common or maybe even "preferred" but they are both correct. Columbia Guide to Standard American English says the second one is a variant, and has more info on agentive endings.

I think what's more important is to have internal consistency in your own {writing, publication}. For example, while adviser and advisor are both correct according to any dictionary or usage guide, the AP stylebook specifies adviser. If you don't already have a personal preference, it might be good to stick with the one that occurs first in the dictionary so you can remember which one you use easily.

By: biffa

biffa — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:43:42 -0800

I spent good time learning to spell diarrhoea as a child, and I'll be damned if I let some descriptivist swine ruin it for me. The OED is largely in my corner in this. Hurrah for the OED (this time).

And to hell with the Spellchecker too.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 09:52:01 -0800

Aluminum or Aluminium.

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:00:09 -0800

biffa: Diarrhœa is British English; diarrhea is American English. The OED thinks that "color" has a "U" in it. Shows what it knows.

By: biffa

biffa — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:08:18 -0800

Diarrhœa is British English; diarrhea is American English

grose: And I think we all know which of those is correct.

By: WestCoaster

WestCoaster — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:15:06 -0800

Google addendum: 3,470,000 results with BOTH "adapter" and "adopter" on the same web page.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:37:02 -0800

Aluminium, 'cause it's more fun to say.

Not diarrhoea, but diarrhœa. Or maybe it's diarrhoæ. And probably that 'rr' is some other special character.

If someone has access to the big, twenty-foot-long OED, look up "drama queen" for us, eh? I'm betting it was originally applied to overwrought women, and had nothing to do with homosexual men.

Finally, it's an adapter if it's converting, say, British 50Hz 240V to Canadian 60Hz 120V; but it's an adaptor if it's going the other way around. ! :-)

By: shepd

shepd — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 10:37:53 -0800

biffa, the answer is Canadian English, right?

By: Hillman Cobs

Hillman Cobs — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 11:08:10 -0800

I got in a big discussion with my boss about Adaptation vs. Adaption. I hadn't ever heard anybody say "adaption" before, but she was quite sure of herself.

By: dame

dame — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 11:17:15 -0800

Brits say "orientate" instread of "orient." That right there has lost them any special claim over the language.

Anyway, Biffa, the answer is of course "the one with the biggest army to back it up."

By: shepd

shepd — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 11:31:46 -0800

Dame, the brits are intelligent for that reason.

Orientate has a single meaning (I have *never* experienced it being used to meant to face eastwards), whereas Orient has multiple meanings (ranging from slightly racist to turning things). Using a word that clearly distinguishes meaning is preferrable, IMHO.

By: dame

dame — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 11:49:52 -0800

Oh, Shepd, I so disagree. I prefer that words have as many meanings as possible: that's what makes language fun to play with. How boring to have a one-to-one correspondence. Context and ambiguity are the things literature are made from. Would you prefer "cleave" never existed? Should we make up new words for "lead" or "read"? No, I say. NO!!!!!

Preferable has one "r." Just to Nazi things up. Can you find my mistake? ( if I belived in them, there would be a smiley here.)

By: mikrophon

mikrophon — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:12:29 -0800

I'm with Dame here. What makes English my favorite language (aside from the fact that it's the one I speak) is the way ambiguity turns discourse into poetry.

Also, adaptor. This whole class of words, things that take action or have purpose (i.e., adaptor, resistor, aviator, proctor) are made more active, in my mind, by being made actors.

I also used to anthropomorphosize numbers and musical notes as a child, because I am completely fucking insane. My brain still works best this way.

By: Monk

Monk — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:09:37 -0800

According to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, adapter and adaptation are prefered over adaptor and adaption (a word I have also never heard used in conversation).

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:20:13 -0800

Aluminum vs. aluminium is directly split along national lines, so you may as well ask "What country were you raised in?" instead. Adaptor/er are more interesting in that both are used in the U.S., so it really does come down to personal preference.

As for diarrhoea vs. diarrhea, that's easy: diarrhea, because diarrhoea is just wrong.

Now, diarrhœa vs. diarrhea? That's a different story.

By: ism

ism — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 15:05:10 -0800

spelling != language

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:14:26 -0800

spelling ? language

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:15:27 -0800

That was supposed to be U+2208 ELEMENT OF. It showed up fine in preview. :(

By: felix betachat

felix betachat — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:16:05 -0800

A better question: Diarrhea or Diarrhoea?

An even better question: Logorrhea or Logorrhoea?

By: Aknaton

Aknaton — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:26:00 -0800

A tangent on spelling in other languages... I am pretty sure that there are no spelling bees in Hungarian, a language that has been comparatively recently cast in the Roman alphabet. I was told by the American mother of a child in Hungary that while Hungarian kids talk later than English-speaking kids (it's a hard, or they would say "heavy", language in some ways), they read much earlier, and much more interesting books. Apparently the extra mental cost of dealing with the horribly written English language holds children back a while.

WestCoaster: I only found 343.000 for "adapter" and "adopter" (as long as we're on the bigot thread).

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:15:17 -0800

"Orientate?"

ARRRRRRGHHHH!

Must. Not. Spaz.

By: deborah

deborah — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 13:55:16 -0800

I recently heard a Brit say "aluminium"* on a home makeover show. I got a headache from laughing so hard.

The poor Canucks have it hard with both English and American influences. Spelling and pronounciation are all over the place.

And yeah, "orientate" makes my teeth hurt as much as "irregardless." "Disorientated" would follow, yes? Yikes!

*al-oo-min-ee-um

By: viama

viama — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 14:58:20 -0800

deborah, believe me, USAians saying al-oo-min-um is as equally funny to us brits.

By: biffa

biffa — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 06:14:10 -0800

Are there any other elements where Americans strip out the i? Why aren't Wolverine's bones laced with Adamantum?

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:22:36 -0800

biffa: I think you'll find the Brits added the extra letters, and are the ones who should be classified as wrong. And deborah, it's Al-you-min-ee-um or Al-You-min-yum.