Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2008 12:34:48 GMT
Which is correct: advisor or adviser?
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 27, 2008 12:42:03 GMT
Either.
I've seen various theories proposed, but I can't myself see any real pattern. Some words take -er, some take -or, and some take either.
Someone (Tone, possibly) advanced the theory that -er is for things, -or for people: professor, heater.
Trouble is, there seems to be as many exceptions as not: lecturer, adaptor.
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 27, 2008 12:47:40 GMT
And what's the distinction with -ist?
Visitor, tourist, trainer, actor, painter, pianist, hunter, inventor, artist, stranger, teacher.
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 27, 2008 12:55:03 GMT
The 2002 Oxford English Dictionary says "The spelling advisor is much less common than adviser. More common in North America than in Britain, it is a more recent development and is still regarded by some people as incorrect."
I don't agree with most of that, though! Advisor doesn't seem to me to be especially American, and I would have thought it was the more common form. And I'd be amazed if many people still regard it as in any way less correct than adviser.
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Post by Alan Palmer on Jun 27, 2008 14:27:55 GMT
I can date the first time I noticed adviser moderately accurately; to 1994. I was made redundant in 1993 and about a year later the local JobCentre (Labour Exchange) underwent a facelift. I went in to sign on and the clerk had a new sign hanging over his desk: John Smith* Adviser.
I remarked the the signwriter had misspelled the word, and he pulled out a dictionary from his desk drawer and pointed to the entry for advisor, which had the comment "ALSO adviser" He said that he had thought the same as I had until he looked it up.
I would have therefore thought that the -or form was the most common in British English.
However, words that end in -or generally come to us directly from a Latin original, with -er coming from the French. Advise is from the Old French avis, "opinion", and only via a roundabout route from the Latin. Perhaps, then, adviser is the more "correct" form.
*Not his real name.
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 27, 2008 15:38:02 GMT
I would have therefore thought that the -or form was the most common in British English. You and me both. I like the fact that a Job Centre clerk had a dictionary handy for when the unemployed masses queried his sign!
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Post by Pete on Jun 27, 2008 17:59:18 GMT
Interesting that the adjective is advisory.
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Post by Tone on Jun 27, 2008 20:20:40 GMT
>Someone (Tone, possibly) advanced the theory that -er is for things, -or for people: professor, heater.<
'Twas indeed Tone.
My feeling is that, although it's no way hard-and-fast, it's a good rule of thumb if one is not sure when writing. More likely to be acceptable than condemned that way.
And I accept that one who uses is a user (not a usor), but is he/she upon which the use is perpetrated a usee? (As I, by chance, used it today.)
Tone
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 27, 2008 20:23:35 GMT
No, Tone. Time for another of your pills.
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Post by Tone on Jun 27, 2008 21:06:03 GMT
>Time for another of your pills.<
You think pills are enough?
Tone
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jun 28, 2008 0:24:29 GMT
We are in the strictly moderated topic and I have taken us off-topic. Mea culpa.
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Post by Pete on Jun 28, 2008 0:45:11 GMT
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