Get connected

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

When did 'connections' stop being spelt 'connexions'? Was it later on one side of the Pond than the other? I noticed recently that Raymond Chandler spelt it the old fashioned way, yet my instinct says that the ct spelling would be more USian than Brit; or maybe not.

It's odd.

Comments

[nevboo.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember that Bill Bryson wrote in Mother Tongue that UK English has diverged further and faster from older English than USA English has. I guess that the older version would be maintained longer in USA English. But that's just a guess.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

X is American, which is supposedly closer to olde English than modern English is, though given that spelling in olde English was pretty much on a whim I'm not sure how they can tell.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

http://www.connexions.gov.uk/ spells it connexions still. Or maybe 'again'?

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

ConneXions is DEFINITELY not American. Frankly, I've never seen in on anything here.

[ukcougar.livejournal.com]

"connexion" comes from Latin, via French, if that helps any? I had a quick look at an online dictionary and it lists it as a British variant, but I've never seen it spelt with an 'x' in English in any sort of seriousness outside of proper nouns.

Right, people

[theora.livejournal.com]

Per the OED:

The etymological spelling connexion is the original in Eng.; in 17th c. it was supported by the verb CONNEX; after the latter was displaced by CONNECT, the n. began c 1725-50 to be often spelt connection, a spelling which, under the influence of etymologically-formed words, such as affection, collection, direction, inspection (all f. L. ppl. stems in -ect-), is now very frequent.
The earlier Eng. lexicographers, including Bailey, Johnson, Walker, Todd, Crabb, recognize connexion only. Connection appears in Webster (1828) who says ‘For the sake of regular analogy, I have inserted Connection as the derivative of the English connect, and would discard connexion’. This preference has been followed by other dictionaries in U.S. Latham would differentiate the two spellings and use connexion only in senses 5-8. Connexion is the official and invariable spelling in sense 8, and was used in all senses by the majority of writers (or printers) in England until the mid-20th c., when connection became more usual.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

i still spell it with an x when i don't forget.

-m-