Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/20

 relatively few. Most noticeable in English dictionaries are the retention of u in -our words like honour and colour, and the preference for s in words that all American dictionaries spell with z, as authorize and harmonize. Peculiarities like ax, wagon, program, theater, and the rejection of one of the doubled consonants in words like traveled, are mannerisms of some American dictionaries.

In the compounding of words the divergences are great and increasing. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century rail road and steam boat were separate words; after a little use the noun and its qualifier were connected by a hyphen; now they are welded together in one word by all dictionary makers. Other words have undergone or are now undergoing similar changes, which have been made in print, not by the order of any academy or by accepted teachers of language, but by writers who choose to deviate from previous usage. All the changes begin with writers. Dictionary makers (Webster excepted) claim that they do not originate changes, and that they record only those that have been generally accepted.

To many readers the variations of British and American spelling and of compounded and separated words are of slight importance. Toleration is conceded to national mannerisms that have been confirmed by usage and do not confuse the meaning intended. Yet there are changes which