Attention Spelling Police!

[Dogmudgeon]

Poll question: Attention Spelling Police!

I am in dire need of an accurate authoritative correct spelling!

I've seen a few "authoritative" references on how to spell this word. Each spelling is the "correct" way, and the other one is incorrect, according to any one of them.

What say you?

NOTE: A lot of DUers use Commonwealth Spelling -- honour, behaviour, colour -- and spolit even showed (shewed?) up today. This seems to be especially true for American users of Macintosh computers. I use American Spelling, so if you're not sure, please don't vote on this one.

Thank you!

--bkl

[Fixated]

1. ....?

Nevermind. I'm a moron. Ignore the post.

[GOPisEvil]

2. weird - I double checked my dictionary.

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Didn't even bother checking dictionary...

I've noticed a few spelling it wierd instead of the correct weird.

[RebelOne]

15. No way, never seen weird as wierd.

Always "i" before "e" except before "c."

[Wonk]

3. Googlefight!

http://www.googlefight.com/cgi-bin/compare.pl?q1=weird&q2=wierd&langue=us

The winner is:  weird 

[Bertha Venation]

4. "WE" are WEird...

that's how I remember it

[dolo amber]

5. I always remember it by

thinking "it's weird that weird doesn't follow the 'i before e' rule". Hope that helps. :hi:

[polmaven]

7. According to Merriam-Webster

and DU spell check, for that matter, this is a word which defies the rule. wEIrd...No i before e here.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. A Brief Note About "Webster"

ALL American dictionaries seem to be called "Webster's".

Merriam-Webster seems to be the only one that has kept the lineage, but even that one is not authoritative.

I would use the Oxford English Dictionary, but the last time I checked it out, the American English section was off-line.

Right now, I am tending toward wEIrd, mainly from the volume of use. But if you know better, please let me know!

Thanks again,

--bkl

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. Probably offline for updating to the latest version of Newspeak

Gotta destroy them concepts doubleplus quick!

[Jim__]

9. Exceptions to the rule

http://alt-usage-english.org/I_before_E.html

An excerpt:

Sticking for the moment to the basic rule, "i before e except after c", which is the only version I ever heard until a couple of years ago, here are some exceptions I've noted (I've added five of Ms Tomlinson's words to my old list):

beige, cleidoic, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign,
dreidel, eider, eight, either, feign, feint, feisty,
foreign, forfeit, freight, gleization, gneiss, greige,
greisen, heifer, heigh-ho, height, heinous, heir, heist,
leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir, prescient,
rein, science, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik,
society, sovereign, surfeit, teiid, veil, vein, weight,
weir, weird

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. Don't be wierd

its WEIRD

[geniph]

12. You left out THEIR

another exception. That rule is quite useless.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

13. The whole rule

"I before E, except after C, unless sounding as A as in neighbor and weigh."

Takes care are a lot of your exceptions.

[Dogmudgeon]

17. Excellent resource!

Thanks for the link!

--bkl

[Feanorcurufinwe]

19. Weird is one of those weird words

Weird.

[pagerbear]

14. Weird is good

..but "weirdo" looks goofy. Shouldn't it be "wierdo"? Now nothing looks right to me!

[Dogmudgeon]

16. 47 to 3 (as of quarter of three AM, Thursday, 25 March)

Weird is the winner in a wild and wacky walk.

My thanks to all of you who participated. My psychiatrist also thanks you.
(On the other hand, the makers of Paxil® are grumbling about "practicing psychiatry by internet".)

--bkl
My brain, at last at peace!

[SOteric]

18. Weird.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=weird