Realize And realize is an alternate spelling of the same word. In the US and Canada, realize is the more common spelling. In UK, Australia and New Zealand realize dominate, though realize also sometimes used. The difference stems from the histories of different dictionaries and publishers choosing their preferred version until a stereotype stuck.
All of a sudden (and after much research) it came to us.
Realize And realize are two different spellings of the same word. Chances are, if you’re reading something that originated in the US or Canada, you’ll see realize. And chances are, if you’re reading something that originated in the UK, Australia or New Zealand, you’ll see realize.
We see this play out in current publications:
This is Bergin’s goal: To make women realize that sitting habits can be a risk factor for musculoskeletal problems and that they can avoid specific aches, pains, and conditions. by refusing to sit with legs pressed together, crossed or anatomically spastic. . — Elizabeth Kiefer, washington articlesNovember 19, 2019
The early pioneers of the BBC realized that radio could reach every home and would provide a universal service for the common good. — Hugh Chignell, guard (London), November 17, 2019
And it can also be observed in the literature of the past:
Those words were barely spoken when she realized their immorality. – Wharton Editor, Mirth’s house1905
Did she realize, in the first place, that this land was only a tiny part of the world? – Virginia Woolf, Outbound trip1913
Use it as soon as possible
However, we do not see it in the earliest instances of the word in the English language.
The first examples of realize in print dating to the early 17th century, and although the word was borrowed into English from French realistit was originally just displayed as realize in English. Almost a century and a half ago realize began to appear—for the first time, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in a letter from none other than the lexicographer Samuel Johnson. He wrote on December 30, 1755, “Designs are nothing in the eyes of man until they are realized by execution.”
UK vs US UK
Johnson’s famous dictionary was published that same year, but it contained no entries. There’s nothing in him English dictionary between reaffirmed And real estate. 1721 by Nathan Bailey English dictionary of universal etymologyhowever, determined realize (and spell it that way) is “to cause a reality, admitted as a fact.”
In go with realize spelling, Johnson and his followers nod to the French root of the word, realist. Suffixes -ize itself is also French, and its closest ancestor is the Middle French suffix, -iser. But the letter “z” is present etymologically apart -iser. That suffix comes from the late Latin -izareand finally from the Greek suffix -izein.
The realize The spelling used on this side of the Atlantic owes something to someone close and dear to our hearts, at Merriam-Webster. Our lexicographer, Noah Webster, was a big believer in spelling reform, and was in a powerful position to make it happen. Among his many contributions to clear American spelling, he emphasized that words like realize have “z” to match their \z\. In my 1806 General dictionary of the English languageI love you realize as trip, trade (noun), praiseAnd patience. He allows both surprise And surprised.
Webster of course won some and lost others -ize war. While American English always identifies words with -ize more than -isethere are a lot of words spelled with ise although it sounds like they have a “z” in them: wise, guess, Advise, increase, Franchisingand many others.
So how do we end up with the current situation? Lynne Murphy, in her book Prodigal tonguean in-depth investigation of the differences between American English and British English, reporting that the English mint boom in the 19th century with the suffix mentioned (most appearing first in British English) ) coincided with the explosion of the French language -ise loans, such as galvanized, mobilizeAnd polarizationand that during this same period—the mid-1800s—there was a change to -ise spelling in British English in general. The 1884 Oxford English Dictionary decided to simplify the matter by listing uniformly the -ize spelling of verbs before them -ise variations (because of the Greek etymology -izein we mentioned above) lead to an increase in usage -ize in British English for some time, so both spellings were fully accepted.
Modern usage of -Ise versus Ize
But then, Murphy explained, in the 1990s, two influential publishers backed up -ise: both Time of London and Cambridge University Press decided to use -ise more than -ize. Around the same time, people were discovering the Internet—and English everywhere in the world—more than ever before, and a notion that -ize was a creation of American English that prevailed in British English, inspiring some drastic decisions to embrace -ise overall spelling, and leave -ize to that transatlantic emerging company with a lower version of the language.
And that’s how we got today: with realize is by far the preferred form in American and Canadian writing, and realize mainly the preferred form in British and Australian English. And we are all forced to realize that English can be very complicated.
Presenter:
Lynne Murphy, Prodigal tongue (New York: Penguin Books, 2018), pgs. 148-151.
“realize,” OED online, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/158938. Retrieved 11/19/2019.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
