H.L. Mencken (18801956). The American Language. 1921. in the
prospectus of English, a magazine founded to further the
romantic and patriotic study of English, and advertize and
advertizing are in the first number.25 All the English
authorities that I have consulted prefer the -re26 and -our
endings; nevertheless the London Nation adopted the -or ending
in 1919,27 and George Bernard Shaw had adopted it years before.
The British Board of Trade, in attempting to fix the spelling of
various scientific terms, has often come to grief. Thus it
detaches the final -me from gramme in such compounds as kilogram
and milligram, but insists upon gramme when the word stands
alone. In American usage gram is now common, and scarcely
challenged. A number of spellings, nearly all American, are
trembling on the brink of acceptance in both countries. Among
them is rime (for rhyme). This spelling was correct in England
until about 1530, but its recent revival was of American origin.
It is accepted by the Concise Oxford and by the