Tuesday, November 25, 2014

amature/amateur: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Tuesday, November 25, 2014

amature/amateur
Most of the words we’ve borrowed from the French that have retained their “-eur” endings are pretty sophisticated, like “restaurateur” (notice, no N) and “auteur” (in film criticism), but “amateur” attracts amateurish spelling.

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CORRECTION TO YESTERDAY’S ENTRY: Jan Freeman has noted via twitter that “dialectal” would be the correct formation, not “dialectical,” in the phrase “‘Ourn’ is dialectal.”


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