Thursday, September 20, 2012

quicko: to u or not to u

It was recently pointed out to me that, while there are many words that require a superfluous "u" in British and Australian English (colour, honour, favourite, etc.), there is at least one (and probably various other) notable exception that does not:  author.  Why is it not authour here?

1 comment:

Laetitia :-) said...

"or / er" = one who; so author = one who writes, actor = one who acts, usher = one who ushes, stationer = one who sells stationery...is my guess. Maybe for the other words it is determined by their original root.