A(ir)(ero)planes

Why are there two different spellings depending on whether you are from the U.S.A. or Great Britain?

They're not merely different spellings, they're different words that mean the same thing.

As far as I know it's a historical difference between the English of North America and other English-speaking countries, like gasoline/petrol. I've never seen any record of either word being officially prescribed. Aerofoil/airfoil, aerodrome/airfield.

I think I'd call them different spellings, Can't be arsed to look it up but my guess is that when the word was coined (long before the Wright brothers) people used the normal Greco-Latin prefix aero- on both sides of the Atlantic, and at some point that was replaced by air- in the US in an effort at simplification. Although I guess you could say that that made the US word a compound noun rather than a prefix+root noun, arguably making them two words.

OP, if it surprises you that the Atlantic makes this much difference, how about the fact that on one side of the English channel it's aeroplane and on the other it's avion? And then cross the German border and it's Flugzeug.

Vinny since when can't you be arsed to look up a random fact. You sound a little up tight vinny. Perhaps you need a beer and a hot tub. a good sixth of the worlds problems could be solved with a beer and a hottub.

The difference in pronunciation between 'aeroplane' and 'airplane' is much less in US English than in (southern) British English, because the 'r' sound is retained in most varieties of US English. So perhaps the original coinage was 'aeroplane', and US English simplified it to 'airplane' without really noticing.

Aeroplane is the older word and actually predates fixed wing aircraft. It was coined in 1855 by a Frenchman
>In 1855, Joseph Pline proposed a dirigible glider, under, for the first time, the name "Aeroplane", in the shape of a bird, with a framework filled with gas, and fitted with propellers.

Because US citizens solve spelling difficulties in English by writing phonetically. (I bet they write fonetically, but maybe not.)

Which has nothing at all to with onomatopoeia used as an uncountable noun.

Then, there are aeroports, and airports, and planes, and jetliners, and jets, and airliners, and jet airliners, and jet aircraft, and aircraft,.. and at this stage, we are discussing language purity, and language prescription...

Here's a very American Aeroplane. Note the pronunciation.

Edited to add: such things really did exist

Edited by: Wilbur Wright

Does the UK still have aeroports? Did it ever have aeroliners or aerocraft?

Jefferson Airplane, perhaps, suggests the 1960s solution (to the air/aero/plane thing), though if anyone could suggest how this slang was supposed to be spelt, that would help. I mean, this was meant to be genuine. (For those not informed, this refers to US West Coast).

A Jefferson AIrplane is an kind of roach clip--a paper match split to hold the roach. It was always "Airplane." (Uh, of course I have not personal knowledge of this, um, I'm just reporting what I, uh, read somewhere.)

There is dispute whether or not the band was named after the roach clip. The FOAK says
>The origin of the group's name is often disputed.... An urban legend claims [the roach clip] was the origin of the band's name, but according to band member Jorma Kaukonen, the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as Blind Lemon Jefferson.[8] A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying:
>I had this friend [Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people," explains Kaukonen. "His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane (for blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson). When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, 'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'

Edited by: Grace Slick

So, go here now, after all that, though I'm sure it will be airplane these days...

#12 -- I can never decide between that and the original.

I saw the Airplane in person, back in the 1960s, just after Grace Slick had joined them. Also Big Brother (with Janis), Quicksilver, Moby Grape, the Dead, and others I've forgotten.

I also saw them in concert in Toronto -- it must have been 1968. God, I'm old!

The French have les aéroports and Britain has Aeros (a chocolate bar), if this helps.

I'm terribly jealous nutrax. I've seen the Dead numerous times but, by the time I got into the others it was just too late. I've been told numerous times that I was born a bit too late. There was no way my parents would have taken me to Woodstock.

And then there's jewellery/jewelry, travelling/traveling, further/farther, axe/ax, and a trillion more.