What is the language "British"?

[Paul Howarth]

Robin Laing wrote:
> Michael Hennebry wrote:
>> On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, Grumpy_Penguin wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I had to explain to an English teacher the difference between fuse 
>>> and fuze
>>
>>
>> What was the distinction that you were trying to make?
>> In the dictionary I just checked, the definitions refer
>> to each other and pretty much make them synonyms.
>>
>>
>>> after He marked the latter as mispelled [BTW the spell checker missed 
>>> it too]
>>
>>
>> The spell checker got it right.
>> Short rare words should be flagged.
>> On a qwerty keyboard, s and z are adjacent.
>> Sesquipedalian, though rare, is unlikely to be a mistake.
>>
> 
> Fuse - Something to protect electric/electronic circuits.
> Fuze - Something you lite to set off an explosive.
> 
> US dictionaries use fuse for both.

So do British ones:
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/fuse_1?view=uk
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/fuse_2?view=uk
though the second offers "fuze" as an alternative spelling.

Paul.