What is the language "British"?

[Robin Laing]

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.

BTW, spell checkers are not always correct.  With the dropping of Pluto 
from the official planets list, the term pluton was going to be used for 
the Dwarf Planets.  This was chosen because it didn't show up in MS 
Words dictionary.  It has been used in geology for ages.

pluton
      n : large mass of intrusive igneous rock believed to have
          solidified deep within the earth [syn: {batholith},
	 {batholite}, {plutonic rock}]


-- 
Robin Laing