Now repeat after me: "The Oxford English Dictionary is the ONLY accepted reference for English!" Feel free to write it on the blackboard a few times as well, just to make sure it sinks in.
The OED lists thru (informal, chiefly N. Amer.) That's in the Second edition (1989).
The OED has never been about prescribing the use of our language, and such flagrant intellectual misuse of this awesome work of scholarship chaps my hide, hence this only-maybe-a-little-on-topic choice for my first/. post.
English is English, through is not spelled "thru", night is not spelled "nite", and there is no such word as "burglarize". The verb is burgle. Of course, you chaps in the colonies can do what you like with your language, but don't call it English !;)
The OED specifically rejects this bit of lingustic jingoism. The preface to the third edition (gradually being released on the the online OED), devotes a section to the attempts to increase the OED's coverage of the several varieties of English. It even has the interesting sentence, placing the UK varieties of the world's lingua franca in it's proper place:
The English of the British Isles now becomes one (or indeed several) of these varieties , whereas previously standard British English may have been regarded as the dominant form of English. [from the OED, Preface to the Third Edition, emphasis added]
Languages live thru change. Boxed in, they die. Who speaks Latin now?
Slashdot Mirror
The OED lists thru (informal, chiefly N. Amer.) That's in the Second edition (1989).
The OED has never been about prescribing the use of our language, and such flagrant intellectual misuse of this awesome work of scholarship chaps my hide, hence this only-maybe-a-little-on-topic choice for my first
English is English, through is not spelled "thru", night is not spelled "nite", and there is no such word as "burglarize". The verb is burgle. Of course, you chaps in the colonies can do what you like with your language, but don't call it English !
The OED specifically rejects this bit of lingustic jingoism. The preface to the third edition (gradually being released on the the online OED), devotes a section to the attempts to increase the OED's coverage of the several varieties of English. It even has the interesting sentence, placing the UK varieties of the world's lingua franca in it's proper place:
Languages live thru change. Boxed in, they die. Who speaks Latin now?
Cheers,
Hank (who prefers through)