Smatticus said:
I had another somewhat random question so I didn't waste opening a new topic, what is the story behind '
theatre' vs 'theater'? Is one only supposed to be used in a certain situation or do they refer to different things, or are they simply just two ways of spelling it? :? 8O
Well..as I understand it, TheatER is mostly an American-ism of spelling..while
TheatRE is the british "traditional" way to spell it. Folks outside the american USA influence tend to spell it with the RE anstead of the ER.
Additionally FWIW, Some folks feel that TheatER refers to a building moreso, while
TheatRE refers to the craft/art/show done on
stage. But its really just the spelling--as if you check definitions of both they refer to the same thing usually. from a dictionary on the subject: "Americans spell it theater except sometimes in proper names, where, in imitation of the British spelling,
theatre can occur in performance. "
The greeks and romans spelled it
Theatre...its just us silly yanks that have to do it "our way" like
Burger King I guess.. I guess its like the debate about the spelling of Centre vs Center..and
Meter vs Metre...one is us yanks butchering the language to death as always, and the other is the traditional spelling the way it probably should be.
The debate on this is open...but thats the info I know on the subject.
-wolf