In Style
Whisky rebellion
June-July 2009

by Norm Goldstein

Spelling, write Strunk and White in The Elements of Style, “is not fixed and invariable. … At any given moment … a relatively small number of words may be spelled in more than one way.”

Mark Twain was one of those who touted “creativity” in spelling. “I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words,” he is reported as saying in a speech at a spelling competition in 1875.

So, what’s a copyeditor to do when faced with variable spellings? Most standard dictionaries merely provide the options, citing the alternative spellings of certain words with the same meaning.

Granted, it is not the job of lexicographers to guide editors with a proclaimed preference. Webster’s New World College Dictionary, for example, tells its readers that its designation of alternative spellings implies that “neither one is ‘more correct’ or should be preferred.”

But stating a preference is what separates stylebooks from standard dictionaries.

Advisor or adviser? The Associated Press Stylebook tells writers and editors not to spend time deciding which is better, but to use adviser. It’s ax, rules the Stylebook, not axe; eerie, not eery. Spell it savior, not saviour; protester, not protestor. Which brings us to whisky. Or is it whiskey

The AP has always gone with both, choosing the whisky spelling for the Scotch variety and whiskey for all others. The New York Times originally valued consistency more and used whiskey in all cases. But it recently changed its preference and joined those who separate Scotch and Canadian whisky from the whiskey from other sources, which includes Irish whiskey.

This may be going against the grains, but from this barstool, the consistency of having one spelling in all cases overrides the dubious reasoning for alternative spellings. Editors on deadline then won’t have to determine quickly the origins of the liquor, nor worry about the possibility of different spellings within the same article or even the same sentence.

Whether it’s whiskey (the more common usage in America) or whisky, this editor’s recommendation is for one spelling.

Norm Goldstein is the editor emeritus of The Associated Press Stylebook.