Age makes no difference. Female Beauty is Female Beauty

One would have thought that a BBC journalist would know how to spell 'sprightly'. 

Orson Carter said

One would have thought that a BBC journalist would know how to spell 'sprightly'. 

Your optimism never wanes, sir

Orson Carter said

One would have thought that a BBC journalist would know how to spell 'sprightly'. 

I thought it looked OK so spell checked, it's ok, which must mean that it must be a legacy spelling no longer used today. PS: It's a slow day!

Edited by tandi

tandi said

Orson Carter said

One would have thought that a BBC journalist would know how to spell 'sprightly'. 

It spell checks ok, which must mean that it must be a legacy spelling no longer used today.

Edited by tandi

I've never seen the spelling 'spritely'. If it's an ancient spelling, I'm very, very ancient so that spelling must be from ages and ages ago - possibly from the days when the bow and arrow was a secret weapon. 

Orson Carter said

I've never seen the spelling 'spritely'. If it's an ancient spelling, I'm very, very ancient so that spelling must be from ages and ages ago - possibly from the days when the bow and arrow was a secret weapon. 

Possibly after the bow and arrow according to Shakespeare "it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent."

From delving into a dictionary I see that sprightly and spritely are both acceptable spellings these days. To my mind spritely seems the more logical variant as it derives from those lively and loveable creatures sprites. But then again, when was English ever logical.

Bergman Greenstreet said

From delving into a dictionary I see that sprightly and spritely are both acceptable spellings these days. To my mind spritely seems the more logical variant as it derives from those lively and loveable creatures sprites. But then again, when was English ever logical.

looks like we are all having a slow day :-) I would have thought Sprite and Spritely would be obvious, but someone odd came along and inserted a "gh" and removed the "e" to catch out or possibly placate those pesky the Spelling Bees

tandi said

Orson Carter said

I've never seen the spelling 'spritely'. If it's an ancient spelling, I'm very, very ancient so that spelling must be from ages and ages ago - possibly from the days when the bow and arrow was a secret weapon. 

Possibly after the bow and arrow according to Shakespeare "it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent."

A bit closer, but Shakespeare was also very slightly before my time. (Hang on - I've just looked in the mirror. The face that looked back at me could have passed for 400 years old. :() 

literally we hijacked this post over spelling, so to get back on course!

I think beauty will always be youthful, symmetrical, ultra thin and tall.

tandi said

...I think beauty will always be youthful, symmetrical, ultra thin and tall.

I can do tall. But even when I was youthful, symmetrical and slim, nobody ever described me as beautiful. 

Orson Carter said

tandi said

...I think beauty will always be youthful, symmetrical, ultra thin and tall.

I can do tall. But even when I was youthful, symmetrical and slim, nobody ever described me as beautiful. 

I was going to add being a woman/girl/female but I'm trying not to be that old person whose unconscious bias leaves out others, so I am sure you are beautiful too :-)

Edited by tandi

tandi said

Bergman Greenstreet said

From delving into a dictionary I see that sprightly and spritely are both acceptable spellings these days. To my mind spritely seems the more logical variant as it derives from those lively and loveable creatures sprites. But then again, when was English ever logical.

looks like we are all having a slow day :-) I would have thought Sprite and Spritely would be obvious, but someone odd came along and inserted a "gh" and removed the "e" to catch out or possibly placate those pesky the Spelling Bees

Think sprightly is older as the ‘gh’ is a Normanisation of the Old English ‘ch’ (think Scottish loch end sound).  Some parts of Scotland will still pronounce ‘gh’ as ‘ch’ as in “it’s a braw brecht moonlicht nicht the nicht”: it’s a nice bright moonlight night tonight.  So knicht became knight under the Normans, for example.  Who (or hwo in Old English) knows (k originally pronounced in Old English) whether the word in Old English for a fairy like person wasn’t Spricht?

Spritely probably came in around the time of the ‘Great Vowel Shift’ in the 1500s by which time ‘gh’ had become silent.  At that time lexicographers were trying to bring spelling (set by printers in the previous century) into line with pronunciation.  Some new spellings ‘took’ and replaced the old.  Some got no traction at all.  Some became common alternatives.

Here endeth the lesson.😂😂😂😂

Edited by Carlos

Many a good tune played on an old fiddle, and all that....

Carlos Thank you Carlos for your thoughts. Very enlightening.

Carlos said

tandi said

Bergman Greenstreet said

From delving into a dictionary I see that sprightly and spritely are both acceptable spellings these days. To my mind spritely seems the more logical variant as it derives from those lively and loveable creatures sprites. But then again, when was English ever logical.

looks like we are all having a slow day :-) I would have thought Sprite and Spritely would be obvious, but someone odd came along and inserted a "gh" and removed the "e" to catch out or possibly placate those pesky the Spelling Bees

Think sprightly is older as the ‘gh’ is a Normanisation of the Old English ‘ch’ (think Scottish loch end sound).  Some parts of Scotland will still pronounce ‘gh’ as ‘ch’ as in “it’s a braw brecht moonlicht nicht the nicht”: it’s a nice bright moonlight night tonight.  So knicht became knight under the Normans, for example.  Who (or hwo in Old English) knows (k originally pronounced in Old English) whether the word in Old English for a fairy like person wasn’t Spricht?

Spritely probably came in around the time of the ‘Great Vowel Shift’ in the 1500s by which time ‘gh’ had become silent.  At that time lexicographers were trying to bring spelling (set by printers in the previous century) into line with pronunciation.  Some new spellings ‘took’ and replaced the old.  Some got no traction at all.  Some became common alternatives.

Here endeth the lesson.😂😂😂😂

Edited by Carlos

Interesting. Thank you.