Skeptics/Sceptics

davros

Originally posted by zaph If this is the Irish Skeptics board, why is the name of the board spelt the American way? Just curious

This is definitely going to become a FAQ.

There are skeptical societies in many countries around the world and, by convention, they use the 'k' spelling in their names. That includes such countries as Australia and New Zealand that would normally (I presume) use a 'c'. When the Irish Skeptics Society was formed a year ago, it was decided to go with the 'k' for consistency.

The forum is named after the society

It looks a bit strange to write "Irish Skeptics Society" and later "scepticism" so I'm tending to stick with the 'k' at the moment. But I always pause over it. Opinions welcome.

mike65

I shall always be a 'c' and I mean that in a nice way!

Mike.

*I even spell programme correctly*

Sauron

one of the things Ive learnt over the years is that to make a word sound kool...you replace the "c"s with "k"s

Calibos

I'm glad we will be using the k spelling because I cant help reading the c version as septic! :D

Myksyk

I like the k. It isn't just the Americanised spelling (although I think the spelling originated from the large and influential skeptics groups in the States), it's also the archaic version of the word in Europe so it gives it a little character and spohistication, a little history don't you know. Anyway, calibos is right sceptic and septic are just too damn close!!!

Paddy20

I think I will be sticking with the spelling that I was taught "Sceptical". The 'K' version, I believe is a bit American for me !.

Anyway, I am very sceptical by nature.

P.:ninja:

Calibos

Except when it comes to the Lord....cause of all the proof like....:rolleyes: :D

Yoda

sceptic, skeptic (ˈskɛptɪk), a. and sb. [ad. F. sceptique adj. and sb., or its source late L. scepticus (Sceptici sb. pl., the Sceptics), lit. inquiring, reflective, assumed by the disciples of Pyrrho as their distinctive epithet, f. σκεπ- in σκέπτεσθαι to look out, consider, ablaut-var. of σκoπ- in σκoπεῖν to look, σκoπός watchman, mark to aim at, etc.: see SCOPE sb. Cf. Sp. escéptico, Pg. sceptico, It. scettico, G. skeptiker sb., skeptisch adj.

In Fr. the sc is pronounced (s) as in sceptre. In Eng. direct recourse to Greek produced the pronunciation with (sk). The spelling with sk-, for which cf. SKELETON, occurs in the earliest instance, and has been used occas. by later writers. It is adopted without comment or alternative in Johnson's Dictionary, but did not become general in England; in the U.S. it is the ordinary form. Now usually spelt sceptic in the U.K. and British Commonwealth and skeptic in the U.S. Similarly all the derivatives, scepticism/skepticism etc.]

Gordon

Originally posted by Yoda
sceptic, skeptic (ˈskɛptɪk), a. and sb. [ad. F. sceptique adj. and sb., or its source late L. scepticus (Sceptici sb. pl., the Sceptics), lit. inquiring, reflective, assumed by the disciples of Pyrrho as their distinctive epithet, f. σκεπ- in σκέπτεσθαι to look out, consider, ablaut-var. of σκoπ- in σκoπεῖν to look, σκoπός watchman, mark to aim at, etc.: see SCOPE sb. Cf. Sp. escéptico, Pg. sceptico, It. scettico, G. skeptiker sb., skeptisch adj.

In Fr. the sc is pronounced (s) as in sceptre. In Eng. direct recourse to Greek produced the pronunciation with (sk). The spelling with sk-, for which cf. SKELETON, occurs in the earliest instance, and has been used occas. by later writers. It is adopted without comment or alternative in Johnson's Dictionary, but did not become general in England; in the U.S. it is the ordinary form. Now usually spelt sceptic in the U.K. and British Commonwealth and skeptic in the U.S. Similarly all the derivatives, scepticism/skepticism etc.]

That doesn't come out properly on my Greek computer.

I am writing in Greek now. òåñôõèéïðáóäöãçîêëæ÷øùâíì

Yoda

I don't know what your "Greek computer" is, but I have HTML Unicode entities & #x0000; (without the space between the & and the #) and it does display correctly here with Safari on OS X.

Your Greek string is in 8-bit encoding and comes through here as a set of Latin-1 vowels: òåñôõèéïðáóäöãçîêëæ÷øùâíì

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Gordon
That doesn't come out properly on my Greek computer.

I am writing in Greek now. òåñôõèéïðáóäöãçîêëæ÷øùâíì

Interesting. I'm getting none of the above but at least some of Yoda's Greek characters.

Gordon

Originally posted by Yoda
I don't know what your "Greek computer" is, but I have HTML Unicode entities & #x0000; (without the space between the & and the #) and it does display correctly here with Safari on OS X.

Your Greek string is in 8-bit encoding and comes through here as a set of Latin-1 vowels: òåñôõèéïðáóäöãçîêëæ÷øùâíì

It's all Greek to me! hehehe.

My 'Greek Computer' is a Greek computer... I am in Greece. It is a Greek computer. With my Greek computer I could not read your Greek writing but I can read my Greek writing. Make sense?

Yoda

I guess you are using an older OS or browser if it can't parse the HTML Unicode entitites which my post sent. Certainly what you're sending to Boards is 8-bit Greek, which Boards can't differentiate from Latin-1.

davros

I can see Yoda's entity-encoded Greek fine (Windows XP, IE6) but I need to set the page encoding to Greek to see Gordon's.

Yoda, do you have some neat way of typing text using entities? I'd like to be able to do that.

Yoda

Nope. I have to type & + # + x + [unicode] + ;

It would be possible to make such an input method but I've asked Admin to look into the possibility of upgrading to a version of VBulletin which can handle UTF-8 instead.

Paddy20

OMG!, I think I am 'Kracking' up after reading the last three or was it four posts ? .. its all Greek to me!.:eek:

P.:ninja:

Gordon

A bit like your punctuation style paddy.

sceptre

Originally posted by Yoda
In Fr. the sc is pronounced (s) as in sceptre. In Eng. direct recourse to Greek produced the pronunc

Ah I feel important now.

smahon

I prefer sceptik, or even sqepdik.

By adopting the latter, we can provide an option for scrabble players with a Q but no U.

Can anyone here provide proof for their chosen spelling, other than anecdotal references to their past experiences, or references to an old and increasingly irrelevant book?

Yoda

SMahon, the Oxford English Dictionary is not "old and increasingly irrelevant". The 1994 compact edition I have is 2,386 pages long and has nine pages micrographically reduced on each page; the full-size edition is at least a dozen volumes long and covers some 21,000 pages. The OED is the source for etymology and usage citation for the English language. The citation I posted above explains the facts about the usage of the spellings in sc- and sk-.

In normal Irish use, the spelling sceptic is preferred.

It is understood of course why the Irish organization "Irish Skeptics" prefers to keep in synch with the international organization's spelling, as do, apparently, the Australians as well.

smahon

Although I didn't attach a smiley, surely you recognized that my employing the terms

... anecdotal references to their past experiences, or references to an old and increasingly irrelevant book?

was an attempt at humour. Using the two standard arguments employed by many sceptics against christians while discussing religion, to challenge a sceptic about a purely secular issue, was an unsuccessful foray into the world of irony.

I don't use either of the spellings I mentioned before.
I'm as much as snob anyone educated in the 70's, and abhor the spelling of words such as color, nite, or fone. Skeptic doesn't seem to raise any of my hackles, though I prefer, and continue to use, sceptic.

Originally posted by Yoda

It is understood of course why the Irish organization "Irish Skeptics" prefers to keep in synch with the international organization's spelling, as do, apparently, the Australians as well.

If the OED has sections on usage and abusage, why not have fun finding out why the "as well" in the above sentence is redundant.