[Cryptography] The Strange Story of Satoshi Nakamoto's Spelling Choices: Part 1.

[Mark Rousell]

On 05/01/2021 16:57, bit wrote:
> *Satoshi Was Consistently Inconsistent*
>
> Perhaps, the biggest takeaway from our research is that Satoshi was
> highly inconsistent in his use of American and British spelling and he
> was inconsistent from the very beginning. Many have noticed that in
> the Bitcoin whitepaper the British spelling of "favour", however,
> seemingly no one had spotted that in the same paper, he used American
> spelling for "characterized" (British: "characterised").
> Interestingly, this irregularity would have been consistent with the
> rules of Canadian English.
>
>
This was quoted on Dave Farber's IP list to which I replied with this:-

As a British Englisher I can conform that this is not the case. The use
of "z" in words like "characterized" is entirely legitimate and
consistent with British English. It is a spelling form used most often,
from what I have observed, by British English speakers with an academic
or university-educated background (but this is just my anecdotal
observation). Nevertheless, "z" is considered legitimate in general.

If Satoshi Nakamoto is British or had a British education (particularly
a university education) then it would be consistent for him to use "z"
in such words.

There are of course no official rules for what constitutes British
English but the nearest we have, the Oxford English Dictionary, states
the following:

    "*characterize* *-ise* v.t. describe character of [...]" [1]

    (I have discarded the pronunciation guide characters)

Note that there is no separate entry in this version of the
dictionary[1] for "characterise".

I think we can conclude that "ize" in this scenario is a legitimate
British English spelling.


Footnote:-

1: The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 7th edition, 1983, ISBN 0-19-861131-5.


P.S. Further to my earlier message, my British English Londoner mother
(aged 84) tells me that she was originally taught at school the "z"
spelling of words like "characterize" or "legitimize". It was only later
that she noticed other people using the "s" version.


-- 
Mark Rousell
 
 
 

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