matthau wrote:Thanks, Chopvac.
I suspected the word has French origin. That accounts for its gender forms, unusual for modern English.
Do you mean to say that in AmE they have the form 'blond' for both men and women?
Is it correct to say 'He is a blond' by the standards of present-day BrE?
Americans, with rare exceptions (Pacific Northwest and Ivy League states) tend to use the shortest and simplest spellings possible. I have never seen one use "blonde", "colour" or other such spellings, and some will choke on the use of "centre", "theatre" and other French "re" endings instead of the English "er". Americans in general use only one spelling of any word.
Among the Brits I've met while teaching, most younger people use the same spellings as Canadians nowadays, and are dropping the habits of older Brits
(like my parents), e.g. "shoppe", "programme". Watch the BBC sometime, some of their programmes ;) still use such spellings.
Judging by your words, can I take it then you are not an American?
(That would explain why you didn't react to the "mispe..." barb.... :mrgreen:) From your original post, I would have thought you were.
Localized American spellings aren't really a problem. Poor and lazy spelling and grammar are what irks me...or worse, they deliberately use txt msg spl/n, xpectn u 2 und/stand. I'm unwilling to read the words of anyone who can't be bothered to make themselves understood; you'll even see that in posts on this site.
Out of nowhere, here's a plug:
WordWeb is the dictionary I use most on my computer. It's freeware, can be accessed by hotkey, and you can also choose the standard of English you want (UK, US, Canada, International, and others). It comes from the Princeton University website, so the chance of spyware or other crap is zero.
http://wordweb.info/
I find it very useful, and at the price ($0), it's worth trying out.