When I started working at PC World in 1995, I tried to use the spelling synch-because of the ancient Greek single letter (χ) for ch, obviously-and I was told that house style was sync, synced, syncing because Merriam-Webster recommended it. Returning briefly to nohat's remarks about PC World magazine, I observe that PC World began publication in 1983, well into the era of Merriam-Webster's express preference for sync (and synced) over synch (and synched). Nevertheless, in the most recent years for which Ngram offers graph data (2006–2008), synced appears to have moved ahead of synched in overall frequency, too. On this record it appears that people are far more likely to choose sync over synch than to choose synced over synched. The rather startling thing here is the difference between the results for sync/synch (where sync has a huge advantage in frequency of usage over synch) and synced/synched (where between 19 synched was the more common form). English sources:Īnd here is the corresponding Ngram chart for synced (blue line) versus synched for the same period with the same conditions: Here is the chart I got for sync (blue line) versus synch (red line) for the period 1900–2008, with no year-to-year smoothing and no distinction between British English and U.S. These are interesting charts, but they don't reflect a rather significant difference in frequency of use between sync and synch. In his answer, Hugo provides Ngram charts of relative frequency of use of synced and synched in American English and in British English for the period 1960–2000. Ngram charts of 'sync' versus 'synch' and 'synced' versus 'synched' The Ninth (1983), Tenth (1993), and Eleventh (2003) Collegiates have retained the skeleton of the entries from the Eighth Collegiate, but they have added a couple of examples of sync as a noun, and they report that sync as a noun dates to 1929 and sync as a verb to 1945.Īs this chronology demonstrates, for the past 57 years, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has always expressed a preference for sync over synch as the primary spelling of this truncated word-and for the period 1963–1972, it didn't include synch as even a variant spelling. The spelling synch makes a comeback in the Eighth Collegiate (1973):ġsync also synch n : SYNCHRONIZATION, SYNCHRONISM - sync adjĢsync also synch vt synced also synched syncing also synching : SYNCHRONIZE The Seventh Collegiate (1963) dispenses with the -ch spelling altogether:ġsync n : SYNCHRONIZATION, SYNCHRONISM - sync adj The entry also tells us that the original preference for sync probably arose in the film and television industry, a field where the fact that the ch in synchronize can be traced to the chi (χ) in chronos (χρονος) was probably not of widespread interest or concern. This brief entry tells us that from 1949, when sync/synch first became common enough to merit (in the eyes of Merriam-Webster's lexicographers) an entry in the Collegiate Dictionary series, the publisher viewed sync as the more common spelling of the word. The first time sync/synch shows up in the Collegiate Dictionary series in in the Sixth Edition (1949). Wait for the computer to synch up with your command.In the United States, many publications (including PC World, which nohat specifically mentions in his answer) use Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as their default guide to spelling words, and the historical preference of Merriam-Webster for sync over synch goes back very far-certainly to an era before personal computers. sync sync 2, synch ( also sync something ↔ up ) verb to arrange for two or more things to happen at exactly the same time, or to happen at the same time or in the same way as something else SYN synchronize The hardest part was syncing the music to the video. It's growing out of sync with the rest of service provision and service development, and this has all sorts of spin-offs.Get out of sync as quickly as possible and forget the coins completely.At present it's completely out of sync, lots of marvellous programmes thrown at the screen, going by with nobody noticing them.In sync with the harsh sounds, the theme of betrayal rules this record.The group's harsh, industrial-punk sound is in sync with the album's theme of betrayal.Rather than starting a new activity, try to get in sync with whatever your kids are already doing.From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English sync sync 1, synch / sɪŋk / noun 1 → in sync (with something/somebody) 2 → out of sync (with something/somebody) Examples from the Corpus sync
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |