Oxford spelling
Oxford spelling is a spelling standard that prescribes the use of British spelling in combination with the suffix -ize in words like realize and organization, in contrast to use of -ise endings.
Oxford spelling is used by many British-based academic/science journals and many international organizations. It is common for academic, formal, and technical writing for an international readership. In digital documents, Oxford spelling may be indicated by the IETF language tag en-GB-oxendict.
Defining feature
Oxford spelling uses the suffix ize alongside yse: organization, privatize and recognizable, instead of organisation, privatise and recognisable - alongside analyse, paralyse etc. The Oxford University Press states that the belief that ize is an exclusively North American variant is incorrect.>Ritter, R. M.
New Hart's Rules.
Oxford University Press, 2005,
p. 43.
That it affects around 200 verbs, see
Upward, Christopher and Davidson, George.
,
The History of English Spelling.
John Wiley & Sons, 2011,
p. 220.
This practice probably began first in French; in modern French the suffix has become iser, alike in words from Greek, as baptiser, évangéliser, organiser, and those formed after them from Latin, as civiliser, cicatriser, humaniser.
Hence, some have used the spelling ise in English, as in French, for all these words, and some prefer ise in words formed in French or English from Latin elements, retaining ize for those formed from Greek elements.
However, the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek ιζειν, Latin izāre; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written ize.
The Oxford use of ize does not extend to the spelling of words not traced to the Greek izo suffix. One group of such words is those ending in lyse, such as analyse, paralyse and catalyse, which come from the Greek verb λύω, lyo, the perfective stem of which is lys-: for these lyse is the more etymological spelling. Others include arise, chastise, disguise, prise, and televise, though the last is a hybrid word.
In addition to the OUP's "Oxford"-branded dictionaries, other British dictionary publishers that list ize suffixes first include Cassell, Collins and Longman.
,
Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language.
Oxford University Press, 2005,
p. 124.
UsageOxford spelling is used by the Oxford University Press for British publications, including its Oxford English Dictionary and its influential British style guide Hart's Rules, and by other publishers who are "etymology conscious", according to Merriam-Webster.
Oxford spelling is the official or de facto spelling standard used in style guides of the international organizations that belong to the United Nations System. This includes the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Labour Organization, the World Food Programme, the International Court of Justice, and UNESCO, and all UN treaties and declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Other international organizations that adhere to this standard include the International Organization for Standardization, the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Interpol, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Wide Fund for Nature, Amnesty International, the World Economic Forum and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Oxford spelling is used in a number of academic publications, including the London-based scientific journal Nature and all other UK-based "Nature"-branded journals, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and the Journal of Physiology. It is used by The Times Literary Supplement, Encyclopædia Britannica and Cambridge University Press. Newspapers and magazines in the UK normally use -ise. The style guide of The Times recommended -ize until 1992, when it switched to -ise. The newspaper's chief revise editor, Richard Dixon, wrote of the change:
In both the King James Bible and the works of Shakespeare, -ize endings are used throughout. Well-known literary works that use Oxford spelling include The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.
Oxford spelling is not necessarily followed by the staff of the University of Oxford. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, the university website recommended the use of -ise for its public relations material.
Language tag comparison
The following table summarizes a few general spelling differences between four major spelling conventions. Note: en-GB simply stands for British English; it is not specified whether -ize or -ise should be used. The language tag en-GB-oxendict, however, demands the use of -ize and -ization.| British en-GB | Oxford en-GB-oxendict | Canadian en-CA | American en-US |
| organisation | organization | organization | organization |
| realise | realize | realize | realize |
| analyse | analyse | analyze | analyze |
| behaviour | behaviour | behaviour | behavior |
| centre | centre | centre | center |
| defence | defence | defence | defense |
| programme program | programme program | program | program |
| traveller | traveller | traveller | traveler |