Someone Was Probably Just Trying to Be Humourous

Posted on January 22, 2014 | 7 Comments

I guess Fleetwood Mac started it all when they didn’t call their album “Rumors.”

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Steve | January 22, 2014 at 2:19 pm | Reply

Well, Neil Young IS Canadian…
Lachnit, Carroll | January 22, 2014 at 2:41 pm | Reply

The “u” makes everything classy.

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Michael Young | January 22, 2014 at 2:53 pm | Reply

And of course we Brits – perversely – spell humorous just like that. 🙂
- Phoebus | January 23, 2014 at 9:53 pm | Reply
  
  Not only BrE but also AmE. It is standard BrE to drop the “u” when spelling derivatives of words ending in “our”, e.g. humorist, rancorous.
mattysb | January 23, 2014 at 11:33 am | Reply

Well, as Neil Young is Canadian, I would fully expect his spokesperson to spell it that way.
mattysb | January 23, 2014 at 11:35 am | Reply

Oops, didn’t spot that Steve already made that point, sorry!
Sammy | January 25, 2014 at 10:24 am | Reply

In England it’s not straightforward. Yes we drop a u for humorous and similar ous endings but not for all endings. For instance, we have words like honourable. favourite etc and flavorous but flavouring, flavourless, flavoursome and so on.