Center or Centre?

Michael asks:
What is the difference between the words centre and center?

This is one of the reasons why Oscar Wilde described America and Britain as "two great nations divided by the same language."

The words are identical in meaning, but "center" is an American spelling. I believe it's a result of Noah Webster's efforts to rationalize American English spelling in the early 19th century: he also dropped the "u" in "harbour" and "colour" and tried to establish "thru" for "through," and "nite" for "night."

British English borrowed a lot of words from French, including the spellings. Usages like "centre" and "theatre" persist not only in the United Kingdom but also in Canada and other parts of the former Empire. It's become a way of distinguishing one's identity.

In fact, Canadian newspapers and magazines used to use American spellings if they made the word shorter (like "harbor" and "labor"), but they went back to mostly British spellings in the 1980s because their readers preferred it. (We always spell words like "curb" and "tire" the American way—not "kerb" and "tyre.")

However, my Funk & Wagnalls Canadian College Dictionary gives "center" as the preferred spelling, with "centre" as "Brit." for "center." When spelling it in the British style, we are to also to write "centred" and "centring." So Canadians would have to be self-consciously British to spell it "centre."

While English spelling is chaotic and inconsistent, we would be worse off with phonetic spelling. English dialects have so many differences in accent and pronunciation that we would have big trouble understanding people writing phonetically in their own dialect. "Emma Chizzit" is supposedly Australian for "How much is it?" And I'll always remember the time a New Zealand friend baffled me with a comment about "Eric's lend load." Turned out he meant "our ex-landlord."

Comments

[Wendy]

Are you absolutely sure the words are identical in meaning?

I always understood the difference between the British and the American spelling, but, I have always used different versions of the word depending on the manner in which it is to be used.

"Center" would be a synonym for "middle". (He stood in the center of the circle.)

"Centre" would be the word used to describe a gathering place. (The crowd gathered at the new Arts and Innovation Centre.)

Wouldn't you agree the use of the word goes beyond simply a British vs. American preference?

[JanW]

We run into similar issues in Australia. As an American transplant, it has taken me awhile to get used to it. The -re v -er endings can be confusing for things like 'meter' and 'metre'. I believe that in Aussie English, 'meter' is the instrument used to measure things, but 'metre' is a measurement of distance. So in this example, the -re and -er have different meanings, but I don't believe it is the case with centre and center.

Other changes: doubling consonents when adding endings on words like levelling [Aus] instead of leveling [Amer].

I'm involved in a writing project with two Australian women and we run into this challenge all the time, especially with spellcheck in our work processors.

Jan

[Paul]

I agree on the Canadian use of centre/center

centre - middle
centre - gatehering place

We use the same with meter/metre as well

meter - measuring device
metre - unit of length

[Enno van der Velde]

But is it: Leiden University Medical Center or: ... Centre? Judging from the latter comments, it would be "Centre", but that does not feel right. From a Google search it seems that "Medical Centres" are in the UK and Canada, and "Medical Centers" are in the US (and in Holland!).