William of What's it's Razor

[justcarol67]

Carol:
> 
> > I've recently been enjoying the Occam's/Ockham's razor 
> thread on the main list and started wondering about the 
> variant spellings. I've always spelled it "Occam's," and 
> Merriam-Webster Online gives "Occam's" as the main entry 
> with "Ockham's" as an alternate spelling, but the placename 
> is spelled "Ockham," and William himself is generally called 
> William of Ockham, AFAIK.
>  
> > Does any one know whether one spelling is more correct than 
> the other? Maybe "Occam" is an Americanism? (I don't suppose 
> Noah Webster "improved" that spelling as he did by dropping 
> the "u" in such words as "colour" and "behaviour." Or did he?)
> 
> Goddlefrood:
> 
> It's a simple case of long usage. Ockham was the original, but 
> because phonetically it is the same as Occam and because our 
> forebears on both sides of the Atlantic were quite loose about 
> spelling the convention has now become Occam.
> 
> Other than in one post at main I've never seen it spelt Ockham, 
> although strictly that would be correct as it was William of 
> Ockham who devised the concept.
> 
> Not that I'm trying to colour your thinking, but there you have 
> it. May it find favour with you ;-)
>
Carol:
Ah, sir, you are so kind. That's "favor" for us Americans, though,
thanks to Noah Webster. But thank you; your response is roughly what I
thought was the case, only until I first saw the spelling "ockham," I
thought that "Occam" was pronounced "OCK sum," so I'm not sure they're
phonetically the same, not to mention that British English isn't
phonetic, anyway--witness Worcestershire and similar place names.
(Neither is American English, but I don't know of any such drastic
examples.)

I have another British English question while I'm on the subject. I've
checked severlal online English-to-American "dictionaries," but I
can't find "fry-up" ("It's usually just a fry-up for me of an
evening," says Aunt Marge in PoA.). I figure it's probably a sip of
something alcoholic, but that's as far as my guess goes.

Carol, sho forgot to mention that her brother was in Edinburgh for a
week last month (too bad he's not a HP fan!)