-or - -our - -orous
From Hull AWE
British and American English differ in the spelling of the noun-ending
- in British English, it is almost always written -our, as in 'rigour', 'glamour', 'odour' and 'valour'
- in American English, it is almost always written -or, as in 'rigor', 'glamor', 'odor' and 'valor'.
- It may be of interest to the etymologically curious of AWE's readers that such words as 'emperor', 'governor', 'horror' and 'terror' were written in English with '-our' until quite late: emperour (until about 1700), governour (Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 1490–1546) published The Boke Named the Governour in 1531), horrour and terrour (both till the eighteenth century).
- In both versions of English, adjectives formed from the nouns ending in -our (or -or) are spelled with the termination -orous. (OED records six words ending in '-ourous', of which three are obsolete and three are zoological.)
Some examples follow. (Note that the ending '-orous' may also belong to words whose fuller suffix is -ivorous ('eating', as in 'omnivorous' ('devouring anything'), 'insectivorous' ('eating insects') and 'carnivorous' ('flesh-eating')), -chlorous ('containing chlorine') or -phorous ('carrying', rarely used outside biology and chemistry.)
! Noun British spelling |
Noun American spelling |
Adjective | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
amour | amour | amorous | amour is not as other nouns in this list: last syllable pronounced '-OOR' | |
clamour | clamor | clamorous | ||
clangour | clangor | clangorous | ||
decorum | decorum | decorous | Although not a noun in -o[u]r, the noun decorum is now naturalized English Also the opposite, indecorous |
|
dolour | dolor | dolorous | ||
glamour | glamor | glamorous | ||
humour | humor | humorous | Also humorist | |
odour | odor | odorous | Also malodorous, 'evil-smelling' | |
rancour | rancor | rancorous | ||
rigour | rigor | rigorous | ||
sonor (Latin) |
sonorous | |||
stertor | stertor | stertorous | The rare noun stertor means ' a snore' | |
timor (Latin) |
timorous | |||
valour | valor | valorous | ||
vapour | vapor | vaporous | ||
vigour | vigor | vigorous |