Plan B Forum

wesw wrote:imposter.

Imposter vs. impostor

The noun referring to one who takes an assumed identity in order to deceive is variously spelled imposter and impostor. Impostor has the edge, and it is the form recommended by most English reference sources, but imposter is not wrong. Not only is it nearly as common as impostor, but it is also nearly as old. Impostor came to English from the French imposteur in the late 16th century,1 and imposter first appeared almost immediately thereafter.2 And though the -or spelling has always been more common, imposter has always been present to some degree.

In fact, imposter is more common than impostor in some areas of English. In a search covering a few dozen of the most popular blogs in the English-speaking world, for instance, the ratio of imposter to impostor is about 6:5. Imposter is also a little more common than impostor in 21st-century Australian and New Zealand news publications that make content available online. The two forms are neck and neck in British and American news publications from this century. Meanwhile, in a Google Books search—which covers millions books, journals, and magazines—limited to 2000 to the present, impostor remains about three times more common than imposter.

wesw..., the voice of reason....

Lord Jim wrote:

wesw..., the voice of reason....

Oh, and also stops posting things that are completely bat-shit crazy...(see above)