“TIRE” OR “TYRE”

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 3615, 16 September 1927, Page 10

“TIRE” OR “TYRE”

"Tire” or "Tyre”? Which way is this, one of the commonest words in the vocabulary of motorists, to be spelt? recently asked a contributor to ‘The Times.’ He proceeds:— "If the adherents of ‘tyro’ arc at a loss to know why others persist in writing it ‘tire,’ they should go to .the fountain-head for all such information, the ■ Oxford ‘New English Dictionary,’ partly because of its acknowledged authority on phililogical matters, and partly because its articles on ‘tire’ and Tyre’ arc the latest of any. That there are two articles, and not one, shows immediately that (he dictionary recognises the claim of 'tyre’ to bo a word apart in itself, common as the origin of. ‘tire’ and ‘tyre’ is. ‘Tyre,,’ says the ‘N.E.D.,’ is: A variant spelling of ‘tire,’ being used Indifferently in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century tire’ became the settled spelling, and has so continued in U.S., but in Great Britain ‘tyre’ has been revived for the pneumatic tires of bicycles, carriages, and ■ motor cars, and is also sometimes used for iron or steel tires.’ “The dictionary proceeds to quote passages in which ‘tyre” occurs from many authors, the earliest being of the year 1796 down to the present May; but the point is rather that the spelling is admittedly a revival, and "tire,” it may bo claimed is of longer descent than ‘tyre.’ “Presumably, however, the justification of tyro’ lies in the now übiquitous occurrence of the word, which, until cycles and motor cars were invented, never enjoyed a large circulation. Now that the word is on everyone’s lips, and on almost every printed page in the sense of ‘lyres’ of the pneumatic sort and not 'tires’ of the older meaning, the innovators desire to differentiate it from its namesake. Spelling for the Eye. "They argu G that it is a question of convenience. Convenience once merged ‘tyre’ and ‘tiro’ into ‘tire,’ ag it merged ‘wyre’ and ‘wire’ into ■wire,’ the Worshipful Company of Wyredra veers notwithstanding; and the same convenience which joined the twain together has jurisdiction to sot. them asunder. For spoiling and i printing exist not for the sake of tile ear, but for the sake of the eye; and it is a sound principle, to which tome of the deepest students of the 'anguage have given assent, not to ncourago more than can bo helped the number of words which, though ■vpclt in the same way, have different meanings. There are already ‘tiro’ the thing, and Tiro’ the verb; why add to the duties of these four letters so arranged? “ ‘Tyro,’ says the ‘Tyrians,’ comes freshly and unambiguously to the eye in rapid reading; and most eyes have to road -.•cry rapidly in those days. There are compounds, too, to bo thought, of; Tyrelogs’ and Tmlyrcd,' It is urged, cannot convey the idea of weariness or its opposite. The eye iu, the twiner hv the use of Tyre.’”