Words and Phrases.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20649, 25 June 1935, Page 8

Words and Phrases.

TRYER ” writes: “Flyers” is thus spelled by all the Christchurch newspapers, but American and Australian papers spell it “ fliers.” I hope that you will agree that this latter way is right. The correspondent, by his pen-name, tries to strengthen his argument against “ flyer ” because “ trier ” is the proper spelling for that which tries, and no alternative has ever been in use. But when we come to that which flies, there is a difference of opinion and the Standard Dictionary quotes far more authorities for flier than flyer. In the old days before man flew, flyer was rarely seen. We occasionally wrote of ocean greyhounds and ocean fliers. But with man’s conquest of the air the word came out of obscurity into daily use, and every sub-editor in Christendom asked himself which spelling was right. For the sake of uniformity every newspaper must adhere to one spelling. Flyer looks better in print. The evidence, however, is inconclusive. If we take a number of words like dry, cry, fry and sly we will find that in most cases the “ ie" form prevails, but in the case of sly the most telling spelling is slyer, although slier is an accepted alternative. TOUCHSTONE.