"Of the 45 examples in COCA, only 17 were actual uses of the spelling vender outside of The New Yorker (compared with over 2000 examples of vendor, a ratio of over 100 to 1). Two were proper names, eleven were from The New Yorker, and fifteen were in foreign languages."
The website English Language & Usage gave me answered the spelling question that I had as I wrote the previous post. I'd thought "vendor" seems right, but maybe it's like "advisor," and it's wrong in that pretentious way that is most important to avoid.
"Vender" looks wrong, but it has the virtue of adherence to the general rule of adding "-er" to verbs to make them into a noun doing whatever the verb has them doing — "paint" become "painter," not "paintor," and "blog" becomes "blogger," not "bloggor."
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7 comments:
Meade, I am leaving up the shadow of your deleted comment with confidence that you are making a joke about "author" (not "auther").
Tom writes:
"The -or ending sounds fancy to us lawyers, because we like to make our own terminology sound like we're speaking Latin: "payor," "obligor," "testator."
"I'm not sure that it connotes pretentiousness, though. A person with -or in their job title might be a senator, or they might be a janitor.
"The -or ending even shows up in many places where we don't notice. I had that thought while riding the elevator."
Scott writes:
"There's a running joke with Star Trek fans with the way the word "sensors" was pronounced in earlier series. A new animated comedy series called "Lower Decks"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM1YYefSmKg
"Funny thing is, this is an example of the "or" spelling."
Lloyd writes:
"OK, you've hooked me. Victor? For some reason, protester is standard but protestor is OK? Professor, and a similar word in Swift, projector."
Speaking of overpronouncing the "-or" — the most prominent "-or" word is, I think, "doctor," and it is memorably overpronounced in the Young Rascal's recording "Good Lovin'"
You know, I'm wrong about that. They sing "doctor" as if it's spelled "docter." I thought maybe I'm remembering the Grateful dead version, but no, the Grateful Dead also sang it as if it were spelled "docter." I think it's just the way we kids used to sing it back then: doc-TOR, docTOR!, Mr. MD, docTOR!...
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