Timeline for Do any people distinguish between "analog" and "analogue"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 27, 2022 at 0:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/1552081424051740674 | ||
| Jul 26, 2022 at 20:39 | comment | added | Duckspindle | Having a background in computers and engineering I fall broadly into the British camp with analog(ue) and program(me). I can't help noting that some contributors to this thread write of alternative spellings and others write of alternate spellings, which to me are something quite different. | |
| Jul 26, 2022 at 11:22 | answer | added | user458332 | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Jan 14, 2018 at 17:03 | comment | added | Shawn V. Wilson | I remember reading somewhere that "dialog" was specifcally coined (as opposed to "dialogue") to describe the pop-up boxes on computer screens. I might have seen it in the Microsoft Style Guide, but I can't be sure. | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 1:44 | comment | added | Xanne | The difference in analog/analogue and dialog/dialogue may merely be that dropping the silent "ue" is a more modern spelling, thus relating to more modern things. | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 0:22 | comment | added | Hot Licks | To expand on my earlier note, "analog" is very well established as the "antonym" of "digital" (even though the two are not technically antonyms of each other). But I would tend to use "analogue" when describing something that is the conceptual analogy of something else. Eg, "Amazon is not really a new concept but simply an analogue of the Sears catalog of 1950". (OK, poor analogy, but the best I could come up with on short notice.) | |
| Nov 18, 2015 at 21:18 | answer | added | wordloom | timeline score: 7 | |
| Oct 3, 2015 at 1:32 | comment | added | Sophie Alpert | @JoeZ. I found this question wondering the exact same thing as you! I think I'll just settle for "analog" though based on the other responses… | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 3:01 | comment | added | Joe Z. | @Octopus I know that they're alternate spellings for both meanings, but I was wondering whether certain people distinguished between the two in their own writing, not necessarily in what they thought was correct. | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 1:06 | comment | added | Hot Licks | I think I might tend to use "analogue" for the telescreens -- it just conveys the sense you want. "Analog" for the computer is embedded too deeply in my brain, since I've used analog computers on several occasions since 1968. (Dialog is dialog -- would never use "dialogue".) | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 0:59 | answer | added | The Frog | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 23:47 | comment | added | Octopus | The Canadian half of me completely agrees with your distinction, but the British half of me also wants to say that they are alternative spellings for both senses. | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 23:35 | review | Close votes | |||
| Nov 9, 2014 at 18:52 | |||||
| Nov 7, 2014 at 23:19 | comment | added | WS2 | possible duplicate of What is the analog equivalent of 'digitally'? | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 21:19 | answer | added | Nick2253 | timeline score: 11 | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:23 | history | edited | Joe Z. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Corrected formatting.
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| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:21 | comment | added | Joe Z. | @Oldcat I know "dialog" is used to refer to conversation in American English. I'm asking whether the decision not to do so is regionally inherent somewhere. | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:20 | comment | added | John Lawler in exile | It may or may not be regional or Canadian, but it's just a variation in spelling, not a variation in meaning. Spelling variation is normal and does not indicate anything except that different people prefer different spellings. | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:18 | comment | added | Oldcat | Dialog does not only refer to computers. It also refers to spoken conversations. The two are just alternate spellings. I assume the same is for analog, which I have seen spelled analogue for electrical stuff in the past, particularly in BrE. | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:17 | comment | added | BlackVegetable | Coming from a Computer Science background, the distinction between "analog/analogue" is known to me, but I haven't noticed "dialog/dialogue" ever. | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:17 | comment | added | A E | I think it's just you. I had a similar impression about 'disoriented' versus 'disorientated'... english.stackexchange.com/questions/204767/… There should be a word for this effect, whereby a particular regional spelling variation is used more often in a particular context. | |
| Nov 7, 2014 at 19:12 | history | asked | Joe Z. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |