Carleton is correct in stating that there are those regional spelling
preferences -- in general. At one time the U.S. Metric Association made
what I thought was a useful distinction: "metre" is the measurement,
"meter" is the measuring instrument.
Since making that distinction more than a decade ago, the USMA seems to
have reverted to the "meter" spelling for both, following the standard of
U.S. Government publications. Perhaps the USMA thought that the "metre"
spelling was too "exotic" for the U.S.
As someone who thinks that distinctions are good to keep in language, I
prefer the USMA's original position distinguishing between the measurement
and the measuring instrument by a difference in the spelling.
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On Sun, 3 Feb 2013, Carleton MacDonald wrote:
With regard to spelling, sorry, both are right. In the USA it's meter,
theater, center. In Canada and the UK it's metre, theatre, centre.
It's a regionalism, NOT an error.
