# Handbook of style in use at the Riverside Press/Spelling

SPELLING
Unless other instructions are given, follow Webster’s International Dictionary. When that dictionary recognizes two forms, use the form given in the list below. If copy is prepared consistently, however, do not change the author’s spelling.
Spell with -ise
Spell with -ize or -yze
Nouns ending in o form the plural by adding s if the singular ends in s preceded by a vowel; e.g., bamboo, bamboos; cameo, cameos; embryo, embryos; if the singular ending is in o preceded by a consonant, by adding es; e.g., buffalo, buffaloes; desperado, desperadoes; echo, echoes; hero, heroes; motto, mottoes; potato, potatoes.
​The following nouns are exceptional, and form the plural by simply adding s:—
When the prefixes “co-,” “re-,” “pre-,” are followed by the same vowel, use the diæresis marked vowel for the second one, without the hyphen; as, “coördinate,” “reëlection,” “preëminent.” If the prefix comes at the end of a line, with the hyphen, the diæresis is not to be used. The diæresis is not to be used in words beginning with “aer”; as, aeroplane, aery, aerial, etc.
Before sounded h, long u, and the word “one,” use a as the form of the indefinite article; as, a hotel, a history, a union, such a one.
Use the dipthong æ and œ in Latin quotations and in quotations from Old English or French.
In vocative forms of address, use “O” (capitalized), without a comma following; for an exclamation, use “oh,” followed by a comma, but capitalized only at beginning of sentences.
Worcester Spellings
In this list will be found the preferred Worcester spellings, not adopted by the Riverside Press, where they differ from the International Dictionary.
English Spellings
In the English style of spelling, many words which, in American usage, end in or, end in our. Words thus ending in our are:—
    arbour
    ardour
    armour
    behaviour
    candour
    clamour
    clangour
    colour
    demeanour
    discolour
    dolour
    endeavour
    favour
    fervour
    flavour
    harbour
    honour
    humour
    invigour
    labour
    misbehaviour
    misdemeanour
    neighbour
    odour
    parlour
    rancour
    rigour
    rumour
    savour
    splendour
    succour
    tabour
    tumour
    valour
    vapour
    vigour
Under instructions to “use English spelling,” the above forms are to be used; also the following:—
    cheque (on a bank)
    chequered
    connexion
    dreamt
    faggot
    forgather
    forgo
    grey
    inflexion
    jewelery
    leapt
    premiss (in logic)
    waggon
Proper Names.
Correct spellings are here given. Where two or more forms of the same name are given, it is to be understood that each is equally correct, and the copy form is to be followed.
    à Becket (Thomas)
    à Becket (A.W. and G.A.)
    Acadia (Nova Scotia)
    Adeler (Mary)
    Adler (Rabbi)
    Air (Point of), N. Wales
    Allan-a-Dale
    Allan Poe (Edgar)
    Allegany County (Md.)
    Alleghany Mountains
    Allegheny City and River
    All Souls College (Oxford)
    Alma Tadema (Lawrence)
    Alma Tadema (Miss Laurence)
    Andersen (Hans C.)
    Apennines
    Appalachians
    Arcadia (poetic)
    Austen (Jane, English novelist)
    Austin (Jane G., American novelist)
    Ayre (Point of), Isle of Man
    Bastille
    Baylis (T.H., writer)
    Bayliss (Sir Wyke, painter)
    Berthallet (C.L., chemist)
    Berthelot (P.E.M., chemist)
    Beverley (Eng.)
    Beverly (Mass.)
    Biglow Papers
    Bischoff (K.Ct.)
    Bischoff (T.L.W.)
    Björnson (Björnstjerne)
    Bonheur (Rosa)
    Britannia
    Brittany
    Brobdingnag
    Brookline (Mass.)
    Brooklyn (N.Y.)
    Brooks (Phillips)
    Burdette (Robert J.)
    Carey (Matthew)
    Carribbean Sea
    Caribbees
    Cariboo (B.C.)
    Caribou (Idaho)
    Carlisle (J.G.)
    Carlyle (Thomas)
    Carnegie Institution
    Cary (Phœbe)
    Charleston (S.C.)
    Charlestown (Mass.)
    Chile or Chili
    Colombia (So. America)
    Coverly (Sir Roger de)
    Danzig or Dantzic
    Davy (Sir Humphry) ​
    Dafoe (Daniel)
    De Quincey (Thomas)
    Douglas (Stephen A.)
    Douglass (Frederick)
    Dutchess County (N.Y.)
    Easthampton (Mass.)
    Eifel River
    Eiffel Tower
    Eliot (George, novelist )
    Eliot (Charles W.)
    Elliot (Daniel Giraud)
    Elliot (George Thompson)
    Elliot (Henry Rutherford)
    Elliott (A. Marshall)
    Elliott (Jonathan)
    Elliott (Maud Howe)
    Elliott (Maxine)
    Ericsson (John)
    Fénelon
    Field (Cyrus W.)
    Field (Eugene)
    Fielde (Adèle Marion)
    Fields (Annie Adams)
    Fields (James T.)
    Fisk (Herbert Franklin)
    Fiske (John)
    Fiske (Minnie Maddern)
    FitzGerald (Edward)
    Gérôme
    Gray (Thomas)
    Greeley (Horace)
    Greely (Major-General)
    Green (J.R.)
    Greene (Robert)
    Grey (Lady Jane)
    Grey (Earl)
    Harrison (Frederic)
    Harte (Francis Bret)
    Hobbes (John Oliver)
    Hobbes (Thomas)
    Humphrey (Duke)
    Hutton (Laurence)
    Istlilxochitl (Mexican historian)
    Iyeyasu (Japanese statesman)
    Jansen (Cornelius, theologian)
    Janssen (Cornelius, painter)
    Janssens (Abraham, painter)
    Jefferies (Richard, naturalist)
    Jeffrey (Lord, critic)
    Jeffreys (George, Lord, judge)
    Jeffreys (Miss Ellis, actress)
    Jeffries (Maud, actress)
    Johannesburg (S. Africa)
    Johannisburg (Prussia)
    Johns Hopkins University
    Johnston (Albert Sidney)
    Johnston (Joseph E.)
    Johnson (Doctor Samuel)
    Jonson (Ben)
    Kamchatka
    Kaufmann (Angelica, painter)
    Kauffmann (C., Russian general)
    Kouropatkin (Russian general)
    Leipsic or Leipzig
    Lenox Library
    Lenox (Mass.)
    Lichfield (England)
    Litchfield (Connecticut)
    Livingston (Chancellor))
    Livingstone (David)
    Luxembourg (Palace, Gardens)
    Luxemburg (Belgian province)
    Magdalen College (Oxford)
    Magdalene College (Cambridge)
    Mitchell (Donald G.)
    Mitchill (Samuel L.)
    Morris (Gouverneur)
    Newcastle (Del.)
    New Castle (Ind. and N. H.)
    Northampton (Mass.)
    North Hampton (N. H.)
    Nuremberg or Nürnberg
    Oliphant (Laurence)
    Peking
    Philips (Ambrose)
    Phillips (Wendell)
    Procter (Adelaide)
    Pyrenees
    Read (Thomas B., poet)
    Reade (Charles, novelist)
    Reed (Thomas B., statesman)
    Reid (Thomas)
    Reid (Whitelaw)
    Revue des Deux Mondes
    Rhead (Louis)
    Rheims
    Shakespeare
    Shakspeare
    Shakspere
    Shakespearean or Shaksperian
    Sidney (Sir Phillip)
    Smith (Sydney)
    Smithsonian Institution
    Southampton (Eng. and Mass.)
    South Hampton (N. H.)
    Spencer (Herbert)
    Spencer (Edmund)
    Stephens (Alexandar H.)
    Stephens (Anna Sophia)
    Stephens (John Lloyd)
    Stephenson (George, engineer)
    Stephenson (Isaac)
    Stephenson (Robert, English engineer)
    Sterling (John)
    Sterne (Laurence)
    Stevens (Abel) ​
    Stevens (Benjamin F.)
    Stevens (Edwin A.)
    Stevens (Isaac Ingalls)
    Stevens (Robert L.)
    Stevens (Thaddeus)
    Stevenson (Adlai E.)
    Stevenson (Robert, Scotch engineer)
    Stevenson (Robert Louis)
    Stewart (A.T.)
    Stewart (Balfour)
    Stewart (Admiral Charles)
    Stewart (Dugald)
    Stuart (name of the former Royal Family of England)
    Stuart (Gilbert)
    Stuart (J.E.B.)
    Stuart (John M.)
    Stuart (Moses)
    Thompson (Benjamin)
    Thompson (Sylvanus P.)
    Thomson (Elihu)
    Thomson (James)
    Thomson (Sir Wm., Lord Kelvin)
    Tolstoy (Count Leo)
    Wallace (Alfred Russel)
    Ward (Mrs. Humphry)
    Washburn (Cadwallader C.)
    Washburne (Elihu B.)
    Watt (James)
    Watts (Dr. Isaac)
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