Spoilers for Wednesday 18th June 2025 (Series 91, Heat 118)

[Toby McDonald]

RANCHERO in R11

[David Williams]

One of the numbers games came down to (25 x 16) + 10 = 410

My solution was (25 + 16) x 10. Unusual.

[Gavin Chipper]

I saw that too. Also while I'm here there was a LNAFP with (6×(9-2)-1)×10=410.

[Stewart Gordon]

Susie seemed to think GLAMORISE was an example of an American spelling becoming naturalised into UK English.

But this can't be the case, as that would surely be GLAMORIZE?

Rather, it seems to be a case of the U being dropped when forming a derivative, like in HUMOROUS, INVIGORATE, etc.

[Philip A]

Susie seemed to think GLAMORISE was an example of an American spelling becoming naturalised into UK English.

But this can't be the case, as that would surely be GLAMORIZE?

Rather, it seems to be a case of the U being dropped when forming a derivative, like in HUMOROUS, INVIGORATE, etc.

Worth pointing out that -IZE is actually not an American spelling, contrary to popular belief. -IZE is in fact an Oxford spelling. In most (but not all) verbs, both spellings are correct in UK English. The US do tend to use -IZE, but it is not an Americanism. The omission of the U on the other hand I think is an Americanism absorbed into UK English. Nothing wrong with Susie's OOW.

And that is why -IZE words are allowed on Countdown. GLAMORISE and GLAMORIZE look odd but they are both equally correct.

I think SULFUR is another Americanism that's become widely used in the UK too, and you sometimes see DONUTS on signs in Britain.

[Stewart Gordon]

Worth pointing out that -IZE is actually not an American spelling, contrary to popular belief. -IZE is in fact an Oxford spelling. In most (but not all) verbs, both spellings are correct in UK English. The US do tend to use -IZE, but it is not an Americanism.

Yes, I'm fully aware of this, and I imagine the majority of regular Countdown viewers are likewise from the number of times Susie has mentioned it.

The omission of the U on the other hand I think is an Americanism absorbed into UK English.

I'm inclined to doubt this, as OALD doesn't list GLAMOURISE or GLAMOURIZE. This suggests that it's always been GLAMORIS/ZE on both sides of the pond, like the other words I mentioned. Some other dictionaries list GLAMOURIS/ZE, but this may have originated as a hypercorrection.

It's unclear to me where the pattern of dropping the U when forming derivatives of -OUR words originated. Admittedly this pattern isn't consistently applied - we (Brits) have COLOURIS/ZE not COLORIS/ZE, whereas Americans have COLORIZE. OTOH, we have DISCOLORATION.

Nothing wrong with Susie's OOW.

OOW = Origin of Words? This is about a word played by a contestant, not this.

I think SULFUR is another Americanism that's become widely used in the UK too

SULFUR is the preferred IUPAC name these days. But it does indeed appear to have originated as an Americanism. The IUPAC names include British versions as well (ALUMINIUM, CAESIUM). My guess is that this was part of an effort to create an 'International English' for use in scientific literature, and not favour any particular national variety of English in doing so, and that SULFUR has become naturalised into UK English on the back of this.