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General Category => Words => Topic started by: Morbius on December 01, 2020, 09:33:44 PM

Title: Racoon/raccoon
Post by: Morbius on December 01, 2020, 09:33:44 PM
Racoon appeared as a common word in yesterday's 10 letter puzzle.  I got it this time after missing it in an earlier puzzle.  Dictionaries list it as a variant spelling of raccoon (which I presume is also common in Chi).  It seems odd to me that a variant spelling would be classified as common.  I've only ever seen it written as raccoon.  As a general principle, I think most variant spellings should be classified as rare.  Of course, there are no raccoons in my part of the world, so maybe racoon is a common variant elsewhere.     
Title: Re: Racoon/raccoon
Post by: TRex on December 02, 2020, 08:49:24 AM
Ngram Viewer (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=racoon%3Aeng_gb_2019%2Craccoon%3Aeng_gb_2019%2Cracoon%3Aeng_us_2019%2Craccoon%3Aeng_us_2019&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cracoon%3Aeng_gb_2019%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Craccoon%3Aeng_gb_2019%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cracoon%3Aeng_us_2019%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Craccoon%3Aeng_us_2019%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cracoon%3Aeng_gb_2019%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Craccoon%3Aeng_gb_2019%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cracoon%3Aeng_us_2019%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Craccoon%3Aeng_us_2019%3B%2Cc0) strongly supports the preference for raccoon in both American and Great Britain Englishes.
Title: Re: Racoon/raccoon
Post by: mkenuk on December 02, 2020, 11:24:29 AM
Why can't it be like cocoon and have only one spelling?
Title: Re: Racoon/raccoon
Post by: TRex on December 02, 2020, 11:48:44 AM
Why can't it be like cocoon and have only one spelling?

Because it is English?!
Title: Re: Racoon/raccoon
Post by: Alan W on December 07, 2020, 11:35:26 AM
The multi-region corpus GloWbE confirms that the double-C spelling is for more frequent in the main English-speaking countries.

(https://theforum.lexigame.com/racoon.png)

Racoon will be treated as rare from now on.