licenced inconsistency

[TRex]

In non-American English, where licence is the noun and license is the verb, licensed would be correct. But American English, which uses licence for both noun and verb, licenced is the correct verb form. In the recent 7-by-many puzzle, licence, license, and licensed were common whilst licenced was rare. I think they should all be the same.

[Wibbly Bits]

As an Aussie, 'licenced' looks wrong to me, but I think you are absolutely correct.

[blackrockrose]

I agree. This Aussie tried all four words too, and was surprised to find 'licenced' classified as rare.

[yelnats]

I had all 4 and was surprised that licenced the odd one out.

[Alan W]

Many years ago licenced was common, and a forumite named Steadyguy queried why it was allowed at all, as he understood the verb was license. This is how I responded:

I was taught the same rule about license / licence, SG, though I must admit, I always have to think a bit before I can remember how it goes. It is set out in very cut-and-dried terms in Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965 edition, revised by Sir Ernest Gowers): "licence, -se. The first is right for the noun, the second for the verb." The book goes on to note that license is preferred for both in the US. And there are a number of websites that spell out this rule in similarly dogmatic terms.

Based on these statements, there would seem to be no warrant for licence to be used as a verb, in either Britain or the US, and hence no justification for the word licenced. However...

Many current dictionaries are not so doctrinaire, offering options in the spelling of the word. For example, Oxford dictionaries published in the UK (and Australia) include "(also licence)" in their entries for the verb license. The citations in the OED have examples of the licence spelling for the verb from c1430 to 1869 (Browning: "What may be licenced in the Autumn dry?"). Interspersed with these are instances of the license spelling.

So it seems as if this might be one of those situations where usage counsellors have sought - with some success - to impose a systematic rule on a more complex reality. The Fowler guide makes the comparison, not just with practice / practise, but also with advice / advise, device / devise and prophecy / prophesy. Most of these have different pronunciation for the two spellings, and these variations are observed in the US as well, I think.

The alternate spelling offered by Oxford suggests that the licence variant for the verb is not totally extinct. And usage bears this out. The Birtish National Corpus has 30 instances of licenced (compared with 1151 for licensed). I couldn't say how many of these occurrences of licenced result from a consistent spelling practise practice, and how many result from momentary carelessness. But I must say that the use of licenced doesn't strike me as glaringly wrong-looking. (One example of carelessness is on the website of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, which has the spelling licenced in its masthead, but nowhere else - a lack of attention to detail that sends a little shiver down my spine, given those people's profession.)

So, I think the presence of licenced and licencing in our word list is justified, SG, but they should not remain as common words: they are definitely rare.

Was I mistaken in concluding that licensed was by far the more frequently used form, in the US and elsewhere?

[ridethetalk]

Was I mistaken in concluding that licensed was by far the more frequently used form, in the US and elsewhere?

I think FWIW that you were correct then and correct now and thanks again for your lucid reasoning...