Originally posted by walkonby:
when i write i tend to want to spell certain words (theatre, colour, poast, shoppe, ect...) as if somehow connected into a pre-british invasion of that anglo language of long ago.
This may be a bit of a stretch; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "post" was spelled "poast" only during the 1500s and 1600s.
"Theatre" and "colour" are standard UK spellings today and reflect the influence of French, from which both words derive. (The lexicographer Noah Webster strove to rescue English from what he saw as the corrupting influence of the British aristocracy, opting instead to spell things more like they sounded.)
The OED doesn't even list "shoppe," except to note it as "an archaic form of SHOP n. now used affectedly (as in the names of tea-shops, etc.) to suggest quaint, old-world charm. Cf. OLDE a."
To me, the spelling "poast" implies some kind of combination of poaching and posting. For some reason I don't mind it.
