Have you ever noticed sometimes theaters – we mean, theatres – oh, forget it – places where you see movies or plays – are sometimes spelled two different ways? You can thank Noah Webster, author of the first American dictionary, for that.
# Stuff You Should Know Episode Summary
In this episode, Josh and Chuck dive into the surprisingly contentious spelling of "theater" versus "theatre" — and why both versions are actually considered correct. They trace the confusion back to Noah Webster, the 18th-century dictionary creator who made it his mission to separate American English from British English by simplifying spellings and removing unnecessary letters. While Webster successfully convinced Americans to drop the "u" from words like "color" and "honor," his push to spell the word as "theater" only partially stuck, leaving us with a confusing system where both spellings coexist today. The hosts explore some of Webster's spelling suggestions that fortunately never caught on — like "wimmen" instead of "women" — and discuss the quirky (but rarely followed) notion that the spelling might depend on whether you're referring to the theatrical industry or an actual performance venue.
Movies Discussed
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