Grey / Gray

[Laura-sakura]

Apologies for this (probably) being in the wrong category...Can someone please tell me the correct spelling of "Grey" (the colour), i'm confused!
I think "Gray" is the American spelling but i'm not sure. I would like to know which is the correct UK spelling. Thanks, Laura

[Quizmonster]

'Grey' is the British spelling and 'gray' - as you say - is the American usage.

[mystress]

QM is correct.Just remember the US makes a hash of English,whatever the word!

"The United States and England,two nations divided by a common language"     George Bernard Shaw

Very true when he wrote it,and probably even truer today!

[Clanad]

Gray is a color, but grey is a colour...

Additionally, when one's surname is Gray... it's, well... Gray, as in the British scientist, Louis Harold Gray, who has lent his name to the dose of radiation absorbed by food during processing.  Abbreviated to (G)  as in 1 Gray = 0.001kGy = 1 joule of energy absorbed by 1 kilogram of food irradiated.  (Dose can also be measured in Rads).  So, there... it's settled... isn't it? Of course there's the matter of greyhound...

[Quizmonster]

Dear Mystress, 'grey' did not become the fully accepted version of the word in British English until the 20th century. Doctor Samuel Johnson, in his acclaimed dictionary published in 1755, and later lexicographers all used 'gray'.
When Dr James Murray - who effectively created The Oxford English Dictionary, our word-bible - questioned leading publishers in the 1890s as to which version they used/preferred, The Times, for example, opted for 'gray'. Most others by then, though, were in favour of 'grey'.
I'm only mentioning all of this, because it is clearly not truly the case that Americans made a hash of things in this case.