[4] ‘The Eng. form alinement is preferable to alignment, a bad spelling of the French.’—O.E.D.
[5] But the k is retained in The Oxford Almanack, following the first publication in 1674.—H. H.
[6] ‘In derivatives formed from words ending in c, by adding a termination beginning with e, i, or y, the letter k is inserted after the c, in order that the latter may not be inaccurately pronounced like s before the following vowel.’—Webster.
[7] In The Oxford Dictionary, Vol. I, p. 598, Sir James Murray says, ‘The spelling ax is better on every ground ... than axe, which has of late become prevalent.’ (But as authors generally still call for the commoner spelling, compositors must follow it.—H. H.)
[8] The sign [¨] sometimes placed over the second of two vowels in an English word to indicate that they are to be pronounced separately, is so called by a compositor. By the way, this sign is now used only for learned or foreign words; not in chaos or in dais, for instance. Naïve and naïveté still require it, however (see [pp. 35], [37]).—H. H.
[9] In 1896, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, not being aware of this rule, wished to include, in a list of errata for insertion in Vol. II of Butler’s Works, an alteration of the spelling, in Vol. I, of the word ‘forgo’. On receipt of his direction to make the alteration, I sent Mr. Gladstone a copy of Skeat’s Dictionary to show that ‘forgo’, in the sense in which he was using the word, was right, and could not be corrected; but it was only after reference to Sir James Murray that Mr. Gladstone wrote to me, ‘Personally I am inclined to prefer forego, on its merits; but authority must carry the day. I give in.’—H. H.
[10] ‘This is now usual. See O.E.D., s.v. Enq-.’—J. A. H. M.
[11] But Linnean Society.
[12] Compound words formed of two nouns connected by a preposition form their plurals by a change in the first word.—H. H.
[13] Sir James Murray thinks that where there is any ambiguity a hyphen may also be used, as ‘bad printers’-errors,’—H. H.