The Spectator started off life as a liberal-radical periodical, and is now the intellectual forum of modern conservatism. It bears the same name as, but has nothing to do with, a famous 18th century magazine published by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele from 1711 to 1712.
This is part of an investigation I've been doing into the use and spelling of
-ize suffix verbs and their spelling (
-ize or
-ise) in British English. For more details, related posts and the methods I've used, see the
-ize / -ise page. For more on the spelling of
-ize verbs in periodicals, see the
Periodicals start page.
The Spectator - 1828 to today
The Spectator’s founding editor, the Dundonian reformer Robert Stephen Rintoul, launched the paper on 5 December 1828. Rintoul initially insisted on "absolute power" over content, commencing a longlasting tradition of the paper’s editor and proprietor being one and the same person.
The Spectator’s political outlook in its first thirty years reflected Rintoul’s liberal-radical agenda. Under Rintoul
The Spectator came out strongly for the Great Reform Act of 1832, coining a famous phrase, "The Bill, the whole Bill and nothing but the Bill", in its support.
adapted from Wikipedia
The first issue of the magazine is listed as being printed by Joseph Clayton and published by F.C.Westley, both of the Strand. By 1831, Clayton is also being credited as publisher as well as printer, a situation which would remain until 1861.
In 1861
The Spectator was bought by a journalist, Meredith Townsend, who soon went into partnership with Richard Holt Hutton, a theologian whose friend William Gladstone later called him "the first critic of the nineteenth century"
Wikipedia
From 1862 until at least 1880, the magazine is listed as being printed and published by John Cambell, at 1 Wellington Street, The Strand, London.
Results at Google Books
There is a pretty good, easily searchable collection at Google Books, and an excellent, easy to use archive at The Spectator website. Unlike other British periodicals at the time, the number of s endings seems to have remained relatively constant, rather than rapidly growing, and always staying under the ten percent mark before the final change.
From about 1863 (roughly coinciding with the new ownership) till 1871, there appears to have been a deliberate attempt to eliminate s endings. Something strange happened in 1872, and then from 1873 it was all change to s endings. This swing to z before the final definitive change to s seems to have been quite typical, and a similar trend can be seen at The Quarterly Review and at Blackwood's Magazine.
The first changes, in 1873, could have had something to do with the change of printer and publisher, but both the swing to z and the corresponding counterswing to s occurred when John Campbell was printer and publisher, so we need to look elsewhere if we want to find out why the change happened.
Searching at The Spectator archive
This gives some strange results. I think it's quite accurate for -ise spellings, but is converting -ize spellings to -ise spellings for search purposes (which makes life easier for everyone except me!)
It gives an interesting overall bar chart of s spellings though. For authorise, civilise, organise, realise and recognise and their variations for example, very few s spellings occur from the 1820s to the 1860s, but they dramatically increase in the 1870s, in line with my findings. However, and this is something I haven't investigated, there seems to have been a pretty comprehensive shift back to z during the first two decades of the twentieth century, with s endings taking over again in the 1930s and remaining till today.
Click on any word to see its use over the life of the Spectator from 1828 to today.
How s spellings rose, fell and rose again during the life of the Spectator
Main table comparing -ize verbs spelt with a z and with an s.
From search results at Google Books. All figures are checkable at the entries for individual volumes, in the next section.
| -ize | -ise |
| -ize | -ized | -izing | -ization | total | -ise | -ised | -ising | -isation | total |
| Vol 6 1833 |
127 | 315 | 40 | 68 | 550 |
16 | 22 | 6 | 7 | 51 |
| Vol 10 1837 |
143 | 291 | 65 | 119 | 618 |
14 | 37 | 3 | 18 | 72 |
| Vol 15 1842 |
78 | 162 | 39 | 60 | 339 |
3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| Vol 20 1847 |
144 | 347 | 78 | 105 | 674 |
7 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 19 |
| Vol 25 1852 |
161 | 348 | 82 | 153 | 744 |
4 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 17 |
| Vol 32 1859 |
79 | 244 | 26 | 106 | 455 |
10 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 33 |
| Vol 35 1862 |
118 | 186 | 49 | 135 | 488 |
20 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 48 |
| Vol 37 1864 |
125 | 203 | 39 | 113 | 480 |
5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Vol 41 1868 |
117 | 159 | 41 | 95 | 412 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Vol 43 1870 |
128 | 220 | 45 | 154 | 547 |
1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Vol 44 1871 |
112 | 149 | 45 | 99 | 405 |
3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Vol 45 1872 |
94 | 149 | 38 | 97 | 378 |
41 | 56 | 13 | 19 | 129 |
| Vol 46 1873 |
1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
165 | 239 | 66 | 150 | 620 |
| Vol 48 1875 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
276 | 379 | 116 | 220 | 991 |
| Vol 51 1878 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
170 | 279 | 43 | 154 | 646 |
| Vol 54 1881 |
0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
194 | 272 | 46 | 175 | 687 |
| Vol 60 1887 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
204 | 245 | 73 | 164 | 686 |
Individual volumes
All figures are checkable by clicking on them.
Vol 60 1887
Links
- Wikipedia
- Spectator archive
useful for looking at individual pages. Printer and publisher information can be found at the end of the last page.
At Google Books
Those marked (S) are Snippet View only. They are searchable, but you can't open up individual pages.
- 1828 The British Essayists
'Containing the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, Rambler, Idler, Adventurer, Connoisseur, Mirror, Lounger, World, Observer, Knox's Essays, Olla Podrida, and Microcosm, Volume 1 (Google eBook)'
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