Talk:vinyard

From RFC

"Alternate spelling of vineyard". That's news to me - I would call it a spelling mistake. My print dictionaries (OED 2nd ed, Chambers 1998) don't give it. In particular, the OED doesn't even give it as a former spelling. Can anyone find anything on this?

Ah, I see what happened... the person who posted it went by Google hits. We don't do this! The Internet is full of spelling mistakes, and being a frequent spelling mistake doesn't make a word it valid. Moving to rfd. — Paul G 18:19, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Keep: Checking using Google Fight I get 21.5 million hits for vineyard versus 854,000 for vinyard. For the latter, I get a number of winery names and personal surnames in the top hits. So, vinyard is a common spelling, but nowhere near as common as vineyard. --EncycloPetey 16:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I've added this link: http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=vinyard&use1828=on but I honestly thought this was a modern spelling (based on the pronunciation, presumably. And didn't someone very recently suggest that all spellings are supposed to reflect pronunciation?) --Connel MacKenzie 10:35, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

As this is marked as "obsolete" and various citations have been given, can this one now be put to bed? — Paul G 10:25, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

From RFV

Moving back here... one literary quote and one dictionary entry from a few centuries ago don't make this a legitimate alternative spelling. This should be marked as obsolete, a nonce usage or the like. — Paul G 12:29, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Marked as obsolete. sewnmouthsecret 20:46, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Adding two additional cites:

• 1533 (1651 pub.), Henry Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia

  ...therefore they who are more religiously and holily instructed, neither set a tree nor plant their vinyard, nor undertake any mean work without divine invocation...

*1856, Goold Brown, The institutes of English Grammar, Samuel S. & William Wood pub. (1856) p. 39 *:Nettles grow in the vinyard of the slothfull. Tuition is lost on idlers and numbsculs. nevermind this one, it's an exercise --Jeffqyzt 20:32, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

...no arguments as to obsolete tag :-) --Jeffqyzt 20:20, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Additional quote:

• 1788 (1876 pub.), Mrs. Godwin Senior (as quoted by Charles Kegan Paul), William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries, Henry S. King and Co. pub. (1876), p. 55

  ...she may not be as the fig-tree whome the master of the vinyard came seeking fruit and found none.

• No objection to the obsolete tag, although google hits would show it to be a common spelling error. bd2412 T 04:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Who removed my comment here, with the link to Webster's 1828? --Connel MacKenzie 22:59, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Three excellent cites (and an obsolete tag to boot). RFV passed. Atelaes 06:29, 1 April 2007 (UTC)