How do you spell Occam/Ockham.....

[Sorcerer]

Im sick of this, I've seen it spelled two ways in two articles recently.... Which is it!!!!!!!!

 

I originally started spelling it as Occam, untill I read it as Ockham in a New Sceintist article...... then I assumed I must be spelling it wrong all this time and started spelling it that way.... now I read an article where its spelled Occam! Argh!

[Sorcerer]

Never mind.... a quick hair tearing session over all those possible typos in my university reports, then down to the shorter oxford dictionary..... His name was Occam.... how the hell it becam Ockham I dunno, but both are used.... STUPID ENGLISH!

[Skye]

He was from the town of Ockham I believe.

[boris_73]

who the hell are you calling "stupid english", you just looked in an OXFORD dictionary where does OXFORD come from hmmm... ENGLAND and there is obviously a reason why its spellt two ways if i new more about him i could tell you, but if it is in the OXFORD dictionary from ENGLAND it is definatly NOT wrong, after all austrlian, american, new zeland language all came from england

[Aeschylus]

It's usually called Occam's razor, which is the way that the French spelt his name. The person for who it is named is usually called William of Ockham as that is how the village is spelt nowdays, both are acceptable spellings. You have to remember that in the days of William of Ockham there was no such thing as standardized spelling and in England manuscripts were more often written in Latin or French than English.

[boris_73]

yes i have looked in the dictionary the rule (philosophy) is spelt occams razor, but can also can be called ockhams razor

[Sorcerer]

who the hell are you calling "stupid english", you just looked in an OXFORD dictionary where does OXFORD come from hmmm... ENGLAND and there is obviously a reason why its spellt two ways if i new more about him i could tell you, but if it is in the OXFORD dictionary from ENGLAND it is definatly NOT wrong, after all austrlian, american, new zeland language all came from england

 

I meant the language LOL.... not the people..... its full of homonyms and synonyms, great for descriptive writing, terrible when you're trying to clearly communicate a point.