Flote vs Float

jsurddy

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When reading old mining and prospecting documents iā€™ve seen ā€˜flote goldā€™ and ā€˜flote quartzā€™ mentioned when describing them coming right from their source rock. It seems that all modern information spells it ā€˜floatā€™ instead of ā€˜floteā€™. Does anyone know why the spelling has changed or when it did?
 

Machkin

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I would think that it would depend on where the author of the documents where from originally and the date of the document.

Also from Wikipedia:
In the early 18th century, English spelling was inconsistent. These differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Today's British English spellings mostly follow Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while many American English spellings follow Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language ("ADEL", "Webster's Dictionary", 1828).


But "why" and "when", is a good question.
 

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hvacker

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I think they are both wrong. Flowt. The Brits spell color, colour. It's their language so I guess they can spell it anyway they want.
I was taught to sound words out. That doesn't mean my spelling is right.
Why do we have so many 2's. To,Too,Two. Toooomany.
I remember how slang gets some into trouble. There was a Russian on Tnet awhile back. A poster told him he would have a blast MDing with the Russian. Suspiciously the Russian asked "What you mean Blast??"
 

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jsurddy

jsurddy

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I think they are both wrong. Flowt. The Brits spell color, colour. It's their language so I guess they can spell it anyway they want.
I was taught to sound words out. That doesn't mean my spelling is right.
Why do we have so many 2's. To,Too,Two. Toooomany.
I remember how slang gets some into trouble. There was a Russian on Tnet awhile back. A poster told him he would have a blast MDing with the Russian. Suspiciously the Russian asked "What you mean Blast??"

Ha ha, yea, sounds like a bit of a language barrier there. I personally like having the different spelled versions of some words so we know what exactly is being conveyed. Unfortunately it is too complicated for about 90% of people on the internet to figure out. Itā€™s pretty amazing how much hassle a slight miscommunication can cause at times. I wish more people would put just a little more effort into the more commonly used parts of the language since typing is our primary means of communicating nowadays. Itā€™s like driving, we do it soo often that it just makes sense to do a good job of it. I can totally see people using shortcuts and acronyms, though. Shorthand has been a common practice in morse code for decades. Itā€™s just efficient. Ok, iā€™m done wandering off topic here. Lol.
 

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jsurddy

jsurddy

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I would think that it would depend on where the author of the documents where from originally and the date of the document.

Also from Wikipedia:
In the early 18th century, English spelling was inconsistent. These differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Today's British English spellings mostly follow Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while many American English spellings follow Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language ("ADEL", "Webster's Dictionary", 1828).


But "why" and "when", is a good question.

The documents iā€™ve read were between 1906 and 1970ish. Iā€™ll have to check it out again to see when it was written exactly.
 

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meMiner

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There are lots of spelling "mistakes" in the old reports. It makes it difficult to do a word search without reading the whole document. Today, we typically spell it "float".
 

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stdenis_jd

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This is my take on it:

float.jpg
 

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DDancer

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Hukt on fhonic's works for me ;)
 

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