8.22.2010

Grey vs Gray

I spell some words differently than most 13-year-old Americans.

For example, I spell it "grey," not "gray." Technically both are correct (even if your spellcheck disagrees), but "grey" just looks better to me than "gray," and it's usually more appropriate to me. I have mild synesthesia, which means that I assign colors to words, and "grey" is a different shade of grey than "gray." If that makes any sense. To me, grey with an E is a cooler grey, and gray with an A is warmer. And chances are, if I'm talking about a grey thing, it's probably a cooler grey than a warmer gray.



You still with me? No? Eh, you'll catch up, if you read that a couple more times.

Also, I spell "theatre" with an RE instead of an ER. Theatre looks crisp and old and black-and-white, like the kind of theatre that actors play in, and theater looks soft and newer and colored, like a movie theatre.


with apologies to James Cameron...

I don't spell words like "color" or "favorite" with a U, though. It's just not something I do.

So yeah! That is why I spell grey with an E and theatre with an RE.

5 comments:

  1. Very interesting. I feel the same way about grey. i spell it with an e and i think the same thing that is looks "cooler". Although I don't have synesthesia I can see where you are coming from!

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  2. i have synesthesia too, and thought this was something i had invented! i was going to start a movement to make them separate entries in the dictionary but it looks like you are already on board haha

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  3. Originally the word "theater" was"theatre" along with "meter" as "metre", but Americans probably changed it to be independent from the UK. I don't know.

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  4. Oh my god i also have synestheasia, and also prefur to spell grey with an e. Despite that none of the letters in the word (with an 'a' or an 'e') are actually grey for me, the two colors you displayed hit the difference right on the nail. Those are the exact shades i tend to associate with the spellings.

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  5. It seems I have found my people :'D I also think of and use these words in the same exact way you've described them here lol
    Fascinating!

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