Which is correct? Dispatch or Despatch

losoftadmin

Actually, there is no *correct* way of spelling it, as both words are correct in English.
Neither is it defined by British English or American English, as both versions come from other languages anyway.

Dispatch seems to come from the Italian word dispacciare (sic) and Despatch comes from the Spanish word despacher, both of which mean the same. Before these influences, we, in Britain, used the French verb depeacher (sic)

It's all subjective anyway, as they all come from the same Latin root, but, before the advent of dictionaries, various spellings of words would float about.

It is telling that the first instance of the word to be found written is in a missive to Henry VIII from Bishop Tunstall, commissioner to Spain, and he uses the Latinate spelling 'Dispatch' - I imagine that a Bishop well versed in Latin would lean towards the Italian root of the word.

In any case, both forms of the word are completely correct, whether you live in an English speaking country or American speaking country. I would wager that as Mexican Spanish is now becoming the prevalent language in the US, 'despatch' will become more popular there .

Paul_Herring

Having disputed the information provided in the two links I posted, you then proceed to quote from them... :rolleyes:

losoftadmin wrote: »

Actually, there is no *correct* way of spelling it, as both words are correct in English.
Neither is it defined by British English or American English, as both versions come from other languages anyway.

Dispatch seems to come from the Italian word dispacciare (sic) and Despatch comes from the Spanish word despacher, both of which mean the same. Before these influences, we, in Britain, used the French verb depeacher (sic)

wigglebeena

I actually find it annoying that both are correct. Can't we pick one and have done with it?

At least I know for sure that there's NO 'A' IN DEFINITE, though! (Yet...)

davedriver_2

charlottevwa wrote: »

This is something i have always wondered... and so when i googled it... they both seemed to be correct? can someone please shed some light on this?

Here is my two pennyworth : Spatched means, I believe, 'pinned down' as in "Spatchcock", you will have seen spatchcock chicken in the supermarket.
Therefore, Despatch would mean 'unpinned', in the sense that De means 'undo'
In order to use 'Dis', i.e. 'the opposite of', then the spelling should be 'disspatched'.
Confusing ?, no, logic and rules.
Rather like Insurance and Ensurance, the first being something someone else does for you and the second being something that you do for yourself.

Phew !

Dave

soolin

As this thread is 3 years old I think I should close it to avoid confusion.