Talk:List of Canadian organizations with royal patronage

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What about Royal Opera Canada? Carolynparrishfan 15:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Honourary

A quick survey finds "Honourary" at:

  • Acadia university: [1]
  • British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects: [2]
  • Canadian Forces: [3]
  • Rick Hansen website: [4]
  • Athabasca University: [5]

etc., etc.

It's a common misspelling, especially in Canada, but it's not common enough yet to be considered a correct spelling. Check out the first few hits in this Google search, especially User:Humanbot#Faux "British" spellings. Although there is some debate there as to whether honourary should be acceptable, honorary is the least controversial spelling. Indefatigable 22:28, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't think it's worthy of a big battle over it, but last night I came across (purely by coincidence) the word in a book, published in the UK, in which it was spelled "honourable." As well, I noticed today that the Canadian Parliament's website announces an address to Parliament by the Honourable John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia. This is most confusing... --gbambino 15:30, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, honour and honourable are the preferred Canadian and British spellings, but -our words sometimes lose their u's when suffixes are added. The u stays when -able is added, but the suffix -ary is one that causes the u to disappear. Don't ask me why. Indefatigable 19:09, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Of course. I don't know why I brought up "honourable" - it really has little to do with "honourary." It seems "honorary" is the preferred spelling, though it's interesting that so many reputable Canadian institutions (even universities) will use "honourary"; we could well be witnessing a new Canadian word in its infancy! --gbambino 19:25, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

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