For years I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to use one word or two when spelling web site. Often, I use Google’s search box as a spell checker and as the deciding factor in such cases. Well, when you type in “web site” as a two word phrase you get 1.8B matches, the one word spelling “website” gets 1.3B matches. So, it looks like the general population uses “web site” as two words more often.
I guess I’ve always gravitated to using one word since it just looks cleaner and feels right to me, but the debate got me thinking of other words that are sometimes used in the same way and I found that in some cases the meanings can be entirely different. Clearly, whether you use web site or website your reader knows what you are referring to.
This topic reminded me of a joke. It is somewhat crude, but does bring out some of the nuisances of English and I’m not sure it can be translated to other languages. Be careful telling it at the water cooler though, I believe there was a case where an employer fired an individual for discussing the Seinfeld episode about Jerry only knowing his girl friend’s name rhymed with a part of the female anatomy.
So here it is: One night, a lonely gentleman was having a wonderful conversation with a member of the opposite sex. They were really having a great time and both felt very comfortable with each other. A bit premature, the man asks her if she would consider marrying him. Not knowing him very well, she let him know that there were several things that were very important to her.
First, she let him know that she really liked cars. He was very happy to tell her that he did too and that he had many new and collector type cars. She was delighted with his answer and then told him that she had always been fond of real estate too. He mentioned that he had numerous houses in several different regions of the world and he would be happy to have her tour them.
She wondered if he could be the one since no one else had ever answered those questions to her satisfaction. She was a bit shy and had a hard time asking her last question. “So, what about sex?” she asked. He replied, “infrequently”. Scratching her head, she then asks him to clarify, “Is that one word or two?”
Fortunately, we no longer need to worry about the correct usage of the term “website” since the AP Stylebook recently clarified their position to use one word versus two. This might not mean much if you’re not writing a tech blog, but the AP stylebook is the standard for all things grammar and punctuation in the news world.
