What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Yes, it does seem to be the thing that there’s just too little of, especially these days. Thank you for the reminder, Jackie DeShannon hit of 1965.
We don’t need to all hold hands and sing around a campfire, but a bit more comradery and/or camaraderie would be a good thing these days. Step one of this mission: figure out how to spell this word!
Hint: if you’re simply sounding it out, unfortunately, you’ll likely be wrong.
Remember:
The standard English spelling is “camaraderie,” (C-A-M-A-R-A-D-E-R-I-E).
But this isn’t the end of the story.
The standard spelling of “camaraderie” comes from French, so thinking of how to spell “comrade” won’t actually help–though it does enlighten us on the connection concerning the “comradery” spelling. There are two interlinked etymology stories in action here, folks.
“Camaraderie,” as noted, comes from French, specifically the word camaraderie and another earlier still camarade, meaning “a spirit of friendship and mutual trust” (just as in English) and “friend”/”companion,” respectively.
But the French word camarade is also the origin of the English word “comrade.” While “camaraderie” came to English in roughly 1840, “comrade” came to English in the 1540s. Following language patterns similar to “ancestor”/”ancestry” and “citizen”/”citizenry,” “comrade” began to take a new form with an “-ry” suffix starting in roughly 1862–logically influenced by “camaraderie” but using an older English word choice for the root. Thus, “comradery” was born, with the same meaning as the already existing “camaraderie.”
So, we do have a standard spelling, but the alternate form has been around for a long while. Some dictionaries have officially accepted it as an approved form of the word; however, many still note it as either a mistake or as a nonstandard spelling.
How about you? What is your preferred form? Does knowing the history and the official answer change how you respond?
Oh, words, even they have their own stories. And I love it.
Sign up for my monthly writing and editing email newsletter for more tips like this.