Surely only Americans (dread word!) spell -ise words in -ize?
Not so. The standard Oxford practice is to spell: • words that can be analysed into an English root and an -eyes suffix -ize. There exist rare verbs with a noun in -ition which also end -ize. “recognize” for instance, unlike “ignite”, “micturate”, “demolish” and “add”; • all words where the “eyes” sound is spelt using a “y” -yse, not -yze (these are from the Greek verb luo, meaning “I loose”), • and words that cannot be analysed as before -ise, specifically those from • Latin -mittere, French -mettre (to put), • Latin -prehendere, French -prendre (to take), • Latin -cidere, French -cire (to cut), • Latin -videre, French -voir (to see)./li> Note that this last category includes “televise”, which while not actually from a classical Latin word, is based on the Latin supine stem visum. • The alt.usage.english FAQ, which has an entry on the same topic at http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxizevsi.html also mentions “rise”, “prize”, “seize” and “capsize”, which are obviously not “-ey
