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Shea Michael EXT Michael -dot- Shea -dot- extern -at- icn -dot- siemens -dot- de> wrote:
>To answer your question, it looks like this dictionary allows both. Though typically these are listed in most common usage first, ...
Michael,
Please disabuse yourself of this canard. Merriam-Webster states in the frontmatter to all of their dictionaries that you cannot draw this conclusion when alternate spellings are separated by _or_. If there is a main entry followed by the word _also_ and then another spelling, the first spelling is more common.
Here's the tricky part: Chicago dictates that, for the practical purpose of avoiding inconsistencies between editors, the standing rule should be to select the spelling that appears first. This, naturally, means that the first spelling will be used more often to the extent that editors follow that rule. So eventually, through the recursive application of this rule, the first spelling will become the more common one. But that's kinda cheating, if you think about it.
HTH,
Dick
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