Board Thread:Spelling debates/@comment-24894325-20151219214614/@comment-5918438-20151220100011

I was wondering about the implications for MOS pages such as T:SPELL CHECK, where the term "spell-checker", perhaps ironically, is used almost ad nauseam. But then, of course, I realised that the verb "to check" is still CK in both standards, and so a noun form that would derive from that, such as "checker" would not be spelled any differently.

This adds some complexity to this discussion, though: even if we do rule that chequer is the only correct spelling for the pattern and the game, and it's chequerboard, not checkerboard, etc, we have to acknowledge that even in pure British English, "checker" would remain the correct spelling when the meaning is "one who checks".

And which spelling would the word get if the term baggage checker or supermarket checker came up? That is a predominantly North American expression (not around my city, though, which sadly doesn't have a page), just like using checkers for draughts. But chequer or checker? Would that go under "one who checks", perhaps?