the.com/programme
The British spelling that makes 'program' feel like it skipped a class.
means The British/Commonwealth spelling of 'program,' used for everything from TV schedules and theatre playbills to plans of action — the computing sense usually reverts to 'program' even in British English.
from Traces back to Greek 'programma' (a public notice, from 'pro-' meaning before, plus 'graphein' meaning to write), via Latin into French, which is where English borrowed the 'programme' spelling. American English later streamlined it to 'program,' following its general habit of trimming French-derived spellings — while British English kept the fuller French form, except, confusingly, when talking about computer code.
- usage split
- British English keeps the French-derived spelling for everything non-computing
- exception
- even Brits write 'program' for software, oddly
- origin
- from Greek 'programma', meaning public written notice
- american shift
- US simplified spelling in the 19th century, dropped the extra letters