The different spellings are not just one more example of the differences between spelling in Britain and the United States -two countries divided by a common language, as George Bernard Shaw is supposed to have said. Many in Britain once championed 'gemology' with one 'm'. An insight comes from the letters in Gem-A's archives relating to the syllabus for our original gemmology courses (see Gems & Jewellery, October 2008, pages 24 and 25). In the initial correspondence almost a hundred years ago about the course, 'gemology' was spelled just like that -with one 'm'. However, the spelling of the word was being discussed in the British trade journals at the time and there were many who preferred 'gemmology' with two 'm's and this finally won the day. In a letter of 12 June 1912 Herbert Smith, the curator of mineralogy at the British Museum of Natural History and one of Gem-A's founding fathers, a supporter of the one 'm' option capitulated, but added: "There can be no question that 'Gemmology' is the etymologically correct way of spelling the word; at the same time there can be little less question that the word looks better with one 'm'."
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