I’ve always thought that mold is the fungus, and to mould is to shape. When talking about it with my colleagues yesterday, I was surprised that this isn’t common. Most people use one of the two spellings to refer to both.

Doing a quick search on duckduckgo also confirms that:

In my quest to prove them wrong, I was surprised at how wrong I was… until I discovered a few people on the internet who said the same thing:

I’m not looking for what’s correct or incorrect anymore, I just find it very fascinating that there are some people who use the words similarly to me, but the vast majority of others who use it in a different way.

So: what’s the difference between mould and mold according to you?

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    6 days ago

    I use “mold” for both, and regard “mould” as the British spelling for both.

    But the etymologies are interesting—the verb comes from French modle, while the fungus comes from late Middle English mould. So if anything, your assumed distinction is etymologically reversed.

    • A Basil Plant@lemmy.worldOP
      7·
      6 days ago

      That seems to be the consensus online. But thanks for that tidbit! It feels even more bizarre now knowing that.

      I wonder why a handful of people think the way I presented in the post. Perhaps American/British influences in certain places? Reading books by british authors and books by american authors at the same time? Feels unlikely.

      • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        You know that there are two unrelated words, and you’ve seen two different spellings—it’s a natural assumption that the latter stems from the former.

        Why so many people would pair them up the same (etymologically unsupported) way, I don’t know… maybe we’re used to correlating words relating to art with French, and assuming that words with “ou” come from French as well (and this case just happens to be an exception).

  • MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml
    3·
    5 days ago

    As someone who regularly uses both British and American English both at work and in my personal life, I sometimes mix them unintentionally.

    I almost always use the same spelling for either word and use context to make sure it is always clear which mold I am talking about.

    I do think there is value in distinguishing the words with different spelling, but without getting everyone to agree on which spelling would mean what, I think this won’t be very productive.

  • fjordbasa@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    6 days ago

    American here, I’ve never used “mould” for any definition, personally- always “mold”

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
    5·
    6 days ago

    I say mould because I’m English and that’s just how it’s spelled here (we also pronounce it with a U, pronouncing it without the U as mold would be…strange).

    Not an overly exciting response I know, but there you go :P

  • morgan423@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    6 days ago

    I use both, they are two separate words, not one word with multiple spellings.

    Not sure why people are changing it. Yes, language evolves, but maybe we could all focus on evolving it in areas that actually need evolution?

  • Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml
    1·
    5 days ago

    I am also aware that they are spelled the same, but I consciously use a U only for the organism.

    For what it’s worth, I’m Canadian, so nobody would bat an eye here at using either the American or British spelling of things.

    • A Basil Plant@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      4 days ago

      I suggest using two different spellings:

      Mold is the fungus. To mould is to shape.

      Nvm I’m an idiot. Lol

  • Bob@feddit.nl
    21·
    5 days ago

    There’s a fair number of people who insist that “geek” and “nerd” mean two different, specific things. I think this is the same phenomenon, that people seek nuance where there isn’t because it makes the language seem more interesting or something.

    • blackbrook@mander.xyz
      5·
      5 days ago

      The words have very different origins. While I think they converged for a time, they started out different.