Spelling and Etymology
Vocal cords, a term commonly used to refer to the vocal folds, was coined by the French anatomist Antoine Ferrein in 1741. In his violin analogy of human voice, he postulated that the moving air acted like a bow on cordes vocales. An alternative spelling in English is 'vocal chords', possibly due to the musical connotations or to confusion with the geometrical definition of the word "chord". While both spellings have historical precedence, standard American spelling is 'vocal cords'. According to the Oxford English Corpus, a database of 21st Century texts that contains everything from academic journal articles to unedited writing and blog entries, contemporary writers opt for the nonstandard 'chords' instead of 'cords' 49% of the time. The 'vocal cords' spelling is also standard in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Read more about this topic: Vocal Folds
Famous quotes containing the words spelling and/or etymology:
“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”
—A.A. (Alan Alexander)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)