"Trolleybus" wrote in message
...
When I were a lad it wasn't The Fat Controller and it certainly wasn't
Sir Topham Hat (who sounds, not coincidently, like a character from
Bridgerton).

It was The Fat Comptroller.

https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sad_Story_of_Henry

Where did the spelling "comptroller" come from? Is it etymologically more
correct than "controller"? Is "comptroller" actually pronounced with an "n"
and a silent "p", and was the spelling therefore changed to match the
pronunciation? Was "comptroller" still an accepted (ie not archaic) spelling
when Rev Awdry wrote his books in the 1940s?

Interesting how spellings evolve over the years:

alarum - alarm
shew - show (*)
comptrol(ler) - control(ler)
connexion - connection

Connexion is a weird one. Was it actually pronounced as spelled, with an X
sound in the middle rather than the "sh" sound of "connection"?


(*) As in the sign on Wakefield buses even into the 1940s and 1950s "All
tickets must be shewn". My dad can remember that everyone ridiculed the
spelling and offered to "shoo" their tickets to the conductor, so evidently
it was seriously archaic even then.

On 08/03/2021 10:06, NY wrote:
a silent "p"

Silent, like the pee in bath.

Or, the particularly apt French for swimming pool: piscine.