When did 'longe' become 'lunge' even with retailers?

[OverandOnward]

I probably missed this whole conversion of popular usage from “longe” to “lunge” due to not paying attention.

Way way way back I was introduced to “longe” , not “lunge”. But in common usage, that ship long ago sailed, so not even asking about which word to use. Clearly U.S. English language has made “lunge” and “lunging” equivalent to “longe” and “longeing”. For whatever reason.

According to Wikipedia

In both cases, the root word featured spelling with an “o” and emphasizes lengthening and extension, so although always pronounced “lungeing”, the traditional spelling of the word in English is “longeing”. This spelling has been used by the majority of past dressage masters who wrote in English, and remains in use by traditional horsemanship organizations in the United States such as the United States Pony Clubs.

According to Google (if Google says so, it must be right, right? )

With this research it seems, Americans spell it “lOnge”, British spell it “lUnge” both derive from the same Latin and French roots so both are correct.

Is it the British who spell it “lunge”, or the U.S. Western riders, or … everyone???

Even respected retailers of primarily English riding goods Dover & SmartPak have everything “longe” listed as “lunge”. Schneider’s is no surprise, as they have primarily Western products, and the Western riders seem to have been the first to spell it “lunging” everywhere.

Dover: Search “longe”. All that comes up are some shirts. Search “lunge”. And voila, there is the longeing equipment, all labled “Lunge” and “Lunging”.

SmartPak: Interesting, as clearly no firm decision has been made. Search “longe”. You get 3 longe lines and some shirts. Search “lunge”. Several more longe lines pop up, along with various & sundry longeing equipment. I think that all 3 of the “longe” search-word lines are included under “lunge” search-word as well, but didn’t check closely.

Across retailers, the treatment of “longe” varies, from nonexistent to a few hits.

“Lunge” is the search word that gets the goods on the screen. Does that mean that we can dispense with “longe” and just “lunge” instead? Maybe “longe” was never a real word anyway, just something that riding masters of a different age invented.

What do you think? Is it “longe” or “lunge”? Does it matter - do you care?

(Of course this was noticed during Black Friday online sales shopping (no local tack shop to patronize). )

[GraceLikeRain]

I’ve seen it spelt like lunge (lunging a horse, lunge line, etc) for over twenty years. Outside of COTH I’ve actually never seen someone spell it with an O.

[Training_Cupid]

I would like to see it as longe, to distinguish from horses stepping one leg forward and dipping down, but alas I agree that ship may have sailed

[Janet]

OED has both spellings, but it is alphabetized under lunge.

[MHM]

I think I most mostly remember seeing it spelled with the O in my youth in the Pony Club manual, which had very British roots. There were several things in there that used terminology for common items that I never heard outside of Pony Club, although I don’t have an example right off the top of my head.

For decades I have seen and used the spelling with the U, which also looks more normal when you see lunging instead of longeing. My autocorrect thinks the latter is a spelling error.

[MHM]

Plus it allows for fun pictures.

[Mango20]

It will always be longe to me. I can maybe come to accept that some people use lunge and lungeing. I will always be offended by “loungeing” (horse on a couch) or “lunging” which makes me think of someone hocking up a loogie or some other gross thing pertaining to lungs.

[OverandOnward]

If it were up to me, I’d prefer to stick with “longe”, because it doesn’t have another meaning. It’s specific to that activity.

If the “o” had been pronounced like “o”, not like “lunge”, maybe “longe” would have survived?

But it’s not a hill to die on, for sure. It’s interesting that it was “longe” for all that time, then it evolved, I guess when it began to be used more widely.

[Xanthoria]

Grew up in the UK and it was always “lunge” - shocked to discover an alternate spelling when I arrived in the US. No idea when that started but in my mind “lunge” is traditional and correct.

Let me have a look at ye olde library of horsey books:

"Lungeing"
Equitation by Henry Wynmalen, 1938
Dressage; A Study of the Finer Points of Riding, H Wynmalen 1953
Academic Equitation by General Decarpentery, translated by Nicole Bartle, 1971
Misconceptions and Simple Truths in Dressage by Dr H L M Van Schaik, 1899 translated 2nd edition 1989
The Instructor’s Handbook of the British Horse Society and the Pony Club, 1955 (5th edition 1985)
Training Strategies for Dressage Riders, Charles de Kunffy 1984
The Art of Lungeing, Sylvia Stanier 1976
Riding High: A Manual of Showjumping, Col. Sir Mike Ansell 1978
Summerhaye’s Ecyclopaedia for Horsemen, R. S. Summerhayes, 1952 (references “Longe reins: see lunge reins”)
The Art of Riding, Hans von Blixen-Finecke, 1977
The Classical Rider, Sylvia Loch, 1997
Transporting Your Horse or Pony, Chris Larter and Tony Jackson 1987
Training the Event Horse, Virginal Leng 1991
The Young Horse: Breaking and Training, Jennie Loriston-Clarke 1995
From Birth To Backing, Richard Maxwell with Johanna Sharples, 1998
Show Jumping for Fun or Glory, Ernest Dillon FBHS and Helen Revington 2000

"Longeing"
Cross Train Your Horse, Jane Savoie 1998
Riding and Jumping Clinic, Anne Kursinski 1995
Dressage in Harmony Walter Zettl 1998
Reflections on Riding and Jumping, William Steinkraus, 1991
Making Not Breaking, Cherry Hill 1992
101 Longeing and Long Lining Exercises, Cherry Hill 1999
Carriage Driving: A Logical Approach Through Dressage Training, Heike Bean and Sarah Blanchard 1992
The Complete Training of Horse and Rider, Alois Podhajsky 1967

Well, looks like with one exception (Carriage Driving, Bean) all spellings of “longe” are in US books going back to 1966. Whereas “lunge” is far more prevalent, and goes back to 1938 in my library among mostly UK but one or two US books.

[OverandOnward]

According to Wikipedia for “longeing”,

In both cases, the root word featured spelling with an “o” and emphasizes lengthening and extension, so although always pronounced “lungeing”, the traditional spelling of the word in English is “longeing”.[4][5] This spelling has been used by the majority of past dressage masters who wrote in English,[6] and remains in use by traditional horsemanship organizations in the United States such as the United States Pony Clubs.[7]

The phonetic “lungeing” spelling dates back to the 1800s,[2][8] but has only become popular since the late 20th century.

It could be that the spelling used in any particular book might have more to do with where it was edited and published, rather than the preferred usage of the author.

[Curly_Feather]

@GraceLikeRain

I’ve seen it spelt like lunge (lunging a horse, lunge line, etc) for over twenty years. Outside of COTH I’ve actually never seen someone spell it with an O.

Same here.

[Posting_Trot]

Yes, like Mango20, for me the real offense is the use of “lounge.” A “lounge line” sounds like a new style of leisure wear for hanging out by the pool or on a cruise!

[EmilyM]

I’ve always written longe and longeing. I think autocorrect doesn’t like it.

[KBC]

Another Brit here, brought up with lunge, it was only when I came over this side of the Atlantic I met up with longe, and it will never sit well with me.

[Montanas_Girl]

Born and bred in the U.S., and I refuse to use any spelling other than longe. I’m not even that old (36).

[SuzieQNutter]

Australia and it is lunge here.

[RedHorses]

Over 30 years ago there was an article in Horse & Rider (the American one) that looked at Longeing, Lungeing and Loungeing. There were three cartoons with the text illustrating each. The longed horse was working nicely on the line. The lungeing horse was basically bolting with human kite at the other end of the line. And the loungeing horse was lying on a deck chair with sunglasses and a drink while the frustrated human stood helplessly at the end of the “loungeline”. It stuck with me and I use longe - though I thought the Brits used the “o” and the Americans used the “u”. Which is silly now that I think about the American penchant for losing the “u” when spelling words.

[Pally]

@RedHorses

Over 30 years ago there was an article in Horse & Rider (the American one) that looked at Longeing, Lungeing and Loungeing. There were three cartoons with the text illustrating each. The longed horse was working nicely on the line. The lungeing horse was basically bolting with human kite at the other end of the line. And the loungeing horse was lying on a deck chair with sunglasses and a drink while the frustrated human stood helplessly at the end of the “loungeline”. It stuck with me and I use longe - though I thought the Brits used the “o” and the Americans used the “u”. Which is silly now that I think about the American penchant for losing the “u” when spelling words.

As a fellow Canadian I’ve considered them both “right” (but lounging isn’t, lol) because I’m so used to seeing two versions of words. But I also didn’t realize (or realise ) in this case the Americans were the source of the O and the Brits the U… would have thought it the other way around too!

[ladyj79]

It’s lunge at every fei event I’ve been to in continental Europe, never longe.

Isn’t it funny though that the implication above is that this some shoddy Americanism or gasp! western.

[ladyj79]

FWIW wikipedia is literally crowd sourcing, and only as reliable as the poster and their sources