enclose/inclose

[anagahan]

I got really puzzled with these two. I've always considered them the same. According to certain dictionaries (pretty good ones and not outdated) these two are interchangeable and at the entry for inclose it has only a reference that you should go to the entry for enclose...so i turn to the entry for enclose and besides the explanation of the word, it also says that it equals to inclose..... On the other hand, a few other dictionaries I checked dont even have inclose as an entry and there was this exercise, a letter of application with spot the mistake where you need to find the grammar and spelling mistakes, and to my surprise, there was inclose and was said to be wrong and that enclose should stand instead even while i'm typing this, inclose keeps being underlined as incorrect

right now i'm really since I dont have a reliable source to trust, they all say it differently

so i was wondering if i could get some more input on these two words, mainly, i need explanations WHY is inclose excluded from certain grammar/text-books and dictionaries, which one do YOU use, and if there is a rule which can be applied when to use enclose & when inclose or i can use them both eitherway?? or i should just keep being confused ....

[David L.]

"inclose" is a very outdated spelling of "enclose", so use "enclose" only.
As well, dictionaries may compensate for incorrect spelling by 'guessing' what the correct spelling is for the word the person is looking up, and so direct the search to the correctly spelt entry. This does not mean that because the dictionary 'recognizes' the incorrect spelling, that it is some correct variant of the word - which then puzzles the reader as to when we use which variant.

[Anglika]

I would advise that "inclose" is really not used now. It is an archaic form. Keep to "enclose".