"bury the lead" (as in not fully report a news story) or "bury the lede"?

[PeterF]

Which would be considered correct for British English?

"bury the lead" (as in not fully report a news story) or "bury the lede"?

 

[emsr2d2]

Only the first. I have never seen the word "lede" before. I looked it up and discovered that it is specifically AmE. Your member profile shows that you are a UK-born native English speaker. Didn't you have an inkling which one was correct in your own native language?

 

[PeterF]

Yes, I did. I'd not come across "lede" before either, but Collins online dictionary doesn't say we shouldn't use "lede" if we're British (in fact Collins says "lede" is just a variant spelling of "lead", but only in the sense of "bury the lede") and because it's an American phrase I wondered if it would be okay to substitute the phrase "bury the lede" directly into British English writing as is (like vol-au-vent or something). Obviously, no-one in the UK would use the spelling "lede" outside this context (that I know of -- could be an obscure dialectical spelling in some far-flung isolated community in the UK, I suppose -- I don't know what the etymology of "lede" is). Interestingly both the Microsoft Word English UK spell checker and the English United States spell checker flag "lede" as a mis-spelling. I guess most folks in the US haven't come across or use "lede" either, although this may just indicate a limitation of the English US spell checker's vocabulary.

 

[emsr2d2]

The etymology of "lede" is very easy to discover: https://www.etymonline.com/word/lede

Even if it is used in some dialect of a far-flung region of the UK, that wouldn't put it in the same box as "vol-au-vents". The latter is a word that's commonly used for a popular foodstuff, and it's simply borrowed from French. "Lede" is so obscure that, even if a few people in the UK use it, it would still be classed as dialectal.

We'll need an AmE speaker to comment on whether it's common to them.

 

[Skrej]

I've certainly never heard of it. According to this site, it's journalism jargon. Anyone not a journalist is likely to be unfamiliar with it. Note the mention of 'bury the lede' a few paragraphs into the article.

I don't think it's AmE as much as it is just technical jargon.

 

[SoothingDave]

I am familiar with it, but only as a set phrase.

 

[SoothingDave]

Vole

I assume "vol-au-vents" is a small rodent with some holes in it.

 

[PeterF]

Vole

I assume "vol-au-vents" is a small rodent with some holes in it.

Thanks for the giggle, I enjoyed that