"Surveyance" vs. "Surveillance"

[BMCT2010]

Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
"surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
thanks.

[mm]

On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:05:13 -0800 (PST), BMCT2010 <BMCT...@AOL.com>
wrote:

>Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
>"surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
>thanks.

Yes, I've never heard of the first one. Do you have evidence it
exists? Did you look in an onlline dictionary? If so, send us the
link.
--
Posters should say where they live, and for which area
they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in
Western Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis 7 years
Chicago 6 years
Brooklyn, NY 12 years
Baltimore 26 years

[Patok]

mm wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:05:13 -0800 (PST), BMCT2010 <BMCT...@AOL.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
>> "surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
>> thanks.
>
> Yes, I've never heard of the first one. Do you have evidence it
> exists? Did you look in an onlline dictionary? If so, send us the
> link.

I, being the non-native speaker I am, am surprised you should ask
this question. My naive thought was that surveyance is something that
surveyors do, while surveillance is the work of spies, police, etc.
(Your position is partially vindicated by that the Thunderbird spell
checker didn't know 'surveyance' - amazing, truly amazing.) However,
dictionary.com knows both:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surveyance
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surveillance

and more or less with the meanings I thought they'd have.

--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.

[HVS]

On 24 Dec 2009, BMCT2010 wrote

> Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
> "surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
> thanks.

I've not encountered "surveyance" -- it's not in Collins, and other
than early findings the OED's quotations are limited to 1880 and
1883; the latter marks it "rare". (At first glance I assumed it was
a pronunciation spelling which was trying to approximate the sound of
"surveillance" in French.)

To answer your question, though, the OED defines it as
"superintendence, oversight, inspection", and notes that it is
"Sometimes app. confused with _surveillance_", which they define as
"watch or guard kept over a person, etc."

--
Cheers, Harvey
CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed

[John Varela]

On Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:21:09 UTC, Patok <crazy.d...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> mm wrote:
> > On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:05:13 -0800 (PST), BMCT2010 <BMCT...@AOL.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
> >> "surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
> >> thanks.
> >
> > Yes, I've never heard of the first one. Do you have evidence it
> > exists? Did you look in an onlline dictionary? If so, send us the
> > link.
>
> I, being the non-native speaker I am, am surprised you should ask
> this question. My naive thought was that surveyance is something that
> surveyors do,

Surveyors survey, and they do surveying. "Surveyance" is a new one
on me. Google turns up a lot of examples, however.

> while surveillance is the work of spies, police, etc.

Also radars.

--
John Varela
Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email

[Patok]

John Varela wrote:
> Patok <crazy.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> mm wrote:
>>> BMCT2010 <BMCT...@AOL.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
>>>> "surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
>>>> thanks.
>>> Yes, I've never heard of the first one. Do you have evidence it
>>> exists? Did you look in an onlline dictionary? If so, send us the
>>> link.
>> I, being the non-native speaker I am, am surprised you should ask
>> this question. My naive thought was that surveyance is something that
>> surveyors do,
>
> Surveyors survey, and they do surveying. "Surveyance" is a new one
> on me. Google turns up a lot of examples, however.

It has always bugged me that English spell-checkers (and editors,
apparently) insist that certain words don't exist and should be
replaced, even when they are formed in a regular manner, and are quite
understandable from context and formation rules. This is one of these
cases - 'surveyance' is quite obvious both in the way it is formed, and
in what meaning it is supposed to have.
As to your example of 'surveying' - yes, quite right. It is the
same kind of difference like between 'walk' and 'walking'. A surveyor is
involved in surveying, but does surveyance. Or so I think.

>> while surveillance is the work of spies, police, etc.
>
> Also radars.

Naturally.

[danieloo...@gmail.com]

Surveillance is to "watch closely" or keep an eye on something or someone.

Surveyance is to conduct a survey, i.e. one may conduct market surveyance to establish if a project to expand sales into new territories is viable.

[George Hardy]

And "surveyance" is rarely used. Google returns only
37.9K vs 181M for surveillance.

GFH

[Don Phillipson]

On Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 7:05:13 AM UTC+2, BMCT2010 wrote:

>> Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
>> "surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?

"Surveyance" is either a nonce word (that failed to enter the
language) or an error for "surveying," the standard term for 200+
years for the work done by a surveyor or mapmaker. Surveillance
means watching, as done by police, intelligence agents, etc.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Sun, 7 Feb 2016 12:03:50 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
<e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:

> On Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 7:05:13 AM UTC+2, BMCT2010 wrote:
>
>>> Can someone tell me if there is a difference between the words
>>> "surveyance," meaning inspection, and "surveillance"?
>
>"Surveyance" is either a nonce word (that failed to enter the
>language) or an error for "surveying," the standard term for 200+
>years for the work done by a surveyor or mapmaker. Surveillance
>means watching, as done by police, intelligence agents, etc.

"Surveyance" managed to creep into the OED:

surveyance, n.

Frequency (in current use):

Etymology: < Old French *surve(i)ance, < surveeir to survey v.
In modern use directly < survey v. + -ance suffix.

rare.

Survey; superintendence, oversight; inspection. (Sometimes app.
confused with surveillance n.)

c1386 Chaucer Doctor's Tale (Ellesm.) 95 Youre is the charge of
al hir surueiaunce [Hengwrt surueaunce; other MSS. sufferaunce,
suffra(u)nce] Whil žat they been vnder youre gouernaunce.
a1529 J. Skelton Magnyfycence (?1530) sig. Fi, In pleasure and
surueyaunce..I haue set my hole felycyte.
1531 Act 23 Hen. VIII c. 18 §1 Within .xl daies after suche
surveiaunce made and monycion to the said owners gyven.
1597 T. Middleton Wisdome of Solomon Paraphr. To Gentl. Rdrs. sig.
B, I giue you the surueyaunce of my new-bought grounde.
1880 Times 19 Aug. 4 We must expect to find such objects in the
excavations if proper surveyance of the workmen be exercised.
1883 American 6 118 The price of lands reduced to a sum which
would pay the expenses of surveyance and sale.

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)

[Daniel James]

In article <834fbbp2o2mokk8oj...@4ax.com>, Peter

Duncanson [BrE] wrote:
> "Surveyance" managed to creep into the OED:

So it has ...

The meanings (survey, oversight, inspection) correspond so closely with
the meanings given for "surveillance" that I'd tend to regard it as an
alternative spelling of the same word (albeit with different etymology)
than a different word with a different meaning.

Interestingly the OED also throws up "surveyal", whose meaning seems
much more akin to that which "danieloo...@gmail.com" wants to
attach to "surveyance".

(He can have a "Necromancer" badge, though for reviving a thread from
2009.)

--
Cheers,
Daniel.

[freeb...@hotmail.com]

Surveyance is also spoken in star trek the next generation, by Picard in episode 3 of season 3, called "the Survivors".
The captain then states: "Move us into a higher orbit so we may keep the surface of the planet under surveyance". And he very clearly doesn't say surveillance. It's a good way to hear it spoken so clearly.

friendly greetz,
me.