Maybe? US spelling is with 's' as a noun. Mr Clifford has passed on, so I cannot ask the witty gentleman. However OED quotes s or c for the verb. Both stem from Middle English via Latin Licentia. I need to find my Etymological Dictionary, but Cassel states both are from the same root, the differentiation being introduced recently to align with other pairing conventions to assist in clarification (as in practice and practise) but has ended up making it worse. In 1985?
Ah yes, I see, you young lads did not have the benefit of earlier years drumming. Gene Krupa uses a different language than Ginger Baker. This modern world seems even to have left Ringo Starr behind and have gone adrift, Phil Collins' real talent is lost, the complexities of Jo Morello are a mystery to the young mind, Waken your being, Grasshopper, make with the skins, yo.
licence
mid-14c., liberty (to do something), leave, from from Fr. licence, from L. licentia freedom, liberty, license, from licentem (nom. licens). prp. of licere to be allowed, be lawful, formal (usually written) permission from authority to do something (marry, hunt, drive, etc.) is first attested early 15c. Meaning excessive liberty, disregard of propriety is from mid-15c. The verb is first attested late 14c. No etymological justification for the spelling with -s. Attempts to confine license to verbal use and licence to noun use have failed.
I would be interested to discover when this 's' was introduced. Mr Clifford used this in his 1984 drawing. Answers like that are useful in identifying dates and origins. Anyway, like the good Dalmation that you are, well spotted.
This Classic, beautifully drawn illustration is one of the many works of Henry Dalton Clifford, inventor, horticulturalist, architect and author of design books on architecture. He was the man who gave us Abbey House in its present form. He is specifically mentioned in P.A.S. Pool's book 'The History of the Town and Borough of Penzance'. A direct link with one of Penzance's finest.
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