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DGaryGrady, I would pay some attention to the manual of style, specifically WP:ENGVAR says that there is no need to change diplomate to diplomat if the page uses British English spelling (which it may not, I did not check). I would also note that i.e. and e.g. are used interchangeably in American English, and even the circa 50 year old Strunk & White suggests that the only rule is to pick one and stick with it. The Wikipedia Manual of Style does not take an explicit stand on this, but does use i.e. for examples.
Again, welcome to Wikipedia and I hope you enjoy editing articles and contributing to the encyclopedia! PDBailey (talk) 16:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for the comments, and my apologies for not responding sooner. In fact i.e. and e.g. still maintain their distinct and separate meanings at least among careful writers. For what it's worth, I've checked several editions of Strunk & White and can't find anything like what you suggest it says (which would have surprised me, given their rather conservative attitude toward usage). I'm also unable to find a dictionary that sanctions misusing "i.e." (id est, literally "that is") to mean "e.g." (exempli gratia, "for (sake of) example"). And for the record, the Wikipedia Manual of Style draws the same distinction here. DGaryGrady (talk) 22:23, 6 August 2010 (UTC)