Is comaraderie an alternative spelling of camaraderie or a different
word?  The web site dictionary.com lists both of these, as well as
comaradery.  The other dictionaries I have checked don't list
comaraderie at all.

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Clarification of Question by paul2002-ga on 03 Feb 2003 15:24 PST

The 3rd spelling on dictionary.com is comradery (not comaradery).  Whoops.

Hi Paul2002,

Short answer -- "no."  I've checked several dictionary sites for any
spelling
variations on "camaraderie" including Merriam-Webster, YourDictionary,
Hyperdictionary, and WordSmyth.  I also checked an offline source,
Random House Unabridged Dictionary.

The preferred spelling is "camaraderie." 

Entry Word:  camaraderie  
n: Goodwill and lighthearted rapport between or among friends;
comradeship.

Etymology: French, from camarade, comrade, from Old French, roommate.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/68/C0046800.html

From Merriam Webster:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=camaraderie

Entry Word: camaraderie
Function: noun

Text: a spirit of friendly goodwill typical of comrades, i.e., the
easy camaraderie of a cozy neighborhood bar

Related Words: affability, friendliness, gregariousness, sociability;
cheer, conviviality, jollity

Contrasted Words aloofness, coldness, frigidity, inaccessibility,
reclusiveness, remoteness, self-containment; exclusiveness,
self-sufficiency, unsociability

From Random House Unabridged:

comrade:  Middle French -> camarade
          Spanish -> camarada (military term) sharer of room, equiv.
to -> camar(a) room.

======================


The British variant is "comradery."

From WWWebster.com

Main Entry: com·rad·ery
Pronunciation: 'käm-"ra-d(&-)rE, -r&-drE, -"rA-d(&-)rE
Function: noun
Date: 1879
: CAMARADARIE 

Main Entry: ca·ma·ra·de·rie
Pronunciation: "käm-'rä-d(&-)rE, "kam-, "kä-m&-, "ka-, -'ra-
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from camarade comrade
Date: 1840
: a spirit of friendly good-fellowship

========================


The word "camaraderie" frequently appears as a misspelled word as a
copyeditor's correction.
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/copyed.htm

"There are lists of these in many reference books, but here are a few:
accommodate, supersede, embarrass, harass, feisty, inadvertent,
ophthalmologist, occurrence, camaraderie, desiccated, forgo [abstain
from], millennia, liquefy, rarefied, fluorescent, inoculate,
stratagem.)"

=========================

Dictionary.com lists WordNet 1.6 as the source for the entry you
found.  I sense this was a glitch as I've been unable to replicate
"comaraderie" in any other dictionaries.

Please let me know if you need additional documentation and I'll be
happy to provide it.

Best,
V

Dear Paul2002,

Voila says 'The British variant is "comradery."' but I don't know
where s/he gets this from.  Of the first hundred hits for "comradery"
on a Google search, two are Canadian sites, two are Australian, one is
German, and ninety-five appear US.  It looks more like a US variant.

Carnegie

Hello carnegie,

My reference for "comradery" being *especially* British comes from an
offline source, The Random House Unabridged Dictionary.  The spelling
that most resembles "comrade" corresponds to the etymology at this
Bartleby site: http://www.bartleby.com/61/99/C0539900.html

WORD HISTORY: A comrade can be socially or politically close, a
closeness that is found at the etymological heart of the word comrade.
In Spanish the Latin word camara, with its Late Latin meaning
“chamber, room,” was retained, and the derivative camarada, with the
sense “roommates, especially barrack mates,” was formed. Camarada then
came to have the general sense “companion.” English borrowed the word
from Spanish and French, English comrade being first recorded in the
16th century. The political sense of comrade, now associated with
Communism, had its origin in the late-19th-century use of the word as
a title by socialists and communists in order to avoid such forms of
address as mister. This usage, which originated during the French
Revolution, is first recorded in English in 1884.

Further comrade meaning "chamber, room" is decidedly British as it
relates to any of the houses of a parliament (second chamber) or Brit.
Law: rooms used by a barrister or group of barristers, esp. in the
Inns of Court. http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=385269

I hope this is helpful.
V