HN pedantry of the day: 'lite' vs 'light'. I screamed internally a bit at "a list of lite websites", so naturally I looked up the definition and etymology. It

HN pedantry of the day: 'lite' vs 'light'. I screamed internally a bit at "a list of lite websites", so naturally I looked up the definition and etymology. It turns out that lite is basically a modifier for product names. Early in the 20th century it was used for products like "Auto-Lite" and "Adjusto-Lite", apparently as a diminutive form of "light". But then later it was used to connote fewer calories (as in "Miller Lite", "Kikkoman Lite") whereas other products still use the full form ("Yoplait Light"). Lite's other definition is "diminished or lacking in substance or seriousness ... innocuous or unthreatening", implying an almost childish, immature, or unthreatening form. In this website's case, the list is specifically referring to the "weight" or "heft" of the websites, relative to the content which isn't solely what the user is looking for. It also is not referring to a product name. That falls squarely under the definition for light, and not lite. But the name of the repo, awesome-lite-websites, can be seen as a product name. So the word lite fits for the name, but not in the description. (indeed, in the README the word "lightweight" is correctly used) [1] https://grammarist.com/words/lite/ https://grammarist.com/words/lite/ [2] https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/10/lite-or-light-which-spelling-is-right.html https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/10/lite-or-light-whi... [3] https://www.etymonline.com/word/lite https://www.etymonline.com/word/lite