3 ms·

To go one level deeper, elsewhere it's gaol.

• mkl 7y ago
  I don't think that's true. Even for .uk, Google returns 55.5 million hits for "jail" and only 600 thousand for "gaol". For .au it's similar, and .nz is a little more even, but still "jail" wins by a lot. From https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/04/why-did-we-ever-spell-jail-gaol/ https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/04/why-did-we-ever-spell-ja..., "The Guardian long persisted with gaol too but changed to jail in the 1980s, like the other English papers."
  • Jedd 7y ago
    Undoubtedly common usage, especially in the pop media, has regrettably shifted towards the North American trends, as with so many words. In Australia there's a move away from prison/jail/gaol and towards 'corrective/correctional/detention facility / centre' presumably to make the places sound more aligned with their political or social intent. However each of the Australian state's active legislation still refers to them as gaols.