Is it lightsabre or lightsaber (or both)?

Question

I edited this question; Should we rewrite the lightsabre colour question? to reflect what I felt was the accepted spelling of the word "lightsaber" (with an er), only to have my edits rolled back with the comment;

Using American spelling? I'm disappointed in you :-)

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I appreciate that it's a long-established principle that we don't correct US/UK spellings but I'm reasonably certain that this doesn't apply in this case.

• Is there a 'correct' spelling of this word?

• Are variant spellings simply interchangeable?

Answer 1

TL;DR, it's Lightsaber not Lightsabre.

Usage in canon

Outside of a couple of typographical errors in the Phantom Menace script, the sole usage is lightsaber in every single canon article on the databank, every single canon novel and every single factbook. It's also used exclusively as lightsaber in every single EU novel, gamebook and script book.

So where can we find the term lightsabre?

StarWars.com highlights a couple of instances where the term lightsabre has been used in various (now) non-canon sources, including a glossary in the Star Wars Official Collector’s Edition (1977) published by Marvel. The writer of the article notes that it's been spelled incorrectly, along with other canon changes.

Back then we wrote “Artoo Detoo” and “See Threepio” instead of R2-D2 and C-3PO, Ben Kenobi used a “lightsabre,” not a lightsaber, and Kenobi, Obi-Wan was the one-time leader of the Jedi Knights. Certainly a lot has changed, but there was a special kind of magic to the galaxy when the only story we had was the original Star Wars.

What Trademarks does LucasFilm own?

LucasFilm own and closely guard the term lightsaber, entering into trademark disputes with no less than a dozen companies that have dared to use the word in their branding. By comparison, there's a sole entry in the US and EU trademark database for lightsabre held by a company called Powerbox AG. Lucasfilm haven't disputed the use of lightsabre.

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In short, Lucasfilm and Disney have never knowingly used the term lightsabre. The sole usage comes from a few minor instances in articles and magazines from non-canon sources such as licensed works, fan magazines and Marvel magazines.

These terms are not interchangeable and we should correct this common misspelling wherever we see it.

Answer 2

Either / both.

As is standard across Stack Exchange, both British and American English spellings are acceptable:

• Does [Stack Exchange] have an accepted standard on language and spelling? Which is it?

  For bodies, no. For tags, US-English.

• At the risk of starting torrents of angry comments, I'd say the correct one is whichever one the OP uses. It is acceptable to fix spelling and grammar errors in someone's response, but if you feel that their favourite spelling of 'behaviour' colours your judgment, then I'm afraid they should just get over it.

  It is not acceptable to change American to British spellings or British to American.

We don't make edits to change "colour" to "color" or vice versa. If someone makes such an edit, we roll it back and gently remind them that all dialects of English are acceptable here.

Lightsabre is an acceptable British English spelling of "lightsaber". It can be found in Wiktionary and the definitive Oxford English Dictionary, and is the spelling used by multiple other UK sources. This makes sense, as "lightsaber" literally means "saber of light", and "saber" is just a US spelling of sabre. Thus, the convention should be:

call the tag lightsaber, but leave lightsabre/lightsaber up to the OP in the post.