"Bussing" or "Busing?"

[MineralMan]

I bring this up in this forum due to the controversy between two Democratic primary candidates that has to do with busing.

It's an interesting question. While the normal rule is to double up on the letter "s" in words like "bus," there's a small problem with pluralizing or verbalizing the word "bus."

When used as a verb, "to bus" has a different meaning than its homophone, "to buss."

To Bus - v. to transport by bus.

To Buss - v. to kiss.

Now, the use of "buss" in the second sense isn't common any longer, but it still means to kiss. So, "Bussing students" could mean transporting them by bus somewhere, or kissing them.

Similarly, the plural of the noun "bus" is "buses," rather than "busses," for the same reason. Elongated vehicles designed to transport people are somewhat different from kisses exchanged between people.

Spelling rules in English have many exceptions, since English is a hodgepodge sort of pidgin language that has borrowed words from many other languages. For example, the common rule, "I before E, except when following C or pronounced as in Neighbor or Weigh" is one of those weird rules with some common exceptions.

All that said, it's very common to see the word busses bussing, or bussed in print. Context makes the meaning clear in most cases. However, context isn't completely clear sometimes. E.G.:

"The schoolchildren being bussed to school were discovered to be bussing in the back row of seats."

[hlthe2b]

1. Both are correct per Webster's

Words that do rhyme with bus are usually spelled with a double s, like fusses or trusses. ... As for the verb bus—which may mean either "to transport someone in a bus" or "to remove dirty dishes from [as from a table]"—we do recognize bussed and bussing as variants.

busing noun
bus·​ing | ˈbə-siŋ

variants: or less commonly bussing
Definition of busing

: the act of transporting by bus specifically : the transporting of children to a school outside their residential area as a means of achieving racial balance in that school

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/plural-of-bus

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/busing

[MineralMan]

3. That's true, however, it can lead to confusion in some cases.

As I said, the double "s" variant is quite common, but is not technically correct.

[hlthe2b]

6. I get annoyed by a number of changing pronunciations/spellings. But English is a "living" language

I had a friend who wanted to go to "all out war" over 'canceled' v 'cancelled'. Both are correct.

[MineralMan]

9. Some would maintain that it is a dying language.

When reading common media, I tend to agree to some extent.

[Wounded Bear]

2. And once again, we're discussing semantics instead of the validity of policies...

[MineralMan]

4. Not really. I'm just posting a funny language thing.

A little light-hearted break from the overly serious discussion about decades old things.

[thesquanderer]

11. Oh no! The internet is running out of space! What will happen to all the cat pictures?? (n/t)

[highplainsdem]

5. I've seen both spellings all over in the media. I've almost given up on expecting

proper spelling from journalists, just as I've almost given up on expecting younger journalists to have any idea that there's any such thing as a past perfect verb tense.

And lately I've been discovering that creative incorrect spelling is working its way into crossword puzzles, too, which can be really maddening when you think a clue means a certain word, but the number of letter they're offering is incorrect.

At least we aren't quite back to 16th-century level spelling creativity...

[MineralMan]

7. Yes. I chuse not to go that far back in time.

[George II]

13. Ah, you've read the Constitution.

[MineralMan]

17. Many times.

[StarfishSaver]

8. I spell it "busing."

As you noted, "bussing" is kissing.

[MineralMan]

10. So do I.

[Hoyt]

12. I found myself typing bussing, and then changing it to busing if I proofread.

In any event, I think we all know what a poster meant, either way.

[George II]

14. Back in the 1950s or 1960s, NYC set up lanes on some highways....

...that were only to be used by buses. The signs that were originally erected said "Busses Only", and many people got upset with the "misspelling". Eventually they were quietly changed to "Buses Only".

[LovingA2andMI]

15. Who Cares....

n/t....

[MineralMan]

18. Just people who are serious about language.

Like me.

[frazzled]

16. What we should be talking about is desegregation, not busing.

That bus left the station at least 20 years ago. And it did so because everybody, including Democrats and minority communities themselves, started talking about “neighborhood schools.” There was a reason for that, since busing usually meant carting minority kids sometimes long distances from their homes, whereas white kids mostly got to stay where they were. But desegregation didn’t have to work like that, and the transition from busing to neighborhood schools might be seen, in some perspectives, as a return to “separate but equal.”

My kids attended public schools in Minneapolis from the mid-1980s until 1999, when we moved across the country to the East Coast. The city during those years was working under a voluntary desegregation system that had been put into place in the early seventies. Here’s how it worked: the district was divided into a number of geographical blocks (5 or 6 I think), each of which was drawn to include both white and minority population areas. Within each of these sub-districts parents were offered a choice of school type: contemporary ( your traditional one teacher per classroom, with seats facing the blackboard), open (classes with several grade levels combined in a large, open space), fundamentals (basic reading and math skills with set behavior codes), continuous progress (kids have a traditional “home room” class but go to other rooms for reading and math only, based on their current, varying skill levels), and Montessori. There were also some magnet schools to choose.

I, like many parents, visited each type of school and chose the one I felt best suited my child’s needs. It meant my (white) kid got on a bus and traveled 20-30 minutes or so on a bus to a school that was not really in our general neighborhood. There she attended classes with a broad coalition of races, ethnicities, and socio-economic conditions: white and black, Hmong and Native American kids, etc. To me, it was ideal, and it benefitted everyone.

Then, just as we were readying to leave (my first was just finishing high school by then and the second junior high) the district started talking about dismantling that system, in favor of neighborhood schools. Maybe the reason was that all that busing (sometimes on a single block, 4 or 5 different buses would come to take the kids to their various schools) simply cost too much. Or maybe it was too complex. Or maybe people were demanding a return to their neighborhoods. To me, it meant a return to segregation, and I opposed it, both in writing and at meetings.

But that is pretty much where we are today. And it seems crazy to be arguing about something that happened in the 1970s. We need to be arguing about how we can achieve a new system for desegregating our schools and/or assuring an equal education for all. Because it ain’t working right now very well.

[Celerity]

19. bussing for me, as I was UK-raised and schooled