Foxy,

As we are in Australia then the English spelling, 'paedophile' would seem to be correct, however, the US spelling, like so many of their words may actually be the pre-Revolutionary English spelling.

See, programme and program, labour and labor.

They American spelling of words is better than the English spelling.

The American one is usually more in sync with how the word is pronounced.

The English spelling has come about by the influence of the many races the British Royals married over the years, or so I am led to believe.
The English language has German and French contamination.
Even though the English language, like most languages has their roots from Latin, but pre-dominantly Italian.
So many words are the very same spelling, and meaning, in English and Italian.
I vaguely remember as a rule of thumb that words that ended with 'ough' were influenced by German.
And then there are the ones with French influence.
But because the French derived their language mostly from Italian/latin, the words are common and some do have the typical French sound to them.

Paul1405 and SteelRedux's discussion of Indian culture with Yuyutsu was interesting on a few levels. Apparently Gandhi read the Bhagavad Gita everyday- the ideas of Shiva and Kali are also interesting.

To me it indicates that western and eastern beliefs are very different. I prefer Traditional Conservative Australian values.

Is Mise,

Talking about the word "pedophile."

You did understand what the word meant - its a
question of communication not spelling. That's
what mattered in this case.

Talking about the English language - it's a
language concocted out of a number of languages.
Many languages are read phonetically. Have
you ever tried to read English phonetically?
It's very funny.

Besides how many people living in this country
actually speak English correctly? Even in the UK
there is a multitude of dialects and meanings of
words.

Here's the spelling as given by Encyclopedia Britannica:

http://www.britannica.com/topic/pedophilia

cont'd ...

Is Mise,

The Oxford English Dictionary also gives
both spellings as being correct.