Ardith Hinton:

AH>  Usage  note:   The English language has adopted
AH> many words from French .. e.g. "litre", "metre",
AH> and  "theatre"...  which USAians prefer to spell
AH> with an "-er" ending.  That's not the case here.
AH> USAians  make the same distinction between "tim-
AH> bre" and "timber" Canadians do in spelling,  but
AH> not  necessarily  in pronunciation.  A few years
AH> from now, of course, things  may  be  different.
AH> :-Q
AH>
AH>           The  first  pertains to tone colour or
AH> sound quality... the acoustical principle  which
AH> enables  us to recognize the voices of our near-
AH> est & dearest or to distinguish between an  oboe
AH> &  a clarinet when we can't see who &/or what is
AH> involved, while the second pertains to trees  or
AH> to the wood derived therefrom.

Thanks  for the explanation, Ardith. It was a mental
sleep, but you reminded me of this interesting  phe-
nomena,  when  the  same  word imported by different
routes acquires  different  meanings.  The  original
meaning  of  `timbre'  is  of  course  wood, but the
pecuiliar warm colouration of the  sound  of  wooden
musical  instruments  lent the French spelling a new
meaning.

Casting about for more examples, I looked up  `fric-
tion' and `frisson' and learned the name of the phe-
nomena -- doublet.

--- Sylpheed 3.7.0 (GTK+ 2.24.30; i686-pc-mingw32)