Q. The president uses the phrase stay the course all the time, but I can't find its definition.

A. We've also heard President Bush use the expression stay the course, but he wasn't the first one to use it. The earliest record of it comes from 1885, in the Daily Telegraph: "Doubts are also entertained . . . concerning her ability to stay the course." The "her" in question was a race horse, and the phrase was originally used to mean "to hold out to the end of a race." This use of "stay" developed from an earlier sense of the word — "to last (for a distance)" or "to show endurance" — which was used of race horses in the early 1800s and was eventually applied to other sports. That sense of "stay" comes from an even older sense, which meant "to stand one's ground" and first appeared in the works of Shakespeare: "Yet let us all together to our troops, / And give them leave to fly that will not stay, / And call them pillars that will stand to us" (Henry VI).

The expression has been used figuratively since at least 1916, when it was used in the Times of London: "If we are to 'stay the course' set before us, other sections must be prepared for greater sacrifices." Since then, it's been used of everything from economics to baseball, foreign policy to novel writing. Stay the course has come to mean "to stick or remain with something (as a race or trial of endurance) to the end." You can find this sense of stay and the phrase stay the course in the Collegiate Dictionary.

Q. My boss and I are disagreeing about the spelling and capitalization of website. Your unabridged dictionary shows that it should be Web site (capital W and two words) and that is current as of 2002. I say things have changed since 2002 and it is now commonly accepted to use it as one word in lower case, unless it is being used as part of a name or referring to a specific web location.

A. This is a case where both you and your boss are correct. Our dictionaries are based on usage; that is, they document how words are actually used in professional writing rather than how we feel they ought to be used. The Unabridged Dictionary is based on Webster's Third New International Dictionary, and when we completed the last major revision of that book, Web site was the most common form of the word. Web site still appears in professional writing. But, as you point out, website has become increasingly common.

Even so, a survey of recently published writing indicates that the two-word form (either Web site or web site) continues to be more common than website. However, website is widely used and would certainly be considered standard. The vast majority of readers will understand what you mean whether you use either form, so it really doesn't matter which one you choose as long as you are consistent.

There is little evidence to show that website is capitalized when it refers to a specific site (unless, as you mentioned, it's part of a name or title). Otherwise it is styled like any other common noun:

"Our company is Merriam-Webster." Not "Our Company is Merriam-Webster."
"Our website/Web site is www.Merriam-Webster.com." Not "Our Website/Web Site is www.Merriam-Webster.com."

The one exception might be in business or corporate writing, where sometimes nouns are capitalized that wouldn't be in other kinds of writing. If you would capitalize company in internal documents for your organization, as in the first example above, then it might make sense to capitalize website. For any other kind of writing, though, website or Web site would be standard in this kind of situation.

Language is constantly changing, and nowhere is that more evident than with technology-related words. Perhaps in twenty years everyone will use website and Web site, will disappear completely. But for now, the choice is up to you.

Q. Why is it that in the name Crichton, the "ch" is silent?

A. The name Crichton is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin. In Scottish Gaelic, the spelling "ch" represents the same sound as used to be represented by "gh" in English. This sound is still pronounced in Scottish Gaelic. However, since the name Crichton is now an English name, the same thing happened to the "ch" in Crichton as happened to the "gh" in words like right or bright. It is a sound we do not have in Modern English, so it became silent.