lose?

[Ekphantos]

After there has been so much discussion about Ronnie O'Sullivan losing the match, I got a bit confused about the spelling of the words related to that:

I always though that the opposite of winning etc. was spelled with just 1 "o", i.e. loser, to lose in contrast to e.g. "loose fitting"

Now I have read "not winning" written with 2 "o"s quite often in posts here and on other forums, also from native English speakers (according to their flags). So is it possible to also spell it like that by now (like in German where some spellings gradually changed)? In posts on German forums "looser" can be found more often than "loser", but I was told in school that this was a mistake.

[ferret]

loser is correct and looser is incorrect, but looser is commonly used, so we are all wrong.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/loser
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/looser

[Ekphantos]

Thanks ferret!

I guess if enough people use it, it has to be accepted at some point
(This is happening with the direct translation of the phrase "to make sense" into German right now, which I find quite interesting)

[Black_cat]

It's definitely "lose" and "loser" and it has driven me mad for ages now, although I am not a native speaker. It's a case of pronunciation dictating spelling, since the verb and all its derivatives are pronounced with a long vowel.
The loser loses and then counts his losses. There!...And then he gets on the loose.

[The Statman]

Of course, if you play a looser game (= more loose), you will probably end up the loser!

[dantuck_7]

I was flamed once on youtube for using the word loose (in the sense of not winning). So carried on using it to annoy everyone.

[matt01]

ha ha ha

Of course, if you play a looser game (= more loose), you will probably end up the loser!

You have loosed me.