bfalls

I ran into this spelling on dry-cleaning shop signs in Providence, Rhode Island (USA) when I moved there in 1965. One employee even came outside to look at her store's sign because she had never noticed the spelling. People seem to pronounce the word "cleaner" but several companies spell the word with an "s" on their signs. Does this spelling exist anywhere else?

I'm talking only about dry-cleaning shops, not the powdered kitchen cleansers that come in a can.

A question today about "transparent" and "clear" suggested this game. The first word comes directly from Latin while the other comes from Latin via French. How many other pairs of synonyms can we come up with that came to English by different routes? Identify each word's language of origin (guesses are OK). Kudos if the ultimate source is the same word but it followed two routes to English, like flamingo (via 16th-century Spanish) and Flamenco (from modern Spanish), both from the Spanish word for "Flemish."

This is just for fun; I won't pick a winner, so eventually the voters will.

Here's the lead paragraph of tonight's announcement from Amtrak, the largest U.S. passenger train company, about the effects of today's blizzard on the East Coast, from http://www.amtrak.com/ ("Alert" link near the top of the page). It is not copyrighted and I have not changed anything. It includes several writing errors. Just for fun, how many of them can you find?

"Due to the blizzard conditions affecting a good portion of the east coast, and is presently affecting the New York and New England areas, Amtrak has cancelled all Northeast Regional and Acela Express service between Boston and New York tonight, December 26th, with no alternate transportation."

Is it just for easier pronunciation or are there historical reasons? The "v" isn't there in Spanish (peruano) or any other language AFAIK. Does English insert a stray consonant into any other names of nationalities or languages?

Is it a British thing like their pronouncing "clerk" like "clark" and turning "person" into "parson"?