Fraternity Manuals

Misspelling

From Open Encyclopedia

Note: This page contains
IPA phonetic symbols
in Unicode.
Image:Misspelling.purchase.arp.500pix.jpg

Image:TerribleSpelling.jpg Image:Misspelling.occasions.arp.750pix.jpg

Misspelling refers to spelling a word incorrectly. Misspelling is distinguished from other errors in writing, such as grammatical errors, incorrect capitalization or misuse of punctuation. A misspelled word can be a series of letters that represents no correctly spelt word at all (such as "liek" for "like") or a correct spelling of another word (such as writing "here" when one means "hear", or "now" when one means "know"). Misspellings of the latter type can easily make their way into printed material because they cannot be caught by computerized spell-checkers.

Misspellings may be due to either typos (e.g. typing teh for the), or lack of knowledge of the correct spelling. Whether or not a word is misspelled may depend on context. For example, in a British publication center would be a misspelling, whereas in an American publication it would not. Misspelling can also be a matter of opinion when variant spellings are accepted by some and not by others. For example "miniscule" (for "minuscule") is a misspelling to many, and yet it is listed as a legitimate variant in a number of dictionaries. Ironically, the word "misspell" and various forms thereof are often misspelled.

Contents

[edit]

Commonly confused words

affect: a verb - i.e. X affects Y effect: a noun denoting the result - i.e. Y is an effect of x. It is also possible to "effect a change" - i.e. make it effective, but this is widely considered to be poor jargon (It smacks of being an affectation!)

are: plural of is (I am, he/she is, you are, we are, they are) /ɑɹ/
our: belonging to us /aʊɹ/ (unstressed /ɑɹ/)

barley: the grain used to make beer /ˈbɑɹli/ (rhymes with "Harley")
barely: hardly /ˈbɛɹli/ (rhymes with "rarely")

breath: the noun /bɹɛθ/ (rhymes with "death")
breathe: the verb /bɹið/ (rhymes with "seethe")

collage: something made from a variety of magazine cut-outs mounted on paper /kəˈlɑʒ/ (rhymes, for some people, with "barrage")
college: university /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/ (rhymes with "knowledge")

corpse: dead body /kɔɹps/ (rhymes with "warps")
corps: army or similar organization /kɔɹ/ (rhymes with "four"); also the plural of "corp" when it's short for "corporation"

coup: act of overthrowing a government /ku/ (rhymes with "too")
coupe: vehicle /kup/ (rhymes with "group" in U.S. English. Elsewhere, however, the word is in fact French, and has an accented 'e' - coupé, /kupˈeɪ/ (pronounced "koop-ay."))

everyday: routine, commonplace /ˈevɹideɪ/ ; often used instead of:
every day: daily, once per day /ˈevɹi ˈdeɪ/

fair: evenhandedness; a market or gathering; light in hair or skin; etc /fɛɹ/
fare: food or drink as part of a diet; a transportation charge (e.g., "At the movies, we had the typical fare: popcorn, candy, and cola") /fɛɹ/

its: possessive form of the word "it" (e.g., "Its quality is unsurpassed") /ɪts/
it's: contraction of the phrase, "it is" (e.g., "It's getting dark out") or "it has" (e.g., "It's been a while") /ɪts/

loose: opposite of tight (rhymes with "goose") /lus/
lose: opposite of win, gain or find (rhymes with "choose") /luz/

now: at the present time /naʊ/ (rhymes with "how")
know: be familiar with the facts; be acquainted with; be aware /noʊ/ (rhymes with "go")

of: belonging to or somehow connected with; associated with; forming a part of; a certain amount of /ʌv/ (rhymes with "love") (unstressed /əv/)
off: opposite of on /ɒf/ (rhymes with "cough")
've: This is the word "have" as part of a contraction. This sounds like "of" after some words like "could" and "might", but is actually a contraction for "have" (could have, might have). You write: should've, might've, would've, etc. /əv/

physics: the laws that govern objects moving in space; related to physical, physiology, physicist, physician /ˈfɪzɪks/ (the first syllable sounds like "fizz")
psychic: having ESP; pertaining to the soul; related to psychology, psychiatrist, psyche, psycho, psychedelic, psychopath, psyched (psychic scars) /ˈsaɪkɪk/ (the first syllable sounds like "sigh")

pore: to study carefully or intently; a small opening in the skin (e.g., "He spent the evening poring over his Chemistry textbook") /pɔɹ/
pour: to angle a receptacle filled with something such that whatever is in the receptacle falls out /pɔɹ/

principle: a rule, standard, law, or assumption /ˈpɹɪnsɪpl̩/
principal: the head of an elementary or high school /ˈpɹɪnsɪpl̩/

quite: rather, to an impressive degree /kwaɪt/ (rhymes with "night")
quiet: not very loud; to hush /ˈkwaɪ.ɪt/ (rhymes with "riot")

than: conjunction to introduce second member of comparison /ðæn/ (unstressed /ðən/)
then: at that time, after that, etc. /ðɛn/

through: from one end to the other; finished /θɹu/ (rhymes with "too")
thorough: complete, exhaustive /ˈθʌɹoʊ/, /ˈθɝoʊ/(rhymes with "burro")

were: past tense of the verb to be (I was, you were) /wɝ/(rhymes with "fur")
where: at what place? /wɛɹ/, /ʍɛɹ/ (rhymes with "share")
wear: have clothes on; break something down eventually through use (wear out, wear thin, wear and tear) /wɛɹ/ (rhymes with "share")

whet: to sharpen or hone /wɛt/, /ʍɛt/ (e.g., "Whet your appetite")
wet: saturated with moisture or water /wɛt/

which: what one; that (He kicked against my leg, which bothered me) -- a question word like what, when, where or why, it should begin with WH (homophonous with "witch" in some dialects, but in others it begins with a /ʍ/ sound, as do "whale", "where", "white", and "wheat") /wɪtʃ/, /ʍɪtʃ/
witch: a female sorcerer (always pronounced with a simple /w/ sound at the beginning) /wɪtʃ/

you're: you are
your: belonging to you

[edit]

List of notable misspellings

[edit]

Intentional or derived misspellings

  • Cocoa - from cacao (misspelling also influenced by coco). Many foreign languages and foreigners speaking English still use "cacao".
  • nucular - jocular orthographisation of recent metathetical American pronunciation of nuclear.
  • Odelay - title of an album by Beck. He had dictated the title he had chosen to the person writing down the name of his next album, originally to be titled Órale (Spanish for "wow!"). See also: Becktionary and the Futurama parody
  • Oprah Winfrey's name was originally Orpah, after a character in the Bible, but relatives found it too difficult to say.
  • Pwned - Internet slang for "owned", a term meaning "I'm better than you" or "I defeated you" (e.g. at computer games).
[edit]

Accidental misspellings

  • Camel-and-needle-eye proverb - Translators from Hebrew into Greek may have confused kamêlos (cable) with kamilos (camel).
  • Google - accidental misspelling of googol. According to Google's Vice President, as quoted on a BBC The Money Programme documentary, January 2006, the founders - noted for their poor spelling - registered Google as a trademark and web address until someone pointed out that it was not correct.
  • Hoodlum - first appeared as a pseudonym in a newspaper article, whose editor had misread "Noodlum" (the author's reversal of this wrongdoer's real surname, Muldoon). [This popular account of the derivation is discredited by most sources.]
  • Middlesbrough, a town in the north-east of England. It is apochrophally suggested that it does not have a second 'o' (making it Middlesborough) due to a clerk typing the town's registration form incorrectly.
  • Ovaltine, a popular bedtime drink in the UK, came about because someone misspelt the original name Ovomaltine on the trademark documentation.
  • Potatoe - famous misspelling of "potato", a question from a classroom spelling bee hosted by then US Vice President, Dan Quayle.
  • Quartzsite, a mining town in Arizona, had its name spelt incorrectly. It should be Quartzite, after the mineral.
  • William Holman Hunt's middle name was originally "Hobman", which he disliked intensely. He later discovered that his middle name had been misspelled by a clerical error and used that instead.
  • Zenith - Arabic zamt was misspelled by scribes.
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links

Retrieved from "http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Misspelling"
MediaWiki GNU Free Documentation License 1.2