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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009Skitt's Law
From yesterday's Indie: 'Thirteen out of 20 world class university websites analysed by Australian spelling software Spellr.us were found to have miss- spellings of the word "university". [...] 'Despite representing one of the UK's oldest and best educational institutions Cambridge's website was found to have miss-spelled the word "service" in one of its navigational bars. [...] 'The ten most commonly miss-spelled words were: Accommodation, technology, university, harassment, research, administration, financial, information, association and millennium.' <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/thirteen-out-of-20- top-universities-misspell-lsquouniversityrsquo-on- website-1735488.html> -- BV >From yesterday's Indie: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >top-universities-misspell-lsquouniversityrsquo-on- >website-1735488.html> Brilliant! It is all the Indie's own work. The Spellr.us media release does not make this wonderful error. http://spellr.us/files/spellr.us%20Press%20Release%20090707.pdf  SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >From yesterday's Indie: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >top-universities-misspell-lsquouniversityrsquo-on- >website-1735488.html> Flying off tangentially on a broomstick. ObSpelling: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8138665.stm A job centre is advertising a "witch" vacancy with tourist site Wookey Hole, in Somerset, for GBP50,000 a year. The witch, who has to live in the site's caves, is expected to teach witchcraft and magic. Wookey Hole staff say the role is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch and do the things witches do. ... applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to cats. .... "We are witchless as the moment so need to get the role filled as soon as possible," said Daniel Medley from the tourist destination. "Wookey Hole wants the appointee to go about her everyday business as a hag, so that people passing through the caves can get a sense of what the place was like in the Dark Ages. "This was when an old woman lived in the caves with some goats and a dog, causing a variety of social ills, including crop failures and disease." The GBP50,000-a-year salary is pro rata, and based on work done as needed, largely in the summer holidays, but also at Halloween and at Christmas. .... It said ambitious witches looking for a "key career move" should arrive dressed for work armed with any "essential witch accoutrements". .... Under sexual discrimination law, unless Wookey Hole can provide "documentary proof that the original witch was female it can't issue a gender-specific job description". Interviews, which will involve on-site assessment incorporating a range of standard tasks, will take place on 28 July at 1100, stipulates the advert. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > ObSpelling: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8138665.stm Double, double... Cute. > A job centre is advertising a "witch" vacancy with tourist site > Wookey Hole, in Somerset, for GBP50,000 a year. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > ... applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to > cats. What if they are willing to take antihistamines? > .... > "We are witchless as the moment so need to get the role filled as [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > dog, causing a variety of social ills, including crop failures and > disease." I would expect the local farmers should complain about such a prospect. Though it might increase employment opportunities for doctors in the area. --Jeff SignatureThe comfort of the wealthy has always depended upon an abundant supply of the poor. --Voltaire >From yesterday's Indie: > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] >technology, university, harassment, research, administration, >financial, information, association and millennium.' "Miss-spelled". ><http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/thirteen-out-of-20- >top-universities-misspell-lsquouniversityrsquo-on- >website-1735488.html> At least they got it in familiar form in their URL. Signature************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@cox.net) ************* * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * Hatunen filted: >>From yesterday's Indie: >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > >"Miss-spelled". I wonder how far out of the top ten "minuscule" and "nauseam" placed....r SignatureA pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this? > I wonder how far out of the top ten "minuscule" and "nauseam" > placed....r Any statement that a word is commonly misspelled is likely to elicit the retort that if a spelling is common enough it constitutes an alternative spelling. However, if the definition is "not listed as an alternative even in MWC10", then in my experience "callused" & "forgo" are among the most common misspellings. Signature--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net ||: Does this question entail that there exists at least one :|| ||: question? :|| > Hatunen filted: >> [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > I wonder how far out of the top ten "minuscule" and "nauseam" placed....r Because they count numbers and not percentages. How does one misspell "research"? --Jeff SignatureThe comfort of the wealthy has always depended upon an abundant supply of the poor. --Voltaire >> Hatunen filted: >>> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >Because they count numbers and not percentages. How does one misspell >"research"? "reasearch" or "reaserch". SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >>> Hatunen filted: >>>> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > "reasearch" or "reaserch". Not "resurge" with a German accent? > >How does one misspell "research"? > > "reasearch" or "reaserch". Those look more like typos than actual misspellings. If the writer knew the correct spelling but the fingers on the keyboard wrote something else, then is that really a misspelling? SignatureJohn Varela Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email >>> How does one misspell "research"? >> [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > knew the correct spelling but the fingers on the keyboard wrote > something else, then is that really a misspelling? I agree. I know perfectly well how Berkeley is spelled, but until I taught my computer to correct it automatically it came out Berekeley almost every time (and had done for 40 years). Signatureathel Jeffrey Turner wrote... > How does one misspell "research"? Or, for that matter, why do so many in Britain mispronounce it? SignatureNoel > Because they count numbers and not percentages. How does one misspell > "research"? Plagiarise, shirley. tsuidf wrote, in <5b6132fe-8581-47cf-bd10-e178684386da@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com> on Thu, 9 Jul 2009 16:11:43 -0700 (PDT): > > Because they count numbers and not percentages. How does one misspell > > "research"? > > Plagiarise, shirley. Quoth Lobachevsky. SignatureNick Spalding BrE/IrE On 10 Jul 2009, Nick Spalding wrote > tsuidf wrote, in ><5b6132fe-8581-47cf-bd10-e178684386da@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Quoth Lobachevsky. Let no one else's work evade your eyes. Wonderful rhyme... SignatureCheers, Harvey CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed > tsuidf wrote, in > <5b6132fe-8581-47cf-bd10-e178684386da@a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com> [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Quoth Lobachevsky. Now that we've got the Interweb, hardly anyone's work evades anyone's eyes anymore. Still, principle is remaining unchanged: be sure always to call it please 'research'. SignatureRoland Hutchinson He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba," ... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy. --Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ ) Quoth Hatunen <hatunen@cox.net>, and I quote: >>From yesterday's Indie: >> [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > >At least they got it in familiar form in their URL. Skitt's Law continues to operate in the comments posted on the article. One reader wrote: "I am in no way trying to excuse this appalling spelling; I personally think the steady decline of our species' ability to communicate with each other is reprehensible." To which another person replied: "So how many species are we talking about here? I thought there was only one human species, but you seem to be saying there are several, and that species A is getting worse at communicating with species B, which is getting worse at communicating with species C, etc." SignatureJames > From yesterday's Indie: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > top-universities-misspell-lsquouniversityrsquo-on- > website-1735488.html> A few years ago someone asked contributors to aue which words they misspell most often. In my case the answer was "misspell" (which I tend to spell "mispell", though logic tells me that that couldn't be right, but never "miss-spell", which logic also excludes). Signatureathel > A few years ago someone asked contributors to aue which words they > misspell most often. In my case the answer was "misspell" (which I tend > to spell "mispell", though logic tells me that that couldn't be right, > but never "miss-spell", which logic also excludes). You're not alone. On some news group (was it aue?) it used to be standard practice to deliberately mipsell that word in order (at least in my case) to avoid embarrassment. SignatureJohn Varela Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email |
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