In What's New

I refer to Dictionary.com often, because just as I’m about to use a word I’ve used a thousand times I sometimes ask myself: does this really mean exactly what I want it to mean here?  Plus, I’m a geek and I really dig Dictionary.com.

So, I was totally sucked in when I went to look up a word and saw an article called, “Most common misspellings of 2013.”  (Answer: furlough).  But here is what I learned that just totally made my day:  Dictionary.com keeps records of how people spell what they’re trying to look up.  There is a repository of our misspellings, people.  That just makes me giggle maniacally.

Here are a couple of gems:

  • PERJUDICE and PERDJUICE for prejudice (think “pre judge,” not “smoothie of perdition”)
  • AQUAINTED for acquainted (from the 1300s to about 1600 it didn’t have a “c” in English.  You were born too late)

Here are a few of my favorites, not listed in the article, but which I see all the time:

  • Oops.  This one is the one that baffles me the most.  We all know how to spell “boot,” so we know how the “oo” sound should be spelled.  Oh, I know, words like “look” can confuse us, but “opps”?  If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen “opps” instead of “oops.”  Everywhere, all the time.  Perhaps I just hang out with too many people who need to be sheepish in writing about their mistakes.
  • Loose and lose.  Look, I know it doesn’t make any sense.  I didn’t learn English until I was 8 years old and I vividly remember being baffled.  Spanish, my first language, is strictly phonetic – if you know how five vowels sound (and they sound exactly the same every time, in every word) you can pronounce everything in Spanish.  So, after that, English is like a trip to the carnival while on acid.  I get it.  But if we foreigners can memorize it, so can you.
  • And my favorite spoken mistakes: Irregardless.  Liberry.  NUCULAR.  Okay, I just give up.

Click here to read the whole, hilarious piece on Dictionary.com.

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