The Language Perfectionist: How Bad Can Spelling “Bee”?

by Don Hauptman (06/7/2008)

Certain words are consistently misspelled. Here are four examples I found in major newspapers, whose editors should know better:

  • "While technologies like cellphones are steadily reducing their size, television screens are simultaneously growing gigantic and miniscule." (Correct spelling: minuscule)
  • "Now, with many of the biggest and best-known [ad] agencies owned by global firms, it all seems homogenous." (Correct spelling: homogeneous)
  • "The judicial system works very hard to emphasize the rarified, solemn, and sequestered nature of jury deliberations… ." (Correct spelling: rarefied)
  • "The Pope has a Muslim problem alright." (Correct spelling: all right)

Some permissive dictionaries sanction these and other misspellings as "variants," but it’s always wise to respect standard usage.

Ironically, misspell is often misspelled. Remember that the word consists of two phonemes: mis- and -spell, so the S is doubled.

Follow-up: An ETR reader took issue with my advice to avoid writing that a quotation was uttered "famously." His objection is that a writer who eschews this adverb would have to use the convoluted form "in a statement that has now become famous." The solution is simpler. If someone or something is truly famous, pointing out that fact is unnecessary. Thus, if you are quoting "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it," don’t write that the line is famous or that Oscar Wilde "famously" said it. To paraphrase Nike, just quote it.

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was a direct-response copywriter. He is author of the wordplay books Cruel and Unusual Puns and Acronymania, and is now writing a new book that also blends language and humor.]

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