h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>Ah, but how old will you be by the time you've learned the *correct* spelling?

I didn't say that I can still spell it!

Thinking back to discussion here about kempt/unkempt I suddenly thought of 'dishevelled'.

And like those who didn't know one can be couth as well as uncouth I am giggling heartily at the possible usage of 'shevelled'

I suspect 'dishevell' is a gross anglicisation of 'dishabille'.

But where would one check that out in a timely fashion?


jwf (perfecting the four sentence post)

Dishevelled is not from dishabille but from descheveler. The original sense was 'having the hair uncovered' but it later came to refer to the hair itself, hanging loose, therefore disordered, untidy.

Unkempt means not combed (Middle English).

Sorry Gnomon - I think I missed your birthday. Not intentional - but my visits have become more sporadic.

Er... nothing to say at the moment. But I would like to know exactly what the basis for the theory is that "desiccated" is the most misspelt word. I mean - how often does one actually spell it? If it does appear on my shopping list (no more than twice a year) it is written "des. coc" - or I write it in German for the family to get.

Await info with bated breath!!!!!

Have we done 'kilter' ... as in out of kilter ?

To me, desiccated brings up the image of something smashed into small pieces as well as being dried, but that may be due to most water-reduced foodstuffs except coconut being referred to as 'dried' or 'dehydrated'.

Have you observed the pedestrians in Sauchiehall Street after closing time. Or pretty well any time, come to that.

I thought desicate meant to 'chew into small pieces' but I guess that just my over-active imastication.

jwf

A-ha! There's another one for the stats!

TC, my guess as to how they choose the most misspelt word is this: someone gets a big computer to analyse lots and lots of writing, counting the occurrence of each word, then calculating the *percentage* of occasions each word is misspelt.

So, if it counted desiccated only twice, and it was misspelt on both occasions, then it would definitely be the 'winner'!

Can we perhaps have an alternative word for desiccated, one that is less prone to misspelling?

No-one has asked why it's misspelt, but here we are anyway. Desiccated has stress on the first syllable. The consonant doubling rules (guidelines) of English suggest that the 's' should be doubled, since the 'e' is short. Furthermore, there is normally only one consonant before endings like -ate or -ation.

The spelling is not random: it follows the Latin model 'desiccatus' exactly. A lot of other words do, much to the English learner's confusion.

Your theories are quite right. You send a spider out to walk the web, visiting every page. It will construct an index of every word. Word count in this is several billion.
Really obscure words are never misspelt/misspelled. Writers either know them or look them up.Disregard everything with less than a thousand recorded instances. Desiccate is actually wrong (576) more often than it's right(528).Minuscule is nearly as bad. Supersede is wrong 972 times out of 2350 instances.
When I was young I used to deliberately mis-pronounce desiccated, putting the stress on the second syllable. I used to stress antique on the non-existent third syllable. I eventually stopped this (in public at least) because a kind passer-by corrected me.

Thanks, WS - suddenly I feel a little less stupid than normal!

And I am absolutely desiccated.

But .... was the question "which is the most often misspelt *on the web*?" ... as I can see how easy that is to statistify (or whatever the word is).

Oh - and while we're here. My English is fading fast. Is there an English word for what is happening when the lymphatic fluid oozes out of a healing wound? There is a useful German word and my colleague asked me how you say that in English. I was stumped. The German word is "nässen". (literally: A wound wets itself). Eyes water - do wounds? Do they ooze? But that can mean they ooze blood, too.

I tried all the websites on first aid that I could find ..pretty gory stuff, especially the US Naval Hospital site. Quote : "A bullet in the head can cause brain damage".

The question of why the English "hate" the French has resurfaced, but is difficult to find as both the title and my first posting have been moderated. Since only thee and I were treating it lightly, I guess I'll not disinter it. Do you think this means Brit Eng 1 is anywhere near the top of the pile?
"Stupid" is definitely the worng word. Your original balls are still in the air after at least 8000 posts.

Wounds weep. Well they did when I was a kid. Possibly just because the words have similar starting sounds.

On the misspelt words subject, how would the process outlined above cope with the many words which are misspelled as other words? For example, I've lost count of the number of references to rouge states, rouge processes etc. Either there is a lot of red out there.....

Linked to that you also have the their/there/they're confusions, but do these count as misspelled?

Yeah, wounds weep, as the liquid comes out of them in much the same way as a tear comes from the eye when you weep. The distinction here is between weep and cry.

.... explanation for kilter .... is it Scottish English ?

I don't think it is especially Scots. Its used by Scots, but I don't think it has anything to do with kilts.

Is it a real word?

Kilter is a real word. It is normally used in the phrase "out of kilter" meaning out of order or awry. My dictionary lists it as dating back to 1628 but of unknown origin.