overflow-x:
color:#333;
font:13px/18px Helvetica, Arial, sans-
background-color:#F5F4F4;
/* General settings */
border-style:
vertical-align:
color:#2f64d2;
text-decoration:
a:hover{text-decoration:}
list-style:
/* prev. li: line height 20, but word dynamo link too tall then, changed to class word, spec. to this link */
line-height: 18
input,textarea,select{
font:100% Arial, Helvetica, sans-
vertical-align:
form,fieldset{
padding:0;
border-style:
input[type=submit]:hover{cursor:}
/* wrapper */
#topwrapper{
background-color: #262627 !
height: 24
padding-left:1
#botwrapper{
background: url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png) repeat-x 0 -82
height: 60
width: 978
/* header */
width: 971
.header-holder{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png) no-repeat -17px -41
text-indent:-9999
margin:11px 15px 0 20
background:url(/app/r19971/img/Sprite_Hdr_Ftr.png) no-repeat -93px -102
text-indent:-9999
margin:21px 15px 0 4
height:100%;
#botwrapper .search-form,#seasonHdr .search-form{
padding:0 0 0;
#botwrapper .search-form .area-holder,#seasonHdr .search-form .area-holder{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png) no-repeat -11px -5
margin:0 13px 0 3
#botwrapper .search-form .area-holder input,#seasonHdr .search-form .area-holder input{
background:
line-height: 30px\9;
font-size:22
padding:0 16
#botwrapper .search-form .area-holder #q,#seasonHdr .search-form .area-holder #q{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/Sprite_Hdr_Ftr.png") no-repeat scroll -137px -61
#botwrapper .search-form .parent-active input,#seasonHdr .search-form .parent-active input{
color:#000000;
.search-holder .search-form .parent-active input{
color:#000000;
#botwrapper .search-form input[type="submit"],#seasonHdr .search-form input[type="submit"]{
text-indent:-9999
font-size:0;
line-height:0;
margin-top:-2
padding:0;
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png)
no-repeat scroll -206px -40
width: 971
.botwrpreference{
background: url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png) repeat-x 0 -354px transparent !
.botwrpthesaurus{
background: url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png) repeat-x 0 -233px transparent !
.botwrpreference .logo{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png) no-repeat -17px -117
.botwrpthesaurus .logo{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png) no-repeat -17px -78
.botwrpthesaurus .search-form input[type="submit"]{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png)
no-repeat scroll -206px -110px transparent !
.botwrpreference .search-form input[type="submit"]{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png)
no-repeat scroll -206px -74px transparent !
/* menu */
padding:0;
list-style:
font-weight:
line-height:13
font-size:12
padding-top:4
padding:0 5
border-right:1px solid #
.menu li:first-child{
padding:0 5px 0 11
.menu a{color:#}
.menu .user{
border-left:
padding: 0 3px 0 3
.menu .prlogo,.menu .prelogo{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png)
no-repeat scroll -224px -225
padding-right: 0
.menu .prlogo{
background:url(/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png)
no-repeat scroll -224px -225
/*margin-top :-3*/
.menu .prelogo{
background-position: -152px -153
.menu .prli,.menu .prliu,.menu .prlout{
padding-left:0
.menu .prlout,.menu .prliu{
padding-left:5
.menu .prliu{
padding-left:5
padding-right:0
margin:0 0 0 0
padding:0;
list-style:
font-size:17
padding:3px 18px 3px 20
text-align:
font-family:
font-size: 13
font-weight:
:root #nav a{
padding:3px 20px\9;
text-align:
a.spanlast{
padding: 5px 30
.dictionary .dict a{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -56
.dict a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -30
.thes a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.thesaurus .dict a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.reference .dict a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.thesaurus .thes a{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -207
.ref a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.reference .ref a{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -328
.word a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.quot a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.trans a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.span a:hover{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0 -302
.thvybrdr{
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr.png") no-repeat scroll -232px -250
height: 24
display: inline-
/* id="botwrapper"
#botwrapper {
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0px -82
height: 60
/* class="botwrpdictionary"> */
/* id="botwrapper"
#botwrapper {
background: url("/app/r19971/img/topheavy_hdr_bg.png") repeat-x scroll 0px -82
height: 60
/* class="botwrpdictionary"> */
&&&&&&&&&Misspelling of the Year 2013
To explore the psyche of a people, do not look at what they do–look at what they do wrong. Today, we introduce the Misspelling of the Year. A word that was looked up significantly more this year than the year before. A word with lots of different misspellings. A word in the news. The word: furlough.
saw tens of thousands of lookups of this word, often spelled without the ugh. Though the correct spelling is furlough, three variants ballooned in lookup volume: furlow was looked up 66 percent more in 2013 than it was in 2012, and furlo was looked up 60 percent more. We can’t calculate how many more times ferlow, which was in the top 10,000 words of 2013, was searched for because no one was searching for it in 2012.
The main reason folks were talking about furloughs was the October shutdown of the US government (sequester and sequestration searches also jumped 2.3 and 2.8 times relative to last year, but no one was misspelling those).
As for the misspellings. Well, it’s a rough road. The first uses in English were close to the Dutch: vorloffe and fore-loofe in the 1630s. You also get furloghs, furlows, and foreloffs in the early centuries of its use. Why on earth would we pronounce it “oh” but spell it “ough”? Cough cough. That’s tough. Though I have a few thoughts. Let’s step under this lovely bough. (It’s not as bad as it could be: hiccup was standardly spelled as hiccough for a few hundred years.) , but we can’t go into all of them here.
Furlough wasn’t the only word that was giving folks trouble in 2013. In ’s misspellings of the year (I’d prefer to call them “nonstandard spellings” but the Spelling Despots among you would be at me with pitchphorks), three categories for types of misspellings emerged:
Prefix/suffix troubles
PERJUDICE and PERDJUICE for prejudice (think “pre judge” not “smoothie of perdition”)
PERCISE for precise (the -cise here is like in incision, so think “pre cut”)
ADAMIT for adamant (think “Wolverine has adamantium claws, not adamittens”)
AMETURE for amateur (the ama is about love, the -teur is for a doer, like actor in French is acteur; so think “French lover”)
Missing letters
AQUAINTED for acquainted (from the 1300s to about 1600 it didn’t have a “c” in English, you were born too late)
IFARED for infrared (awesome, don’t ever change)
TONSILECTOMY for tonsillectomy (two tonsils, two l’s to remove them)
ACHIEVMENT for achievement (spell “achieve” then add “ment”)
HIERACHICAL for hierarchical (sound it out?)
Just plain hard
EARY for eerie (at the end of the 18th century, suddenly English writers decided this word really needed a double “e,” sorry)
THROROUGH for thorough (this is probably just a typo)
INDITE for indict (the ending is related to dictionary or dictate–it’s talking about “saying,” you’re declaring an accusation)
IMAGRATION for immigration (look for “migrant” inside the word)
Studying nonstandard spellings also suggests some words that need to exist. An argu(e)ment can be made that assertation is a misspelling of assertion, but I would like to think it means something else. Like when someone just goes on and on asserting stuff to point that it feels like they’re reading you a dissertation.
But the word that is the best word in the whole data set and most needs your use and definitions: indiscrepancy. Go get it, Internet.
(Want to learn more about the many pronunciations of -ough? Check out .)
As one on the cusp of her eighth decade, I find absolutely all of the errors cited to be a sad indictment of our educational system (NOT, please note, of teachers.)
However, the one trend that is, bar none, the most annoying is the substitution of a plural pronoun for a gender-specific singular pronoun, as in the following:
“No parent should have to bury their child.”
The speaker is a man, speaking of his male issue, so it would not have been incorrect to say “No father should have to bury his son.”
It is the bastard offspring of ignorance and political correctness.
However, since people are presumed to be so stupid these days as to be unable to understand that this sentence does not automatically exclude mothers from grieving for their daughters, the writer chose to wreak this abomination and thereby disrupted a very poignant scene.
Professor Tolkien wept in his grave.
I do understand that English is a living language and change is therefore inevitable, but – and it’s a great big but – not at the expense of the basic rules that make up the language.
Substituting political correctness for “proper” grammar is unforgivable.
Related articles
July 19, 2016
July 19, 2016
July 14, 2016
July 1, 2016
June 20, 2016
Popular Posts
Your Word Winners
July 17, 2016
July 13, 2016
July 6, 2016
Categories