Lavendar (for Lavender)

Lavender is a lovely looking, heavenly smelling herb that was once associated mainly with grandmothers, elderly aunts, and various and sundry "old maids," as they were often called back then. Lavender water was a staple in the boudoirs of women d'un certain age and the dried flowers have always proved to be a popular component of potpourri. (The title Arsenic and Old Lace, according to IMDb, is "a turn on lavender and old lace, a term often used to describe the Victorian era when the homes of genteel older ladies were over-decorated with touches of lace doilies, lace curtains, and the smell of lavender.") I'm not really sure what to say about today's typo, darlin', except perhaps that it's not unknown among the DAR set. Lavender has long deserved a larger audience, though, and seems to be gathering one of late. You now see it as a flavoring agent in everything from cheese to chocolate; it's even reportedly shown up on occasion in scones and marshmallows. Lavender has medicinal uses (as a treatment for acne, headache, and insomnia), works well as a moth repellent and disinfectant, and is often employed in aromatherapy. Lavendar (for lavender) shows up 24 times in OhioLINK, making it a typo of "high probability" on the Ballard list.

(Lavender farm at Kami-Furano in Hokkaido, Japan, 7/22/2004, from Wikimedia Commons. Click image to get a closer look at this breathtaking scene.)

Carol Reid