Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Earing* (for Earring*, Earning*, etc.)

A coworker emailed the staff today to say that she had found a "Lost earing" in the parking lot, which got me to wondering whether this might be a commonly found typo too. Well, turns out it is, and for more than just the word earring. We found 17 examples of today's typo in OhioLINK: seven for earrings and two for earring, two for earning and one for earnings, two for Earing (proper names), one for hearing (with a [sic]), one for rearing, and one I'm not really sure what it's a typo for. I used to love to wear earrings, but at some point I let the holes in my lobes close up and put my jewelry box away. I still like to look at them sometimes, though, and now have a passel of blessed nieces (and nephews?) I can pass them down to. Speaking of old earrings, I like this one, pictured to the right. The earring itself is of a woman wearing earrings, which seems to suggest that our ancient ancestors had a sense of whimsy and irony when it came to their accessories.

(Feminine head, element from a gold earring, South Italy (Magna Graecia), ca. 350 BC, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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