Inpress* (for Impress*)

Alfred Sisley was one of the lesser known Impressionist painters of the 19th century. Despite the fact that he is sometimes damned with faint praise by critics who regard his style as having "almost a generic character, an impersonal textbook idea of a perfect Impressionist painting" (in the words of art historian Robert Rosenblum), Sisley did occasionally deviate from form, at least a little bit. I especially like the picture entitled Flussufer (Riverside), which I think would look great in a children's book. (And that's not damning with faint praise.) We found a dozen examples of Inpress* (for impress*) buried deep within the OhioLINK database on this cold wintry morning (approximately half of which were foreign words of uncertain spelling).

(Garden in Louveciennes in the Snow, Alfred Sisley, 1874, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Pess (for Press)

The word press has many meanings, most of which are fairly pleasing: printing press, wine press, cheese press, coffee press, bench press, cider press, alternative press, etc. Take care when typing the domain name for wordpress.com, however. If you write wordpess by mistake, you'll be unceremoniously rerouted to a tricky and annoying "ad/link page." (Just one more reason to try and avoid making typos.) Perhaps the most pessimistic use of the word can be found with regard to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, where the only male "witch" (Giles Corey) was subjected to a slow torturous death by "pressing" (a form of what's known in French as peine forte et dure). The female "witches" were all drowned. But let's press on to happier thoughts. There are 47 examples of Pess in OhioLINK, most of which seem to be typos for Press. If any of these are oppressing your own database, just put the cursor after the P and press R.

(Engraving of printer using the early Gutenberg letter press during the 15th century, artist unknown, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Wefare (for Welfare)

A great many Americans are out of work right now (around a dozen employees or so were recently laid off at my own library) and things aren't looking to get better any time soon. President Obama just made a deal with the Devil (or rather, the Republican Congress) in which he agreed to permanent tax breaks for the rich in exchange for temporary jobless benefits for the poor. It isn't fair, but there may come a time when We (the people) will all be on welfare. Actually, there are several kinds of "welfare," according to Wikipedia, including Corporate welfare and the title of a 1975 documentary by Frederick Wiseman. We documented eight cases of Wefare (for welfare) in OhioLINK this morning.

(An evening with Frederick Wiseman, 13 June 2005, by Charles Haynes, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Warefare (for Warfare)

Wares are things that get sold to people and so, in many cases, are wars. Furthermore, those who get sold this bellicose bill of goods often end up suffering from a serious case of buyer's remorse. Soldiers, in particular, pay a very high price. According to the HBO documentary Wartorn: 1861–2010, the price of warfare on the combatants themselves was usually termed "hysteria," "melancholia," or "insanity" during the Civil War, "shell-shock" during World War I, and "battle fatigue" during World War II. Today it's referred to as "PTSD" (post-traumatic stress disorder). There were 14 examples of today's typo in the OhioLINK database this morning. Warefare... What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

(Soldier boiling his rations, National Geographic Magazine, 1917, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Litarary, Litarature (for Literary, Literature)

Many movie actors and directors are subjects of print biographies, both authorized and unauthorized, and some of them even highly regarded autobiographies, but very few can lay claim to having been the catalyst for a classic work of literature. Charlie Chaplin married Lita Grey in 1924, when Grey was only 16 years old and pregnant. The marriage was at once a tiresome domestic drama and a tawdry affair. It also came dangerously close to becoming a criminal matter. Chaplin went on to play the role of bridegroom three more times and Lita (who had twenty years on him) tied the knot thrice more herself. She wrote two autobiographies, the first one mainly comprising "exaggeration and fabrication" (allegedly on the part of her co-author, Morton Cooper) and the second one (published in 1998, three years after her death) apparently more truthful. Her marriage to Chaplin is considered by his biographer, Joyce Milton, to have been the inspiration for Vladimir Nabokov's literary masterpiece Lolita, published in 1955. We found three cases of Litarary in the OhioLINK database today, and four of Litarature.

(Publicity photo of Lita Grey in 1925, from Famous Film Folk, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Midddle* (for Middle*)

Once upon a summer vacation, I read aloud portions of a book called Crazy English by Richard Lederer, which we had found up at camp, to my young niece and nephew. They were too little to understand it, really, but they loved repeating the title and seemed to get the general idea: English is crazy! Sarah Palin probably had a similar reaction when informed that, despite the fact that repute, refute, and repudiate all exist, "refudiate" does not. According to Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day yesterday, tmesis is defined as: "stuffing a word into the middle of another word." While Palin's "refudiate" and Bush's equally infamous "misunderestimate" are not true examples of tmesis, they do come fairly close. Related forms of wordplay include Pig Latin and Ubbi Dubbi. But tmesis, actually, is a-whole-nother matter. Certain cases also resemble what's known as a minced oath. While retaining the swear word in question, the main word is literally chopped up in such a way that the resulting expression is at once both softened and reinforced: re-flipping-diculous, abso-bloody-lutely, guaran-damn-teed, etc. (See also Ned Flanders's pious patois: "Hi-diddly-ho, neighbor!") When I mentioned this to a friend this morning, he exclaimed: "Oh, it's like turducken!" "Well, no," I said, "the word turducken isn't exactly..." "Not the word," he replied. "The thing itself." Today's typo has an extra letter stuffed into the middle of it, and turns up seven times in OhioLINK. (If you leave off the E, you'll get eight.)

(Screenshot of the TV sitcom The Middle, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

Footware (for Footwear)

"These boots are made for walking," sang Nancy Sinatra, "and that's just what they'll do. One of these days, these boots are gonna walk all over you." Some shoes are made for walking, while others seem made only for wearing, their main function being either to decorate or titillate, often arousing envy, amazement, or lust in the viewer. All manner of footwear are currently on display at the Albany Institute of History and Art: the kind that you wear, plus the kind created solely as objets d'art. Our typo for the day is Footware, which has left its muddy prints in OhioLINK at least seven times. Wear/ware words often get misspelled in this way, so you might want to also try some others on for size: Hardwear and Softwear will probably get you the most hits, but you may find some errors in the Sportsware, Eyeware, Flatwear, Neckware, &c. departments to boot. (Complete lists of such words here and here.) Beware of puns and wordplay, though, as this form of typo/misprint lends itself rather easily to such things. For example, Hardwear: Jewelry from a Toolbox (I love that title!) and HardWear: The Art of Prevention (about condoms in art and advertising). I'm not sure what's meant by the title Transylvanian Softwear, but the spelling appears to be intentional or, in any case, written like that on the work itself. Put your foot down today and make sure this typo gets fixed wear-ever it should.

("Baby Opera: Walks of Life" by Judy Haberl, from the The Perfect Fit exhibit at AIHA, photo by blogger.)

Carol Reid