November 30, 2007 - Chatanooga*

Chatanooga*, for Chattanooga, is a typo from the B list (High Probability). Two other versions of the same typo are Chatatnooga* and Chattanog*, both from the E list.

Image of Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

November 29, 2007 - Dobly

Dobly for Dolby is a High Probablity typo most likely to show up in audiovisual records.





Ray Dolby of Dolby Laboratories, member of the Inventors Hall of Fame.

November 28, 2007 - Digitial*

Digitial* for digital is a typo of Moderate probability, as is digtial* (to be added this year). Less likely to be found are digtal* and digiital*.



Image of digital metronome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

November 27, 2007 - Hospt*

Hospt* (truncated form to be used with wildcard symbol) is a High Probability typo for hospital, hospitalization, etc.

Other less frequently found typos for the same words include: hospita, Hopital*, Hopsi*, Hostpi*, Hopist*, Hosital*, Hospitol*, Hsopital, and Hospitalizt*.

CORRECTION: David Moody commented that the acronym NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A different meaning was given in yesterday's post.

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Ward in the hospital in Arles by Van Gogh courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

November 26, 2007 - Aeronatuic*

Today's typo, aeronatuic* for aeronautic*, comes from the Moderate Probability list. As always, using the wildcard symbol from your system will pull up the greatest number of typos. Other misspellings of the same word include Aeonau*, Aeornautic*, Aeoronautic*, Aernonautic*, Aeronalutic*, Aeronatutic*, Aeronauatic*, Aeronautc*, Aeronutic* (D list) and Aeornauatic* and Aernoautic* (E list).

A related issue concerns the full name of NASA : National Aeronautics and Space Agency rather than Aeronautic, as frequently found in Wikimedia Commons.

NASA image of Florida peninsula courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

November 23, 2007 - Belive*, etc. (for Believe)

René Descartes famously declared, "I think, therefore I am," a sentiment that can sort of be squashed into a single non-word, our typo of the day: Belive. We believe things, which makes us live or be. Or, rather, 'twould be impossible to be a living human being and not a believing one, or a thinking one. My high school English teacher, Helen Adler, who passed away last year to the great sorrow of a great many people, liked the Blaise Pascal quote, "Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed," and as a result the school's creative writing and art publication was called The Thinking Reed. Another serious thinker, Edward R. Murrow, developed a five-minute radio program during which both famous and ordinary Americans would read personal essays on the subject "This I Believe." This, I believe, was a fairly bold statement at the height of the McCarthy era when all kinds of Americans were being persecuted for what they believed. Belive* is a "high probability" typo on the Ballard list, occurring on 76 records in OhioLINK. Belieiv* appears in the "lowest probability" section. Specific forms of the typo are found in OhioLINK as follows: Beliver* (eight times), Belives (five), and Belived and Beliving (one time apiece).

Carol Reid

November 22, 2007 - Thankgiving, Indain*, Pilgrams, and Trukey*, etc. (for Thanksgiving, Indian*, Pilgrims, and Turkey)

Today we can all give a word of thanks for the fact that there are relatively few typos in OhioLINK for the word Thanksgiving. To be exact, we found eight for Thankgiving, three for Thansgiving, two for Thanksiving, and one for Thnaksgiving. (Regrettably, we had to pass on Tanksgiving and Thinksgiving, potential variants that tickle the funny bone, although for that very reason there seem to be numerous sites on Google employing them each as puns.) As for the three main players at the First Supper, there are seven servings of Indain*, three of Pilgrams, two of Trukey*, and about 35 of Turky (which was apparently an alternate spelling for both Turkey and turkey back in the day).

During this time of reflection on our British forebears, it might also be a good time to point out that you can distinguish, in many cases, between typos and good old-fashioned "spelings" by consulting the Oxford English Dictionary, which is freely accessible online through your local library's subscription and still consuming about as much room in print as the original Thanksgiving dinner did, on shelves in any good, large library. (Pictured here is The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris, from Wikimedia Commons, available there because its shelf life, unlike that of today's leftovers, has long ago expired.)

Carol Reid