Spelling Errors: Stupid? Lazy? Or A-OK?

[innerSpaceman]

Enuf about grammer and more abought speling.


When someone is whiling away the hours, is "wile" or "while?" I needs to know.

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Enuf about grammer and more abought speling.


When someone is whiling away the hours, is "wile" or "while?" I needs to know.

Wile.

5. wile away, to spend or pass (time), esp. in a leisurely or pleasurable fashion: to wile away the long winter nights.

[Gn2Dlnd]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Enuf about grammer and more abought speling.


When someone is whiling away the hours, is "wile" or "while?" I needs to know.

My immediate thought was "while," until I saw my roommate's post. So, I looked at dictionary.com and got

8. to cause (time) to pass, esp. in some easy or pleasant manner (usually fol. by away).

and the American Heritage Dictionary,

tr.v. whiled, whil·ing, whiles
To spend (time) idly or pleasantly: while the hours away.

However,

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
while (v.)
"to cause (time) to pass without dullness, 1635, earlier "to occupy or engage (someone or something) for a period of time" (1606), new formation from while (n.), not considered to be from M.E. hwulen "to have leisure," which is from a Gmc. verb form of while (n.) (cf. Ger. weilen "to stay, linger"). An association with phrases such as Shakespearean beguile the day, L. diem decipere, Fr. tromper le temps "has led to the substitution of WILE v by some modern writers" [OED] (see wile).

Which, I guess, takes us back to the first page. Do you forgive misused and misspelled words when they enter common usage?

For the record,

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
wile Audio Help /waɪl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[wahyl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, wiled, wil·ing.
–noun
1. a trick, artifice, or stratagem meant to fool, trap, or entice; device.
2. wiles, artful or beguiling behavior.
3. deceitful cunning; trickery.
–verb (used with object)
4. to beguile, entice, or lure (usually fol. by away, from, into, etc.): The music wiled him from his study.
—Verb phrase
5. wile away, to spend or pass (time), esp. in a leisurely or pleasurable fashion: to wile away the long winter nights.
[Origin: 1125–75; (n.) ME; late OE wil, perh. < ON vél artifice, earlier *wihl-]

—Synonyms 1, 2. deception, contrivance, maneuver. See trick. 3. chicanery, fraud.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

So, by quoting itself, the online dictionary has created "common usage." Colbertian, in its effectiveness.

Just remember, you can wile away your coyotes, but you while away your time.

[innerSpaceman]

Danka

[Tom]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Danka

It's danke.

Bammo.

[LashStoat]

Poor spelling (and grammar for that matter) drives me crazy. I blame the watering-down of formal English teaching in schools, the need for mobile phone users to compress words in SMS messaging, and the Media for mangling language for marketing reasons.

Here are some that really light my wick:

“Fish ‘n Chips” – hell, “and” is such a complicated fvcking word.
“Let us do it right for you” – look creep, I know you’ll fvck it up big time.
“4NIC8R” – on license plates…I’ll bet you have a small dick.

It’s an erosion of standards…and I dread to think of the communications (verbal and written) that are going to flow from CEOs born in the Generation X ‘n [sic] Y errors [sic].

Example: “Youz have gota lift ur game if we r gonna xlr8 our market cher”.

Stoat shudders.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Stoat, I share your dread.

[Not Afraid]

What's with these idiots that can't spell in German!

[innerSpaceman]

I have a friend by the name of Michael Danke, but it's pronounced "Dankee" - so I have an aversion to Danke as the Germanic Thank You. It just looks wrong to me, so I will always misspell it more phoenetically in my native English.

[blueerica]

I don't claim to be some sort of amazing speller all the time. I'm a decent proofreader - when I bother - and even then it's very hard. I like to use a brightly colored piece of paper as a guide, since it allows me to focus on spelling. I also change the font and employ a number of bizarre tactics to proofread. I read the words in backward order.

Once thing that has me differing from others, at least grammatically, is my use of the Chicago Manual of Style. I like my comma before the and in a series. Other quirks seem to make their way into my writing that differs greatly from what I've seen on the West Coast.

Another thing that has gotten the better of me is the use of punctuation, capitalization, and even spelling in advertising and in what has become the accepted standard amongst a group of people. Sometimes there is a reason you would put the n' versus and or even & in Rock n' Roll, Rock and Roll, Rock & Roll. Balance in ad copy, the contrast and meaning it gives along with imagery... it all plays a part, and has even caused me to break a few of my cardinal rules while writing copy that's gone on billboards, catalogs, brochures and flyers.

I think - back to the original topic - that we should accept those who make mistakes, since a vast majority of us regularly participate in spelling and grammatical blunders (I'm pretty sure a good checker could find at least 6 in here. Or is that six? Oh, I do prefer to spell my numbers ten and under. 10 and under.), but not accept changes to long-standing rules.

It would probably make for more work, and before long we'll be spelling those words incorrectly.