Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1900-01-23
NATURAL M,ssPsLLlNoi

1 NATURAL MiSSPElLiNoi
SOME NOTES FROM A PRooFREADERr
OBSERVATIONS, AND QUERIES THERE
FROM DEpUcED.
| From su experience In country news
paper Office extending over . period oi
more than seventeen years, during which
have done considerable at reading and
revising manuscripts, reading proof, and
"breaking In new type-settcrs, - well
"a from observation Of the errors which
appear In modern newspapers, and oc-
cssionally Ia hooks. I hsve come almost
IN wonder II there are not some words Ia
the English language that are incorrect.
ly spelled. :.
do not mean by this to question II
there are words which people hahitually
misspell. The question is, arc there
" ords which have what may be called n
natural spelling, that by some occult
process gets into peoples minds and will
not out, while by the usage which makes
the language a different orthography
has become established and appears 10
the dictionaries?
The question may appear slightly sar-
castle. Perhaps II Ia. The ground Tor
II Is the persistsncv with which the In.
correct spelling turns mp. With every
new compositor who learns the art OF
setting type, whstever his or her degree
of education, some OF those same errors
glare out from the proof, and In the
manuscripts which pass under my hand
they likewise flourish to such An extent
| that, when see one Of the offending
words, my pencil instinctively h0vers
over II. and u the spelling IL correct, the
surprising fact so befogs my mind that
for a moment am unable to satisfy my
self whether l ought to change II or not.
| One class OF these words comprises
those In which the error takes the form
OF dropping the finsl q In adding suffix.
This produces such results as Rinfy, ioriy,
saffy, homiy, instead Of ninety, loreiy,
SAFETY, homsly. An error perhaps some
what allied IL that by which n syllable
is dropped from sdverbs, producing ae-
ciienfly and iacidentiy for accidentally and
Incidentally. These two words are ex.
smples OF one Of the most persistent and
wide-sprea errors In the construction OF
words. The antithesis of this is the case
where the same syllable IL wrongly In
serted, making unVormiy appear ~ ans-
formally.
II succeed is spelled as II Is, one might
almost be forgiven for the common error
Of applying the analogy to precede, max
ing it appear ae proceed; and With the
example OF the correct spelling or the
lsst-named word before his mind, Il Is
not at sll strange II even the well-train-
ed speller writes sspercede when he
should write snpcrsede-:his last word
being stumblingblock TO host OF COM
positors and proofreaders, not to men
ton literary people who have to have
their manuscripts revised 10 the printing
office before they are In shape to put In
type.
Again, II erperience and many other
words with the same termination are
correct, why not erpence and hcencef
How many times my pencil has come
down on the proof Of notice Of sale Of
real estate, which began AZ follows:
- Persuant TO q liceRce from the Honor
able Judge OF Probate" etc.
II enpelope Il pronounced enre1op, ~ II
frequently IL In New England, IL Ia not
at all surprising that the analogy is ap-
piled to decelop, and We have dece'ope,
word from which l have many times
m ,rked the final letter. But soft here
find have run against the dictionary.
The Standard Dictionary allows my out
lawed form - variant, and am wrong.
But find this peculiar condition OF
things: the Standard Dictionary recog-
nizes derelope, but not derelopepsent;; on
the other hand, In Webster I dnd no
recognition Of derelope, but In adding the
suffiY the final IL allowed 10 be inter-
jected, and dereiopemeat IL recognized.
Ii IL nothing strange, when We con-
slider the form Of similar words, that
lose should more than occasionally ap-
pear as loose; or that nickel should ap-
pear about one-third OF the time as Il n
pronounced all the time, niekle; or that
an extra letter should make edrthern Of
edrthea, or the omission OF letter make
retrdn of reterdn-if one Il In the habit
Of clipping the pronunciation Of the
latter word; or that substitution Of one
letter for another should make dirine ap-
pear as deriae, or the contrary substitu-
ton make phenomenal appear ~ phenom-
indl-all Of which are common errors;
but whence comes that movement OF
mans mental faculties which produces
"hWoerdcy"?
Back In the early days Of my work ct
the type-csse, was one day given the
manuscript OF an editorial to set, which
bore the screaming title, "Hypocrscy!"
and the word was repeated, with the
same spelling, q dozen times In the
course of the article. spoke Of the
word In the composing room, and the
other compositors there asserted, either
that the spelling was correct, or that II
was allowable as variant Of the other
spelling, hypocrisy. Then bearded the
lion in his deu-or the editor in his
sanctum-sud he Get out to fire me out
of the window when ! suggested An
error In spelling, for he rarely made one.
1t took . thorough search OF the die
tionary TO convince the crowd that the
only correct spelling was hypocrisy. In
the twenty years or so since that time |
have seen the same misspelling come to
the surfsce 40 many times and In 90
many different mems minds, that won
der from what depths It comes.
Frequent errors are those In which
double letter Ia substituted for a single,
or single for double, or In which q
sirgle consonant, at the end of syl-
liable, Is repeated at the beginning OF the
next syllable. Instances OF these errors.
Of more or less frequency, are: tariff,
professor, occasion, occurred, iRfdmdtiOR,
dissdpoint One compositor for long
period OF time showed up In bis proof
with ommit or 0mmited every time the
word omit or its psrticiple appeared iu
his copy. TO omit one In tranquility
is very common error, and Z recent
issue of one-dollar silver certificates,
bearing as part Of the design an open
book with the preamble to the constitu-
tion of the United States, had the word
thus misspelled.
In this connection l may mention that
l have some pet failines Of my own In
that line as we'll - 10 others. keep list
OF three words on my desk, where I can
look at them without taking the time to
hunt them up In the dictionary. They
are battalion, colossal, and hdrdss. / have
hunted them up In the dictionary times
enough so / ought to be able to spell
them 10 my sleep; but II should write
them on this page without reference TO
any suthority-as have not 10 this in
stauce-they would probably appear a.
battalion or battalion, collosdl, and
hdrrGss.