BS: words that are hard to spell

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: G-Force
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 11:24 AM

Contractual. So many people put an r after the a. (I used to work in contracts, so it's a particular bugbear of mine.)

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 11:26 AM

I do find that some worms are hard to smell

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 12:45 PM

The place with the longest name in the uk (Wales) is not easy to spell or pronounce. .......Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 01:50 PM

There's a place in Orkney called Twatt. Clearly, someone found it a word that was hard to spell.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 02:42 PM

Dave, thanks for the info about Haworth.

Here's another class of spelling problem that I have: words with -gue at the end versus -que. But it's a finger problem more than a sound problem. I mean that my fingers wand to type -gue because it's easier to reach. Then my ears tell me that "picturesque" (for example) needs the q.
==========
As for weight and beige, the complete rule says
I before e except after c
or as sounded like a as in "Neighbor" and "weigh."

Then you've got to remember that "weird" is weird.

Various sources claim that "feisty" is descended from "fart," but I don't believe that.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 02:55 PM

I just found another hard-to-spell word: minutiae. And I just learned a new slang term: inside baseball. Something inside baseball is something detailed and minute, of interest only to experts.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 23 - 08:42 PM

Interesting thing about "feisty" is that it was used in the song Kilkelly which told the tale of letters exchanged between members of a family separated by the Atlantic Ocean between the years 1860 and 1892. Yet the word was not recorded as having been in use until at least 1896...

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 02:26 AM

eventually (contractually)

In UK means it will happen
In Europe means depending on events

But we can agree on the spelling.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 06:13 AM

Was 'feisty' used in the actual letters or just the song?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 10:12 AM

In the last verse:

"He was a strong and a feisty old man,
Considering his life was so hard.
And it's funny the way he kept talking about you,
He called for you in the end.
Oh, why don't you think about coming to visit,
We'd all love to see you again."

...which implies that it was said in a letter. Plenty of room for poetic licence, of course!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 11:47 AM

...which implies that it was said in a letter.

Not really, just that the songwriter didn't spot the anachronism. Even Shakespeare managed to have striking clocks in Julius Caesar's Rome even thougn they weren't invented until the 14th century.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 12:22 PM

The letters have been published online here
https://www.mayo-ireland.ie/en/towns-villages/kilkelly/history/kilkelly-ireland-song-feb-1893.html

I'm sorry that I can't seem to operate the link maker from my phone.

The final letter does not use the word 'feisty' although it may have been used by another writer.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 12:40 PM

Ye gods, Doug. I did mention poetic licence!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 12:59 PM

Poetic licence would suggest that the writer had knowingly stretched the point. More likely is that the point was missed altogether.

Erm, ... what has all this got do do with spelling?

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 03:16 PM

It has to do with having to stop and think how to spell "license." Something I have to do rather often.

"Feisty" was used upthread. I'm not at my most awake right now, but I can't think of another word in which ei is pronounced as long i, unless it's clearly German, as in beerstein. Maybe it's just me.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 04:39 PM

I can't think of another word in which ei is pronounced as long i

Height
Sleight
Eiderdown
Kaleidoscope
Seismology
Rottweiler (from German)
Apartheid (from Dutch)
Eisteddfod (Welsh, but significant in the world of folk music)

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Mar 23 - 04:46 PM

Keir Starmer is weird but carries no weight with me.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Mar 23 - 03:46 PM

 fancy sign on the back of a car - see image car owned by John Kerry, not the US politician (JHK reg plate)

 If you can read this your to close

 a bad spell of whether? Though he is a successful shop owner - cookers/ovens/hobs etc - bought my 'fridge from him 23 years ago, still going strong.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Mar 23 - 05:37 PM

"Fridge": interesting. There's a 'd' in there that isn't in "refrigerator..."

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Mar 23 - 07:39 PM

Indictment. Indicted. Indict.

I bet Trump has figured out how to spell the words that sound like "enditement."

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 10:03 AM

> It has to do with having to stop and think how to spell "license."
> Something I have to do rather often.

Something us right-pondians have to do twice: for some reason, the English mutated the noun to "licence", while retaining "license" for the verb. Mebbe it's to do with us never having got over 1066, but developing an inferiority complex over French spelling.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 10:25 AM

Help! --- I think I've sprained the 'Cat, but I don't know how. Is there a MudElf in the house?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 10:30 AM

Panic over: the extra gubbins at top-of-page wandered away of its own accord. Curious, and of course can't be reproduced.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 11:15 AM

Anything in Gaelic, Irish, Basque, Manx, Cornish, Breton, Welsh….

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 01:49 PM

Well, thank you, MaJoCo! So that's why I've been insecure about license -license all this time.

Steve, that' a good observation about fridge versus refrigerator. I think there are two reasons.

1. We deal with words in groups. We already have bridge, ridge, and smidge, so why not fridge?

2. If we use only the letters in refrigerator, we get "frige." That looks like a word with a long I. No good.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 01:51 PM

Fulfil. Fulfill. Fullfil. Fullfill. Focusing. Focussing. Focused. Focussed. Repellent. Repellant.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 05:02 PM

Fridge (hm) .... When I was in primary school, I learnt that Frigidaire objected under trademark laws to their name being verbed; they then mounted a publicity campaign to get everybody saying "fridge" instead, and that it's a contraction of "refrigerator", not of "frigidaire". The campaign seems to have been successful over this side of the puddle.

Meanwhile, Hoover lost an exactly similar (slightly later?) lawsuit over *their* trademarked name being verbed. Irony Dept: Hoover is still (ahem) going strong .... but I've only ever seen a Frigidaire fridge once in my lifetime.

.... Meanwhile, back at the subthread, methinks the D migrated into "fridge" before the rest of the word got chopped off, and has lodged itself so firmly there that I've have to double-check "refrigerator" every time I've typed it in full in writing this.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 06:53 PM

"Fridge": interesting. There's a 'd' in there that isn't in "refrigerator..."

A rather dated example, but "perambulator" lost an 'e' when it was shortened to "pram".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 31 Mar 23 - 07:25 PM

A veggie burger is suitable for vegetarians.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Apr 23 - 07:03 AM

floccinaucinihilipilification    is not an easy word to spell correctly. I often make smelling mistakes.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Apr 23 - 07:27 AM

What I like about "antidisestablishmentarianistically" is its sheer simplicity, positively almost phonetic.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Apr 23 - 11:05 PM

Those are good, real-life examples, Steve. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: BobL
Date: 04 Apr 23 - 03:27 AM

For years I spelled "anemone" as "anenome", and sometimes pronounced it that way too. Horticultural jokes referring to fronds and anemones didn't improve matters.
I should be OK though if I can remember it contains the anonym "Nemo".

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Apr 23 - 04:26 AM

I sometimes wonder about the faintly poetic car park sign, "Have you paid and displayed?" I once saw "Have you payed and displayed?" I"m now waiting for "paid and displaid"!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 05 Apr 23 - 10:22 PM

No, Steve, old son. To displaid someone is to take away his Scottish woolen cloak.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Apr 23 - 10:04 AM

I was looking at a video about Donald Trump's arraignment, and the judge told him that any more dumb and dangerous stunts from him, (I paraphrase) and the trial would be conducted in his "absense." The transcript was on the screen, that's how I saw it.

I looked at "absense" and thought, "That looks fuuny." But actually, the spoken word can be taken two ways.

absence = not being present
absense = not having sense, similar to abnormal.

I like it.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Apr 23 - 12:11 PM

A word that's being used more and more in a way that galls me is "multiple." It's used to replace much more elegant expressions such as "a lot of", "many", "several", etc. it might not be wrong but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:19 AM

interesting, nobody (except me) spelled 'fridge with an apostrophe.

Common usage - ditto with 'flu - who bothers with the ' nowadays

Interestingly I pluralize walk through in ceilidh discussions reasoning that walk should follow the courts marshal and brigadiers general rules. In that we do a lot of walking and through doesn't pluralise. But some callers disagree. And they have the mic.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Reinhard
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:48 AM

Another word hard to spell. It's courts martial.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 06:44 AM

Surely fridge and flu should have two apostrophes!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 04:30 PM

Steve, I agree with you about "multiple." It's hard to explain, but it's just an ugly word. Science writers seem to use it when they don't know how many of something there is, but they still want to sound impressive.

"The male swallows make multiple flights over the pond, catching insects to take back to the nest." Another way of saying we have no idea how many.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:40 PM

I just learned to misspell armeggadon.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 05:43 PM

That's a very good example of what I mean, leeneia. It's not exactly incorrect but it's...well...awful!

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Apr 23 - 06:00 PM

Flu with an apostrophe is so unusual that, these days when you see it, it looks like an affectation. As for fridge, you could argue that it isn't derived from "refrigerator." I mean, what's going on with that 'd'?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: BobL
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 03:21 AM

"Human language is a reflection of humans: illogical, held together with gum and bailing wire. Just don’t try to fix it." - Anu Garg of wordsmith.org

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 04:47 AM

"a lot of", "many", "several", etc.

Why use any of those words when there is a perfectly good word:- "multiple".

DC

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 05:10 AM

> I mean, what's going on with that 'd'?

It's stopping "fridge being mispronounced "frig", which would be fridging annoying.

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 11:37 AM

Another word that's hard to spell: hors dourvres, or however you spell that.

It occurs to me that we use this word perfectly comfortably in speech, and we don't think "Oh, a foreign word!" Yet when it comes to writing it, it becomes alien.

Do French people have trouble spelling it?

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: meself
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 12:17 PM

"hors dourvres, or however you spell that" - Never mind spelling it: how do you say it?? That's one (two? three?) of those words, like "genre", which should be banned from the English language as "unpronounceable".

Subject: RE: BS: words that are hard to spell
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 12:26 PM

Or dervs. Wear a beret when you say it and have a string of onions dangling from your handlebars. Alors.