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Monday, May 12, 2003
Spel[l]ing When I get tired, I sometimes hallucinate. And I was very tired all last week. However, I have never previously hallucinated a dictionary. The approved dictionary for copyediting, according to the Chicago Manual of Style and most of our clients, is the Merriam-Webster 10th Edition Collegiate Dictionary. (That's what the link up there was to.) When there's more than one spelling of a word, use the first one listed. So I looked up the spelling for the past tense of "control" and determined that the first listed spelling was "controled"; "controlled" was second. So I changed it in the manuscript, as well as changing "controlling" to "controling." I am absolutely certain that I saw this in the dictionary. In fact, I looked it up twice. However, today my manager told me that it was, in fact, not in the dictionary. I said it was, and looked it up, and danged if it wasn't in there. Not in the physical book, not in the on-line one, not even in the on-line subscription-only unabridged one. I saw it. I absolutely know I saw it. There's no other dictionary in the office. Was I perhaps looking up the wrong word? (But what other word looks just like "control" but has one "l" in the past tense?) Was my work area briefly a portal to some alternate universe where spelling is different? Or do I just have the world's most boring hallucinations? [ at 11:55 AM • by Abby • permalink • ] |
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