Dreaded Words.
Are there certain words that always … always send you to the dictionary?
I’m not talking about the fifty-cent words that we only use a couple times per year. Checking those just seems like a good idea. Rather, I am talking about everyday words that, for some reason, you can’t farookin’ remember how to spell.
In my case, it doesn’t matter that I’ve been speaking and writing English for a bit more than five decades. There are a few words that invariably require my turning to Mr. Spellchecker, and it annoys the hell out of me. You might ask, “Yo, Jimbo. You should use that Autocorrect feature in Word. It fixes your spelling as you type.” To which I reply that I hesitate to use that nifty feature because I don’t spell these words wrong in a consistent manner. Each time I stumble over one of the dreaded words I take a crack at it, and invariably the Word-produced Red Line of Stupid appears under my incorrect spelling.
Once the spelling is corrected, I invariably promise myself that I will forevermore remember the correct spelling. Of course, I never do.
Casting my embarrassment (ooops!!! That’s one of them — How many r’s? How many s’s?), I hereby share the list that comes right off the top of my head. There are doubtless more:
Banana: It always looks to me as if it needs more n’s.
Commitment: How many m’s? How many t’s? Maybe I should be committed?
Potato: I always secretly felt Dan Quayle’s pain.
Tomato: See above
Jealous: I get as far as the first three letters, then wonder if the a should be an o.
Acknowledgement: It’s the damned second e. In the word “Judgment,†it’s not there! I probably could use Autocorrect on that one.
Rhythm: This one is the granddaddy of the all. I use this word all the damned time, and yet I have never, ever spelled it without checking my spelling, which is most often wrong. The word just looks goofy as hell to me.
I have no idea why I am obviously incapable of learning and remembering the correct spelling of this baloney words. I’ve even tried mnemonic (OK, so I had to check that word too) devices, but I can never remember the mnemonic device I created.
I figure it must be a wiring thing in my cruller.
Oh my God – Red Line of Stupid
You are just brilliant. Seriously.
Comment by Kate — September 8, 2005 @ 10:32 pm
Amount. I’m always sure there’s an extra m in there- ammount.
Comment by Sharon GR — September 8, 2005 @ 10:58 pm
That’s why I have a spellchecker – even though they don’t always work right. Is it pidgeon or pigeon? No “d” of course. And how often do you write that word??? I can’t tell you how often I’ve reworded posts because I’m not sure about the word I want to use… LOL.
Comment by Teresa — September 8, 2005 @ 11:34 pm
“Accommodate” is a bitch.
Comment by Jack Bog — September 9, 2005 @ 1:24 am
I always try to put an extra ‘e’ in “judgment”. It just looks wrong without it.
“Red Line of Stupid”. Hehe I love it!
Comment by rita — September 9, 2005 @ 3:31 am
Yep. “Accommodate” is a definitely a Dreaded Word.
Comment by Jim - Parkway Rest Stop — September 9, 2005 @ 4:17 am
there was a move once to phoneticize american english spellings. too bad it was never fully implemented, except for some words like color (colour) and catalog (catalogue).
Comment by mulenga — September 9, 2005 @ 7:13 am
“Red Line of Stupid” is fantastic. I predict that the phrase will soon be used everywhere. “The woman smoking at pump #3 has a Red Line of Stupid under her.”
Comment by dogette — September 9, 2005 @ 8:46 am
It would be easier for me to list the words I’m sure of. The only thing that saves me is that the Goddess always knows how to spell a word I’m looking for.
On the other hand, I can almost always tell when someone else has misspelled a word.
I think that’s why I’m so fascinated by the spelling bee’s on ESPN. If those kids were conjuring rhubarb pie out of their snouts they couldn’t be more freakish. At least to us RLOS folk.
Comment by Sluggo — September 9, 2005 @ 12:38 pm
Jim,
I was one of those rhubarb pie snorting freaks that Sluggo refers to when I was a young’un (got DQ’d at the counties, so I guess that makes me a rather dumb freak), and I still have trouble spelling. I like to think I have a rather extensive vocabulary (you might even say a PLETHORA of words – think ‘the Three Amigos’), but the older I get, the harder it becomes to recall them, much less spell them correctly.
That’s why I absolutely love the newest version of Apple’s Macintosh OS, Tiger. Regardless of where you are typing (in your word processor, email or on a website), you are able to highlight any word you are unsure of and right click on it to see if it is spelled correctly. If it is misspelled, it will offer the correct spelling. If it is so horribly spellmangled that it can’t tell what you were thinking of, it will offer a list of best-guesses. I find that I’ve become addicted to it.
I’m sure there must be some kind of similar aftermarket utility for Windows out there.
Cheers,
Ed T. (tripping over the RLOS quite frequently)
Comment by Ed T. — September 9, 2005 @ 4:06 pm
Nauseous. I had a teacher way back when who taught us ways to remember the top 20 misspelled words. I still remember those 20, but nauseous wasn’t one of them, and I stumble over it every time.
Comment by Shamrock — September 9, 2005 @ 6:46 pm
So that’s how you spell cruller?
Comment by marydell — September 10, 2005 @ 9:25 am
“Accumulate” never looks right to me and I always have to look it up.
For years I misspelled “supersede”. Good thing I didn’t use it much.
Good post.
Comment by IB Bill — September 11, 2005 @ 12:01 pm
I’m pretty good with spelling, but there are words I simply cannot pronounce unless I slow down to one syllable per minute. Like Galapagos, and cinnamon. A snipped synapse somewhere, I suppose.
Comment by LeeAnn — September 13, 2005 @ 8:58 am
“Red line of stupid” belongs right up there with”here’s your sign!”
A Jersey boy can’t spell “tomato”? Shame on you!
Comment by joated — September 15, 2005 @ 8:51 pm