Letter Imperfect: Common Misspelled Searches
by Vera H-C ChanMay 27, 2009
Elegiacal. Vivisepulture. Appoggiatura. Yeah, those seem tough to spell. But what about Susan Boyle, the name of our president, and the trademark of a U.S. train system?
Elementary school kids the world over are gathering this week for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Thanks to documentaries, plays, movies, and the sheer spectacle of kids dismantling words bigger than the average person's entire vocabulary, the Bee even gets coverage by the likes of Sports Illustrated. Plus, lots of online attention: "spelling bee" terms have seen a collective 3,304% increase on Yahoo! Search, with a heartening chunk fueled by kids under 12.
All we have to say to the competitors, besides good luck, is: Wait until you grow up, when you'll have to deal with hundreds and thousands of new names and concepts every day. Forget spelling the name of the late Sri Lankan rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran: In the Search box, misspellers have savaged the first and last name of our own U.S. president ("barack oboma," "barak obama"), mangled the identity of radio show host Rush Limbaugh ("rush limba," "rush limbaug"), and abused the names of most of the "American Idol" contestants ("adam lamberg" for Adam Lambert). Good thing "Idol" voters just had to text numbers.
Hope—and good intentions—are not lost: Always spiking are searches for "spelling games," "spell check," "spell check technology," and oodles of dictionaries, both English and other. Below is a roundup of words, both recent and perennial, that can pose a struggle, and links to their proper spelling.
Recent Orthographic Abuses of the English Language on Yahoo!, Past 30 Days
- Swan Flu (for Swine Flu)
- Susan Boil (for "Britain's Got Talent" contender Susan Boyle)
- Brack Obama (for U.S. President Barack Obama)
- Sonia Sotomeyer (for Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor)
- Rachel Ray (for Food Network host Rachael Ray)
- Paperview boxing (for cable programming pay-per-view boxing)
- Amtrack (for train system Amtrak)
- Wallmart (for retailer Wal-Mart)
- Farrah Faucet (for actress Farrah Fawcett)
- Rod Steward (for singer Rod Stewart)
- Arlene Specter (for Senator Arlen Specter)
- “Dancing With the Starts” (for ABC reality competition Dancing With the Stars)
- Bea Author” (for the late comedian Bea Arthur)
- Brittany Spears (for singer Britney Spears)
- Chris Allen (for “American Idol” winner Kris Allen)
- Configure worm (for computer virus Conficker worm)
- Mysapce (for MySpace)
