Thursday, January 24, 2008

Ha! NOT a Complete Dork!

Note I said, "complete."

At least not about dilemna v. dilemma:

A quick tour of the Googlescape reveals that for some reason, nearly an entire generation of American adults in some parts of the country was taught to spell “dilemma” as “dilemna,” but no dictionary on the planet, going back however many years, has this on record. Was it a misprinted teachers’ manual? Badly transcribed handwriting? A back-formation from a similar ending with silent Ns, like “solemn?”


A. J. Kandy, King Marketing


So, OK, it doesn't say I'm right, but it does say I'm not alone. We're not alone. Just Kelly and me. And this lamp...

2 comments:

Jeffe Kennedy said...

and me - sister dork from your selfsame schooling system. I wondered why I thought it was dilemna. I suspect secret CIA experimentation.

Marin (AntiM) said...

I only found out because I was reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and it suddenly occurred to me it was spelled "wrong." So I decided Michael Pollan must be British and this was some weird vagary of UK spelling. Imagine my surprise.

My father, by the way, also thought it was dilemna until this historic moment. He was schooled in Colorado in the 50s. Geography has doomed us?