New York, New York

[venta]

So, today I was reminded that I don't know what the word "synedoche" means (yes, since you ask, I was reading XKCD). I've looked up synedoche many times, yet can never remember what the wretched thing means.

So, over I go Wikipedia. A dictionary would probably have been better, but my fingers automatically go to Wikipedia for virtually any answer these days.

In the little search box, I type "synedoche".

Back come the results... "Did you mean: synecdoche".

Did I mean synecdoche? No, of course I didn't, that's not a word.

Except a little further searching suggests it really is a word. And, what's more, it's the one I was looking for. I am 100% confident that the first 'c' has never been there before. I've certainly never known it was there, and - as we've already established - I've looked this word up a lot of times.

I can only assume that some foul-tempered script kiddie has carefully replaced all instances of the word on the internet with this new misspelled version. If I get home and find that my trusty hard-backed Oxford dictionary has the rogue extra 'c' in the word too, I shall know that goblins have been employed.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm not familiar with that problem. There are a few people who - presumably due to the action of evil fairies - were malchristened and thus patently have the wrong name. That seems to be a steady state, though.