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Typographical error

January 20, 2023

"Fat finger" redirects here. For the trading mistake, see Fat-finger error.
"Typo" redirects here. For other uses, see Typo (disambiguation).

A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called a misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake)[1] made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography). Technically, the term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger,[2] but excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors, or changing and misuse of words such as "than" and "then". Before the arrival of printing, the copyist's mistake or scribal error was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters.

Fat finger or fat-finger syndrome (especially in the financial sector) is a slang term referring to an unwanted secondary action when typing. When a finger is bigger than the touch zone, with touchscreens or keyboards, there can be inaccuracy and one may hit two keys in a single keystroke. An example is buckled instead of bucked, due to the "L" key being next to the "K" key on the QWERTY keyboard, the most common keyboard for Latin-script alphabets.

Marking typos

 
Correction fluid is used to correct typographical errors after the document is printed.

When using a typewriter without correction tape, typos were commonly overstruck with another character such as a slash. This saved the typist the trouble of retyping the entire page to eliminate the error, but as evidence of the typo remained, it was not aesthetically pleasing.

In computer forums, sometimes "^H" (a visual representation of the ASCII backspace character) was used to "erase" intentional typos: "Be nice to this fool^H^H^H^Hgentleman, he's visiting from corporate HQ."[3]

In instant messaging, users often send messages in haste and only afterward notice the typo. It is common practice to correct the typo by sending a subsequent message in which an asterisk is placed before (or after) the correct word.[4]

In formal prose, it is sometimes necessary to quote text containing typos or other doubtful words. In such cases, the author will write "[sic]" to indicate that an error was in the original quoted source rather than in the transcription.[5]

Scribal errors

Scribal errors received a lot of attention in the context of textual criticism. Many of these mistakes aren't specific to manuscripts and can be referred to as typos. Some classifications include homeoteleuton and homeoarchy (skipping a line due to the similarity of the ending or beginning), haplography (copying once what appeared twice), dittography (copying twice what appeared once), contamination (introduction of extraneous elements), metathesis (reversing the order of some elements), unwitting mistranscription of similar elements, mistaking similar looking letters, the substitution of homophones, fission and fusion (joining or separating words).[6][7]

Biblical errors

 
The Judas Bible in St. Mary's Church, Totnes, Devon, UK

The Wicked Bible omits the word "not" in the commandment "thou shalt not commit adultery".

The Judas Bible is a copy of the second folio edition of the authorized version, printed by Robert Barker, printer to King James I, in 1613, and given to the church for the use of the Mayor of Totnes. This edition is known as the Judas Bible because in Matthew 26:36 "Judas" appears instead of "Jesus". In this copy, the mistake (in the red circle) is corrected with a slip of paper pasted over the misprint.

"Intentional" typos

Certain typos, or kinds of typos, have acquired widespread notoriety and are occasionally used deliberately for humorous purposes. For instance, the British newspaper The Guardian is sometimes referred to as The Grauniad due to its reputation for frequent typesetting errors in the era before computer typesetting.[8] This usage began as a running joke in the satirical magazine Private Eye.[9] The magazine continues to refer to The Guardian by this name.

Typos are common on the internet in chatrooms, Usenet, and the World Wide Web, and some—such as "teh", "pwned", and "zomg"—have become in-jokes among Internet groups and subcultures. P0rn is not a typo but an example of obfuscation, where people make a word harder for robots to understand by changing it.[10]

Typosquatting

Main article: Typosquatting

Typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting that relies on typographical errors made by users of the Internet.[11] Typically, the cybersquatter will register a likely typo of a frequently-accessed website address in the hope of receiving traffic when internet users mistype that address into a web browser. Deliberately introducing typos into a web page, or into its metadata, can also draw unwitting visitors when they enter these typos in Internet search engines.

An example of this is gogole.com instead of google.com which could potentially be harmful to the user.

Typos in online auctions

Since the emergence and popularization of online auction sites such as eBay, misspelled auction searches have quickly become lucrative for people searching for deals.[12] The concept on which these searches are based is that, if an individual posts an auction and misspells its description and/or title, regular searches will not find this auction. However, a search that includes misspelled alterations of the original search term in such a way as to create misspellings, transpositions, omissions, double strikes, and wrong key errors would find most misspelled auctions. The resulting effect is that there are far fewer bids than there would be under normal circumstances, allowing the searcher to obtain the item for less. A series of third-party websites have sprung up allowing people to find these items.[13]

Atomic typos

Another kind of typo—informally called an "atomic typo"—is a typo that happens to result in a correctly spelled word that is different from the intended one. Since it is spelled correctly, a simple spellchecker cannot find the mistake. The term was used at least as early as 1995 by Robert Terry.[14]

A few illustrative examples include:

  • "now" instead of "not",[15][16]
  • "unclear" instead of "nuclear"
  • "you" instead of "your"
  • "Sudan" instead of "sedan" (leading to a diplomatic incident in 2005 between Sudan and the United States regarding a nuclear test code-named Sedan)
  • "Untied States" instead of "United States"
  • "the" instead of "they"

and many more. For any of these, the converse is also true.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Typo - Definition". Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2012-01-03.
  2. ^ "Wordnet definition". Wordnet. Princeton University. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  3. ^ Chapter 5. Hacker Writing Style, The Jargon File, version 4.4.7
  4. ^ Magnan, Sally Sieloff (2008). Mediating discourse online. AILA Applied Linguistics Series. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 260. ISBN 978-90-272-0519-3.
  5. ^ Wilson, Kenneth G. (1993). "sic (adv.)". . Columbia University Press. Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  6. ^ Paul D. Wegner, A Student's Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods, and Results, InterVarsity Press, 2006, p. 48.
  7. ^ "Manuscript Studies: Textual analysis (Scribal error)". www.ualberta.ca. from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  8. ^ Taylor, Ros (2000-09-12). "Internet know-how: Spelling". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  9. ^ Lyall, Sarah (1998-02-16). "Confession as Strength At a British Newspaper". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  10. ^ Marsden, Rhodri (2006-10-18). "What do these strange web words mean?". The Independent. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  11. ^ Sullivan, Bob (2000-09-23). . ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  12. ^ KING5 Staff (2004-07-01). . King5. KING-TV. Archived from the original on 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  13. ^ Douglas Quenqua (2008-11-23). "Help for eBay Shoppers Who Can't Spell". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Hanif, C. B. (August 10, 1995). "Hurricane Coverage Kicks Up Dust". The Palm Beach Post. p. 14. Retrieved January 25, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.  
  15. ^ Callan, Tim (2011-04-23). "The now vs. not typo". Tim Callan on Marketing and Technology. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  16. ^ Karr, Phyllis Ann (2012). Frostflower and Thorn. Wildside Press. p. 415. ISBN 9781479490028.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Typographic errors.
  • BookErrata.com
  • "How Many Errorrs are in this Essay?" on famous typos, in The Millions

January 20, 2023
typographical, error, finger, redirects, here, trading, mistake, finger, error, typo, redirects, here, other, uses, typo, disambiguation, typographical, error, often, shortened, typo, also, called, misprint, mistake, such, spelling, mistake, made, typing, prin. Fat finger redirects here For the trading mistake see Fat finger error Typo redirects here For other uses see Typo disambiguation A typographical error often shortened to typo also called a misprint is a mistake such as a spelling mistake 1 made in the typing of printed or electronic material Historically this referred to mistakes in manual type setting typography Technically the term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger 2 but excludes errors of ignorance such as spelling errors or changing and misuse of words such as than and then Before the arrival of printing the copyist s mistake or scribal error was the equivalent for manuscripts Most typos involve simple duplication omission transposition or substitution of a small number of characters Fat finger or fat finger syndrome especially in the financial sector is a slang term referring to an unwanted secondary action when typing When a finger is bigger than the touch zone with touchscreens or keyboards there can be inaccuracy and one may hit two keys in a single keystroke An example is buckled instead of bucked due to the L key being next to the K key on the QWERTY keyboard the most common keyboard for Latin script alphabets Contents 1 Marking typos 2 Scribal errors 3 Biblical errors 4 Intentional typos 4 1 Typosquatting 4 2 Typos in online auctions 5 Atomic typos 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksMarking typos Edit Correction fluid is used to correct typographical errors after the document is printed When using a typewriter without correction tape typos were commonly overstruck with another character such as a slash This saved the typist the trouble of retyping the entire page to eliminate the error but as evidence of the typo remained it was not aesthetically pleasing In computer forums sometimes H a visual representation of the ASCII backspace character was used to erase intentional typos Be nice to this fool H H H Hgentleman he s visiting from corporate HQ 3 In instant messaging users often send messages in haste and only afterward notice the typo It is common practice to correct the typo by sending a subsequent message in which an asterisk is placed before or after the correct word 4 In formal prose it is sometimes necessary to quote text containing typos or other doubtful words In such cases the author will write sic to indicate that an error was in the original quoted source rather than in the transcription 5 Scribal errors EditScribal errors received a lot of attention in the context of textual criticism Many of these mistakes aren t specific to manuscripts and can be referred to as typos Some classifications include homeoteleuton and homeoarchy skipping a line due to the similarity of the ending or beginning haplography copying once what appeared twice dittography copying twice what appeared once contamination introduction of extraneous elements metathesis reversing the order of some elements unwitting mistranscription of similar elements mistaking similar looking letters the substitution of homophones fission and fusion joining or separating words 6 7 Biblical errors Edit The Wicked Bible The Judas Bible in St Mary s Church Totnes Devon UK The Wicked Bible omits the word not in the commandment thou shalt not commit adultery The Judas Bible is a copy of the second folio edition of the authorized version printed by Robert Barker printer to King James I in 1613 and given to the church for the use of the Mayor of Totnes This edition is known as the Judas Bible because in Matthew 26 36 Judas appears instead of Jesus In this copy the mistake in the red circle is corrected with a slip of paper pasted over the misprint Intentional typos EditCertain typos or kinds of typos have acquired widespread notoriety and are occasionally used deliberately for humorous purposes For instance the British newspaper The Guardian is sometimes referred to as The Grauniad due to its reputation for frequent typesetting errors in the era before computer typesetting 8 This usage began as a running joke in the satirical magazine Private Eye 9 The magazine continues to refer to The Guardian by this name Typos are common on the internet in chatrooms Usenet and the World Wide Web and some such as teh pwned and zomg have become in jokes among Internet groups and subcultures P0rn is not a typo but an example of obfuscation where people make a word harder for robots to understand by changing it 10 Typosquatting Edit Main article Typosquatting Typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting that relies on typographical errors made by users of the Internet 11 Typically the cybersquatter will register a likely typo of a frequently accessed website address in the hope of receiving traffic when internet users mistype that address into a web browser Deliberately introducing typos into a web page or into its metadata can also draw unwitting visitors when they enter these typos in Internet search engines An example of this is gogole com instead of google com which could potentially be harmful to the user Typos in online auctions Edit Since the emergence and popularization of online auction sites such as eBay misspelled auction searches have quickly become lucrative for people searching for deals 12 The concept on which these searches are based is that if an individual posts an auction and misspells its description and or title regular searches will not find this auction However a search that includes misspelled alterations of the original search term in such a way as to create misspellings transpositions omissions double strikes and wrong key errors would find most misspelled auctions The resulting effect is that there are far fewer bids than there would be under normal circumstances allowing the searcher to obtain the item for less A series of third party websites have sprung up allowing people to find these items 13 Atomic typos EditAnother kind of typo informally called an atomic typo is a typo that happens to result in a correctly spelled word that is different from the intended one Since it is spelled correctly a simple spellchecker cannot find the mistake The term was used at least as early as 1995 by Robert Terry 14 A few illustrative examples include now instead of not 15 16 unclear instead of nuclear you instead of your Sudan instead of sedan leading to a diplomatic incident in 2005 between Sudan and the United States regarding a nuclear test code named Sedan Untied States instead of United States the instead of they and many more For any of these the converse is also true See also EditClerical error Mistake in clerical work e g data entry Comparison of web browsers Native spell checkers are indicated in the table Browser features Fat finger error Keyboard input error in financial markets Human error Action with unintended consequences Orthography Conventions when writing in a language Scrivener s error Clerical error in a legal document Titivillus Demon who introduces errors into texts Transcription error Data entry errorReferences Edit Typo Definition Free Merriam Webster Dictionary Merriam Webster Retrieved 2012 01 03 Wordnet definition Wordnet Princeton University Retrieved 2007 11 12 Chapter 5 Hacker Writing Style The Jargon File version 4 4 7 Magnan Sally Sieloff 2008 Mediating discourse online AILA Applied Linguistics Series John Benjamins Publishing Company p 260 ISBN 978 90 272 0519 3 Wilson Kenneth G 1993 sic adv The Columbia Guide to Standard American English Columbia University Press Archived from the original on 11 December 2007 Retrieved 2007 11 12 Paul D Wegner A Student s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible Its History Methods and Results InterVarsity Press 2006 p 48 Manuscript Studies Textual analysis Scribal error www ualberta ca Archived from the original on 4 April 2016 Retrieved 2 May 2018 Taylor Ros 2000 09 12 Internet know how Spelling Guardian Unlimited Retrieved 2007 11 12 Lyall Sarah 1998 02 16 Confession as Strength At a British Newspaper The New York Times Retrieved 2007 11 12 Marsden Rhodri 2006 10 18 What do these strange web words mean The Independent Retrieved 22 December 2016 Sullivan Bob 2000 09 23 Typosquatters turn flubs into cash ZDNet Archived from the original on 2007 10 24 Retrieved 2007 11 12 KING5 Staff 2004 07 01 How finding mistakes can net great deals on eBay King5 KING TV Archived from the original on 2007 12 20 Retrieved 2007 11 12 Douglas Quenqua 2008 11 23 Help for eBay Shoppers Who Can t Spell The New York Times Hanif C B August 10 1995 Hurricane Coverage Kicks Up Dust The Palm Beach Post p 14 Retrieved January 25 2018 via Newspapers com Callan Tim 2011 04 23 The now vs not typo Tim Callan on Marketing and Technology Retrieved 2021 08 13 Karr Phyllis Ann 2012 Frostflower and Thorn Wildside Press p 415 ISBN 9781479490028 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Typographic errors BookErrata com How Many Errorrs are in this Essay on famous typos in The Millions Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Typographical error amp oldid 1132650379, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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