# Did you mean p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 23, 2006, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841 "2006-04-23T07:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/21 "2006-04-23T22:10:18Z")
You know how I make sure that I always spell “plagiarism” correctly? I copy off someone else. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/22 "2006-04-23T23:13:53Z")
You know how I make sure that I always spell “plajarism” correctly? I copy off someone else. D’oh! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/23 "2006-04-24T02:23:54Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Maybe it’s because wrong information is wrong information and bad spelling is just bad spelling? > > I love the English language. I devour books like they’re deep fried and smothered in cheese AND gravy. I love polished, refined speech and am conscientious about my verbal skills. And in formal situations, I detest spelling and grammar errors, especially when they are mine. > > This message board is NOT a formal situation. True, we aren’t a teeny-bopper chatroom. We have relatively high standards for communication. But the nitpickers take the fun out of being here. I should be able to get away with a typo (or even a run of them) without worrying about how ignorant or "less worthy"comes across. Especially when I only have two minutes during a pause at work to compose a post. > > It seems to me that there are posters on this board who’s sole purpose is to grab posts that have mistakes in them and say, “HA!” No one CARES if using “data” in the singular gets under your got-damn skin. No one CARES if you flip out whenever people misplace apostrophes. Get a life, grammar marms. > > It is easy to criticize a post because of the superficial errors in it. A more superior mind can criticize a post’s content no matter how it’s dressed up. I think ignorant information is what this board is supposedly dedicated to fighting, not the picyuane (ooh, I hope didn’t goof on that one!) I was with you all the way, until you got to the part about the apostraphe’s. Seriously, I can overlook a lot of things, but that new grammar rule that evidently states that an apostraphe is used to alert the reader that an ‘s’ is approaching? That has got to go. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/24 "2006-04-24T02:38:56Z")
I’m the athiest muhfucka on the board. I’m way athier than you candy asses. At least, that’s what goes through my mind when I see “athiest,” which is distressingly often. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/25 "2006-04-24T02:41:30Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I was with you all the way, until you got to the part about the apostraphe’s. > > Seriously, I can overlook a lot of things, but that new grammar rule that evidently states that an apostraphe is used to alert the reader that an ‘s’ is approaching? That has got to go. Apostrophe! APOSTROPHE! ApostrOphe! Man, I love it when I can be an unapologetic spelling pedant. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/26 "2006-04-24T02:48:48Z")
I just wanted to add that my ignorance has been fought in this thread. I don’t remember the last time I wrote the words plagiarism or athiest, but I can almost guarantee I spelled them plagarism and atheist and didn’t notice that anyone else was spelling them differently. I fancy myself a pretty good speller. it would never have occurred to me that I didn’t know how to spell those words (I don’t run my posts through Word because, for some reason, Word makes this computer run like frozen molasses) or that I was spelling them incorrectly. Now I know and will never spell them incorrectly again. google toolbar, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/27 "2006-04-24T02:50:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I just wanted to add that my ignorance has been fought in this thread. I don’t remember the last time I wrote the words plagiarism or athiest, but I can almost guarantee I spelled them plagarism and atheist and didn’t notice that anyone else was spelling them differently. Let’s be explicit. The correct spellings are “plagiarism” and “atheist.” ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/28 "2006-04-24T02:55:35Z")
> [@wisernow](#): > > What about ‘defin **a** tely’? What is more surprising is that I don’t even remember anyone pointing this out either. > > The word is ‘defin **i** tely’ with an **i** and not an **a**. Oh man, this is my hugest spelling pet peeve. On this board and everywhere fucking else I see it spelled with two f’s, only one e, an a, all kinds of perverted spellings. Deffinitely, definately, definitly, all of them are wrong. Is this word really so difficult? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/29 "2006-04-24T02:59:30Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > the nitpickers take the fun out of being here. Dunno 'bout that - seems like they often add to the fun. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/30 "2006-04-24T03:12:42Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Let’s be explicit. The correct spellings are “plagiarism” and “atheist.” oh :smack: so I WAS spelling atheist correctly. I never claimed to be smart. I’m here to learn. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/31 "2006-04-24T04:38:16Z")
Further, a way to remember how to spell atheist is that the root word is “theism”. If you are against thesim, you are an atheist. (A for against, or anti-) ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/32 "2006-04-24T04:39:23Z")
Was that Gaudere I heard laughing just now? I need new glasses. I can’t even see my own typos. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/33 "2006-04-24T06:29:46Z")
Want another candidate for most misspelled word? Noticeable. I’ve seen it in three threads today, and on another website. Not noticible. Or noticable. It’s one of those words where the two vowels remain together when you add the suffix -able. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/34 "2006-04-24T06:37:59Z")
> [@wisernow](#): > > What about ‘defin **a** tely’? What is more surprising is that I don’t even remember anyone pointing this out either. > > The word is ‘defin **i** tely’ with an **i** and not an **a**. I’ve brought this up before, perhaps more than once. I even pointed it out to a known transgressor- she basically said that she just wanted to spell it that way, and would continue to do so, even though she now knows it’s wrong. I won’t be so crass as to point her out, but her name rhymes with “BangelicShemma”. I’ve seen it spelled “definately” so much, that I was starting to wonder if maybe it was spelled that way in England or something. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgonzola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e480ec/32.png) [@Gorgonzola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgonzola)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/35 "2006-04-24T06:57:51Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Oh man, this is my hugest spelling pet peeve. On this board and everywhere fucking else I see it spelled with two f’s, only one e, an a, all kinds of perverted spellings. Deffinitely, definately, definitly, all of them are wrong. Is this word really so difficult? “Definately” or “definatly” lead the pack, I’m willing to bet. And the interesting thing about this one is that it has been strengthened by becoming a Web convention. I work with adolescents and often see their writing; pre-Internet I almost never saw “definately.” Now I see it (everywhere) more often than the correct spelling, and used by otherwise decent writers. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/36 "2006-04-24T14:10:10Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I was with you all the way, until you got to the part about the apostraphe’s. > > Seriously, I can overlook a lot of things, but that new grammar rule that evidently states that an apostraphe is used to alert the reader that an ‘s’ is approaching? That has got to go. I once had the misfortune to be the proofreader for a person who believed tenaciously that one pluralized words by appending **'es**. :: shudder :: ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/37 "2006-04-24T14:16:18Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Was that Gaudere I heard laughing just now? > > I need new glasses. I can’t even see my own typos. For me, my own typos are the worst. Literally invisible. Typos? I don’t make typos! ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/38 "2006-04-24T14:17:25Z")
I agree totally with the OP. I mean, honestly, I do not understand how this word gets misspelled so stunningly often on this board. It has to be THE most inadvertently misspelled word on the SDMB. I am charitably assuming that “teh” is intentional. (But just for the record, it looks stupid.) Anybody who’s posting on this board has the internet resources to look up the correct spelling. What I really don’t understand is how people misspell it in their reply to a post in which it was _spelled correctly._ I mean sure, you’re too lazy to go to the dictionary. But you–yeah, the one who wrote it as “plagerism”–did you think all the previous posters got it wrong? Or maybe you took a wild stab and spelled it “plajarism.” Again, in a thread where it had been spelled correctly? Perhaps you wanted to assert your individuality? If you thought the previous poster got it wrong, maybe you could Google it. Okay, we don’t need a pukey smiley. Maybe we need an automatic spell check where incorrectly spelled words are highlighted. This would not merely alert the composer of the post to the error but, in case the poster didn’t want to bother correcting it, would warn those of us who prefer to employ language correctly to the best of our abilities, so we won’t get some alternate wrong spelling stuck in our heads because of somebody’s ignorance. Searching reveals at least 350 threads with “plagiarism” in them. The misspelled “plagarism” appears _in 102 threads_. “Plagerism” appears in 46 threads. "Plagairism appears in 12 posts. Oh, sure–the statisticians among the membership can easily say this means the word is right most of the time, and some of those were probably typos. If so, it’s an awfully pervasive typo. And it is okay to fix typos. Really. Even on a message board where things are pretty informal. It’s done all the time. _Especially on a message board where people are likely to claim they are intelligent and literate._ I know people don’t like to see nitpicks about spelling and grammar but WTF, why is poor spelling considered less ignorant and less worthy of being corrected than, for instance, the thing about a duck’s quack not echoing, or which words end in _-gry_? It is not less worthy. So listen up. The copyright notice on the dictionary is for the compilation and presentation and does not apply to the individual words. Spelling a word as it appears in said dictionary is _not plagiarism._ The Doctor ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/39 "2006-04-24T14:21:25Z")
Okay, okay, okay. I admit I plagerised that last post. (The spelling “plagerised” btw - looks like something one would do on Star Trek). The spelling “plagarism” makes my kidney hurt. It sounds painful. But I like plajerized? It’s phonetical! The Doctor ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841/40 "2006-04-24T14:55:11Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Apostrophe! APOSTROPHE! ApostrOphe! > > Man, I love it when I can be an unapologetic spelling pedant. 🙂 Oh, crap. Never before have I been so humbled by Gaudere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-mean-p-l-a-g-i-a-r-i-s-m/353841.md?page=3)