# God hates misspellers! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 20, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295 "2003-02-20T08:16:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/1 "2003-02-20T08:16:35Z")
I’ve noticed this a lot on the board, and I finally have to gripe about it. Please, it’s “ath **ei** st”, not “ath **ie** st”. As if they don’t believe in the “i before e” rule. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/2 "2003-02-20T08:25:42Z")
Jane Pellers is a fine upstanding woman and I won’t have anything to do with any God who hates her! Oh, hey, Miss Pellers may not be the topic here… sorry if it’s a hijack. ---
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/3 "2003-02-20T10:47:26Z")
How could you possibly hijack this thread? How could you justify derailing a thread so important, so interesting, so crucial to the well-being of both the individual and the international community? I’m speechless. OK, that might be overdoing it a bit. In fact, it’s a pretty dumb thread. Everyone should just take this opportunity to talk about what their cats’ breath smells like, or how they like pie. Or Pei. whatever. Wait, I just thought of something. Maybe ath **ie** sts are those who don’t believe in the existence of a d **ie** ty. Yeah, that must be it… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/4 "2003-02-20T10:57:25Z")
While we’re on the subject, to mislay something is to **lose** it, not **loose** it. The latter would indicate e.g. your keys have been unleashed on an unsuspecting world. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/5 "2003-02-20T12:05:57Z")
Heck, I loosed my keys on an unsuspecting world, but no-one’s complained about them yet. Wish they would, though. Then I’d bring the keys back and chastise them severely. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/6 "2003-02-20T12:56:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by heresiarch \* > \*\*I’ve noticed this a lot on the board, and I finally have to gripe about it. > > Please, it’s “ath **ei** st”, not “ath **ie** st”. > > As if they don’t believe in the “i before e” rule. \*\* I friggin’ hate it when people nit-pick spelling. For the record – I type on the fly, occasionally typos and apostrophe errors and grammatical mistakes slip through. My posts are readable. If you can’t get past a simple typo, go screw. As for “atheist/athiest” – I’d say this typo is born of the fact that “est” (superlative) is a more common suffix than “ist” (believer/follower). That being said, in the word “atheist”, we have a prefix “a” (opposite), the root “the” (god) and the suffix “ist” (believer). Hence “atheist” = “the opposite of a believer in god” (loosely speaking, of course). The “i before e” rule doesn’t have a damn thing to do with anything. If you’re going to be pedantic, at least get your shit together. ---
**Author:** ![SouthernStyle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@SouthernStyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouthernStyle)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/7 "2003-02-20T13:16:20Z")
I know I’ll get dragged through the mud for this, but what the heck. 🙂 The spelling of “atheist” has absolutely nothing to do with the “‘i’ before ‘e’” rule. Granted, the word does have both letters in consectuive positions, but that’s not the reason the word is spelled as it is. The “ist” ending demonstrates a quality. Separat **ist** , elit **ist** , etc. An “est” ending indicates a comparative supremacy. Larg **est** , wild **est** , etc. Spelling it correctly “by accident” is certainly better than getting it wrong, but knowing that its right is the b **est**. Oh, and making up words is pretty far down the food chain, too. My version of Webster’s Dictionary has no listing for “misspeller” or “misspellers”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-hates-misspellers/156295/8 "2003-02-20T13:21:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SouthernStyle \* > \*\*Oh, and making up words is pretty far down the food chain, too. \*\* Yeah, that Shakespeare, eh? What a dolt.