I was also patting myself on the back for my eagle-eyed spotting of that little A before "mental," messing up a word that should of course be spelled "tempermental." Then I looked it up.
Ouch.
temperAmental
tempermental
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Copy Editor Confessions
It's tough to admit that I had no idea how to spell a word I've used all my life, but there I was sitting at my desk this morning wondering why my spell-checker wasn't questioning the word "temperamental."
I was also patting myself on the back for my eagle-eyed spotting of that little A before "mental," messing up a word that should of course be spelled "tempermental." Then I looked it up.
Ouch.
temperAmental
tempermental
I was also patting myself on the back for my eagle-eyed spotting of that little A before "mental," messing up a word that should of course be spelled "tempermental." Then I looked it up.
Ouch.
temperAmental
tempermental
Ouch is right!
ReplyDeleteI has a similar moment when I learned that the correct word is preventive, not prevenTAtive/
There's no shame in that one. "Preventative" is so common that Webster's New World lists is as a variant of "preventive."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yourdictionary.com//preventative
The only reason I get it right is not that I remember the correct spelling but just that I always remember to look it up.