Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Letters to Websters Dictionary

(dated Dec 11th 2006)

LETTER TO WEBSTERS DICTIONARY

I'm writing you to address the Spelling of the word "sense".
Now understandably it is spelled like that (correctly),
but with the computer age, i believe there should be common
typical errors taken into consideration. With the possitioning
of the letters on the keyboard i've seen way to often it
spelled with a "CE" instead of "SE" (ex.sence) Now does
this mean i have no education? Not able to spell a simple
5 letter word ? No, its a matter of convenience. I DO
expect your to take care of this in a timely manner by
recalling all dictionaries in circulation and correcting this.
Thank you for your time, i must keep this short as i have
to write a letter to Mr.Quaker about the color co-ordination
of his Granola Bars.

Sincerely,

Anthony Morris
CEO of Complaining about useless things Inc.


-----------------------------RESPONSE !!!------------------------------------

Dear Anthony:

Thanks for your e-mail. Unfortunately, we can't simply change the spelling of a word at whim. The change can only be made if there is evidence in current written prose for your proposed spelling. As you may know, we enter words in our dictionaries based on their use in current printed and edited sources. For a word to be entered into our dictionaries, it must meet three criteria: widespread usage in well-read publications; established usage over a certain period of time; and an easily discernable definition. For "sence" to be entered, then, it will need to appear in a number of well-read print sources for a good number of years. When we've collected enough citations for the word, we will enter it into our dictionary.

I'm sorry to disappoint, but hope that in any case I've helped explain the situation. Thanks for taking the time to write.

Cordially,
Kory Stamper, Associate Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.

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