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Apr 25, 2024 07:17
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- baw
- Nov 5, 2008
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RESIDENT: LAISSEZ FAIR-SNEZHNEVSKY INSTITUTE FOR FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY
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here is some information
quote:Do you have trouble spelling the word “dilemma”?
I’m nearly certain I was taught the wrong spelling in school, and when I got older and checked a dictionary, I was shocked to find that the word is spelled "dilemma." Further, the only correct spelling is “dilemma." I thought it was spelled “dilemna.” It’s not as if "dilemna" is a substandard variant or regional spelling. Dictionaries often note alternative spellings and sometimes even nonstandard spellings, but "dilemna" doesn't even show up that way.
The wrong spelling (‘dilemna’) shows up in a few books in the Google Book Corpus—not a lot of books—it peaked around 1980 and has fallen since, but it’s in what I can only call “serious publications”: court reports, books that look like they came from academic presses, journal articles, and so on. They are the kinds of things that are probably written by well-educated people, but that also probably didn’t have extensive copy editing.
One of the reasons I was looking through the Google Book Corpus was to try to see if there was a children’s book or English instruction book that had the misspelling—some reason I would have been taught the wrong spelling in school—but I didn’t find anything. From searching the web, I see that other people have also looked for such books and haven’t found them.
I was talking about this with a friend I went to school with, and she also remembers being shocked when she finally learned the correct spelling of “dilemma” as an adult, and she also insists we were taught the wrong spelling in school. If you start poking around the internet, you’ll see that this is a common story.
If we’re all wrong—and we might be, since I’ve never seen proof that I was taught the wrong spelling and nobody else seems to have come up with evidence either—this could be an example of something called The Mandela Effect. It’s a form of collective misremembering: when many people remember the same thing, but they’re all wrong. The phenomenon gets its name because it was first described in 2010 when many people claimed they remembered seeing Nelson Mandela’s funeral on TV. The problem was that he was actually still alive. He died in 2013.
How might something like that have happened with the spelling of the word “dilemma”?
One theory is that it’s easy to think events actually happened the way we’d expect to see them. Anyone who’s ever missed a typo in their own writing will know what it feels like to see the spelling you expect to see.
I wonder whether this spelling problem could be because words with two M’s in the middle aren’t very common, and “lemma” probably wouldn’t be a word that children had heard, but nearly all children are familiar with the swear word that ends with “—mn.” While we were snickering about swear words in grade school, maybe we looked at “dilemma” with its two weird M’s, and our brains filled in the spelling that was much more familiar. We saw the spelling we expected to see.
Michale Quinion on his World Wide Words website speculates that it might also be a misspelling by comparison to less titillating “mn” words like “autumn,” “solemn,” and “column.” And he’s found examples in respectable literature going all the way back to the 1700s and notes that because “mm” and “mn” look so similar on the page, it would be especially hard to notice that particular misspelling or typo.
And then, regardless of how the misspelling became lodged in our minds, maybe when we encounter other people who misspell the word the same way, we construct actual memories of being taught wrong in school.That must be what happened, right? How else could we both be wrong the same way? That’s one possible explanation for our collective misremembering, but I’m still holding out hope that someone will find proof we were all taught the wrong spelling!
And then there’s a second problem with the word “dilemma”:
‘Dilemma’: A Choice Between Two Bad Options?
Some style guides say “dilemma” should be used only to describe a choice between two unpleasant options, but a lot of people use it differently.
The “di-” prefix in “dilemma” means “two” or “double,” which lends support to the idea that “dilemma” should be used to describe a choice between two, and only two, alternatives. The Associated Press and Garner’s Modern American Usage support that limitation, and go further, saying that “dilemma” should be used only for a choice between two bad options.
Nevertheless, Garner also concedes that other uses are “ubiquitous.” Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage and the Columbia Guide to Standard American English say it’s fine to use “dilemma” to describe any serious predicament, and the American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style takes an intermediate position. What’s a writer to do? (Is it a dilemma?)
Unless you’re following a style guide that requires you to limit “dilemma” to a choice between two bad options, I think it’s OK to use “dilemma” to describe a difficult problem, even when alternatives aren’t involved. I also think it’s fine to use “dilemma” to describe a difficult choice between pleasant options, not just unpleasant ones. As Garner says, using it that way it ubiquitous. Still, you’ll seem most clever when you use “dilemma” to describe a choice between two bad options. In other situations, before you use “dilemma,” ask yourself if another word, like “problem,” might work better.
To remember that “dilemma” is best used for a choice between two things and to remember that it’s spelled with two M’s in the middle, think of the idiom “on the horns of a dilemma” and picture the mascot of the University of Texas— a longhorn steer with two huge matching horns, like those two M’s in the word “dilemma” and the two bad choices you’re facing.
You see the dilemma, don't you? If you don't kill me, precogs were wrong and precrime is over. If you do kill me, you go away, but it proves the system works. The precogs were right. So, what are you going to do now? [Particularly nice use of “dilemma."]
— Tom Cruise as John Anderton in the movie “Minority Report”
There are two dilemmas that rattle the human skull. How do you hold onto someone who won't stay? And how do you get rid of someone who won't go? [“Problems,” “questions,” or “quandaries” would have been a better choice.]
— Danny DeVito as Gavin in the movie “War of the Roses”
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Sep 14, 2020 10:36
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- gary oldmans diary
- Sep 26, 2005
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you guys dont spell pyenis with a y?
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Sep 14, 2020 10:47
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- Chrs
- Sep 21, 2015
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Yes I do because its not a ride.
Also these "Now that I've got your attention" threads should be a probe-able offence
Chrs fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Sep 14, 2020
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Sep 14, 2020 10:57
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- jimmyjams
- Jan 10, 2001
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King Kong of Megadongs
Gobblin' them mega schlongs
Makin' sure they mega long
Stroke' 'em if they mega strong
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fart
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Sep 14, 2020 10:57
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- Jeza
- Feb 13, 2011
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The cries of the dead are terrible indeed; you should try not to hear them.
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the escalator is divided into fatties who stand and the supple, muscular forms of those who stride up, and in that way its a metaphor for life
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Sep 14, 2020 11:32
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- Bloody Hedgehog
- Dec 12, 2003
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💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something
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you guys dont spell pyenis with a y?
A "pyenis" is the technical term for the penis (dorcus) of the common garden hyena.
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Sep 14, 2020 11:44
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- Ignatius M. Meen
- May 26, 2011
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Hello yes I heard there was a lovely trainwreck here and...
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I'm paid to walk up the down escalator. Have to do it multiple times a day for various people. Most of them are nice about it, some praise me for it even when I don't get it done the fastest or when the result isn't what they hoped to see. I really do like the appreciation but it can still be exhausting to practice my work so much all for a show that only amounts to so much, and there's a lot of questions that I can answer but so often they ask me things about the show I don't have an answer for and I'm too honest to bullshit them. It's even worse when the escalator is broken, or I misstep, or I fall all the way to the bottom and have to start over, or have to tell them to come back later because the escalator is off for maintenance or they didn't get the appointment for the show set up right. You also have the assholes... not common, thank god, but they get pissy at the slightest thing about the show not being what they wanted and they threaten to sue my employer like I give a rat's rear end about that. Sometimes I can give people exactly what they wanted to see and that feels great, but a lot of times I wish I was working at the dick sucking factory instead. At least then I might have some fun with it and I'd only have to answer to my manager for quality issues.
I’m the rear end in a top hat that sees the guy running up the down escalator, takes a second or two to contemplate, the goes ahead and steps on the escalator before the guy is done running up. Then it’s like don’t even walk down just stand there for the inevitable. 
e: goddammit so much, can't believe of all the things I left that out
Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Sep 14, 2020
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Sep 14, 2020 13:04
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- Excelzior
- Jun 24, 2013
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A "pyenis" is the technical term for the penis (dorcus) of the common garden hyena.
what the gently caress kind of gardemn do you have that has hyenas
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Sep 14, 2020 13:23
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- Torquemada
- Oct 21, 2010
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Drei Gläser
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now that i have your attention, is it dilemna or dilemma? its dilemna ofc, dilemma is completely absurd. My one talent is remembering words autistically and this is an op to gaslight us all. the real question is where did it start? i first noticed on the recent netflix doc the social "dilemma"
Pretty easy to remember: ‘lemma’ is a word, and ‘lemna’ isn’t.
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Sep 14, 2020 13:26
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- Colonel Cancer
- Sep 26, 2015
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Tune into the fireplace channel, you absolute buffoon
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Will you lemma 5 dollards
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Sep 14, 2020 13:27
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- Bloody Hedgehog
- Dec 12, 2003
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💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something
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what the gently caress kind of gardemn do you have that has hyenas
I don't know, just a typical garden down in my backyard. It's quite lush though, as a do bless the rains down there.
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Sep 14, 2020 13:30
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Apr 25, 2024 07:17
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- BAGS FLY AT NOON
- Apr 6, 2011
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A Soft Nylon Bag
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Lemma balls OP
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Sep 14, 2020 14:21
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Sep 14, 2020 10:30
