27 October 2009

Spelling 101: definAtely vs. definItely

I am a wordsmith.

Yes, I am, because I said so during my wedding speech and half the audience chuckled nervously because they had no idea what a wordsmith was. One man - Joe Graham (a real man if ever there was one) - cried out "yes, you are!" or something to that effect (to quote him, he shouted "it's a real word, it's true"), so I know that at least half of our closest friends and family aren't ignorant cretins.

However, the sad reality is, today I was dealt a blow to my intellectual haughtiness by a lady who calls herself my "Editor" for the game reviews I'm doing.

You see, it turns out that spelling the word definitely with an A (as in "definately") is absolutely wrong. There's no middle ground here. The word is spelt "definitely" plain and simple. Upon considering her correction, I started to wonder how on earth I had ever spelt it with an A in the first place. The scary thing is, when I type the word "definitely" I instinctively go to the A letter and yet, it's completely wrong. It is obviously an extension of the word 'finite" and I don't seem to be able to convince my hands or my brain of this fact.

Here are a few websites to corroborate my story:

The most interesting thing for me, is the definition itself from URBANDICTIONARY.COM says "Idiot-speak for "definitely". One of the most common moronic misspellings found on the internet" and "The word many people use to spell 'definitely' until they suddenly realise they've been spelling it the wrong way" and finally, "'definitely,' as blogged, emailed, or texted by a complete moron."

So there we have it... I am a complete moron. And besides that, I can now confidently say that there is definately no A in the word "definitely". I have been duly rebuked.

2 comments:

oltman said...

i would definately agree that your spelling are normally of top clas. but maybee you shuld admit that you is sometimes very rong!

haha!

Unknown said...

Don't take it too hard, a lot of people spell it 'defiantly' too!

-Ed.