Words We Misspell in Business

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Excerpt from Words We Misspell in Business: Ten Thousand Terms, Showing Their Correct Rect Forms and Divisions as Used in Printing and Writing, With Rules, Governing the Orthography, of English Words Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said that there is "one branch of learning without which learning itself can not be railed at with common decency, namely, spelling." If our spelling followed the pronunciation of words, it would in reality be a greater help to the student of language than the present uncertain and unscientific mode of writing. In explaining the whimsical, antiquated English orthography, the eminent etymologist Prof. Walter Skeat said that "we still retain much of the Elizabethan spelling, which at that period was retrospective, with a Victorian pronunciation." As a matter of fact, our present spelling violates both history and etymology. Bulwer-Lytton told us that it was impossible to find "a more lying, roundabout, puzzle-headed delusion concocted by the father of falsehood than that with which we confuse the clear instincts of truth as our accursed system of spelling." He wondered how it was possible for any system of education to flourish which begins with a falsehood so monstrous that our very sense of hearing flatly contradicts it. According to an American critic - it may have been Mark Twain or, perhaps, Artemus Ward - Chaucer was a very fair poet, but the worst "speler" he had ever come across. Measured by the standard of our day Chaucers spelling was original, probably because in his time there were no standards by which it could be regulated. Now, Chaucer is dead, but we have three standards of spelling to guide us - the American standard, the British standard, and the Simplified Spelling Boards standard. Forty years ago an eminent scholar, Professor Child of Harvard, declared that "one of the most useful things just now is to break down the respect which a great foolish public has for established spelling." Things have changed since then, and if there are some of us who still do not much care how anybody spells, so he spell different from what is established, as Professor Child expressed it, they are in the minority. To-day good spelling is an indispensable accomplishment, and to spell badly is vulgar. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.