Klarinet Archive - Posting 000206.txt from 1998/04

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Loosing and losing
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 00:19:20 -0400

Without pointing any fingers ...

Is there some reason why so many posters to this list have begun to spell
lose with two Os? This misspelling is becoming extremely common, and it
might not bother me as much on a list on some esoteric high-tech subject.
Many techies have a fine disdain for spelling, grammar and punctuation,
their minds being on higher things. But seeing such subliteracy on a
writers' list is disturbing.

Yes, English spelling is illogical sometimes. The sound ooh is normally
spelled with a double O, but it also occurs in the word lose, meaning to
misplace or be deprived of something. Loose is an entirely different word,
meaning to set at liberty, free from constraints. The S in lose is voiced,
like a Z, while the S in loose is unvoiced - in other words, an ess.

Thanks. I feel better now.