Klarinet Archive - Posting 000212.txt from 1998/04

From: Anne Benassi <acb@-----.is>
Subj: Re: Loosing and losing
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 07:04:16 -0400

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

At 00:19 6.4.1998, you wrote:
>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.
>
>
>