Klarinet Archive - Posting 000248.txt from 1998/04

From: Larry Paikin <larrypaikin@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Loosing and losing
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 23:00:01 -0400

I'm wichoo, but Shirley you mean" a writer's list", not writers'...unless ,of
course, you meant writers', in which case yer dead on. And don't call me
surely!

Lee Hickling 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.