"typo"

[Garson O'Toole]

The Macmillan Dictionary does not cover typos in emails or blog posts:

typo noun [countable] informal
a small mistake in a printed document

The Wiktionary definition is currently general enough to cover the
incorrectly painted letters. Perhaps it is too general:

typo (plural typos) Noun
   1. A compositor.
   2. A spelling or typographical error.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/typo

The Wikipedia entry on on "Typographical personification" may offer an
explanation. The "typo demon" now visits road painters as well as
typists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typo_fairy


Charles C Doyle wrote:
> With the ubiquity of computerized word-processing, the standard (and historical) sense of "typo" as 'typographical error' (thus in the OED) probably needs revision.  As in the picture making the rounds on the internet today, the wrongly-spelled word "school" painted in large characters on a street in front of a school.  The error is being regularly referred to as a "typo" (not a "painto").
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100811/od_yblog_upshot/behold-americas-educational-system-captured-in-a-single-photograph
>
> Now "typo" means simply 'misspelling'?  Or certain kinds of mispelling (like transposed characters) but not others?
>
> --Charlie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org