OCR "arms" > "anus"

Thu May 15 13:16:41 UTC 2014

So an OCR error is the source of "doesn't know one's arse from one's elbow"?

Joel

At 5/14/2014 08:11 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>My mom heard about this on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," found the story,
>and passed it on. OCR software has trouble distinguishing "arms" from
>"anus" in older texts, yielding examples such as "crying for sheer joy
>as she took him in her anus."
>
>www.theinternetpatrol.com/ocr-software-doesnt-know-its-anus-from-an-arm
><http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/ocr-software-doesnt-know-its-anus-from-an-arm>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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