"Graf"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:51 PM -0500 12/4/05, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On 12/4/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>  I've seen it spelled as"graph" only, but I've encountered it a
>>number of times.
>
>You wouldn't catch an old-school newspaper editor spelling it as
>"graph". "Graf" is an intentional journalistic misspelling, like
>"lede", "hed" (for "headline"), or "TK" (for "to kome" -- cf. "oll
>korrect"). The misspellings arose as a way of distinguishing between
>the copy to be published and "metacommentary" on the copy that would
>be removed before publication.
>
Or in this case as a signal that the editor was a big fan of women's tennis.

L