Q: Origin and extension of "Finger-Fehler"

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:00 AM -0400 3/9/09, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>I assume "Finger-Fehler" was created for chess.  When did it become
>>extended to describe a typing error?
>>
>>Or is this the wrong list because it's German?
>-
>
>If it's used repeatedly in English, it's English, I guess, at least sort of.
>
>I just did a superficial Gugelblick.
>
>Of course "fingerfehler" is English-language (and interlingual) chess
>jargon for a long time, just like "zugzwang", "j'adoube", "en passant", etc.
>
>Outside chess, I see the expression from 1982 (ostensibly) at G. Books,
>from 1994 at G. Groups. Also from 1965 (ostensibly) at G. Books (with
>disgusting snippet) apparently referring to a typing error but in a
>chess context.
>
>"Fingerfehler" (= "finger error") ~ "lapsus digiti" ~ "slip of the finger".
>
>There is an alternative "Handfehler" ~ "lapsus manus" (sometimes "lapsus
>manu" [error?]) ~ "slip of the hand".


But I assume typos incurred when one is typing with one's toes are
called "foot faults".

LH


>
>Cf. "Zungenfehler" ~ "lapsus linguae" ~ "slip of the tongue", the model,
>maybe, at least in English.
>
>Also "lapsus calami" ~ "slip of the pen" = "writing error", "lapsus
>clavis" ~ "slip of the key" = "typing error" (this apparently more
>popular in Romance languages, and only recent).
>
>I suppose the use of a Germanism instead of a Latinism likely is
>influenced by the chess term.
>
>I've never heard/read "fingerfehler" in non-chess-related English
>myself, but it seems transparent enough, I guess.
>
>Do Anglophones usually pronounce the /g/? It seems to me that at least
>some do, but it's been a while since I've heard it and I may misremember.
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
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