A new (to me, IAC) spelling rule

[Dan Goncharoff]

If this were true, a June bug couldn't be a June bug...DanG

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 6:23 PM, Ann Burlingham <ann at burlinghambooks.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ann Burlingham <ann at BURLINGHAMBOOKS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A new (to me, IAC) spelling rule
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>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 4:32 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      A new (to me, IAC) spelling rule
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I may be AFU, here, but it seems to me that there is simply no reason
>> on earth to sit around making up this kind of nonsense and then
>> foisting it off on the polloi as an actual rule that they have to
>> adhere to, lest they be considered only hemi-semi-literate.
>>
>> One of several letters to the NYT more or less making the same empty -
>> IMO, IAC - claim:
>>
>> "Bed bugs is TWO words – not one. The general rule [WTF?! If there is
>> such a rule, why wasn't I taught it at any time between 1942, when I
>> entered grade school, and 1954, when I (was) graduated (from) high
>> school?] for writing out common names of insects is as follows. If the
>> insect name is a misnomer (e.g., the dragonfly is NOT a fly and
>> neither is a damselfly), then the whole name is written as one word.
>> If it is not a misnomer, then it is written as two words (e.g., house
>> fly, which is a real fly [GB: Samuelson, James. ... The Common
>> _Housefly_. 2nd ed. London, 1860]). The bed bug is a “true” bug and
>> therefore is two words."
>
> crazy as a bedbug.
>
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