[comp.bugs.4bsd] Non-word "accreditate" in /usr/dict/words

geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) (03/10/88)

While working on ispell (yes, it's coming, but not real soon) I stumbled
across a non-word in my /usr/dict/words file.  The verb form of
"accreditation" is "accredit," despite the best efforts of some people
to change it.  If you're a stickler for accuracy, like me, edit
/usr/dict/words to change that entry to "accreditation".
-- 
	Geoff Kuenning   geoff@ITcorp.com   {uunet,trwrb}!desint!geoff

aburt@isis.UUCP (Andrew Burt) (03/11/88)

In article <1693@desint.UUCP> geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) writes:
>...I stumbled across a non-word in my /usr/dict/words file.

Brings to mind a word that showed up on a list of five letter palindromes
(no, I wasn't bored, I was making a handout about regular expressions
with ^\(.\)\(.\).\2\1$ as an example):

	rever

Now, I admit I did find it in the OED.  But that was the only dictionary
of mine that listed it (of about a half dozen).

If I saw this in a document I'd assume it was a misspelling of "revert" or
"revere", etc.; and spell allows "revers" as a plural, which probably
should be "reverse".

This brings up an interesting question:  Should /usr/dict/words list
words that are technically allowable (listed in some notable dictionary)
but are (a) very uncommon and (b) very close to likely misspellings of
far more common words -- at the expense of not catching what are
probably typos?  To my mind, a spelling checker should flag words that
are correct over omitting incorrect words.

I can't see "but it makes the dictionary complete" argument being used
since many common words (in a Unix environment) are missing, such as
"filename", "pathname", "stdin",...  (Maybe a -u(nix) option to spell is
in order... :-)

-- 

Andrew Burt 				   			isis!aburt

              Fight Denver's pollution:  Don't Breathe and Drive.

andrey@arizona.edu (Andrey K. Yeatts) (03/26/88)

In article <1693@desint.UUCP>, geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) writes:
| While working on ispell (yes, it's coming, but not real soon) I stumbled
| across a non-word in my /usr/dict/words file.  The verb form of
| "accreditation" is "accredit," despite the best efforts of some people
| to change it.  If you're a stickler for accuracy, like me, edit
| /usr/dict/words to change that entry to "accreditation".

| 	Geoff Kuenning   geoff@ITcorp.com   {uunet,trwrb}!desint!geoff

or else add in one of my favorites: "orientate," if only for the
completifaction of verbiation of your lexilogical database.
(Excusify me for being in a non-linear mode of epistolization :=)

-- 
Andrey Yeatts					Dept. of Computer Science
andrey@arizona.edu				Univ. of Arizona
{allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4,noao}!arizona!andrey	Tucson, AZ 85710
						(602) 621-2858