The world\'s second-best typo

[Jona Lendering]

OK, no one can beat the Oxford Classical Dictionary, which, in its second edition, has an article on athletics that refers to a book about "Griechische Leibesübungen" as "Griechische Liebesübungen". But this error comes close.

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

Weeeeeeeell these things happen, don't they? :lol:

[D B Campbell]

A rock drummer on drugs? Whoever heard of such a thing?! :wink:

[Simplex]

Mhhh, --- a "Freudian" ?! :mrgreen:

Greez

Somplex

[Vindex]

[john roberts]

I don't get that first typo.

[john roberts]

My German is a bit rusty. could you give us a translation of that first typo?

[caiusbeerquitius]

Griechische Leibesübungen: Greek body exercise
Griechische Liebesübungen: Greek exercise in love-making

[john roberts]

There's a difference?

[Eleatic Guest]

There's a difference?

lol

I'd go so far and say that there is indeed a close relationship. Can't be good at b., if you are too lazy for a. - that is while doing b.

:mrgreen:

[Sean Manning]

I think the German quote comes down to language issues. Its very hard for an English reader to see the difference between "ie" and "ei" in a long world because they are the same sound in English (but different in German; vide Wein und Bier), just like its hard for a native Japanese speaker to hear "l" and "r" differently. It took me five passes to see that there was a difference between those two words.

[Jona Lendering]

I think the German quote comes down to language issues. Its very hard for an English reader to see the difference between "ie" and "ei" in a long world because they are the same sound in English (but different in German; vide Wein und Bier), just like its hard for a native Japanese speaker to hear "l" and "r" differently. It took me five passes to see that there was a difference between those two words.

That's really interesting, Sean, because it indicates that spelling mistakes are somewhat, or at least for some people, related to sounds. It is my personal experience as well; if I make a spelling error in English, it usually has the same sound.

[M. Caecilius]

That's really interesting, Sean, because it indicates that spelling mistakes are somewhat, or at least for some people, related to sounds. It is my personal experience as well; if I make a spelling error in English, it usually has the same sound.

Spelling mistakes can often be the result of people writing phonetically; typesetting and typing quite often gets letters mixed up too. I assume that is what happened with the Liebesübungen. I also remember a reading list giving Feugère's study as Armes des Romaines ("Weapons of the Roman women"): probably whoever wrote that up thought of armes romaines, where the feminine would be correct and in accordance with the female noun "arme". Other reasons I've encountered are confusion with words already known, so I've come across Astro-Serbian conflicts at the outset of World War One. It does remind me of that (alleged?) Cambridge study which proposed that people can read sentences where the letters are mixed up provided that a) all the letters that are supposed to be in the word are there and b) the first and last letter are in their correct place.

Another classic we were told is that one Bible managed to speak of John the Baptist (german: Johannes der Täufer) as John the Drunkard (Johannes der Säufer). Can't confirm whether that really happened, though, as I haven't seen the original misprint.

To conclude, at uni (in the UK) I had to walk frequently past a bar advertising it was selling Continental Biers. It was always good for a smile.