I am tip-tap-typing something-or-other — an email, perhaps — and some helpful program-or-other flags “hummous” as a misspelling, using that squiggly red underlining.
I stare at the screen and scratch my head. I dunno. Maybe it’s wrong, but it looks right to me. Well, except for that red squiggliness.
Unsure, I frown at the screen. And then I do what I always do these days: I check with Google, entering my spelling — hummous — in the search bar.
An eternity later — 0.53 seconds, if you can believe it — I have access to about 145,000 search results. Yeah, that should do it.
But then I see what precedes the first 4 or 5 of my 145,000 results:
Did you mean: hummus
I’m baffled because, immediately below this badly punctuated question (if question it truly be), the first 4 search results use “hummous,” not “hummus.”
What? Can’t Google see what I see?
Moreover, these sites are not just any old (ahem) blogger: They are authorities as diverse as someone who is, apparently, a genius in the kitchen, Epicurious.com, the BBC, and Jamie Oliver. Indeed, the only result shown that doesn’t use my spelling is Wikipedia.
I wonder how often people blindly accept Google’s judgement in spelling. And I wonder even more when Google decided it was OK to be a little snippy with honest enquirers using totally totally legitimate spellings.
Did you mean: hummus
No, no I did not, dagnab it.
But my annoyance is tempered by my access to recourse. I can’t change Google’s search algorithm or user interface, but I can cause some trouble of my own.
I’m a registered and highly occasional Wikipedia editor, but I think I might have found a new mission that I can really get behind: Casting aspersions on legitimate spelling choices. I just have to figure out how to insert snippy little notes of my own.
Did you mean: hummous
Don’t get mad, get even.
Hummm…go for it, Isabel!
Tom
Tom – OK, I’ll tell ’em Tom sent me. 🙂
If I had greater leisure, I would edit for Wikipedia, a venue of immense worth that is, nonetheless, in need of eyes like yours fueled by a passion like yours.
Laurna – Yes, it’s tempting sometimes but I fear it would be a Sisyphean task. I have read that there is one editor who does nothing but correct “comprised of,” so there’s scope for any number of linguistic obsessions.
Well, that’s hummerous…humoros…humourous…
These spellings are numerous…
Ian – LOL. As long as they’re not also numinous . . .
I read your blast at spelling inconsistencies, and then went to the grocery store. An entire cabinet filled with plastic buckets of, you guessed it, hummus. I was tempted to use a felt pen to correct them, but chickened out. I might have had to buy all the packages I had disfigured….
Jim T
Jim – Maybe we need little spelling-disobedience stickers to paste onto items: Did you mean “hummous”? Did you mean “centre”? I’m sure we could get that authorized, eh?