Re: [PATCH 1/3] Documentation/technical: fix a typo
- From
Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
- Date
- Sep 23, 2024, 17:32 UTC
- Message-ID
- <CAPig+cSis+QYgkPM2pFrEpEWOyny3XpMJpgYbGbJu2ZL5SBmow@mail.gmail.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <xmqqbk0if5jv.fsf@gitster.g>
On Fri, Sep 20, 2024 at 4:12 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
> Andrew Kreimer <algonell@gmail.com> writes: > > -Since there is no publically available VFS-related code for folks to try, > > +Since there is no publicly available VFS-related code for folks to try, > > As a general rule, unless we are doing codewide sweep to use a > single word in our glossary to refer to the same thing, or > something, we should honor author's preference, when it is already > written and it is not blatantly wrong. > > https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/publically > > I am inclined to say that we should keep it as written, but I am not > a native speaker, so please cite a source that tells what is written > is blatantly wrong to help me accept this patch.
For what it's worth, I am a native speaker, and I was taught that the correct spelling is "publicly". Indeed, my Webster's dictionary from that era lists only "publicly"; it does not mention "publically" at all. The modern online Webster's still spells it "publicly", but at least acknowledges "publically" by saying:
[variants] or less commonly "publically"
The modern day built-in macOS dictionary does not have an entry for "publically" and goes out of its way to loudly proclaim (in bold in a standout box) under its entry for "publicly":
USAGE: Note that the spelling is publicly, ending with the suffix -ly, not publically.
The word "publicly" is, of course, so frequently misspelled that it is not surprising that "publically" has been accepted into some dictionaries as a legitimate spelling, but, as one who grew up understanding the correct spelling to be "publicly", the variant spelling still makes my reading hiccup big time, so I found no problem with this patch.