Regarding Diculous
I’ve been called a lot of things in my life: “charming,” “megorious,” “THAT;” to name a few. I’ve also been called “ridiculous” on more than twelve occasions. A few weeks ago I was called something entirely new when Jim Cummings wrote on my Facebook wall, “you’re rediculous.” I immediately called him out because I have observed that spelling “ridiculous” with an ‘E’ has become a fairly common syntax error.
“Ridiculous” is one of those common words that can easily be misspelled and, regardless if you spell it correctly or not, it simply might just look wrong, especially when handwritten. You write out “ridiculous” or “rediculous” and then look down at your scribble and think: Why are there so many vowels? That’s not write! Even though it is.
I can understand why so many people think there is an ‘E’ in there. It’s pronounced riˈdikyələs not rīdikyələs. But it is an ‘I’ not an ‘E.’ When you insert an ‘E’ it’s as if you’re sending out a memo with the subject heading “Re: Diculous,” as in with respect to; in the matter of; concerning diculous; or simply regarding diculous. And “diculous” is not a word. To think otherwise would be simply ridiculous.
So the next time you witness someone spell out the word “rediculous,” play along by saying, “Give my regards to diculous.”
July 29th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Yeah, yeah, that’s right! Do you remember that time when u were telling me about that night with your grandma and you misspelled buttplug?
July 29th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Tasteless.