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The Gyllenhaal Experiment

pudding.cool

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Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#52
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you spell bureau? Maybe you can make a mnemonic, how are you with spelling burette? A crazy person is using a burette with a gold (Au) end, extruding a 3D wireframe model of a desk (bureau): Bure(tte)+au+crazy ... and hopefully you can remember where the final "c" goes.

I cannot spell bureau. It trips me up even typing it. Maybe this is the thread that will have finally jammed it into my brain. I'll get back to you in a week or so. :-)

How about "eau", like French for water?

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#53
post #52
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot spell bureau. It trips me up even typing it. Maybe this is the thread that will have finally jammed it into my brain. I'll get back to you in a week or so. :-)

How about "eau", like French for water?

Okay got it, that will help. I’ve just made a mental note between bureau and eau de toilette. Thanks!

Edit: this got me wondering about bureau’s etymology. It’s a strange one:

The story of the word bureau is one of substitutions. In its original French, bureau originally named a “coarse woolen cloth,” particularly baize, the green, felt-like fabric that covers card and pool tables. Historically, bureaus draped desks, desks filled offices, and offices housed the business of governmental agencies ... Etymologically, though, bureau wasn’t green. The term derives from burel, an Old French diminutive of bure, “dark brown cloth.” Bure, in turn, may be from the Latin burrus, a word for “red” and related to the “fiery” Greek root that gives English pyro. Alternatively, the Old French bure may come the Latin burra, “shaggy garment” or “flock of wool.”

Bureau appears in English in French contexts as early as 1664 for an “office” or “business,” natively established by 1720. In the 1690s, bureau harkened back to its earlier sense of “writing desk” and extended to a “chest of drawers” by 1755, which the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes as a chiefly American usage.

https://mashedradish.com/2017/05/16/the-bureau-of-etymologic...

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a live dataset. All the examples except for Britney Spears are using user-submitted answers.

oh I assumed they had google data OK so still same question applies - do we spell differently on mobiles vs keyboards - is spelling an intellectual thing or a cannot be bothered thing?

I misspell more words on a mobile device than a real keyboard. I used to use IRC over an ssh terminal and would occasionally connect using my phone when I was out of the house. The app wouldn't do autocorrect for anything typed into the terminal so my spelling was atrocious due to hitting the wrong buttons sometimes. At home using a real keyboard, I had a much easier time. I still spelled words wrong but those were words that I just don't know how to spell.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#55
post #19
post #11

>Chuck Palahniuk I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

Hah, the other day I spelled it correctly for the first time in my life. I was so excited I yelled and my co-workers all thought I was crazy. :)

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#56
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

Can you spell bureau? Maybe you can make a mnemonic, how are you with spelling burette? A crazy person is using a burette with a gold (Au) end, extruding a 3D wireframe model of a desk (bureau): Bure(tte)+au+crazy ... and hopefully you can remember where the final "c" goes.

I have to do bureau-cracy every time. But only after my brain tries to freehand it wrong. Usually twice. Maybe that’s the real reason I hate bureaucracies.

Beurau... no that’s not right what is it again? Buer... fuck.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#57
post #18

This explains a lot of misspellings on envelopes I get through the mail, and it would be good to see this with your own name. It must be really sad if you’re Matthew mcconaughey and two thirds of the time your name is spelled wrongly in some way. Still, he’s doing ok

The problem is that people with the same name spell it differently, so we're just trying to recall arbitrary [often phonetic] misspellings accrued -- often by illiterate people -- over generations. If your family immigrated somewhere there's a good chance the immigration official gave you your current family name spelling. For me, my surname has about a dozen variations that arise, it seems, from mediaeval British sp…

For me, it's:

"L-A-I-N-G. Laing."

(looking once over vaguely yellow skin) "alright, Mr. Liang."

The two spellings come from entirely different cultures! Same with "Lee" (as in Robert E. and Bruce).

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#58
post #9

It seems likely that I am not the only person who can't spell Chuck Palahniuk's last name. Edit: Now that I think about it, it might be more accurate to say that nobody can spell Chuck Palahniuk's last name...

It's one of the few I would have gotten first try, but they didn't include it in my test. I was still surprised how far off I was on the rest, though. Minaj was the only easy one.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#59

Brutal. Those were far more difficult than expected, I generally veered off path around half-way on most of them. Very interesting experiment, my pride notwithstanding (sp?).

> I generally veered off path around half-way on most of them.

That's something misleading about this visualisation... It makes it look like you got it more wrong because you have a letter wrong early in the word, even if every letter after it is right.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#60
post #53
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about "eau", like French for water?

Okay got it, that will help. I’ve just made a mental note between bureau and eau de toilette. Thanks! Edit: this got me wondering about bureau’s etymology. It’s a strange one: The story of the word bureau is one of substitutions. In its original French, bureau originally named a “coarse woolen cloth,” particularly baize, the green, felt-like fabric that covers card and pool tables. Historically, bureaus draped desks,…

And "scarlet" doesn't originally mean "red". Thanks, 99% Invisible podcast!
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