Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, and
you can think of me as your friendly guide
to the English language— writing, history,
rules, and cool stuff. Today I have a segment
about the word “dilemma,” another segment
about the language of the TV show “The Big
Bang Theory,” and a familect story. Let’s
get started.
Do you have trouble spelling the word “dilemma”?
I’m nearly certain I was taught the wrong
spelling in school, and when I got older and
checked a dictionary, I was shocked to find
that the word is spelled D-I-L-E-M-M-A with
two M’s. Further, the only correct spelling
is “dilemma" with two M’s. But I thought
it was spelled with an N after the first M:
D-I-L-E-M-N-A and it’s not as if "dilemna"
with an N is a substandard variant or regional
spelling. Dictionaries often note alternative
spellings and sometimes even nonstandard spellings,
but "dilemna" with an N doesn't even show
up that way.
The wrong spelling shows up in a few books
in the Google Book Corpus—not a lot of books,
and it peaked around the 1980 and has fallen
since, but it’s in what I can only call
“serious publications”: court reports,
books that look like they came from academic
presses, journal articles, and so on. They
are the kinds of things that are probably
written by well-educated people, but that
also probably didn’t have extensive copy
editing.
One of the reasons I was looking through the
Google Book Corpus was to try to see if there
was a children’s book or English instruction
book that had the misspelling—some reason
I would have been taught the wrong spelling
in school—but I didn’t find anything,
and from searching the web, I see that other
people have also searched for such books and
haven’t found them.
I was talking about this with a friend I went
to school with, and she also remembers being
shocked when she finally learned the correct
spelling as an adult, and she also insists
we were taught the wrong spelling in school.
And if you start poking around the internet,
you’ll see that this is a pretty common
story.
If we’re all wrong—and we might be since
I’ve never seen proof that I was taught
the wrong spelling and nobody else seems to
have come up with evidence either—this could
be an example of something called The Mandela
Effect. It’s a form of collective misremembering:
when many people remember the same thing,
but they’re all wrong. The phenomenon gets
its name because it was first described in
2010 when many people claimed they remembered
seeing Nelson Mandela’s funeral on TV. The
problem was that he was actually still alive.
He died in 2013.
How might something like that have happened
with the spelling of the word “dilemma”?
Well, one theory is that it’s easy to think
events actually happened the way we’d expect
to see them. Anyone who’s ever missed a
typo in their own writing will know what it
feels like to see the spelling you expect
to see.
So I wonder whether this spelling problem
could be because words with two M’s in the
middle aren’t very common, and “lemma”
probably wouldn’t be a word that children
had heard, but nearly all children are familiar
with the swear word that ends with “—mn.”
So while we were snickering about swear words
in grade school, maybe we looked at “dilemma”
with its two weird M’s, and our brains filled
in the spelling that was much more familiar.
We saw the spelling we expected to see.
Michale Quinion on his World Wide Words website
speculates that it might also be a misspelling
by comparison to less titillating “mn”
words like “autumn,” “solemn,” and
“column.” And he’s found examples in
respectable literature going all the way back
to the 1700s and notes that because “mm”
and “mn” look so similar on the page,
it would be especially hard to notice that
particular misspelling or typo.
And then regardless of how the misspelling
became lodged in our minds, maybe when we
encounter other people who misspell the word
the same way, we tell each other stories about
being taught wrong—because that must be
what happened…how else could we both be
wrong the same way—and we construct actual
memories of being taught wrong in school.
So that’s one way our collective misremembering
might have happened, but I’m still holding
out hope that someone will find proof we were
all actually taught the wrong spelling!
And then there’s a second problem with the
word “dilemma”:
Some style guides say “dilemma” should
be used only to describe a choice between
two unpleasant options, but a lot of people
use it differently.
The “di-” prefix in “dilemma” means
“two” or “double,” which lends support
to the idea that “dilemma” should be used
to describe only a choice between two and
only two alternatives. The Associated Press
and Garner’s Modern American Usage support
that limitation, and go further, saying that
“dilemma” should be used only for a choice
between two unpleasant options.
Nevertheless, Garner also concedes that other
uses are “ubiquitous.” Merriam-Webster’s
Dictionary of English Usage and the Columbia
Guide to Standard American English say it’s
fine to use “dilemma” to describe any
serious predicament, and the American Heritage
Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style takes
an intermediate position. What’s a writer
to do? (Is it a dilemma?)
Unless you’re following a style guide that
requires you to limit “dilemma” to a choice
between two bad options, I think it’s OK
to use “dilemma” to describe a difficult
problem, even when alternatives aren’t involved,
or to use “dilemma” to describe a difficult
choice between pleasant options. As Garner
says, using it that way it ubiquitous. Still,
you’ll seem most clever when you use “dilemma”
to describe a choice between two bad options.
In other situations, before you use “dilemma,”
ask yourself if another word, like “problem,”
might work better.
To remember that “dilemma” is best used
for a choice between two things and to remember
that it’s spelled with two M’s in the
middle, think of the idiom “on the horns
of a dilemma” and picture the mascot of
the University of Texas— a longhorn steer
with two huge matching horns, like those two
M’s in the word “dilemma” and the two
bad choices you’re facing.
Before we get to “The Big Bang Theory”
and a familect story, thanks to our sponsors.
Are you too busy to make it to the post office?
Stamps dot com brings all the amazing services
of the U.S. Post Office right to your computer.
You can print official U.S. postage for any
letter, any package, any class of mail, anywhere
you want to send.
Then all you have to do is drop your mail
in the mailbox.
It’s perfect for a small office sending
invoices, an online seller shipping products,
or even a warehouse sending thousands of packages
a day.
Plus, you get 5 cents off every first-class
stamp and up to 40% off Priority Mail. It’s
a great deal, and all for only a fraction
of the cost of those expensive postage meters.
And right now, you my listeners, can get a
4-week trial PLUS free postage and a digital
scale without any long-term commitment.
Just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone
at the top of the homepage, and type in GRAMMAR.
That’s Stamps.com, and enter GRAMMAR.
Stamps.com and the code GRAMMAR.
Today’s episode was also supported by the
brand-new podcast Start With This.
Start With This is a podcast from Welcome
to Night Vale co-creators Joseph Fink and
Jeffrey Cranor.
It's designed to get you thinking about, talking
about, and, most importantly, making…art.
Joseph and Jeffrey are already well-known
for turning their ideas into stories – like
their breakout hit Welcome to Night Vale,
and their other narrative fiction podcasts,
Alice Isn’t Dead and Within the Wires.
But on this show, you’re the one who’ll
be doing the writing, one short and simple
assignment at a time.
Because the best way to start writing is to
start writing.
I know a lot of you are writers or aspiring
writers. So if you’re looking for some motivation
to get inspired to put your thoughts down
on paper, Start With This might be exactly
what you need.
Find Start With This on Apple Podcasts or
wherever you like to listen, or learn more
at start with this podcast dot com.
Again, that’s Start With This.
May 16 brings the final episode of “The
Big Bang Theory,” one of TV’s most popular
comedies. The show started in 2007 and has
run for 12 seasons. The May 16 series finale
will mark the show’s 279th episode, making
it the longest-running multi-camera sitcom
on American TV.
Fans of the show have come to love the contentious
but ultimately caring relationships between
the show’s protagonists: Sheldon, Leonard,
Raj, and Howard; and Penny, Amy, and Bernadette.
Fans also appreciate the way the show has
blended wordplay, pop culture lingo, and scientific
jargon into the characters’ day-to-day conversation.
To celebrate the end of the show, here are
some fun facts about the words and languages
used on “The Big Bang Theory.”
First, we’ll talk about three fake languages
used on the show.
First, there’s Klingon, the constructed
language that was first developed for the
TV series Star Trek, which ran from 1966 to
‘69. The first words of Klingon were developed
by James Doohan, the actor who played “Scottie”
on the original series. Klingon was expanded
in 1984 by linguist Marc Okrand, who was hired
to flesh out the language for the movie “Star
Trek III: The Search for Spock.” It’s
since become a fully functioning language
that’s spoken by hard-core Star Trek fans
worldwide. A recent Planet Money podcast episode
even reported that about 1% of CAPTCHA farmers—those
are people (usually in countries like China,
India, and Russia) who manually solve CAPTCHAs
on websites all day long for fractions of
pennies a shot—about 1% of CAPTCHA farmers
were able to solve instructions given to them
in Klingon.
We also hear Ubbi Dubbi on the ‘The Big
Bang Theory.' Ubbi Dubbi is a code language
kind of like Pig Latin. It’s used by Penny
and Amy so they can talk without Leonard and
Sheldon understanding. To speak Ubbi Dubbi,
you add “ub” before each of the vowel
sounds in a word. Instead of “hello,”
you’d say “hub-ell-ub-o.” Instead of
“thanks,” you’d say “thu-banks.”
Finally, there’s Op, used by Amy. To speak
Op, you spell out every word in a sentence
(except for the first word) and add “-op”
to the end of each consonant. So instead of
saying, “Hey, dude,” you’d say “Hey,
dop u dop e!” Instead of “What’s new?”
you’d say “What’s nop e wop?”
The show has also coined a number of words
over the years.
There’s “trestling,” a game that has
opponents to play Tetris with one hand — while
arm wresting with the other.
There’s “zazzy,” a word that Sheldon
uses to mean “sassy.” He named a pet cat
“Zazzle,” stating it was because she’s
so “zazzy.”
There are the “inhumanities,” a dismissive
term Sheldon uses to refer to all academic
disciplines other than the sciences.
There’s “satisficer,” another of Sheldon’s
insults, which he uses to mean someone who
accepts what’s satisfactory to everyone
else without considering their own happiness.
There’s the phrase “qu’est-ce que c’up?”,
which is Howard’s questionable translation
of “what’s up” into French.
And of course, there’s “bazinga.” That’s
Sheldon’s catchword; his way of saying “gotcha”
or “fooled you!” The word was thought
up by show writer Stephen Engel. It’s been
used throughout the series, showing up 10
times in one season 3 episode alone.
“The Big Bang Theory” has also celebrated
research, study, and science. In response,
scientists have celebrated the show.
In 2012, Brazilian biologists named a newly
identified species of bee “Euglossa bazinga.”
In 2013, a new family of rhizostome jellyfish
were discovered, and its single species named
“Bazinga reiki.”
And in 2013 and 2014, three baby colobus monkeys
born at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio were named
after “Big Bang Theory” characters. In
2013, the zoo welcomed baby Dr. Sheldon Cooper,
and in 2014, babies Dr. Leonard Hofstadter
and Howard Wolowitz.
Finally, Grammar Girl listeners will know
that we frequently refer to the “Oxford
English Dictionary.” We use it to learn
the origin and etymology of words, and discover
when they were first used. This important
language resource received a shout-out in
season 2 of the show.
In the episode, Leonard tells his friends
that he’s dated “plenty of women,” mentioning
“Joyce Kim and Leslie Winkle.”
Says Sheldon, “Notify the editors of the
Oxford English Dictionary. The word ‘plenty’
has been redefined to mean ‘two.’”
We’ll end today on that solid put-down from
Sheldon. If you like hearing about language
in pop culture, you may want to check out
two of our other recent episodes. They addressed
the languages used in Game of Thrones and
in Avengers: Endgame.
That segment was written by Samantha Enslen
who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find
her at dragonflyeditorial.com or on Twitter
as @DragonflyEdit.
Next, I have a familect story from Travis.
Hey, Grammar Girl. This is Travis from Dallas,
Texas, and our family story comes from our
3-year-old son who is learning vocabulary,
and he has a way of describing things that
have happened before today. And that is with
the word “lasterday.” And so he'll say
to us, questioning us kind of confirming things
that he, things happened before today, like
if we had gone to the park the day before,
he would say, “Did we go to the park lasterday?”
And you know, of course, we said yes, and
we don't correct him because the word is so
endearing to us that all of us in family (he
has two older sisters) we all just kind of
use the “lasterday” family word to describe
anything that happened prior to today. So
it's been a lot of fun for us. We know he'll
get corrected on that soon enough, but for
now we want to enjoy it while it lasts.
Thanks, Travis. That’s a cute one.
If you’d like to share your familect story,
you can leave a voicemail at 83-321-4-GIRL,
and if you want a better chance of hearing
your story on the show, please include one
story per voicemail. I’ve been getting a
lot of messages of people telling me two or
three stories, and I do love hearing them,
but those are harder for me to use on the
show than the ones that include just one story.
I’m Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar
Girl, and author of seven books including
the New York Times bestseller, “Grammar
Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing."
And thanks to my audio producer, Nathen Semes.
This show is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips
podcast network, and you can find articles
that go with each episode at QuickAndDirtyTips.com.
That’s all. Thanks for listening.
