Humpty but no Dumpty?

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Alasdair McKie - 26 Mar 2005 04:32 GMT

Forgive me if this has been asked before (I did a search and couldn't
find it), but why does the MS dictionary allow 'Humpty' but mark
'Dumpty' as an error? Should it be consistent on these oft-paired words?

-A

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Jay Freedman - 26 Mar 2005 17:28 GMT

>Forgive me if this has been asked before (I did a search and couldn't
>find it), but why does the MS dictionary allow 'Humpty' but mark
>'Dumpty' as an error? Should it be consistent on these oft-paired words?
>
>-A

An interesting question, one I haven't seen before...

The English dictionary in Word is based on the American Heritage
dictionary from Houghton Mifflin Co., adapted for electronic use by
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, and licensed by Microsoft. (All of
this is in the fine print in the Help > About box.) Perhaps you can
get an answer by writing to those companies.

If you often write about the unfortunate wall-sitter, add Dumpty to
your custom dictionary and you won't be bothered again.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org

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Alasdair McKie - 29 Mar 2005 08:50 GMT

> If you often write about the unfortunate wall-sitter, add Dumpty to
> your custom dictionary and you won't be bothered again.

Actually the question came up because I was trying to go the other way
(excluding Humpty) and having no luck. Even with it in my exclude
dictionary (which I use successfully for other words), I still get
Humpty showing up as a legitimate spelling.

Still, I am reassured to learn it is a real word. =)

-Alasdair

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Hunter Johnson - 29 Mar 2005 14:57 GMT

>-----Original Message-----
> I was trying to go the other way (excluding Humpty) and
> having no luck. Even with it in my exclude dictionary
> (which I use successfully for other words), I still get
> Humpty showing up as a legitimate spelling.

Are you adding "Humpty" or "humpty" to your exclude
dictionary? You need to add the latter; don't use
capital letters in you exclude list.

Hunter
--
http://www.hunterandlori.com

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Hunter Johnson - 28 Mar 2005 15:10 GMT

>-----Original Message-----
> Forgive me if this has been asked before (I did a search
> and couldn't find it), but why does the MS dictionary
> allow 'Humpty' but mark 'Dumpty' as an error? Should it
> be consistent on these oft-paired words?

No. They are oft-paired in a name, but as individual
words only one is defined. A humpty is a low soft
cushioned seat in British English.

Hunter
--
http://www.hunterandlori.com

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