Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 09:30:03 -0700 (PDT) From: "T. William Wells" <bill@twwells.com> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: kern/27429: 'dependant' is a misspelling Message-ID: <200105181630.f4IGU3O18307@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR kern/27429; it has been noted by GNATS. From: "T. William Wells" <bill@twwells.com> To: ru@FreeBSD.org (Ruslan Ermilov) Cc: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: kern/27429: 'dependant' is a misspelling Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 12:23:25 -0400 (EDT) > > While doing a boot -v, I noticed that 'dependent' was > > misspelled 'dependant'. > > > http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=dependant 1) "Dependant" is only used for the noun form. The bulk of uses are for the adjective form. 2) "Dependant" is listed as an "also" variant which means that it is the less common form. 3) Some of the examples were for "independant", which rather definitely is not a word. To clarify 1): "A system-dependent variable" uses "dependent" as an adjective, as it (in conjunction with "system") modifies "variable". "System-dependant" would be incorrect there. Similarly for "machine-dependent" and other such compounds that are used to describe or limit a noun. There's a bunch of "dependant on" constructs. That one grates on me but I'm unable to find evidence that it's incorrect English. However, "X is dependent on Y" is still an adjectival form and so would use the -ent spelling. There is a "start dependant" (in pnpparse.c) which stands by itself; that's a noun usage most likely and so is acceptable if not in the most common form. Be that as it may, using dependent in all cases has the virtue of consistency and of never being the wrong variant. It'll also look better to the untrained eye, which is likely expecting the -ent variant. I wonder if it would be considered useful to create a list of commonly misspelled words for adding to the style guide(s)? If so, I might be persuaded to handle its creation. --Bill Wells ....who used to write spelling checkers for a living and had something to do with bringing Merriam-Webster into the electronic age. :) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message
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