Re: [discuss] [PATCH] spelling fixes: arch/x86_64/

Robert Dewar
2007-05-13T08:47:38Z

James Cloos wrote:
>>>>>> "Andi" == Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de> writes:
>
>>> - /* Reenable any watchpoints before delivering the
>>> + /* Re-enable any watchpoints before delivering the
>
> Andi> reenable gets >140k google hits so it seems to be an really
> Andi> used word.

Well you will find extensive "misuse" of all the re-e* words in
english, but all should be hyphenated. Moreover, there is no
license in english to just create new such words, you cannot
re-entertain your guests for example. In practice we do allow
creation of new re-e* words, as in re-execute, and that's
probably ok in techno-jargon-speak.

But re-enable is an old and well used word, reenable is not,
and I see no reason to encourage the latter incorrect use,
since it is harder to read (double e after r at the start
of the word is almost always a long e).

Note that in google, you always want to hyphenate. reenable
will catch only the misuses, re-enable will catch both.
>
> Essentially all commonly used English words which start out with hyphens
> loose them over time. It starts out with typos and progresses until the
> non-hyphenated form becomes the exclusively used form. It does seem that
> re-enable â†’ reenable is occurring, based on those search hits.

Hyphens do sometimes disappear, but not for re-e*, OED version
2 does not allow a single such instance.
>
> Andi> Similar with upto.
>
> I’ve a *much* harder time agreeing with Â«uptoÂ» in place of Â«up toÂ».
> That should be treated as a typo in need of fixing.

Indeed .. upto is not a word.
>
> -JimC