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lapsus plumæ

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: lapsus plumae

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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First attested in 1844; Latin: lāpsus (“a slipping”; in the plural lāpsūs, “slippings”, the nominative plural form of lāpsus) + plūmae (“of the feather or plume”, the genitive singular form of plūma, “feather”, “plume”) = “a slipping of the feather” ≈ “a lapse of the plume” ≈ “a slip of the quill”; compare lapsus linguae and the English-coined French phrase nom de plume.

Pronunciation

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singular
plural

Noun

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lapsus plumæ (plural lapsus plumæ)

  1. (formal) Synonym of slip of the pen.
    Synonym: lapsus calami
    Coordinate terms: lapsus digiti, lapsus digitorum; lapsus linguae, slip of the tongue, speako
    Near-synonyms: writo; miswriting; misprint; typo
    • 1844, Suum Cuique [pseud.: Joseph Hewlett], “The Nice Young Man” in Hood’s Magazine and Comic Miscellany I, page 552
      When he came to a word like believe, he was cunning enough to write two ees, and put a dot just over the middle of them, leaving the reader to imagine that his error was the result of a mere lapsus plumæ.