lapsus plumæ
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: lapsus plumae
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- singular
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lăpʹsəs.plo͞oʹmē, IPA(key): /ˌlæpsəsˈpluːmiː/
- plural
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lăpʹso͞os.plo͞oʹmē, IPA(key): /ˌlæpsuːsˈpluːmiː/
Noun
[edit]lapsus plumæ (plural lapsus plumæ)
- An error made in writing.
- Synonyms: lapsus calami, typo
- Coordinate term: lapsus linguae
- 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.