Dear Benjamin Dreyer: Okay is not OK.
The esteemed grammarian violated the Associated Press Stylebook this week, using the variant spelling "okay" in a witty Washington Post column on "contronyms," words like cleave that have opposite meanings, an apt subject for January, the "two-faced month."
"Okay "would be proper for addressing someone named Kay, such as Katharine Graham, the late Washington Post publisher.
Dreyer, Random House's executive managing editor and copy chief and the author of "Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style," surprisingly doesn't know the AP Stylebook's preferred OK, also recommended by Webster's dictionary.
A Washington Post copy editor should have saved Dreyer from the error. But such misspellings are common these days, even in esteemed publications like The New York Times and Times Literary Supplement.
I often see advisor instead of adviser, protestor in place of protester.
Confusion reigns over the proper use of rein. Principle/principal, capital/capitol, forego/forgo and discrete/discreet are often misapplied.
Spell check gone awry causes some of the errors. But declining editing standards are mostly to blame.
OK?
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