Dilemna vs Dilemma

[Mac in Wisco]

I have a dilemna here...

I just saw an ad on TV for a movie called "The Dilemma".

I thought, what the heck, why did they spell it wrong?

I then looked up the proper spelling of the word. I found that it is supposed to spelled with a double "m".

I also ran across numerous conversations on the topic where people have commented on the same thing,
that they were always taught to spell it with an "n", but have recently found that there is no etymological
background to support the idea that it should be, or ever has been, spelled with an "n".

I have never, ever seen it spelled with a double "m", which was why I immediately questioned the spelling
when I saw the movie advertisement.

Am I losing my my mind? How many of you spell it with an "n"?

 

[FireTigeris]

Quote:
I never spell 'it' with an 'n' one I and one T are good enough.

But really I never spelled Dilemma with an 'n' lets see:

Dilemma
Dilemna (this one got flagged by US/English spell check on firefox)

 

[AKsmama]

"Dilemna" is not even a word. Kind of like "hunormous" (a supposed word that I hear a lot of people say, and it drives me crazy).

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
There are hundreds of thousands like I that will disagree with you. In Googling this today I have found many, many articles with posts like mine; "What the heck! I was taught to spell it this way!".

I don't specifically remember being taught to spell it this way, but I was a tough competitor in middle school spelling bees, and like many have also stated in their blogs on the subject, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on words and the English language.

Many who spell it that way state that they attended grade school in the 70's, are now in their early forties (I am forty years old ), and seemingly picked up this spelling while in grade school. Yet, there are many others that chime in who say they are decades older, or attended grade school in Europe, who also spell it that way, so it doesn't seem to be a generational or geographic oddity.

In Googling the word, I even found CNN headlines that have used the word with an "n".


This fellow echoes my sentiment:

http://geektrinity.com/2010/09/a-geeks-dilemna-or-dilemma/

 

[HLAC]

Dilemma has always had two 'm's to me.

Then again.... 'hinky' is a real word to me.. And just yesterday I wrote 'marshmellow' only to be made fun of. (a marshmellow is a more relaxed version of a marshmallow... yeah, that's it!)

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have always used dilemma.

But I have always been confused about "album"- I always have spelled it and pronounce it "alblum." And was horrified to find out the correct way!

I think everyone's probably got one word that mystifies them.

Interesting thread!

 

[acid_chipmunk]

I have never seen dilemma spelled with an "n". It doesn't even sound like it should have an "n" in it. (I know a lot of words don't sound like how they are spelled, but dilemma isn't one of them)

 

[speckledhen]

As an avid reader since childhood, I have never seen anyone spell it with an 'n'. It's always been spelled "dilemma", at least on my planet. Did you pronounce it with the "n" sound, then? Never heard that, either.

 

[AKsmama]

Quote:
There are hundreds of thousands like I that will disagree with you. In Googling this today I have found many, many articles with posts like mine; "What the heck! I was taught to spell it this way!"./

Just because thousands of people misspell it doesn't make it a word. "Dilemna" does not equal "dilemma." I have a pretty firm understanding of the English language and am a good speller myself- and I never said you weren't. As ChickensAreSweet said, everyone has at least one word that mystifies them. I have to write the words "vacuum" and "occasionally" a few times before I usually get them right. You've been misspelling it, no big whoop.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I too have been an avid reader since childhood. I started reading at the age of four and had read darn near every book in the grade school library by the time I was ten. I can still picture exactly where on the shelves my favorite titles were kept as I had pored over the same shelves every day for years.

I pronounce it with a silent "n" although I read many internet articles today where people say that when they spell it they say"di - lem - na" in their heads to remember to spell it "correctly".

I'm not sure where this comes from, but it is fairly common though. If you do a Google Books search for "dilemna" you find 12,000 entries, many right in the book titles:

http://www.google.com/search?q=dilemna&btnG=Search+Books&tbs=bks:1&tbo=1

One of the first hits is "Origins of the Specious" a book about English language oddities that has an entry on people's spelling of the word "dilemna", but doesn't shed much light on it, other than saying that there are legions of people who are adamant that "dilemna" is the correct spelling as they have always spelled it that way.