Author: Kirk

“Hyperchondria”

Mispronunciations, Misspellings, Nouns

I hear or see this occasionally.

Problem:
This is a mispronunciation or misspelling of a valid noun.

Explanation:
The valid noun is “hypochondria” — spelled H-Y-P-O-C-H-O-N-D-R-I-A.

This noun means excessive concern about one’s health, especially focusing on symptoms that could be due to cardiac or gastric problems.

The noun “hypochondria” exemplifies the value of knowing the roots of words in the English language.

The “chondria” portion of the noun refers to ensiform cartilage — that is, to sword-shaped or xiphoid cartilage, which relates to the lowermost segment of the three segments that comprise the sternum.

The “hypo” portion of the noun means under or below.

Knowing these two roots makes it easy to understand how the noun “hypochondria” refers in particular to cardiac or gastric problems.

So replacing “hypo” with “hyper” produces a nonsense word. Whatever is over or above the xiphoid cartilage is outside the body and therefore could not refer to gastric or cardiac problems.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “hypochondria” — spelled H-Y-P-O-C-H-R-O-N-D-R-I-A — 456,000 matches
  • “hyperchondria” — spelled H-Y-P-E-R-C-H-R-O-N-D-R-I-A — 1,760 matches

This tells me that Web authors have favored the correct word over the incorrect word by a ratio of 259-to-1, which is excellent.

Solution:
“Hypochondria”

“member priviledges”

Common English Blunders, Misspellings, Nouns

I saw this yesterday on a website.

Problem:
One of the words is misspelled.

Explanation:
I had just registered my name and address at a website where I wanted to make a purchase.

The website permits purchases by returning members, by new members, and by those who choose not to create a member account.

I chose to create a member account so that I could track my order.

An account-creation confirmation page appeared, apparently to allay my concerns about creating yet another identity (“member account”) at yet another website.

The Web page referred to “member priviledges”, with the second word spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-D-G-E-S.

The misspelling was obvious to me, if not to the page’s author. The second word should have been spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-G-E-S (with no “d” in the middle).

This misspelling is a common English blunder, but I wondered just how common it was.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “privilege” — spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-G-E — 31,400,000 matches
  • “privileged” — spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-G-E-D — 16,900,000 matches
  • “privileges” — spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-G-E-S — 21,100,000 matches
  • “priviledge” — spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-D-G-E — 694,000 matches
  • “priviledged” — spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-D-G-E-D — 354,000 matches
  • “priviledges” — spelled P-R-I-V-I-L-E-D-G-E-S — 362,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct spellings versus the incorrect spellings by a ratio of 49.2-to-1, which is good but not excellent, especially in light of the more than 1.4 million total misspellings.

I suspect that these misspellings come from mental interference by the word “ledge” — spelled L-E-D-G-E.

Solution:
“member privileges”

“Accuracy” vs. “Precision”

Nouns, Versus

I frequently hear people confuse accuracy and precision.

Problem:
These two nouns are not synonyms, at least not in science.

Explanation:
The scientific definition of the noun “accuracy” is the degree to which a measurement agrees with that measurement’s standard value.

The scientific definition of the noun “precision” is the degree to which a set of measurements of the same sample agree with that set’s mean.

Imagine an archery target, and imagine an archer shooting arrows at that target.

The closer that an arrow lands to the center of the target (the bull’s eye), the more accurate is the shot.

In contrast, if an archer can shoot several arrows that all land in almost the same location, then one can say that the archer is precise.

An archer can be accurate simply by the fact that bull’s eye is the mean of the points at which all of his or her arrows land.

An archer can be precise simply by the fact that all of his or her arrows land in the same location.

Precision speaks to reproducibility and standard deviation within the sample. Higher precision in a trial (e.g., in shooting a set of arrows) refers to greater reproducibility and smaller standard deviation.

Accuracy speaks to nearness to the target. Higher accuracy in a trial (e.g., in shooting a set of arrows) refers to less distance between the target location or value and the mean of the actual locations or values.

This discussion has these implications:

  • A trial can be accurate but not precise.
  • A trial can be precise but not accurate.
  • An ideal trial is both accurate and precise.
  • One can make a calculated adjustment for a trial that is precise but not accurate (that is, a trial that is biased), if one knows the degree of inaccuracy (the degree of bias).
  • One can ignore a trial’s imprecision (the degree of variability) in a trial that is accurate but not precise, if one’s primary interest is that the mean within the trial is very close to the goal or target.

Solution:
Think “nearness to a goal” when thinking of accuracy. Think “reproducibility” when thinking of precision.