-2

A friend posted on Facebook showing a company (or maybe a school) notice which reads as "committed to excellense". Of course my friend is making fun of it, but I really doubt that there could be a reason to write "excellence" as "excellense". Can anybody explain this?

I also searched on Google, and there are multiple similar notices. One can see an example at Pinterest.

Thank you.

Improve this question
7
  • Was it Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel; or St Trinian's?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Aug 14, 2015 at 9:00
  • You can see the image following this link: [link] pinterest.com/pin/291959988314235622
    – yibe
    Aug 14, 2015 at 9:02
  • 4
    You'd have to ask the people who made the sign. Most likely, they just don't know how to spell excellence, but it may also be a deliberate misspelling for whatever reason, like this Australian church sign. That's not really about English as such, though. It's a misspelling, that's the only part that's about English—the rest is about the people/school/church/company who made the sign.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Aug 14, 2015 at 9:07
  • They managed to spell 'committed' correctly and put 'exc' instead of 'exs', so I wonder if it was deliberate?
    – Julie Carter
    Aug 14, 2015 at 10:21
  • 1
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about a simple typo.
    – tchrist ♦
    Aug 14, 2015 at 12:10

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

"[Whatever] to excellence" is a common tagline attached to company names or profiles. My guess is that in this case the author is using this misspelling for rhetorical (humorous) effect.

See: catachresis

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.