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I've seen different sets of people from around the country mention a "custom party" on written Halloween invitations. Does it simply mean costume (and just intentionally mis-spelled)? Or some specific kind of costume?

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27th rule of the Internet: People Can't Spell. – Mark Beadles Oct 27 '12 at 23:58
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I'd like to see some examples of this consistent spelling, otherwise this is Too Localized. – Mark Beadles Oct 28 '12 at 0:30
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@test: Misspelling is about written English; mispronunciation is about spoken English. Usually, people pronounce it correctly and misspell it, but in this case, they've done both. First rule of success in the flimflam business of Business: "There's no underestimating the intelligence of the American public", H. L. Mencken. When people can't do better than spell "lose" as "loose" and the contraction "would've" as "would of", how can you expect anything better from people who cannot discriminate between "costume" and "custom"? The custom on Halloween is to have a costume party. – Bill Franke Oct 28 '12 at 0:44
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@StoneyB: That post also says that her brother's going as the Crow, from which I infer that she's not a native speaker of English. – Bill Franke Oct 28 '12 at 0:46
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"Custom" also means "business patronage", so perhaps the invitation was to a Tupperware Party. My mother used to throw those all the time when I was a kid. – Bill Franke Oct 28 '12 at 1:29
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closed as too localized by J.R., Mark Beadles, FumbleFingers, JSBձոգչ, tchrist Oct 28 '12 at 1:54

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1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted

As you will have gathered from comments- the writer of the invitation cannot spell, and means 'costume party'

You can use custom to mean bespoke, but you would need context for it to mean anything here.

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