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I am changing my e-mail signature on my phone to read:

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4. Please do not mistake my brevity and/or misspellings for apathy and/or ignorance.

I am looking for a better word than misspellings to describe my email that might be filled with typos.

"Misspellings" makes sense, but it doesn't feel like it truly fits in. I think it's because all the other nouns describe a quality (mass, or non-count nouns), while "misspellings" describe an actual, physical thing (count noun). "Error prone" sounds better, but doesn't make sense lexically. Is there a word that fits here that sounds like it fits with the rest of the nouns in the sentence?

I am more looking for a word that describes an email that is "full of typos", not a synonym for the typos themselves.

Thanks!

From suggestions, this is what I have changed it to:

Sent from my phone. Please do not mistake my brevity and solecism for apathy and ignorance.

Thanks for all your help.

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  • 5
    "Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4" should be sufficient. The rest is implied.
    – Qaz
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:05
  • 1
    Maybe we need a neologism like thumb-screw-ups? Or thumblebums?
    – bib
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:14
  • 6
    Why don't you just proofread your emails?
    – user85526
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:32
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    @dberm22: Please don't mistake my butchery of the English language to be intentional or unintentional. -- This should cover all your bases This also gets rid of the and/or issue.
    – Canis Lupus
    Jul 25, 2014 at 19:44
  • 2
    Beware typos. "Every time you make a typo, the errorists win."
    – user134287
    Aug 17, 2015 at 14:27

5 Answers 5

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I would just use typos. It encapsulates the uniquely digital nature of the mistakes you are making. They are not Misspellings as such because you actually do know how to spell the words in question, so you should use a word which is more about input errors than knowledge gaps.

Flubs or goofs might also fit in some other context, but it will make total sense to anyone who reads the message to just say typos.

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    Right. Something like "Sent from my phone. Excuse typos" should be fine. Avoid too much anxiety to show off your phone model and education :-)
    – Pam
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:48
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    Yea, I suppose you are both right. I was more just looking for a word that describes an email which is "full of typos", not a word for the typos themselves.
    – dberm22
    Jul 25, 2014 at 19:12
  • "infelicities" is a good word.
    – ewormuth
    Aug 17, 2015 at 15:48
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Consider fat finger:

Used to refer to clumsy or inaccurate typing, typically resulting from one finger striking two keys at the same time.

So your sig could be:

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4. Expect brevity and fat-finger mistakes.

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  • 1
    Foreigners or non-hip people may think you have notably fat fingers, though.
    – user85526
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:33
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    Hmm, possibly. But isn't that the action of misspelling something, not the actual misspellings themselves?
    – dberm22
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:38
  • If you really want to spell it out, refer to the misspellings as fat-finger mistakes. (I modified my answer accordingly.)
    – Gnawme
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:39
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    Not all have fat fingers :-) LOL I would avoid specifying the brand of phone. It seems like you need to show off it.
    – Pam
    Jul 25, 2014 at 18:44
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    @Pam Thanks. I was just adding my stuff onto the end of the default sig. I guess I can remove that part.
    – dberm22
    Jul 25, 2014 at 19:11
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Just lead by example:

Snet form my pohne

... which is both terse and filled with typos!

But in all seriousness, I think this is more than sufficient:

Sent from my phone; please excuse my errors and brevity.

I substituted "errors" for "typos" because "typo" is simply short-hand for "typographical error", so I've applied the plural to the noun instead of the adjective.

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  • Instead: “Sent from my phone; please excuse its errors and my brevity”
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Aug 18, 2014 at 19:39
  • The phone doesn't have errors or brevity.
    – Dave
    Aug 19, 2014 at 19:27
  • twodave, every complex software product has errors. That aside, blaming the spelling and typing errors in your message on the phone is intended to be humorous and most people would so understand it. Also, the version I gave attributes message brevity to the person sending it.
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Aug 19, 2014 at 22:54
  • Thanks for clarifying; I assumed you were correcting me.
    – Dave
    Aug 20, 2014 at 14:03
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While they're not generally used as mass nouns, which would describe the "quality" of having errors, the following words can be used as such, and I think these words fit better with the overall theme of the message:

solecism: 1) a mistake in speech or writing, or 2) an impolite or improper way of behaving

malapropism: The use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, often humorous utterance.

"Solecism" is more correct in the general sense as "Malapropism" does not cover all typos, however the comical connotation of "Malapropism" is more appropriate.

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Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4. Please do not mistake my brevity and/or malapropisms (darn predictive text) for disrespect or attempts at humour.

I think the above sounds cooler.

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