Give yourself 20 seconds....

[WayzUp]

Customer threw this one at me today, i hadn't heard it...

(cue Jeopardy music....)

What five letter word does every Ivy League student spell wrong? :rolleyes:

[JerryBeeds]

I don't know? Tell me...

[Bongo]

Wayz ... we're waiting. Can't get the jeopardy music out of my head now !

[WayzUp]

Read the question again :D

Get it yet?? :rolleyes:

[uscballer101]

is the answer wrong?

[JerryBeeds]

I think so...

[WayzUp]

is the answer wrong?
You got it....your prize is one big smiley family! HERE YOU GO BALLER, CONGRATS!

:D :) :mad: :p ;) :( :D :confused: :o :rolleyes:

[WayzUp]

Sorry for the delays...I'm cookin' dinner here lol :D

[uscballer101]

hahaha, I may have been right but I dont get it...haha...

[WayzUp]

Everyone spells wrong wrong....except those that spell it wrong. Trick question, don't ye know...oh nevermind... lol :D

[uscballer101]

hahaha, alright...well I guess as long as I got it right...hahahaha....

[uscrebel]

Thank you for this exceptional example of the linguistic property of ambiguous designation. Bertrand Russell indicated over 50 years ago that words and phrases often have both a rigid and a non-rigid designation given local or cultural canons.

For instance, there has been controversy over whether the play Hamlet was written by Shakespeare or his contemporary William Bacon. This controversy has made the phrase "the man who wrote Hamlet" ambiguous. For most people, if you asked, "Who was the man who wrote Hamlet?" the reply would be certain and sure...Shakespeare. For a small minority, they would be just as certain and sure that the answer is Bacon.

Ultimately, the ambiguity exists only when the phrase is used to designate something other than itself. That is, the rigid designation of "the man who wrote Hamlet" would, in fact, be something like "the male human being who created the play commonly called Hamlet." This rigid designation does not change whether one believes that the author was Bacon or Shakespeare.

Hence, we have not only the slightly humorous riddle surrounding the "wrong" spelling of "wrong," but the more elaborate articulaticulation of the designation quandry in the now classic "Who's on first?" routine by Abbot and Costello. This brain-twisting dialogue goes through no less than six designation pairs that is a wonder of modern language.

An even greater linguistic mystery is why things like this are humorous until some pompous a**hole starts explaining the theory behind it which seems to suck the humor right out of the riddle....ooops. Sorry.