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haplography

haplography

9.9
To accidentally leave out a repeated letter or word when copying text
  • noun
  • /ˌhæpləˈɡræfi/
  • Specialized
translation icon : haplografía
  • Haplography, for instance, refers to the case in which the copyist, encountering the same phrase, word, or letter twice contiguously in the original, writes it only once.

Examples

  • Haplography occurs when a writer mistakenly omits a repeated letter, leading to an error in the text.

  • Here, we cannot expect a single explanatory principle of the sort that might be available in the case of accidental changes such as haplography or dittography.

    Academic text (2001)
  • This is a nice example, since it may enable us to explain phenomena like dittography, haplography, homoeoteleuton, and homoearcton by reference to a single type of cognitive/motor mechanism instead of in the somewhat piecemeal way provided in textual criticism.

    Academic text (2001)
  • In this manuscript, the haplography caused the word to be incomplete, making it difficult to understand.

  • The editor noticed haplography in the document, where a crucial word was left out due to a copyist's error.

Synonyms

homoeoteleuton
vshaplography
  • UK
9.9

A copying mistake where a line is left out because two lines end the same

omits repeated letters, words, or sequences rather than from similar line endings
miscopy
vshaplography
8.2

A text that has mistakes made when someone writes it from another text

is the narrower specific omission of repeated letters, words, or sequences
slip of the pen
vshaplography
  • Informal
3.8

A small mistake made when writing by accident

refers to a specific omission of repeated letters, words, or sequences

Surface Forms

haplography singular
haplographies plural

Morphology

haplography = graphy (opaque) = haplo + graphy

The immediate base 'graphy' is only a partial clue, and the specialized meaning 'accidental omission of repeated material in writing' is not directly recoverable from the visible parts.

Etymology

The word haplography comes from two Greek parts: haplo- meaning 'single' and -graphy meaning 'writing'. Imagine a writer who should copy a repeated word twice but writes it only once — that 'single writing' image helps you remember that haplography is the accidental leaving out of a repeated letter, word, or sequence.