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You implied that someone would bring up the fact that dilemma comes from the word "lemma," meaning a proposition, and "di," used as a prefix on Greek words to indicate two of something. The word literally means "two propositions." If you have a dilemma, you have two propositions from which you must chose.
Whether this is used in the context of formal logic or in some more casual conversation, it remains a choice between two propositions. I think you are splitting hairs a little finer than their composition permits by arguing that a misspelling, such as "dilemna," can be acceptable, since the word has such a precise and clear derivation.
As ultimate proof of my proposition: your own spell-checker has flagged "dilemna" as incorrect, and we know that spell-checkers are never wrong! (At the very least, we know that your spell-checker would never be wrong:) )
Ron Draney said:
I had a problem similar to the caller with the word for a cone or pyramid with its point removed. Always thought the word was "frustrum", but experts from Merriam-Webster to Firefox's spellchecker assure me that "frustum" is the correct spelling.
The spelling confusion is natural, since the math surrounding them, even in the simple case of right frusta, can be right frustrating. And the formulas for oblique frustra are, of course, even more oblique.
Look! Finally some proof we are NOT crazy - a Google search of old texts shows a number of books using the "mn" spelling: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dilemna%22&tbs=bks%3A1%2Ccdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1800%2Ccd_max%3A1820&lr=lang_en
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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