Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Incud* (for Includ*)

What is a "cud"? I know that cattle chew them, but I'm not quite sure what, where, when, why, or how... So how now, brown cow? I don't wanna ask a sow. Tell me, tell me, what's a cud? Cuz if you don't, your name is mud! Okay, well, that was fun, but I don't expect I'll get many bovine replies to my lyrical query, so let's check the dictionary, shall we? Cud is defined as "food regurgitated from the first stomach to the mouth of a ruminant and chewed again." Yuck. Or put another way, it sounds like cows are the original practitioners of Fletcherism. And here's another random thought to ruminate on: What, if anything, is the connection between cud and cuddle? Answer: there is none, except that while women typically want to "cuddle" after making love, men often prefer to pick up chewing where they left off. (Just cudding!) There were 62 cases of Incud* found in OhioLINK this morning, and 1365 in WorldCat. Chew on today's typo for a little while and see how many you can include in your own list of corrections.

(Cow portrait, 29 May 2005, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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