Cupertino effect

English

Etymology

Named for the fact that some older computer spellcheckers did not include the form cooperation and would automatically replace it not with co-operation, but with Cupertino, a name of a city in northern California and headquarters of Apple Inc.[1]

Noun

Examples

Cupertino effect

  1. (computing, software, originally) The replacement, by a spell checker, of words that are real (such as proper nouns or alternate spellings), but missing from its internal dictionary, with words that are starkly incorrect in context.
    • 2015, Arhlene A. Flowers, Global Writing for Public Relations‎[2], Routledge, →ISBN:
      Although computer dictionaries have improved, the Cupertino effect still creates havoc.
  2. (by extension) The failure of spell checkers to replace incorrectly spelled words with the actually intended words, resulting in miscorrections.

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Ben Zimmer (1 November 2007) “When Spellcheckers Attack: Perils of the Cupertino Effect”, in OUPBlog‎[1]

Further reading

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