The Cupertino effect occurs when a spell checker erroneously replaces correctly spelled words that are not in its dictionary.

Origin

This term refers to the unhyphenated English word "cooperation" often being changed to "Cupertino" by older spell checkers, with dictionaries containing only the hyphenated variant, "co-operation".

Cupertino Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...

is a city in California, and its name is often used as a metonym for

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

, as the firm's corporate headquarters are located in the city. "Cupertino" has been in the dictionaries used by

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...

since at least 1989."The Cupertino effect"
'' Language Log'', March 9, 2006. Lack of vigilance in post-spell check editing can result in even official documents containing phrases such as "South Asian Association for Regional Cupertino" and "presentation on African-German Cupertino".

Other examples

Benjamin Zimmer Benjamin Zimmer (born 1971) is an American linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is a language columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'' and contributing editor for ''The Atlantic''. He was formerly a language columnist for ''The ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

collected many examples of similar errors, including the common replacement of "" (misspelling of "definitely") with "defiantly", "

DeMeco Ryans DeMeco Ryans (; born July 28, 1984) is an American football coach and former linebacker who is the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). Ryans played college football at the University of Alab ...

" with "

Demerol Pethidine, also known as meperidine and sold under the brand name Demerol among others, is a synthetic opioid pain medication of the phenylpiperidine class. Synthesized in 1938 as a potential anticholinergic agent by the German chemist Otto Eisl ...

" (in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''), "

Voldemort Lord Voldemort ( , in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of ''Harry Potter'' novels. The character first appeared in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Ston ...

" with "

Voltmeter A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electric potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. It is connected in parallel. It usually has a high resistance so that it takes negligible current from the circuit. A ...

" ''(

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

)'', and the "

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Muttahida Qaumi Movement (abbreviated MQM) is a name currently claimed by two competing Pakistani political factions: * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, a political faction managed from the UK * Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan Muttah ...

" being replaced with "Muttonhead Quail Movement" (

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

). The user need not always select an incorrect word for it to appear in the document. In WordPerfect 9 with factory default settings, any unrecognized word that was close enough to exactly one known word was automatically replaced with that word. Current versions of

come configured to "auto-correct" misspelled words silently as the user types.

Smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s with dictionary-supported

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...

s automatically replace possible mistakes with dictionary words."Cell phone cupertinos"
'' Language Log'', August 23, 2010. (Auto-correction can be disabled by the user.)

References

{{Reflist

External links

*
Cupertino casts spell on computer spellcheckers
', '' Cupertino Courier'', Hugh Biggar, 2006. Spell checkers Software bugs Cupertino, California 1989 introductions

Origin

Other examples

See also

References

External links