Date:06/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/06/stories/2008060654610900.htm

Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and clarifications

In an article “Karnataka: the BJP victory in perspective” (Op-Ed, June 2, 2008), an entry in one of the two accompanying tables titled “Performance of major parties in 2004 and 2008” gave the number of seats the BJP won in 2004 as 89. It should have been 79.

The second paragraph in a PTI/AP report “Indian-origin boy wins U.S. spelling championship” (“Newscape” page, June 1, 2008) was “The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, of Indian origin, who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries was all business when he aced ‘guerdon’ — a word that appropriately means ‘something that has different language roots.’” There were a few queries on the meaning of the word “guerdon” quoting it when used in a literary context, meaning “a reward or recompense”.

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The Scripps National Spelling Bee clarifies: “Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and its addenda section, copyright 2002, Merriam-Webster, (Webster’s Third) is the final authority for the spelling of words. All words given in [the] competition are entries in Webster’s Third. In the final round of competition, Sameer Mishra was asked to spell the noun ‘guerdon’ meaning ‘reward, recompense’.”

(The Bee is the U.S.’ largest and longest-running educational promotion.)