Re: question about term

[Millman_Harvey <millman -at- JMBCORP -dot- MHS -dot- COMPUSERVE -dot- COM>]

>From: Jane Bergen
>To: MILLMAN; Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
>Subject: question about term
>Date: Monday, August 07, 1995 3:08PM

>I have to explain (per our specs) a "wild card" search for a software
manual
>(I won't use the quotation marks in my document), but when I started
looking
>up the spelling I ran into a dead end. I can't find the correct spelling
>anywhere. It seems strange that this word is not found in the dictionaries!

>I have looked in the Following dictionaries:

>   "Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary"
>   "Oxford American Dictionary"

>    and also in "The Random House Thesaurus, College Edition"

>So, my question is: Do we spell it "wild card" (two words) or "wildcard"
>(one word)? Or is there a better term altogether?

The term in the online "American Heritage Dictionary" (3rd ed.) is two
words, thus:

wild card n. 1. Games. A card assigned specific values that could vary
during a game and acquire any value assigned by its holder.

So Dick Dimock and I agree.  Dawn <GRLANGLE -at- ECUVM -dot- CIS -dot- ECU -dot- EDU
notes that all the software manuals she checked spell it "wildcard."  All I
can
guess is that someone started (mis)spelling it that way, and the misspelling
continued.

Since it is a common term (at least in the computing context), you're
probably
stuck with using it.

 -- Harv
millman -at- jmbcorp -dot- mhs -dot- compuserve -dot- com