I've noticed that the docs sometimes use the verb "spell" in an interesting way,...

darrenf · on March 10, 2022

That’s “spelling” the noun, not a verb.

_moof · on March 11, 2022

True, but to be fair it's the gerund formed from the verb.

hunter2_ · on March 10, 2022

The verb form is where the atypical usage originates, so I think it's fair to focus on the verb as the point of interest despite including an example that happens to be a gerund.

Anyway, I think there's an even larger set that "spell" is a member of: metaphorical usage to highlight anything unwanted or erroneous; "code smell" is another.

It's wrong, therefore it smells. It's wrong, therefore it's misspelled. It's wrong, therefore it wants to be different (personification metaphor).

warrenm · on March 10, 2022

And here I thought `"spelling" the noun` was a reference to either Tori or Aaron

warrenm · on March 11, 2022

apparently no one here watches TV

sundarurfriend · on March 10, 2022

I think that usage is a little bit more common eg., I believe I've seen it in Perl docs, and in rare StackOverflow answers.

closeparen · on March 10, 2022

I’ve heard this before, e.g. Go’s “while” loop is spelled “for”

jacobmischka · on March 11, 2022

Yeah I have as well, I think it's both to be cute and to signify that they're equivalent."'IN GROUP' is an obsolete version of 'IN ROLE'" might mean that it was a subset of the latter with different behavior.