Write it Right

I know there is a wrong and a right and a left and a right. I just need to know which right to write and be correct.

In libraries we frequently deal with copyright issues. Since it is written materials that are often involved, I want to spell it “copywrite.” My spell checker pops up and says: “Not so fast, Mister know-it-all. A copywriter is someone who writes copy for a newspaper, advertisement or movie, but copywrite is not a word. Try again.”

So I spell it copyright. I know that the word conveys the “right” or ownership as in the creator of a book, story, article, photograph or movie. “Stand up, stand up…stand up for your rights.” No “w”. Also, opposite of wrong and left. (Copywritten, a word that has snuck into our usage is wrong. Copyrighted is the correct word)

Then I think, "What about someone who writes plays?" Shouldn’t the name for that job be spelled “playwrite?” You would think so. But noooooooo. It’s playwright.
The “wright” part of playwright comes from an old word that isn’t even in many dictionaries including Microsoft Office’s.

A wright is “one who constructs or creates.” Like a “wheelwright,” “cartwright,” “wainwright” or “shipwright”. (There goes the spell checker again, putting a capital C in cartwright) Did you mean Cartwright? No, I meant cartwright. I wasn’t referring to those four unmarried cowpunchers on the Ponderosa; I was referring to a guy who made carts.

Wright comes from the Old Frisian word “wrichta” meaning work. When Microsoft was creating its electronic dictionary it probably had some guidelines as to what it should include. It drew the line at Old Frisian (a west-Germanic language closely related to English.) Nah, leave it out, they said. The Old Frisians won’t care.

You might recall the first telegraph sentence “What hath God Wrought?” sent by Samuel Morse in 1844. (The word wrought is an archaic past tense form of wright) What has the Almighty created? Morse was asking the world. He wrought the beginning of electronic communications, that’s all. Morse could be called the first “emailwright.”

To sum things up, class. What did we learn today? Right, write, or wright. We learned that the English language is confusing. Homophones that are forever diverging in meaning.

I’m glad I got that out of my system.