Tread vs Thread

[Hutch]

I have a theory. Somewhere long long ago, someone writing an ad to sell some tires (tyres) did a typo and MS Word (or whatever) offered spelling suggestions. In a hurry, the wrong word (not going there) was picked and it grew virally from there.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=87572

Personal experience? Open MS Word and type in Prographics (the name of a printer) and you will get a dialog box offering "pornographic."

[Bimmerguy2002]

[Justin_FL]

Open MS Word and type in Prographics (the name of a printer) and you will get a dialog box offering "pornographic."

That one is pretty good. When writing technical documents at work some of the suggested replacements for unknown terms and acronyms are similarly quite amusing. What's funny are the times when someone takes one of the suggestions without really paying attention and distributes the document before proofing thoroughly.

[mooseheadm5]

There is a difference between a typo and a fundamental misunderstanding of the correct usage of a word. If you search the internet a bit, you will find that the use of "thread" instead of "tread" is one of those common mistakes made by those with a somewhat tenuous grasp on the proper use of their native language, usually people perpetrated by people from the South.

[davintosh]

There is a difference between a typo and a fundamental misunderstanding of the correct usage of a word. If you search the internet a bit, you will find that the use of "thread" instead of "tread" is one of those common mistakes made by those with a somewhat tenuous grasp on the proper use of their native language...

This. Your theory that it's just a typo gives too much credit to people who don't deserve it.

... usually people perpetrated by people from the South.

Uh oh...

[mooseheadm5]

People from all over the country have their own common grammatical errors. This one just happens to be largely southern (in origin, at least.)

[Shawn D.]

Sorry, Hutch, but your theory ain't right. Calling tire tread "thread" is Ebonics, period. Folks were already using that term when I was selling tires in The Buford Highway Flea Market back in the mid-'80s, long before the (public) internet and before most of the public (and certainly my clientele) had access to computers.

[Hutch]

OK, I've been busted. It isn't a real theory but I felt compelled to lighten the subject up a little after reading the THREAD I referenced.

[wkohler]

THIS WHOLE TREAD IS RATHIST.