ETAOIN SHRDLU

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ETAOIN SHRDLU are the twelve most commonly used letters in the English language. This is slightly different from the frequency of letters in dictionary entries. The entire sequence is

ETAOIN SHRDLU CMFWYP VBGKQJ XZ

Printing set

Keyboard of a Linotype typesetting machine (vertical sequence on the black or white keys)

ETAOIN SHRDLU were the first two vertical rows of keys on the Linotype typesetting machine , which were arranged according to the frequency of letters in the English language. The letter setters sometimes ran their fingers along the row of keys to fill a line that already contained an error with letters. This filling was quicker and easier than correcting a wrong line by hand. This line of nonsense was then removed during proofreading. Sometimes these letters accidentally appeared in print.

This happened at least so often that the two successes of six appeared as word entries in the Oxford English Dictionary , as well as in the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary . The sequence is also jokingly pronounced like two normal words Etaoin Shrdlu [ 'ɛtiˌɔɪn' ʃɜːrd.luː ].

Documentation for the last edition of the New York Times in hot type (July 2, 1978) was titled Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu .

Further occurrence

The sequence of letters in the October 30, 1903 issue of the New York Times .

The terms appear in various humorous and fictional environments, mostly pointing to a nonsense sequence. In 1972, SHRDLU was used by Terry Winograd as the name of the first LISP -programmed artificial intelligence system. In Douglas Hofstadter's book Gödel, Escher, Bach there is a dialogue between the fictional programmer "Eta Oin" and SHRDLU.

The French version of this combination of twelve, "elaoin sdrétu", was used as the name of a robot in Petit Noël by the comic artist André Franquin .

There is no comparable tradition in the German-speaking area. The German equivalent should be ENISRA TDHULC , which corresponds to the frequency of letters in German-language texts . On the other hand, the sequence ERNSTL was often chosen by the candidates for the wheel of fortune in the final , which is based on the graphic tactics of the German language, and only one vowel was allowed here.

See also