Etaoin shrdlu (/ˈɛtiɔɪn ˈʃɜːrdluː/,[1] /ˈeɪtɑːn ʃrədˈluː/)[2] is a nonsense phrase that sometimes appeared by accident in print in the days of "hot type" publishing, resulting from a custom of type-casting machine operators filling out and discarding lines of type when an error was made. It appeared often enough to become part of newspaper lore – a documentary about the last issue of The New York Times composed using hot metal (July 2, 1978) was titled Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu.[3] The phrase "etaoin shrdlu" is listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and in the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
The letters in the string are, approximately, the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language; differing sources do give slightly different results but one well-known sequence is ETAOINS RHLDCUM. ordered by their frequency.[4]
In the English version of Scrabble, the most common letters are E 12, AI 9, O 8, TNR 6, DLSU 4.
- ^ "etaoin shrdlu". Merriam-Webster. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ Weiss, David Loeb (July 1, 1978). "Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu". New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu (Motion picture). New York City: Educational Media Collection/University of Washington. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ Stoddard, Samuel. "Letter Frequencies". Fun With Words. RinkWorks. Retrieved December 21, 2018.