When you go crazy, do you loose your mind, or lose it? For many people these days, they loose it. How long it will be before “loose” becomes an acceptable spelling for “lose.” I’ve seen this misspelling so often, and yet each time it irks me. Call it a pet peeve. The distinction, according to the OED, is considerable:

loose (verb)

trans. To let loose, set free; to release (a person, an animal, or their limbs) from bonds or physical restraint.

lose (verb)

Of a thing: To be deprived of or part with (a portion of itself, a quality, or appurtenance)

There are other definitions for each word, of course, but none are similar. The problem lies in the pronunciation of lose. The “o” in lose sounds like an “oo”; lose is pronounced looze. This leads to the “loose” spelling of the intended “lose”. The fact that loose is also a word, albeit with a very different meaning, means that spell-checkers can’t catch the error. To get a feel for the pervasive nature of this problem, keep an eye out for it when reading articles online, especially blogs and other “amateur” content.

With so many people making this error, it’s only a matter of time before some dictionary acknowledges that l-o-o-s-e is a valid spelling for lose. And then, the distinction between lose and loose will be lost, apart from the context in which the word appears. There is precedent for such things. The word peruse is one such example. This is what OED now has to say of the word peruse.

3. trans. To examine in detail; to scrutinize, inspect, survey, oversee; to consider, to take heed of. Now also (influenced by sense 4c): to look over briefly or superficially; to browse.

Yes, you read that correctly. The word means either to examine in detail or to look over superficially. In essence the word now simply means to examine. Apart from that, the word is meaningless, since it is often hard to know from context which sense is intended. In fact, the slippery tongued can use that ambiguity to give the wrong impression. Fortunately, the loose/lose distinction is much clearer from context.

Oh, and just in case you think this is a common typo, I’ve asked a number of people who write “loose” for lose if they see a problem with their spelling, and often they don’t see anything. In other words, they no longer make the distinction between the two spellings. Once enough people migrate to that camp (and I’ve met quite a few), the metamorphosis will be complete and probably irreversible. In short, we’ll see lots of insane folks setting their minds free instead of simply being “deprived of” or forced to “part with” it.