Manage - manager

A typing mistake that spellcheckers will not notice is a missing second '-a-' in manage and some of its related words. The spellchecker will notice that mangement and manging etc are wrong, because there are no such words in English.

However, mange and manger are legitimate words (if rare in academic English), which may surprise some, particularly if English is not their native language.

• mange is a skin disease. Many animals with hairy or woolly skins have mange. (It gives us the slangy insult 'mangy', similar in meaning to 'lousy' and 'scabby', etc, with a general sense of being 'unpleasant to look at', or 'uncomfortable'.) Academics other than vets are unlikely to need this word.

• A manger is a rack in which farmers keep food (mostly hay) for animals (mostly cattle and horses). The Christian Bible tells that when Jesus was born in a poor stable, he was laid in a manger, and this is commonly mentioned at Christmas. There is a carol (a form of religious song) called Away in a Manger. Academics are more likely to want the word manage

Two other words that have been seen as typing errors are:

• manege or manège, a French word used in horse-riding circles. It is to do with training horses - managing them, in effect - to carry out complex movements.
• menage, a French word (sometimes written with an accent, ménage) which has been adopted in English to mean a household establishment, or the domestic management of a house. It gives rise to menagerie, or collection of living animals - rather like a zoo.