sortie.
"Sortie" (= [1] a raid, esp. an unexpected attack from a besieged position; [2] by extension, an excursion) is occasionally misspelled *"sortee" — e.g.:
o "NATO says it has flown 1,700 sortees [read 'sorties'] as of Wednesday, a quarter of which were bombing runs." Lance Gay, "The Daily Cost: Approximately $40 Million," Pitt. Post-Gaz., 1 Apr. 1999, at A4.
o "Perhaps it was the conversation I had the other day with one of the reporters who works with me covering news in Bar Harbor that provided the inspiration for a sortee [read 'sortie'] last weekend to that tourist mecca." Jeff Stout, "Cold Walk Brings Hot Tea to Boil," Bangor Daily News, 10 Feb. 2007, at D6.
Language-Change Index — "sortie" misspelled *"sortee": Stage 1.
*Invariably inferior forms.
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Quotation of the Day: "In the lower levels of journalism, where men are obliged to write at full speed, and have little or no time to correct and revise their work, mistakes and infelicities lie as thick as grease upon a butcher's coat." B.L.K. Henderson, Chats About Our Mother Tongue 121 (1927).
