Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: trek, n.

trek, n. “Trek” derives from the Dutch “trekken” (= “to march or travel”). It’s occasionally misspelled *”treck” — e.g.: o “Jordan Pond is a good spot to begin your mountain-bike treck [read ‘trek’] northward past Eagle Lake to Bar Harbor.” Judith Wynn, “Work of Art,” Boston Herald, 7 Aug. 1997, at 52. o “Hawaii’s many trails are great, and none is finer than the volcanic trecks [read ‘treks’] around Kilauea on the Big Island.” Zeke Wigglesworth, “The Best of Hawaii, for First-Timers,” Austin Am.-Statesman, 24 Aug. 1997, at E1. As a verb, “trek” makes “trekked” and “trekking.” But the misspelling occurs with the verb as well — e.g.: o “Trecking [read ‘Trekking’] through rice paddies to check out reports of beatings one day, . . . the Americans aren’t even sure how far their new jurisdiction extends.” Andrew Selsky, “With Haitian Police Gone, U.S. Troops Become Cops,” Orange County Register, 2 Oct. 1994, at A13. o “On Thursday, while some of his colleagues were trecking [read ‘trekking’] north to Hamilton Park, the Carsons were making their first trip to Slimbridge.” Tony Stafford, “Success Breeds Success for a Real Winner,” Sunday Telegraph, 14 Apr. 1996, at 5. Language-Change Index — *”trecking” for “trekking”: Stage 1. *Invariably inferior form. For information about the Language-Change Index click here. ——————– Quotation of the Day: “What most people don’t realize is that one ‘which’ leads to another. . . . Your inveterate whicher . . . is not welcome in the best company. James Thurber, “Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Guide to Modern English Usage,” in The Ways of Language: A Reader 142, 143 (Raymond J. Pflug ed., 1967).
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