Big Brother Takes Down Poor Grammarian
A few years ago, when a member of my family was working in the White House, he invited me to visit him there one evening. I was very excited about such a once in a lifetime opportunity.
When I wrote back to him to confirm that I would be coming, I, who consider myself well-versed in the use of the English language, even so far as to know (so I thought) the alternate spellings of certain words, wrote back to him thusly: “I am excited about joining you tonite, I think it will be a blast!”
I realized, after the Department of Homeland Security contacted me and revoked my visitation privilege and the FBI opened a file on me, that I should have paid attention to that pesky spell check indicator highlighting my word choice concerning the evening.
My Bad!
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While the Urban Dictionary reports that “tonite” is used to describe the time following daytime by those “to[o] stupid to learn how to spell correctly”, in fact, “tonite” is the correct spelling for “a blasting explosive consisting of a mixture of guncotton with a nitrate and sometimes a nitro compound,” as reported by Merriam Webster’s online dictionary.
The proper spelling of the word used to describe “the evening or night of the present day,” according to this Google Definition page is “tonight.”
Ironically, the writer of the Urban Dictionary quote referenced above misspelled the word “too” in his urban definition.