thinko

English

Etymology

From think +‎ -o, on the model of typo (“typographical error”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɪŋkəʊ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋkəʊ

Noun

thinko (plural thinkos)

1. (slang) A careless mistake made in thinking.

   I must have done quite a thinko, but I don't remember leaving my keys in the refrigerator.

   • 1998, K. G. Binmore, Game Theory and the Social Contract, Volume 2: Just Playing, page 34,

     We need to face the fact that thinkos are likely to be much more important, even though such a source of noise is much harder to model.

   • 2006, Kristen B. Donohue, “Misused Words and Other Witing Gaffes: A Manager's Primer”, in Written Communications that Inform and Influence, Harvard Business School, page 164:

     Spell-checkers can help with simple types such as misspeIIings and repeated words, but they are little defense against the equally common "thinkos," such as the inconvenience/incontinence example above. Your only defense against thinkos is a careful read.

   • 2008, Kurt Wall, Tcl and Tk Programming for the Absolute Beginner‎^[1], page 134:

     I don't know about you, but I don't want to grovel through a bunch of code blocks to track down a typo or thinko.

   • 2009, Geoff Nunberg, Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times‎^[2], page 59:

     There are two kinds of linguistic missteps, the typos and the thinkos. Typos are the processing glitches that intercede between a thought and its expression. They can make you look foolish, but they aren't really the signs of an intellectual or ethical deficiency, the way thinkos are.

Synonyms

• (mistake): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, brain fart, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, lapse, mistake, slip, stumble
  • See also Thesaurus:error

Coordinate terms

• clicko, scanno, speako, spello, typo, writo

Verb

thinko (third-person singular simple present thinkos, present participle thinkoing, simple past and past participle thinkoed or thinko'd)

1. To make a mistake when thinking.

Anagrams

• khiton