lapsus calami

From Latin lāpsus calamī (literally “slip of the pen”), from calamus (“pen”).

lapsus calami (plural lapsus calami)

1. (formal) Synonym of slip of the pen.

   Synonym: lapsus plumæ

   Coordinate terms: lapsus digiti, lapsus digitorum; lapsus linguae, slip of the tongue, speako

   Near-synonyms: writo; miswriting; misprint; typo

   • 1995, Annals, volume 28, page 5, column 2:

     Unfortunately, there are two lapsus calami, which I missed in my review of the proof. They are as follows:
     • third paragraph, last line: the word “proximal” should be “proximate”
     • fourth paragraph, fourth last line: the word “ancestor” should be “ancestry”
     • in the same paragraph, the clause “The Eucarya share a common ancestry with Archaea, independently of Bacteria,” should be separately referenced with 6a.

• IPA^(key): /ˌlabsus ˈkalami/ [ˌlaβ̞.sus ˈka.la.mi]
• Syllabification: lap‧sus ca‧la‧mi

lapsus calami m (plural lapsus calamis)

1. alternative spelling of lapsus cálami

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “lapsus calami”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025