Comments: CANNOT.

Lexicography is at least as thankless a task as copyediting.

Not excusing the error, just sayin'. :)

Posted by Dorothea Salo at September 29, 2003 05:33 PM

I always think of the Gettysburg Address when I see people do that.

Posted by Matt McIrvin at October 2, 2003 11:40 PM

I think there is a good reason that "can not" is two seperate words, being that you can make the combination of "can" and "not" into "can't." This is just the reason why a word such as "could" is not "couldnot" and is instead put together as "couldn't." The reason the word spoken is "cannot" is because as residents of North America we tend so slur our speech resulting in many different dialects.

Posted by Kimo at October 8, 2003 03:27 PM

Nice piece -- I had essentially the same experience, with the same dismay that "can not" was used at the definition of "cannot" -- seemed both wrong and circular at the same time. Some people have claimed that "can not" is a useful way to spell "canNOT" as in "you canNOT wash the cat in the Maytag!" but I think that "you may not wash the cat in the Maytag!" would be better in that case. I think "can not" should be avoided because it's ambiguous on its face -- does it mean you have a choice not to do something, or does it mean you have no choice?

Posted by Barry Galef at November 17, 2003 11:49 AM

Why bother to say can not or cannot, when in spoken speech the vast majority of usage is "can't", a perfectly acceptable contraction of can not (and notice I did not say '"for the expansion of can't.")

Posted by Wyatt H Knott at January 16, 2004 07:36 PM

I donot understand why any one wouldnot think cannot isnot one word.

Posted by Vroo at February 24, 2005 03:24 AM

I've actually struggled with this one. I googled and got this post. I wonder if you have any thoughts about this angle: My mom (a teacher) had a huge old dictionary when I was growing up. Not sure which one, but it said that cannot was to be used when the word "but" follows. ie. I cannot but look their direction when they are whispering so loudly. can not is for saying I can not do this or that. People have just tried to shortcut it and make it one word, so the definition changed. I've tried to use the one word version in order to conform, but always wondered...

Posted by Natalie at March 6, 2005 06:11 PM

My best guess is that you're misremembering (or misunderstood at the time) what the dictionary said, though if you ever turn it up and it does say that, let me know and I'll add it to this entry. But it's been one word for a long time; the OED has this quote from Cursor Mundi, which the "can" entry dates to around 1400 and the "sorous" ('sorrowful') entry to around 1300:
And žou žat he deed fore cannot sorus be.

Posted by language hat at March 6, 2005 06:27 PM