What about all those deliberate misspellings of instruments to pass
them off as something altogether more prestigious?  Pianos of various
"Stein..." names, for instance, and a myriad of "...ola" players.

It works remarkably well.  Consider "Grotrian-Steinweg" pianos referred
to as "Steinway".  I once met someone reasonably expert who was
absolutely convinced that when people referred to a "Hamburg Steinway"
that they meant a Grotrian-Steinweg!  Little differences like having
completely different names didn't faze him a bit.  No wonder that
Steinway & Sons pursued Grotrian (with limited success) for a century
to change their name.

Just vaguely in context, how about the story of the BBC, wanting to
announce some bigwig with a suitable fanfare, who instead heralded him
with a fairground organ.  The record library had misread the request as
"funfair".  Of course, it could have been someone with a perverse sense
of humour and an eye for a good anecdote!  The funniest mistakes are
often carefully crafted.

Which brings me to "hiccough".  Was this word deliberate in the context
of wrong words?  There ought not be any such word -- it's a wonderful
faux-correct version of the onomatopoeic "Hiccup".  As Chambers's
dictionary says, "The spelling hiccough is due to a confusion with
cough."  However, the very act of all those people using a perceived
correct spelling has given it life in its own right, no matter how
illogical!

Julian Dyer

 [ In French it's le hoquet, in German it's der Schluckauf, in
 [ Dutch it's de hik, and at the dinner table it's embarrassing!
 [ -- Robbie