787 final ‘gantlet’ or ‘gauntlet’

The headline for this morning’s story about Boeing’s 787 has some readers puzzled.

Why, they ask, did the Herald use gantlet instead of gauntlet to describe the tests the 787 is going through at Boeing?

Actually, most readers say we spelled the word incorrectly. That’s what I thought, too, after reading an e-mail from a Boeing worker.

That complaint triggered lots of consulting with my editor and the news editor, with several dictionaries, with reference books and style books.

The Herald, like many newspapers, refers to the “Associated Press Stylebook” for matters like this one. We have our own style guide for instances in which we differ from the AP. But gantlet versus gauntlet is not one of those instances.

From the AP stylebook:

A gantlet is a flogging ordeal, literally or figuratively.

A gauntlet is a glove. To throw down the gauntlet means to issue a challenge. To take up the gauntlet means to accept a challenge.

So, unless the A350 threw down some gloves and challenged the 787, it seems the Dreamliner started final gantlet tests.

Mark Carlson, Herald news editor, tells me that the two terms have been misused for so long that many dictionaries now accept gauntlet as an alternative to gantlet. But, obviously, the Herald doesn’t use those dictionaries.

Interestingly enough, Chicago Tribune readers also took issue with their newspaper using gantlet in an unrelated story this October.

Here’s the newspaper’s explanation for picking gantlet in this story.

My take: if using gantlet detracts readers from the story, I won’t use it. I realize that Boeing uses gauntlet. But I can’t use gauntlet since that’s not the Herald’s style. Instead, I’ll look for ways to describe what happens during the testing rather than name it.

Thanks, readers, for weighing in on this.