What is "etaoin shrdlu"?

[Guv]

Does anybody have any information about this phrase?

[parksie]

They're the twelve most common letters in the English language, in order of occurrence.

[Guv]

I posted this topic as a trick question because I expected a few people with no clue at all to come up with an answer. I have seen posted replies that suggested to me that the writer was making up an answer out of thin air rather than having useful knowledge.

I stand corrected. My lack of faith seems to be totally unfounded.

The only reply, while not the full explanation, is a valid remark.

Before there were computers, "etoain shrdlu" would occasionally appear in newspapers (especially in early sports news editions). It happened whenever a linotype operator realized that he had made a typographical error. It was the nature of those machines that a line started had to be finished in order to flush pieces of type already on the way to be set. Due to the way the machine was designed, "etoain shrdlu" was the most efficient phrase possible for this purpose. Most of the time, the frame of type for the page would be manually fixed. For some early editions, there was no time to fix the problem, resulting in "etoain shrdlu" being published.

Only a dinosaur like me would know this odd bit of history. As a preteen reader of the sports pages, I went nuts trying to figure out what this phrase meant.

[parksie]

Interesting bit of history there...I never knew that. Although I'm only 17 so it's probably understandable.