Was the misspelling of the HTTP field name Referer intentional?

Question

I read recently (I can't recall where, or I'd return to that source) that the misspelling of HTTP header field name Referer in the specification was intentional. Is that accurate? If so, why?

Wikipedia has an explanation with references that it was not on purpose (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_referrer). — Gumbo, Jun 21 '10 at 19:08

score 122 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 17 '21 at 05:50

122

Phillip Hallam-Baker and Roy Fielding are responsible for it. By the time they realized it was incorrect, too many people were using it.

Now, Phillip jokes about getting the Oxford Dictionary to recognize his spelling:

Its like when I did the referer field. I got nothing but grief for my choice of spelling. I am now attempting to get the spelling corrected in the OED since my spelling is used several billion times a minute more than theirs.

Roy also joked about the fact that the UNIX spell command didn't recognize any spelling of it:

> Has anyone else noticed that the HTTP header "Referer:" is spelled wrong?

That's okay, neither one (referer or referrer) is understood by "spell" anyway. I say we should just blame it on France. ;-)

Info taken from HTTP_REFERER Origins Wikipedia article.

edited Feb 17 '21 at 05:50

SuperStormer

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answered Jun 21 '10 at 19:08

Ben S

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It's not a misspelling; it's an _optimization_. By leaving out the redundant 'R' in the header name, he's probably reduced many terabytes of bandwidth usage over the years. =P – Lèse majesté Jun 21 '10 at 19:53
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If that's the case it should be the `R:` header. – Ben S Jun 21 '10 at 20:00
My brain hates typos. As much as Hallam-Baker jokes about trying to get his version in the dictionary, the bottom line is that he didn't know how to spell. So damned annoying! – Chuck Le Butt Mar 10 '23 at 20:26

Pharabus · Answer 2 · 2019-04-17T15:25:33.453

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I believe it was a mistake that was only picked up after release, at that point it was too late to change it and a lot of dependencies already existed.

a wiki link to (semi) prove it :)

edited Apr 17 '19 at 15:25

answered Jun 21 '10 at 19:08

Pharabus

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Yea, but why is "hello" misspelled in SMTP? – Lèse majesté Jun 21 '10 at 19:53
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I thought I read somewhere that `HELO` in SMTP was a throwback to ARPANET but I can't find any citations for that, so take it with a boulder of salt. – Mike Shultz Jul 22 '16 at 15:40
I believe you misspelled "prove" :) – jacekbe Apr 04 '19 at 12:20
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Spelling it `HELO` is probably to fit a 4-character limit for command names. (Just like with FTP commands.) – George Aug 20 '20 at 20:49

Was the misspelling of the HTTP field name Referer intentional?

2 Answers2

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