In another thread I mentioned three interesting, unrelated tidbits discovered, while checking for antedating quotes for OED’s pomander-through-prajnaparamita section, when I came to potty and related words. Here’s the second of the three.

As you know, if you typo or misspell in a Google search, and enter some combination of letters that isn’t a word, Google will gently point out your error. If you search for sweteness, for example, Google will helpfully ask you, Did you mean: sweetness. I’d always thought Google’s suggestions were based on similarity of spelling.

But Google may have acquired conceptual intelligence! For the first time, it suggested a word with dissimilar spelling but a connection in meaning. See for yourself: do a search for pottying and see what you get.

hmmmmmmmm .... Young humans are fascinated with various aspects of (ahem) “elimination”, and many of our “naughty” words deal with that subject. Have computers begun to conceptualize, at the juvenile stage of intelligence?